technology @ iii.co.uk

SMS alerts launched on interactive investor

Tim — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:46:11 +0000

We expanded our email based alerts today on www.iii.co.uk, adding the ability for users to receive a price or news alert to their mobile (’SMS’).

Price alerts are available to any registered user, and work as follows :-

1. Ensure your master phone number in your Account profile is your mobile number. UK numbers only.
2. Add the stock to one of your portfolio folders if not already
3. Click the alert link when viewing the entry in your portfolio
4. Add the alert based on the price conditions you wish (Quotestream subscribers can also set alerts for RNS news alerts)
5. Choose to send the alert to your mobile number
6. Repeat the ‘add alert’ process if you wish to also send to your email address

Currently SMS alerts are sent free of charge, however we reserve the right to introduce a cap or usage charge depending on uptake levels.

Enjoy.

shareprice.co.uk launched

Tim — Wed, 28 May 2008 11:21:36 +0000

Aims:

To become the leading provider of free (or at cost) real-time stock market data in the UK.
Ensure data is as accurate and timely as possible.
To utilise modern technologies to deliver a feature rich, highly functional desktop / mobile based service.
To provide simple access to share price data and research tools on ONE page per company via search or simple URL structures ie. http://www.shareprice.co.uk/VODfor vodafone.
To develop rapidly and without fear of introducing beta ready components to a community of users who we expect feedback and suggestions from.
To take our learnings and tested applications to continually enhance our core site http://www.iii.co.uk
To respect our users whilst jointly recognising the commercial aspect a site such as this must adhere to in order to fund its existence.
To never serve more than one sponsorship opportunity / banner on a page.
To never serve pop-ups or pop-under banners / subsites.
To work with a sponsor directly and/or agencies who recognise the niche audience and long visit time a site such as this will deliver for a brand.

Feedback initially via the comments feature below. We have lots in store and will be adding at least one major feature a week. Enjoy.

Interested in discussing this venture directly? Please email me, tim [at] iii.co.uk

A couple of new features

Tim — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:17:29 +0000

We’ve released a couple of usability enhancements :-

1. All users can now benefit from the ‘Ignore User’ feature on our bulletin boards. This was previously only available to subscribers but we felt it should be available to all due to the increasing levels of postings on our boards.

2. Logged in portfolio users can now jump between share information pages linked to their watchlist / portfolio using a convenient drop down at the top of all company charts, discussion , news pages etc.

I’m suddenly scared of dogs.

Tim — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:07:46 +0000

Even if Robocop was a favourite movie during my teens…..this US defence funded robot is just a little spooky.

An experiment with Google Maps.

Tim — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:11:55 +0000

Our main site has a very active stock bulletin board - Desire Petroleum - where the same old questions have kept cropping up over the last few years: When is drilling going to commence? What is the price likely to be when drilling commences? And, what are the chances of of finding a commercially viable source of oil?

Everyone has their opinion, so whilst playing around with the cool Google Maps API, I thought it would be a good way to allow investors to express theirs whilst also highlighting on the map where exactly they thought the rig would drill first.

The result is at : http://www.shareprice.co.uk/findtheoil/

‘Pick of the week’ launched on Facebook

Tim — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:41:12 +0000

The importance of internet based media companies such as ours embracing the social networking phenomenon and engaging with new (and existing) users on sites other than their own has been well documented.

Facebook is one such site and for us offers a way to introduce a fun, yet competitive, game to a potential audience of millions. In doing so we hope to extend our brand and service to a new audience whilst also offering our existing users a new point of interaction with us and fellow users.

The game is simple:-

Pick the share that you think will rise the most during the game’s weekly cycle.
The game resets each Sunday night at which point the previous week’s winner will be announced.
You can join the game at any time during the week, the price of your entry being the market price at the time you enter.
Pick a share by searching, or simply selecting from the hottest shares of the previous week.
You must pick a share during each week to enter that week’s game - even if it’s the same pick as the previous week.

So, if you have a Facebook profile you can add the application via :

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=6765868926

Please help us by spreading the word to your (many) Facebook friends!

Commencing 10th March, the winner each week will receive a £100 cash prize. This weekly prize will run for 5 weeks at which point we’ll review usage and prizes.

‘Ask’ launched

Tim — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:05:27 +0000

Interactive Investor is one of the largest community of financially savvy individuals in the UK. Regardless of how clued up someone is, there’s always a time when posing a question to others is useful. The answer/s may not necessarily be right, but often raise interesting pointers to help you reach a decision.

‘Ask’ - http://www.iii.co.uk/ask/ aims to put members of the interactive investor community in touch with one another for this purpose. It’s not a substitute for the share specific bulletin boards available and widely used on our site; but an area where broader questions about investing, money, or personal finance issues can be raised.

Whether you choose to Ask and/or answer other questions, we hope you enjoy this service. Thank you to those involved in the beta test last year.

Feedback is welcomed via this blog.

We’re hiring.

Tim — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:17:22 +0000

Interactive Investor is looking to expand its technology group during an exciting period of growth and planned website enhancements.

Candidates should be experienced in the creation of PHP driven websites, ideally using frameworks such as PRADO or Zend. We’re looking for people who are passionate about the code they cut and want to help us take an award winning website to the next level.

We’re not a startup - your skills will help to benefit hundreds of thousands of savvy web users who use our site daily.

If you’re reading this then you’re probably one of them, recruiting from our userbase is what we’d prefer - an interest in the financial markets is a plus.

Interested in having a chat? Email me: tim[at]iii.co.uk

Survival of the ‘fittest’ ?

Tim — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:09:41 +0000

Good to see video based stock market commentary in the web2.0 world seems to have a common theme.

Today saw the official launch of ‘Stock Rockets’, hosted by Barbie Hargrave. Check her qualities out on MySpace; or I guess just watch the show.

What, with our own Susan Hickey, Wallstrip’s Julie Alexandria, MobLogic’s Lindsay Campbell : surely the average investor will struggle to consume so much information from such a bevy of fine presenters. It will be a war I tell you.

Handbags at dawn infact.

Dow Jones…where are you ?

Tim — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 10:57:54 +0000

As hysteria gripped the markets this week, I thought it was about time we got the Dow Jones price and graph sorted - a challenge we’ve been having with our data provider for some time now. There was also the fact that my Uncle mentioned he had to go to the BBC website to get that price which means lots of others aren’t relying on us for index data either.

So, we tried an alternative partner. On day two we’ve rolled back. Gremlins in the system. Computer says “no”, all that kind of stuff.

Rest assured we’re working hard to fix this whilst introducing a number of improvements with regards to our price and fundamental data over the coming weeks and months.

Thank you for your patience.