Like most people I start the day with a strong coffee and quick run through the latest news in the World today… One article I came across looked at how websites / companies will face restrictions on how they watch what their visitors do! This is important news for any SEO or web marketing dudes; changes will take effect in late-May thanks to the European e-Privacy directive.

Don’t panic if you have a website with Google Analytics or a stats counter installed, it would seem the focus at the moment on behavioural advertising. Behavioural advertising is when a site creates you a unique profile that dictates the type of adverts you see, the advertiser is therefore able to treat each user as an individual, thus able to promote / offer more relevant ads… So, unless you are FaceBook or one of the multi billion pound big players in the world of online advertising I would not worry just yet!

That said these changes are likely to have an impact on the general use and future of cookies. If the conclusion is to better inform visitors that a site stores cookies then be prepared for the re-birth of popup windows and user prompts! I guess this cookie shake up will help boost awareness of how certain sites monitor us… Or maybe (like me sometimes) you will just scroll through a mountain of small print, tick a box and click continue!

If you have any thoughts or feedback on the cookie shake-up or behavioural advertising then please post them below.

Having a wife who graduated with a ‘Law and Criminology’ degree at Portsmouth University makes me so very proud! In fact, most of the monster sized books that still sit on our bookshelf are her legal cases, references and information that goes way over my head!

Reading a BBC article on the web this morning, Prime Minister David Cameron has announced “Britain’s intellectual property laws are to be reviewed to make them fit for the internet age” An announcement welcomed by internet and copyright campaigners who believe it will help smaller businesses. A report due out in April 2011 will look at how best to support businesses and protect their intellectual property on the web.

I totally agree that intellectual property laws need to keep up to date with rapidly changing technologies, and removing barriers that stand in the way of UK web-based business models, offering more support and protection etc can only be a good thing!

Being a web based company it is amazing how fast technologies actually change, that said, at Tidy Design we believe in keeping our fingers on the pulse, learning new things and monitoring new / existing trends or laws. In our line of work, if you blink, you may miss out!