Sneak has discovered a new best friend. He’ll help you find out if you’re visiting dodgy e-commerce web sites by telling you useful information like the registration date of the site, what others think of it and how long you’ve got to return goods if you’re not satisfied with them on delivery. And his name is, erm, Howard.

Yes this new web tool has been designed by the European Commission to bolster user confidence in the interweb as a channel for commerce, and it decided that the most appropriate, trustworthy name in the Engligh language was Howard. Sorry all you Brian, Kevin and Barrys out there – just not good enough. Expect to see Howard the Shopping Assistant, as his full name goes, coming to a web page near you from 3 December. And don’t pick on him – he got bullied a bit at school, as you can appreciate with a name like that.

26 Nov 2007