The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

UK tabloid papers launch Web access for the masses

Gor blimey, come and ‘ave a butchers at this

  • print
  • alert

Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup/Recovery

CurrantBun.com may sound like a Web site for bakers, but it is the latest attempt by the UK’s leading tabloid to offer free Internet access. Cockney rhyming slang for The Sun, CurrantBun was launched yesterday along with The Mirror’s announcement that it will launch its own portal site on 30 April. The Mirror’s site will be called ic24.co.uk – as in "I see 24 hours a day" – but as yet this URL appears to be dead. Britain’s two biggest Red Tops could bring the Internet into mainstream culture while trying to cash in on the on-line boom. The Sun, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News International (which also owns The Times and the New York Post), aims to bridge the gap between geeks and glamour girls. Yesterday it was offering special deals on new PCs and software, help with "netiquette" and "geek speak" and even listed stars’ email addresses. Editor of The Sun David Yelland labelled the venture "the people’s portal", saying: "CurrantBun will complement the paper in many ways and will offer opportunities and content that are not in the paper and vice versa." The Mirror has teamed up with Cable & Wireless, Microsoft and Compaq to become Britain’s leading Internet portal with a four-year deal and £50 million investment. ®

Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup/Recovery

More from The Register

Thanks, NSA: Amazon sales of Orwell's 1984 rise 9,500%
Citizens of Oceania bone up on the new reality
Microsoft to open Windows Stores inside 600 Best Buy locations
Product showcases 'must be seen to be believed'
 breaking news
Author Iain (M) Banks falls to cancer at 59
Misses the release of his final work
 breaking news
What did the Lehman Brothers implosion look like to a techie?
Insider tells all about the Gnab Gib at Lehmans
It's official: 'tweet' an English word – not just in the avian sense
If the Oxford English Dictionary says it is so, then it is so
 breaking news
The only Waze is Google: Ad giant tipped to gobble map app 'for $1.3bn'
Pac-Man-satnav-ish upstart in bidding war with Apple, Facebook
 breaking news
1-in-10 e-tomes 'are self-published'... most are 'rubbish' says book ed
Publishing man scoffs at go-it-alone writers, ursines still fouling in forests
 breaking news
Facebook RSS reader said to uncloak June 20
Secret event scooped by Scottish developer?