web development

going to need a new trophy shelf

Our client clubstohire.com is shortlisted for another award 2014 EY Entrepreneur of the Year. read all about it here http://bit.ly/1g7oAEY

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web development

Another win for clubstohire.com

ClubstoHire.com, the fast-growing golf club rental company that provides equipment for golfers in 21 locations across Europe and Africa, was announced as the winner of the inaugural ‘HSBC Golf Business Community Award for Innovation’ at a special ceremony in Abu Dhabi last night (Wednesday 30 April).

ClubstoHire.com – which has saved golfers an estimated €4m in airline baggage charges since its formation in 2010 – edged out 88 other successful companies to the award, including manufacturers, software producers and business developers. A group of distinguished global industry experts selected the Dublin-based company as the most impressive in terms of its track record in providing an outstanding service to golfers and enabling more people to play the sport on vacation.

“It’s an honour to be the first winner of such a high-profile global award and be recognised by leading figures within the golf industry,” said Tony Judge, CEO of ClubstoHire, which was started four years ago with the help of now European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley. “We started the business to help make golfing holidays more convenient and less expensive, and after recently expanding to locations such as Cape Town and Marrakesh, we’re continuing to do everything we can to make this happen for golfers,” added Judge.

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Clubs to Hire won the best Service Award at the Vodafone Start Up

I am delighted to announce that Clubs to Hire won the best Service Award at the Vodafone Start Up awards in Dublin last night.
This award is recognition for all the hard effort that everyone is putting in.
Over 400 Companies entered the awards so it is real recognition from our peers for the product and service we provide.
With 16 locations and more on route, I would personally like to thank each and everyone of you for your enthusiasm and drive in helping us win this award.
I will forward images in due course.
Keep up the good work
Tony
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How Can Responsive Design Benefit Your Business?

Responsive Design allows your website and web apps not to be confined to the desktop anymore. With responsive design, whether your website is viewed on a mobile phone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer, it will adapt effortlessly to ensure a beautiful experience for your users.

It is becoming increasingly important to be able to offer the right information to the right person at the right time and in the right way, regardless of the device they use. Responsive web design is an efficient solution that effectively meets the information needs of modern consumers.Since users can reach your responsive website using their mobile devices as well and can experience the unified and consistent behaviour throughout; Responsive design for your website means higher number of visitors and higher conversions.Responsive Design today is becoming a strategic decision and can greatly extend the reach of your website to potential customers and thus revenues; at the same time it will also reduce costs and complexity in managing it.

If responsive design sounds interesting and you want to explore it further, Just contact us today

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Server reboot

We are writing to inform you we will shortly begin rebooting our Linux shared web hosting servers in order to apply a mission-critical security patch. At no point were any of our servers compromised, but it is very important that we patch this bug in order to prevent any possible attacks.

Websites may become inaccessible for periods of up to 10 minutes. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and appreciate your patience throughout this time.

We will keep webhostingstatus.com up to date with the progress of these updates.

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Google Removes More Search Features

By now the masses are likely done mourning the upcoming demise of Google Reader (slated to swim with the fishes this summer), but some are noticing key Google toolbar features disappearing like a gaggle of phantoms too.

As always, there’s a method to Google’s madness (namely, they say these features just weren’t used enough), but this could very well be a case of quantity trumping quality. SEO experts, business owners, and search influencers alike are frustrated with Google’s willingness to yank once-touted top features, with little to no warning or fanfare.

While these folks undoubtedly represent the minority in terms of sheer numbers, many rank as top experts and consultants tasked with ensuring Google’s results are of the highest caliber. Furthermore, it seems many of Google’s rolled out features go unnoticed because people simply do not know to where to look for new releases, or to even expect they may arrive. Google is playing a numbers game, while many experts wish they would consider quality and communication first; and ultimately, stop taking away functionality that has helped make the web a better place, albeit in small doses. Read more here

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Joomla/WordPress Websites

We are currently seeing further attempts from a large scale botnet targeting Joomla/Wordpress Administration areas. This attack has recently increased its hit rate and we have taken action to protect the targeted areas from these attacks. As a result of this you may now find you are prompted to pass a CAPTCHA check when attempting to login to your WordPress / Joomla website. Information regarding this botnet was also recently published by the BBC and you can read that article at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22152296

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new magento project

Digital Ideas has just secured their latest magento project for leading online retailer of technology products – This will require design and integration of their till system to magento. We look forward to completing this job in the coming weeks. We will share this magento project when it completed.

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IMPORTANT : How the new EU cookie law affects your websites

What is this EU cookie law I keep hearing about?

Last May a law was passed stating that all websites dropping non-essential cookies on visitors’ devices have to declare it publicly and ensure visitors acknowledge and agree with them to continue browsing the website. If you/your business resides within the EU, you have until the 26th May 2012 to implement your solution on your website(s). The most important thing to know is that if your website doesn’t comply with the new law, you can potentially be fined up to £500,000.

