As a communist state, the Chinese people are often denied freedoms that other democratic countries can take for granted.

The internet is a buzzing outlet for freedom of speech, and is a pinnacle of the free world. The Chinese administration has recognised the internet as a threat to their communist rule.

Many sites have been blocked, like those that discuss freedom of speech, and promote human rights.

The reason for withholding access to the BBC’s China site is probably because the administration controls many news sources within China and they don’t want the news from foreign democratic states influencing the Chinese citizens.

It is not a coincidence that this has happened just before they host the Olympics, it seems the almighty Chinese government are people pleasing on a socio-economic level.

Firefox 3 was released recently, after vigorous testing, me and my colleagues have decided IT’S BRILLIANT!

It has taken 36 months to develop, and for a non-profit organisation, that is rather impressive.

Firefox 3 Boasts, 3 times faster page loading, compared to Firefox 2 and 7 times faster than Microsoft IE.

If we put this into perspective, Microsoft is a world leader, with Billions of Dollars of capital to invest in new products and Mozilla is a small non-profit organisation.

It just goes to show that monopolies can be beaten.

Leading experts have decided that leading companies are overlooking the power of the social networking boom.

Seen by some as a platform for teenagers to organise booze ups, social networking is more about spreading the word, whether it is a party or a product, both have equal response.

And furthermore it’s free too; traffic will organically flow to a profile, without the need for paid advertising. And if your content is good, then people will keep coming back and you may become highly recommended.

With success stories such as Lilly Allen, who utilised Facebook to launch her illustrious music career, it is proof that social networking does pay dividends.

Technology will be most user friendly when using it becomes as easy as walking.

Technology is extremely advanced compared to 30 years ago, and will rapidly improve over the next decade when a program will be able to perform any task, this will include Artificial Intelligence (AI) programs.

Unfortunately, this technology will be capped by archaic user interfaces such as the mouse and keyboard that are used today.

It’s surprising that hardware companies are only just delving into the possibilities of more natural interfaces, such as the novel motion sensitive Nintendo Wii and the tactile IPhone.

Why type a command to a computer, when you can suggestively point your finger at it?

The announcement of the new Google Android Mobile phone raises some web design questions.

As designers we have to face the fact that the way a page is constructed is vital.

With the release of new mobile devices, that have the operability of a PC, the web will be increasingly viewed on them, thus a web page will look completely different on a smaller display.
Therefore we must design for the web, using a simple layout with clear and concise content, so people can find what they are looking for, even on smaller screens.

Soon we will find that websites will be developed specifically for smaller displays, this shows the constantly changing environment of the web world.

The Google powered phone will possibly be released later this year, it is said to be an improvement on Apple’s I Phone.

We look forward to testing it!