links for 2009-05-20

"I suspect Google simply didn't think about it. The web search logo only ever links to web search results. Google News is a different team. It was good that Google updated their logo quickly but perhaps a sign of factionalism that they couldn't cross-link between products."

"Associated Newspapers Limited, the publisher of the Mail on Sunday and the Daily Mail, apologised today to Tom Watson MP in a Statement in Open Court read before Mr Justice Eady. Mr Watson complained of an article by Iain Dale, headed 'Smears, glowering henchmen-like the Nixon White House' published in the Mail on Sunday on 12 April 2009 in which it was stated not only that Mr Watson was copied into emails sent by Downing Street press adviser Damian McBride to Derek Draper, but that he 'encouraged' them. As the Court heard today, Associated Newspapers Limited now accepts that these allegations are entirely untrue."

"Hmm. At a time when the country's in a writhing outrage over MPs' expenses, brought to light not by transparency and fair play by elected politicians or professional officers but by investigative journalism, taking the opportunity afforded by a public ceremony to hit out at your detractors might be a teensy bit out of step with the public mood. We're not comparing ourselves with the Telegraph, but we do think Londoners have the right to know about things like, ooo, £10k taxi bills and serial trips to Cyprus."

I'm not entirely convinced that the solution to our problems is 100 inexperienced politicians in Parliament running on a vague "Stop bad stuff!" ticket.

"There is no apology in today's paper, and no editorial comment defending their reporting of the story, which is even more pathetic than if they were bothering to defend their journalism. There is however, remarkably, a comment from the paper's agony aunt attached to the main piece on the story, headlined "[K]ids who are given no sense of values". A more applicable headline would be "Journalists who are given no sense of values", as quite clearly Rebekah Wade, a woman who has repeatedly campaigned supposedly on the behalf of children, such as for Sarah's law, saw nothing wrong with paying (or rather, not) for a story about teenage pregnancy when they hadn't bothered to even ascertain the basic facts or to give even the slightest thought to what the publicity they were about to come under would do those involved's already fractured psyches."

Enquire instantly connects you to someone who is trained to help you find the answers to your questions. Simply enter your details and your question, then press 'Connect'. Enquire is a UK collaborative of over 80 public libraries throughout England and Scotland staffing the service Monday – Saturday 9am-5pm.

There are still a few spots for talks open, and I was just pondering on submitting something myself when I saw that there were two Guardian themed talks on the programme already - good stuff.

"Do you share your listening habits online? Maybe you occasionally publish your location to something like Brightkite or Google Latitude? Maybe you share your Amazon shopping list with the world? You almost certainly mention tiny details about your life on a regular basis online via services like Twitter. By pulling these tiny bits of information together, the semantic search engine of the future will be a stalker and conman’s dream. Suddenly it will be possible to ask: 'Where does John Smith live and work and what are his hobbies? What are his children called?'"

"Social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace have witnessed a rapid growth in their membership. Some of these businesses have tried an advertising-based model with very limited success. However, these businesses have not fully explored the power of their members to influence each other’s behavior."

"Improve your sites by testing them with the people who really matter: your users. Clearleft’s user experience designer Cennydd Bowles explains how to conduct ‘guerrilla testing’, the quick and easy way to get your site on track". Great article to show to sceptical managers, should you ever meet any

Yesterday's UI tip of the day..."Web based forms with a 'Clear Details' button also need an 'arrrgh - no, no not that one, oh f***!' button."