Is the law associated with me or the location of my web host?

The law is linked to you/your business, so even if you have a .com website with an American audience, you still need to comply with regulations if you/your business is based within the EU. The law applies to all domain name extensions regardless of their association with a particular country or region.

My website is a personal site, do I still need to comply?

Even if your website is non-commercial, you should still comply with the EU cookie law if you drop non-essential cookies.

Where can I find out more about the law and how websites are implementing it?

 

What are the exceptions to the new law?

Pretty much every site drops cookies of some description. If you have Google Analytics installed, your website drops cookies. If you have any affiliate links or use Google Adsense or any other advertising networks, your website drops cookies.

The law only applies to ‘non-essential’ cookies that aren’t required for your website to function. So, for example, if you run an online store and cookies are used so your customers can add products to their basket and checkout, you don’t need to conform to the new EU cookie law regulations. However, if you track visitors via a tool like Google Analytics as well, you will need to explicitly tell your visitors that cookies are in use on your site.

Some of the likely exceptions to cookie compliance are provided below:

web development
Taken from ICO’s Guidance on the New Cookies Regulations PDF.

So, what steps do I need to take for my websites?

There’s no one solution to comply and the guidelines that are provided are quite vague, causing a lot of confusion and more difficulties for website owners who want to comply but are unsure what to do. Because there are so many types of websites using unlimited combinations of cookies, there’s no one size fits all solution. It all comes down to what kind of website you have and what cookies are in place.

It’s not enough to simply update your privacy policy or terms and conditions. A user must explicitly accept cookies in order for you to legally use non-essential cookies on your website.

1. Check the cookies in use on your website

If you aren’t sure about the cookies you use on your website, check out the detailed information provided in ICO’s PDF or use one of the many third party tools available, such as:

Please be aware that you should check every page of your website and that not all third party tools are completely accurate.

2. Implement a solution

There are plenty of solutions on offer; we’ve done the work for you and found several easy to use free solutions:

Cookie Control: One of the easiest options we’ve found is a little widget called Cookie Control (there’s also aWordPress version). You simply add the code to your website and it shows up as a noticeable but unobtrusive triangle in the bottom corner of your website.

Whether you implement one of these solutions or opt for another one entirely, the message should appear on every page of your website. If you have a static website that isn’t run on a template or CMS, you may want to look into adding it via a PHP include.

In addition to these methods, you may also want to update your privacy policy and/or terms and conditions. Tint Network has an easy to read privacy and cookies policy which they are happy for people to use as a template.

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AWARD-WINNING CLUBSTOHIRE IS HAILED IN HAMBURG

Digital ideas created the web application and handles the SEO and online marketing of clubstohire.com and are delighted that they won this award.

Paul McGinley’s golf club hire operation, ClubstoHire.com, has won the ‘innovation’ award for ‘best service’ at the golf industry awards in Germany hosted by the prestigious Golf Magazin.

The annual ceremony, held in Hamburg last Friday (February 17) attracted more than 300 people and was given extensive media exposure in Germany.

Ireland-based ClubstoHire.com has been trading only since July 2010, when it opened its first outlet at Faro Airport – and since then it has opened six further stores with more planned for 2012 and has saved more than 25,000 customers an estimated €900,000 on airlines’ excess baggage charges.

MicGinley was unable to attend the event as he was competing in the Avantha Masters, in New Delhi, where he ultimately finished tied 14th. But his fellow ClubstoHire director, Tony Judge, was on hand to pick up the award.

He said: “We are thrilled to receive the award as Golf Magazin is truly representative of the German market. It is a great fillip to us to know that German golfers appreciate our service and that we were up on stage with some of the biggest names in golf such as TaylorMade and adidas.

“We will not rest on our laurels – we will continue to provide the best possible club-hire service for travelling golfers and we will also continue to expand to ensure that ClubstoHire.com operations are available in as many golfing destinations as possible.

“We anticipate that 2012 will be another good year for us as we have several new store openings already scheduled and are in discussion over several more. We’re fighting a David vs Goliath battle against large airlines who continue to increase their carriage charges for sporting goods, but like David we believe we – and by virtue, golfers – will win in the end.”

A broad equipment range is offered by ClubstoHire from just €35 per week, with options available from TaylorMade (including R11S and the new RocketBallz), Callaway, Wilson and MD Golf; all clubs are offered – left or right-handed, ladies and men’s – and hire is available from just one day to a full four weeks. For those wishing to travel extra-light, shoe hire is also available.

The service couldn’t be easier to use – just order on-line ahead of travel and pick up the hire set at the destination.

■ Bookings for Antalya, Alicante, Murcia, Dublin, Malaga, Edinburgh and Faro can be made online at www.clubstohire.com.

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