As of today HeadRed will be increasing their daily rate to £450 (£60 per hour). This price will not affect any existing quotes or projects, but will come into effect for any new price requests or work commissions.

“Our new daily rate is based upon research undertaken on local web companies and the current online marketplace and we feel is a reasonable price for the quality of work we produce.”

Liam McGurk, MD

There’s a big rumour doing the rounds at the moment that Google are on the verge of securing a deal to acquire the Internet’s new golden child, Twitter.
The price hasn’t been confirmed but one can only assume its well, well north of the $250 million valuation that they saw in their recent funding.

Twitter turned down an offer to be bought by Facebook just a few months ago for half a billion dollars, although that was based partially on overvalued Facebook stock. Google would be paying in cash and/or publicly valued stock, which is equivalent to cash. So whatever the final acquisition value might be, it can’t be compared apples-to-apples with the Facebook deal.

So why would Google want Twitter? Industry experts have been arguing for some time that Twitter’s real value is in search. It holds the keys to the best real time database and search engine on the Internet, and Google doesn’t even have a horse in the game.

If the rumours prove to be accurate, then it would be a brilliant deal for Google – the value of Twitter is only going to go up over time. And it will be Twitter founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone’s second sale to Google – they sold Blogger to them just five years ago. But there’s one big question – where’s Microsoft in all this? Letting Twitter go to Google only hurts them, badly, in the long term search game. This is an asset they need to be competing for aggressively if they have any hope of playing more than a bit part in the future battle for search supremacy.

Here at HeadRed we count ourselves thankful that 2009 has seen a big increase in the demand for PHP programming. In response to these demands we take great pleasure in introducing our new PHP developer – the man with three names, Paul David Martin.

Paul’s arrival means that, with both Danny and Chris already in situ, we possess a mighty triumvirate of PHP expertise to offer our clients.
Paul has considerable experience in the world of programming and is unique in the fact he likes to use an Apple Mac to work his magic (we’re all PC boys here).

Plus, we all reckon he looks a bit like Gaz Coombes from Supergrass!

Evidence continues to mount that despite our slowing economy the web continues to be a key driver of both survival and success.
Research by Internet firm, Easynet Connect, has revealed that nearly half of small firms believe the Internet will be the most important tool to help them survive the recession.

The study showed that many small businesses are using the Internet to cut costs. Almost three quarters of respondents said they will use the web to boost their business profile, while 58% said they will use the Internet to break into new domestic and overseas markets. These findings have been supported by the statistic that over 6,000 small firms are joining micro-blogging website, Twitter, every day with the vast majority doing so to cut marketing costs and help further promote their business.

In other news, online sales were up by 13% in February when compared to the same month in 2008, according to the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index. It seems that more and more consumers are using the web to help their money go further.

The Conservative party yesterday implemented an audacious online ambush of Alistair Darling’s budget, with the aim of buying up Google keywords and directing internet users to its “live rebuttal” of the chancellor’s speech.

The Tories plan was to buy up budget-related Google keywords as the chancellor mentions them in his speech from 12.30pm, in an online advertising campaign the opposition dubbed a “live rebuttal” of the government’s economic plan for the coming year.

Their strategy was so that when web users entered budget-related keywords into Google’s search engine, they were instead directed towards online ads for the Conservatives. These ads in turn linked them to the Conservative party website and their response to Darling’s budget.

“We understand that it’s important for us to serve up our views in different formats, and Google is one of the first places people go to when trying to find information on a given subject,” - says the shadow culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt.

“Gordon Brown’s budgets are notorious for not revealing what is in the small print, so we will be using Google pay-per-click to help people see the real impact of the budget on their family finances. This is a perfect example of how political parties should be using the internet – to present their arguments to the public and help inform the debate.“

Article source: The Guardian Online, 22/04/2009.

HeadRed have been appointed by local tennis coaching company, Inspire 2 Coach, to deliver a new website and overhaul their existing online presence.

Inspire 2 Coach runs a wide range of tennis programs for all ages and abilities at a family of clubs in Warwickshire and Worcestershire. They also offer packages of coaching courses, workshops and mentoring for all levels of coaches and teachers.

Our work will include the creation of a new brand identity for Inspire 2 Coach. This will form the basis of the website’s overall look-and-feel with the aim of enticing and engaging visitors.

The site itself will provide a platform for budding Andy Murrays of the future to find coaching courses local to them and book a place online. Similarly, tennis coaches and teachers will have access to a wealth of information and details of how they can enroll on programs of their own.

The new site is currently under development and we are working towards a summer launch.
More details to follow.