Parliamentary reporter, Computing, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 14:55:00 and most aren't aware of their on-line consumer rights A Business, Innovation and Skills Department survey has revealed almost two-thirds of consumers are less likely to return goods bought online than those they have purchased from the high street. This is in despite of a statutory seven-day cooling-off period for goods bought over the internet. The survey confirmed Britons are now the biggest on-line shoppers in Europe - having spent £38bn or 10 per cent of UK retail sales — but 77 per cent are not aware...Read More »

Angelica Mari, Computing, Monday 8 March 2010 at 11:43:00 Hundreds of "top-level" domains to be scrutinised as part of wider review The BBC is to scrap 200 websites as part of a cost-cutting exercise intended to channel hundreds of millions of pounds into quality programming. Announced last week, the broadcaster dubbed the programme ‘Putting Quality First’. The plan will affect several areas of the organisation, including its online operation, which is to be halved by 2013, and its £122m budget reduced by a quarter. The BBC's director of future media and technology Erik Huggers also told...Read More »

Dave Bailey, Computing, Wednesday 3 March 2010 at 12:14:00 Amendments could force ISPs to block popular web sites Liberal Democrat Lords Razzall and Clement-Jones have proposed an amendment to the Digital Economy bill which could see UK ISPs forced to block web sites with a high proportion of copyright-infringing content. That could mean users are prevented from viewing highly popular sites such as YouTube. The key passage in the amendment says: "The High Court shall have power to grant an injunction against an [internet] service provider, requiring it to prevent access to online locations specified in...Read More »

Angelica Mari, Computing, Tuesday 2 March 2010 at 12:53:00 US retailer will set up European distribution hub to support web operation this year US clothing retailer Gap is to launch its e-commerce operation in the UK later this year. The operation will sell Banana Republic merchandise as well as its own. The distribution centre for the online shop will be based in the UK and will also cater for nine other European countries. Last year, the brand started selling its products through online retailer Asos. “We are now ready for our business to grow and move...Read More »

Tom Young, Computing, Tuesday 2 March 2010 at 11:03:00 The British Library plans to take on the huge task of archiving web content that could otherwise be lost forever The British Library’s UK Web Archive project to save all the UK’s free-access web sites underlines just how pervasive the internet’s role in people’s lives has become. Libraries as far afield as Japan, France and the US are realising that the ubiquity of the internet means that sites that could disappear need to be preserved for posterity in the same way that newspapers and books have...Read More »

Tom Young, Computing, Wednesday 24 February 2010 at 12:16:00 Responses to be compared with actions after election A new group called Democracy Club is attempting to build a publicly accessible database of candidates and their opinions, according to the BBC. The group is recruiting volunteers to draw up lists of issues that are important to voters and then putting those issues to MPs. The MPs' responses will be recorded and kept in a database to see if they keep their promises after the election. Seb Bacon, the co-ordinator of Democracy Club, told the BBC it was...Read More »

Tom Young, Computing, Wednesday 24 February 2010 at 12:16:00 Responses to be compared with actions after election A new group called Democracy Club is attempting to build a publicly accessible database of candidates and their opinions, according to the BBC. The group are recruiting volunteers to draw up lists of issues that are important to voters and then putting those issues to MPs. The MPs responses will be recorded and kept in a database to see if they keep their promises after the election. Seb Bacon, the co-ordinator of Democracy Club, told the BBC it was...Read More »

Angelica Mari, Computing, Monday 22 February 2010 at 16:37:00 Improved back-office functionality underpins new set-up Clothing and accessories firm Ted Baker has relaunched its web site, underpinned by an improved integration with back-office systems. The web operation at the retailer had been kept separate from its core merchandising and stock systems, which are now integrated to the new online platform. Ted Baker claims that since the relaunch it has reaped benefits such as gaining a single view of stock, customers, products and promotions, as well as a single payment gateway across its sales channels. "All this...Read More »

Nicola Brittain, Computing, Friday 19 February 2010 at 16:07:00 Who cares if legitimate marketing emails are junked as spam by ISP message filters? Many legitimate marketing messages sent to email inboxes are not delivered by ISPs, according to research, with BT, Orange, Demon (Cable & Wireless), AOL and Yahoo! being the worst offenders. And while many of us might not be too upset that some marketing messages do not make it to our inboxes, experts point out that it could cause problems for others. "It can be hard to see anyone caring, but at the same...Read More »

Tom Young, Computing, Tuesday 16 February 2010 at 18:14:00 Enthusiasm for e-petitions among politicians appears to be growing, but are they really good for democracy E-petitions became the latest political football last week as both Labour and the Conservatives moved to outflank each other as part of a battle over constitutional reform. But e-democracy experts and a commons committee have warned that any such move should be considered carefully if it is to avoid tokenism and enact real change. Recently, deputy prime minister Harriet Harman put down several orders that would introduce a law requiring the...Read More »