As many of you know, our client site www.bluechipvacations.com, won a South West Tourism award last year. It is a big and complex site, which we are constantly working to improve in conjunction with the client.  In fact we are currently in the process of completing a total overhaul.

It seems we won many plaudits for the site – not least the team at Carbis Bay Holidays and their web developers! A recent look at their newly designed site shows some distinctly familiar elements of design and functionality. I wouldn’t go so far to say that the site is a direct rip off – they may have thought it up on their own - however there are some striking similarities!  I will let you make your own judgement.

I have often wondered whether it is just laziness or a lack of imagination that causes marketers to do things like this.

On the other hand it just goes to show – If you choose to work with Organic development. You are going to be the envy of your peers – and if they are really out of ideas, they might just resort to mimicry!

Internet Explorer is used by vast majority of world's computer users

Microsoft is due to issue a patch to fix a security flaw believed to have affected as many as 10,000 websites.

The emergency patch should be available from 1800 GMT on 17 December, Microsoft has said.

The flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser could allow criminals to take control of people's computers and steal passwords.

Internet Explorer is used by the vast majority of computer users and the flaw could affect all versions of it.

So far the vulnerability has affected only machines running Internet Explorer 7.

Potential danger

According to Rick Ferguson, a senior security adviser at security firm Trend Micro, the flaw has so far been used to steal gaming passwords but more sensitive data could be at risk until the security update is installed.

"It is inevitable that it will be adapted by criminals. It's just a question of modifying the payload the trojan installs," he said.

It is relatively unusual for Microsoft to issue what it calls an "out-of-band" security bulletin and experts are reading the decision to rush out a patch as evidence of the potential danger of the flaw.

Some experts have suggested that users switch browsers until the flaw is fixed.

Firefox, Opera, Chrome and Apple's Safari system are not vulnerable to this current flaw.

But Graham Cluley, senior consultant with security firm Sophos, said no browser is exempt from problems.

"Firefox has issued patches and Apple has too. Whichever browser you are using you have to keep it up to date," he said.

"People have to be prepared and willing to install security updates. That nagging screen asking if you want to update should not be ignored," he said.

If the average computer user read the Microsoft security advisory about the Internet Explorer vulnerability - and you'd struggle to find it if you weren't looking - you might be none the wiser about how serious this was, or what action you should take.

A long way down comes this line: "An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local user." As far as I understand it, that means there is a real danger that Internet Explorer 7 users (and possibly users of other versions of IE) could be opening the door to cyber criminals to allow them to ransack the contents of your hard drive. In other words, it is a pretty serious situation.

So when I spoke to John Curran, head of Windows at Microsoft UK, I had three questions.

1. How serious is this?

Mr Curran told me that only a tiny proportion of websites were infected, but given the sheer scale of today's web, that could affect a large number of people.
So, he said, "it is certainly something people should take seriously."

2. So what should IE users do?

Microsoft is working on a patch but in the meantime Mr Curran said there were four steps to take.
- make sure anti-virus software is up to date.
- run Internet Explorer 7 or 8 in "protected mode".
- set Internet Explorer zone security setting to "High"
- Windows users should enable Automatic Updates so that they get any patch that is issued.

But of course doing all of that is not only time-consuming, it will make your web browsing experience slower and less rewarding. Which brings us to the final question.

3. Shouldn't you switch to another browser until the patch come out?

This has been the advice of a number of security firms - who of course are also touting their latest anti-virus products - but you won't be surprised to hear that Mr Curran disagrees. He told me he had recently seen a report which listed another browser as having the highest number of vulnerabilities. "it would not be advisable," he said,"to send people from one vulnerability (in Internet Explorer) to multiple vulnerabilities."

But given the choice between messing around with Internet Explorer and so enduring a second-rate browsing experience until the hole is fixed, or running Firefox, Safari or Opera, aren't quite a few people likely to switch? This could be the moment when the minnows in the browser wars finally score a significant victory.

Typical! You wait two years and then all of a sudden two come along at once... Website Awards that is!

Not only have our client Sharkah Chakra won 02X Web Fashion Brand of the year 2008, but the Blue Chip Vacations Website win silver at the South West tourism Website of the year Awards 2008!

Blue Chip Vacations is a Holiday Cottage Letting company, and their website was one of the biggest jobs we have done to date. As well as providing help with internet marketing along the way, developing th website and doing the creative, we also integrated it with a remote third party booking system.

The site has led to other projects that have seen us develop a booking and availability system and a property management system for similar companies. 

If you would like us to undertake a review of your website, or are interested in a similar award winning website development project, contact James at Organic Development on 0845 869 7654 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it