Web startups are made out of two things: people and code. The people make the code, and the code makes the people rich. Code is like a poem; it has to follow certain structural requirements, and yet out of that structure can come art. But code is art that does something. It is the assembly of something brand new from nothing but an idea.

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Sir Michael Lyons says there is not one standout successor to Mark Thompson within the corporation The former chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons, has said the search for the corporation's next director general must look outside the small group of internal candidates who have applied. Lyons said he does not believe there is a single standout successor to Mark Thompson within the BBC, due to a failure to institute succession planning. "There isn't one. I don't believe Mark has a preferr...  show all text

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In today’s digital age, the world is fast evolving into a large global attention economy. Whether it’s an individual or a business, the kind of influence you have on others gains paramount importance. So, how do you determine what kind of influence you have on others? While there are services such as Klout which provide a good indication of your level of influence, it is largely based on your social media influence only. Last week, I posted a video about the 3 rules of engagement in the attenti...  show all text

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The euro hits a fresh four-month low against the dollar as political uncertainty in Greece fuels speculation it could leave the single currency.

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Government plans which could reduce state benefits paid to thousands of blind people have sparked a revolt by Liberal Democrat MPs in the latest sign of tension inside the Coalition over cuts.

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Okay, maybe not everyone, but if you grew-up in the UK during the 1980′s, then you’ll almost certainly recognise some of these. What can you name from the images below, and more importantly, what has been missed?

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Tweet Big news came in from the folks at Buffer and Twylah this week. The two companies partnered up to give your Tweets much more impact than possible before. I’ve written about the magical Power Tweet before, which increases your engagement by 400%. As of today, you can make this Power Tweet from Twylah even more powerful and send it through Buffer. Buffer, if you haven’t come across it yet, is a super smart Social Sharing app. Any page that you read on the web and want to share with your f...  show all text

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Social reader Flipboard today releases a new update to its mobile app which takes it beyond articles and into the sounds of audio.

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General Motors plans to stop advertising on Facebook after determining its paid ads had little impact on consumers. The news comes just days ahead of Facebook's IPO.

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Posted by Carson Ward If the last few months of ranking changes have shown me anything, it's that poorly executed link building strategy that many of us call white hat can be more dangerous than black-hat strategies like buying links. As a result of well intentioned but short-sighted link building, many sites have seen significant drops in rankings and traffic. Whether you employ link building tactics that are black, white, or any shade of grey, you can do yourself a favor by avoiding the appea...  show all text

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The angriest response I ever had was to a throwaway comment on a topic seemingly low on the Richter Scale of public opinion. Yes, I confessed to cycling through red lights.

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London 2012 will be the first truly digital Games. The BBC will ensure audiences never miss a moment, delivering unprecedented coverage across multiple platforms, so that audiences can stay up to date wherever they are, whenever they want to.

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The home secretary is "on the precipice of destroying" a police service admired throughout the world, she is to be warned by rank-and-file officers.

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Motorists are facing rush-hour chaos today after a fire closed down part of Kingsway in Levenshulme.

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Facebook social travel app Gogobot announced on Wednesday that it has reached the 1 million registered users mark. The app launched on Facebook in January, when the social network unveiled a slew of integrated apps, including Gogobot. Gogobot was in use before that time, launching in private beta 18 month ago. Now the app is exploding in popularity: A new user joins every 15 seconds, more than 5 million places have been shared on Gogobot and overall membership has grown 65x year-on-year. The so...  show all text

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In the white heat of the current tech market it’s sometimes easy to forget that some companies, although taking their time, simply become viable businesses – instead of waiting for a call from Facebook or Twitter that may never come. I’ve been covering web site and shop builder Moonfruit for longer than I care to remember (they launched in 2000), but along the way husband and wife team Joe and Wendy White kept on pushing the company until it was one of the most innovative of its kind out there....  show all text

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Former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic is due to go on trial in The Hague on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Allan Little, who covered the Bosnia war for the BBC, reflects on the conflict.

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Today, the Flashtag writing group take to the streets of Manchester in celebration of Flash Fiction Day. Over the course of the day, we’ll be reading our fiction out in some of Manchester’s most iconic venues. Here’s where we’ll be (and when) if you want to pop along. And even if you can’t, please do tweet your encouragement to us at @flashtagmcr or on the #flashtag hashtag. All performances will take place in the main lobby/atrium of the venue unless otherwise stated. The set list 10.00 – Whit...  show all text

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Google Docs just got a little smarter with the introduction of a research pane Tuesday. The pane allows you to tap into a Google Search directly from Google documents to find additional information about a particular topic or idea. Searches can be for things such as a map to a particular destination, quotes for a research paper, or even images. When you find something you like, you can add it to the document you’re working on by clicking the insert button. Images can be dragged and dropped from...  show all text

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The 35 carat Beau Sancy diamond is at least 400 years old, and until now has been owned only by members of Europe's royal families.

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The loss of $10 million in ad dollars does not represent a financial disaster for Facebook, but it is a public relations headache so close to the company’s initial stock offering this week.

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Hitting the friendly skies doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t make a mobile phone call — at least if you’re flying on one of Virgin’s new Airbus A330 planes. The airline plans to make in-flight calling available first on its flight from London to New York. By the end of the year, in-flight calling will be available on 17 planes and at least 10 routes. Calls will be restricted to the time the plane is actually in the air – so you’ll still have to power off when the plane takes off or lands – and...  show all text

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German designers placed a high-tech, sensor-equipped chair in the middle of a palazzo in Milan last month to record stress points on the backsides of thousands of people. The goal? To determine how to design a lightweight and efficient chair that’s sturdy enough to support a wide variety of users. When someone sat in the chair, monitors recorded data and processed it with an “algorithm that determines the most structurally efficient version of the chair,” according to the blog Co.Design. The en...  show all text

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Follow an email on its journey to see what happens when you send a message. Along the way, discover our data centers with videos and photos.

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Flipboard wants to be the first magazine with a soundtrack. The company is releasing an update on Tuesday that integrates music-sharing service SoundCloud as well as radio programs from NPR and Public Radio International (PRI). Flipboard’s app for iPhone and iPad (and soon Android) collects articles, images, photo albums and videos that your friends share on social networks and re-formats them in a personalized magazine. Its pages will now contain tracks that friends share through SoundCloud, i...  show all text

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In a big vote of no confidence before Facebook’s IPO, General Motors is pulling its ads from the platform, calling them “ineffective,” according to a Wall Street Journal report. The automaker determined that its ads on the platform “had little impact on consumers,” according to the report, which cites “people familiar with the matter.” GM will continue to market via Facebook’s brand Pages, which, of course, are free. The article quotes GM marketing chief Joel Ewanick as saying GM “is definitely...  show all text

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General Motors plans to stop advertising on Facebook after determining its paid ads had little impact on consumers. The news comes just days ahead of Facebook's IPO.

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Web startups are made out of two things: people and code. The people make the code, and the code makes the people rich. Code is like a poem; it has to follow certain structural requirements, and yet out of that structure can come art. But code is art that does something. It is the assembly of something brand new from nothing but an idea. More »

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