We’ve been busy making some videos to help show you how easy it is to use our Clever Little Sites and the first couple are up on YouTube right now! Ok, so we’re no Steven Spielberg but it’s our first attempt so leave us a comment and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear your ideas…

One of our favourite online shopping ePayment gateways is rebranding. Protx has been owned by Sage for a while now, but they’re going one step further and rebranding the service to tie in with the rest of the Sage family of products. The name change is effective from 21st April 2009 and will also see the launch of a 24/7 telephone support service. Protx has been one of our favourite ecommerce tools as the staff have always been helpful and the service has always worked without any hassle - let’s hope the quality remains high.

So there’s a new World Wide Web Consortium design in beta at http://beta.w3.org which is open to public feedback. I for one have put my 2p in and emailed them to say how uninspiring it looks. Considering the first line of their redesign ‘goals’ states:

“To modernize the look of the site “

I could not be more disappointed by the drab graphics and clunky interface reminiscent of a stock template of 10 year old vintage. This is the website for the people who represent the internet! Let’s have some enthusiam and show just what this internet thing is really capable of being in 2009 please guys!

IT SPECIALISTS IN HERTFORDSHIRE

Primate Designs were proud to host a meeting of the Creative IT Group at our web design studio in St Albans last night. The Creative IT Group is a new network for anybody related to the IT and Design industries, formed to encourage idea sharing and knowledge growth between the best of Hertfordshire’s web designers, programmers, consultants, technicians, graphic designers, audio visual… you name it, if it’s related to IT or the internet, it’s welcome. We’ll be hosting another one next month so if you’re interested in coming along to meet new people and eat our biscuits, email inbox@primatedesigns.com.

PRIMATE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD

This month, Simon brought along his video camera and gave a great demonstration of how he creates a simple interview video featuring Larry, Gabrielle and our very own Primate Designs Monkey! Unfortunately it’s gone to his head and he’s just been pulling poses on the sofa all day since..

I’m not sure how long it’s been since Google updated their satellite images of the world’s oceans, but I spent a good while looking at them the other day and the detail is truly astounding. You can see all the major features including the Pacific rim shelf and Atlantic fault. Amazing stuff and a good example of a fantastic use of modern technology and the internet.

The Primate webmonkeys are practically bonkers with excitement this afternoon after popping out for lunch only to run into none other than the Google Maps camera car, right outside our very own office!

Cut to the chase..

The prospect of appearing on Google Maps new street view feature was just too much to bear, so we had to capture the occasion on camera and guarantee that this little red car with two very happy web developers would be famous. There was nothing for it but to follow him through the back streets of St Albans in a chase befitting the very best TV police show. So until we appear on Google street view (and believe us we’re going to be looking), here’s the photographic evidence:

Google Maps Car - The Chase Is On..