Anthill Magazine

This could perhaps be the shortest post I have ever published. In fact, the headline says it all. Should I be worried? If Bing is so good, why doesn't Anthill appear when I specifically search for 'Anthill Online'? And, of course, does anyone understand search optimisation for Bing?

Do you remember the first time you used computers? If you're under 30 that's like saying, "Do you remember the first time you drew breath," so obviously I'm talking to my older demographic. If the experience was not traumatic, you are a rare specimen, indeed.

Today, the Australian Federal Minister for Small Business, Dr Craig Emerson, officially launched a free phone service that will provide advice and support for people running and working in small businesses.

In a little over 10 days, we will be sending a fleet of mobile-billboards down the busy streets of inner-city Australia to promote our 2009 Cool Company Awards. I'm talking about Scooter Advertising, courtesy of our friends at Subterfuge. In accordance with my blog post of yesterday on using social media to promote the 'cools', it occurred to me that this exercise presents an excellent opportunity to promote two-way reader engagement. So far, we've developed three potential poster and themes (below).

In this video from the wonderful Academic Earth, Robert Sutton, author of "Weird Ideas that Work", argues that authority has its place, but most businesses succeed when creativity is allowed to flourish.

Jumping ship to work with a larger, market-leading competitor was a disruptive change. The realisation that his entrepreneurial skills would be best utilised growing their business, rather than his own, did not come naturally for Peter Henderson, one of the few genuine "intrapreneurs" in this year's crop of 30under30.

We've held on to this latest manic instalment of Steve Sammartino's Creative Espresso series since he submitted it for inclusion in the July print edition, which didn't eventuate. Here it is, in all its super-charged, creative glory.

We've held on to this latest manic instalment of Steve Sammartino's Creative Espresso series since he submitted it for inclusion in the July print edition, which didn't eventuate. Here it is, in all its super-charged, creative glory.

Margaret Thatcher once remarked that anybody over the age of 30 who used a bus could consider themselves a failure. Now, Adelaide commuters might be clamouring over one another to get on the bus thanks to a new free mobile entertainment platform.

Most people have a vague understanding of the various types of intellectual property rights, but few know exactly which rights relate to them and even fewer know how much this will cost. This new series takes readers through the ins and outs of intellectual property rights protection specifically for knowledge-economy businesses.

While most published articles about social media as a tool for business development rarely offer more than anecdotal advice, we thought it might be interesting to actually 'crunch the numbers'. As strong believers in the power of experimentation and quantifiable results, we used the exercise to measure and compare the impact of each tool on our web traffic and award nominations. Here's what happened:

To coincide with today's relaunch of the oodles.com website, Sherlock and his team are inviting Twitter users to suggest a tagline for their online car rental platform. The author of the winning tweet tagline (twagline?) as chosen by Oodles staff will receive $1,000 cash.

Love it or hate it, crowdsourcing - harnessing the wisdom of the crowd - is changing the face of design. Angelina Russo takes a look at the winners and losers in this democratic revolution.

While most people hang out with mates during lunch breaks in Year 10, Samuel Yeats was negotiating with the receiver of a failed telco to acquire its hosting customers. Nine years later, Yeats is now the founder and CEO of Ultra Serve, a leading Australian managed internet hosting service provider.

At Anthill, we often find ourselves at the receiving end of marketing gifts, from keyrings to... shoes. This week, we decided to film our reactions and opinions about some of the best (and worst). We're calling it, 'Cool for comment'.

Concert Vault is a simple, free app that adds another dimension to the humble iPod concept. Lazy Sunday afternoons with the speaker jack plugged into the iPhone, listening to concerts you were too poor or too unborn to attend are a real treat.

It says much about the schismatic nature of Australia's economic strategy that the Federal Government invited public submissions on how to build a clever country in the same week that it signed a $50B gas export contract with China. Jordan Green outlines his vision for Australia's knowledge economy.

We all want the best for our families, and building successful companies is one of the best ways to provide for them. But while you're off establishing your empire, will your kids turn into spoilt ingrates?

It usually manifests as a long monologue that starts with: "Get a Mac - they are perfect" then trails off, without punctuation or breathing, into an extensive list of Mac failures and bugbears. When they catch themselves, they add, "But they are still brilliant. You should get one!"

Our bloggers have been critical of its longevity (Can social media sell anything but itself) and equally dazzled by its potential (How I used social media to put my CEO on the street). Of course, the following example (first published as a 'Discussion' on the Social Media Academy LinkedIn Group) had me from the get-go. Its author is Paul Rickett, Founder and Principal at VARKETING!.