Category Archives: Thoughts & Opinions

Last chance saloon for the last man standing in bookshops

Posted on Sunday, 29 January 2012 by Paul McSweeney

Amazon has done its level best in recent years to ensure that the middle man in publishing doesn’t get a look in. A decade or so ago, book lovers were venting spleen over the demise of the independent bookstores. Now, … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Thoughts & Opinions | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Groupon – the dot com boom (and bust) all over again?

Posted on Friday, 11 November 2011 by Paul McSweeney

We could not let the working week draw to a close without mentioning the IPO on the New York Stock Exchange of Groupon. The company raised $700 million after increasing the size of its initial public offering, becoming the largest … Continue reading →

Posted in Facebook, General, M-Commerce, Social Commerce, Social Media, Thoughts & Opinions | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Have you honed your SoLoMo strategy?

Posted on Sunday, 23 October 2011 by Paul McSweeney

The key to Apple’s success was that Steve Jobs and his team thought like a customer and not an engineer. The new generation of smartphones has introduced the notion of technology being something personal, and even cool. Elegant cases and different … Continue reading →

Posted in E-Commerce, Facebook, M-Commerce, Social Media, Social Media, Thoughts & Opinions | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The internet – the domain of oligarchs?

Posted on Thursday, 13 October 2011 by Paul McSweeney

I have recently read in a blog post, that Facebook has now become the same size of the Internet in 2004. There have been an inordinate amount of statistics thrown at us about Facebook’s sheer mass and dominance. Rarely a … Continue reading →

Posted in E-Commerce, Facebook, Social Media, Social Media, Social Networking, Thoughts & Opinions | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The iTunes treatment has come to the book industry

Posted on Sunday, 25 September 2011 by Paul McSweeney

In the first five months of this year, sales of consumer e-books in America overtook those of hardback books. Amazon now sells more e-books than paper books. That really is an incredible statistic. Borders, who not so long ago, could … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Thoughts & Opinions, World News | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Can the Apple magic continue without the magician?

Posted on Tuesday, 30 August 2011 by Paul McSweeney

Earlier this month, Apple’s value briefly surpassed Exxon Mobil’s, to become the world’s most valuable company. That is incredible in itself, but in the context of Apple’s flirtation with bankruptcy in 1997, when Steve Jobs came back to the company, … Continue reading →

Posted in Facebook, General, Thoughts & Opinions | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The riots have brought out the best and the worst in social media

Posted on Thursday, 11 August 2011 by Paul McSweeney

Social media, and in particular, Twitter, have played an important part in the riots across the UK over the past week. Twitter was lauded as a tool for democracy at the beginning of the year, in the context of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Facebook, General, Social Media, Thoughts & Opinions | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

How can Facebook work for you?

Posted on Monday, 8 August 2011 by Paul McSweeney

Facebook is online media for millions of people, and therefore needs to be embraced as such. Do not be deterred by the reporting of a slowdown in growth for the second month in a row; or the advent of Google … Continue reading →

Posted in Facebook, How to: Facebook for Business, How-To: Social Networking, Social Commerce, Social Media, Thoughts & Opinions | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The web …it’s a people business now

Posted on Thursday, 4 August 2011 by Paul McSweeney

With Twitter and other social networking tools, the convergence of our online and offline lives has never been more real. It is becoming second nature to go online to communicate with friends. With so many apps and services now available … Continue reading →

Posted in Facebook, General, How-To: Social Networking, M-Commerce, Social Media, Social Media, Social Networking, Thoughts & Opinions | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Cybersquatting..is it to make a return?

Posted on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 by Paul McSweeney

Last week, some legislation was passed through quietly, that could have a significant impact upon businesses, when it comes to protecting their online trademarks.For Icann, the governing body for domain names, this represents the biggest change of the internet naming … Continue reading →

Posted in Company News, General, Thoughts & Opinions, World News | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment