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Murgurdy, an Irish search engine start-up, is the first company to enter the Guinness Enterprise Centre’s (GEC) Microsoft BizSpark cluster, and has plans to create 20 new jobs by the end of next year. This move into the world’s first dedicated BizSpark cluster is expected to accelerate the global launch of the Murgurdy search engine by up to nine months, meaning it can be released before the end of 2009. The Mugurdy search engine is a unique image-based service that displays website screenshots in the results field in real-time. The search engine has been in development for two years by the co-founders of the Irish software development company, Software du…

Offering further evidence of the precocious talent of the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, two pieces of music attributed to the composer have been discovered in the back of a music book used in his musical education. The International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria has said both are almost certainly unknown compositions by the young Mozart. The pieces, an extensive concerto movement and a prelude, were found at the end of the so-called ‘Nannerl’s Music Book’, which Mozart’s father Leopold had begun to compile in 1759 for his daughter Maria Anna (‘Nannerl’) and which was also used for the musical education of Wolfgang. Although having previously been published in a volume…

The proportion of online adults in the US who watch videos on video-sharing sites has nearly doubled in the last two-and-a-half years, according to a new study by Pew Research. The study – The Audience for Online Video-Sharing Sites Shoots Up – found that swift growth continues to occur across all demographic groups, far outpacing the adoption rates of many other internet activities. It reveals that 62pc of US adults have watched a video on sites like YouTube and Google Video, up from just 33pc in December 2006. According to the study, online video watching among young adults is ‘near universal’, with 89pc of internet users aged 18 to 29…

The country’s largest ISP says the outage that caused a DNS outage on its servers and resulted in browsing delays and misdirected traffic was due to ‘unusual and irregular’ volumes of internet traffic. The outage has led to speculation that the company’s servers were hacked. However, the company’s statement neither confirms nor denies this, although it suggests the company may have been the victim of a denial of service attack. “Some customers may have recently experienced delays in web browsing and may have been unable to access the internet. In some cases, customers may have been redirected to incorrect websites. “This issue has been caused by an unusual and irregular…

Global confectionary giant Cadbury is seeking to cut some 200 jobs at its plants in Coolock in Dublin and Rathmore, Co Kerry. The company, which produces chocolate, chewing gum and candy via its three main brands – Cadbury, Trident and Halls – said a “difficult trading environment” had resulted in its seeking the layoffs from its Irish workforce. However, despite the layoffs, Cadbury said it was committed to its Irish operations, having announced a €20m investment in its Coolock plant. In a recent trading update released earlier this month, Cadbury reported improved trading for April and May and reaffirmed its revenue guidance for the full year. However, it did note…

Social media is where friends meet, conversations happen, links and recommendations are swapped – it seems like an ideal place for your brand. However, ensure you are engaging and not just creating more noise. Social-networking sites are purported to be ideal platforms for mixing marketing with social media, but how eager is the average user to consume information on your brand after the first five dozen fruit juice brands or t-shirt companies have canvassed them into joining their Facebook group? Is there a risk of targeting a jaded audience? Recent research from the UK’s Internet Advertising Bureau suggests that this is the case: almost one third of social networkers say…

A 21-year-old college student who founded the online community 4chan.org, one of the world’s largest online bulletin boards, has been listed as the world’s most influential person and winner of the Time 100 poll. Christopher Poole, otherwise known as Moot, founded 4chan.org in 2003. Its boards are used mainly by anonymous individuals to post and discuss manga and anime. The boards are also home to many internet subcultures and activism groups. Poole received 16.7 million votes and an average influence rating of 90 out of 100, beating off Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, and Oprah Winfrey. While Moot denies knowing about any plans by his followers to influence the poll, Time.com’s technical team…