The Queen is now Twittering on Twitter.

http://twitter.com/BritishMonarchy

The tweets aren’t the most exciting thing but I think they’re just developing their strategy.  It’ll be interesting to see how they use it in times of crisis!

Big news today – Google is to take on MS with their own operating system.  It’ll be open source and available in mid-2010.  It’ll be interesting to see how it turns out.

More info here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8139711.stm

http://www.web-design-directory-uk.co.uk/berkshire.htm

I see that Google is getting a bit nervous now about Bing taking over.  They’ve created a new page which shows that a lot of the stuff that Bing does, Google has been able to do ages.

Don’t stress Google – we still love you!

Google’s announcement

x

Here’s a great example of how to market your business: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/8108319.stm

With one simple change (the addition of a cute duck!) they’ve managed to get links from the BBC website as well as many other national newspapers and websites and massive viral coverage.  I think we can be sure that they’ll be booked solid for the summer.

Todays links:

http://www.theredtree.com/computers_and_internet/

http://www.changingpeople.co.uk/

http://www.theinteriordesigninstitute.co.uk/index.cfm?content=links

http://www.adriennechinn.co.uk/interior-design-berkshire.htm

http://www.sezza.com/pseek/Shopping/Office_Products/

http://www.adriennechinn.co.uk/interior-design-berkshire.htm

Kent Pharmaceuticals have just launched a disposable syringe called Safe Inject.  It’s fully sterile and reduced the risks of cross infection because it is designed for single patient use.

Interestingly, the needle is fully retractable after use and so it vastly reduces the risks of injury or infection after it has been used.

I think for people that are injecting themselves each day (such as diabetics) or those that are slightly uncomfortable around needles, this is a very handy development.  For more informaiton, visit the Kent Pharmaceuticals website.

Great, so for those of you that missed it, Google (AKA Matt Cutts) just announced that for the past year, Google hasn’t been sharing pagerank gathered from nofollow links amongst dofollowed links.  So all that PR sculpting that you’ve done is pretty much a waste of time now.

Sweet.  Now we can expect loads of javascript links, chopped up websites and iframes instead of some nice harmonious navigation.  nofollow was nice because it was elegant.  This isn’t.

On a different note, check out our announcement about our new web design services in Oxford.  PR sculpting won’t be part of it!

One of the most popular ways of building links is by submitting to directories.  The problem is that about 95% of the directories are totally useless.  This one isn’t:

http://www.clush.com/Dir/Business/

I found this on a website.  It’s called long-tail optimisation and it’s all about attracting higher rankings for more explicit queries.

So, instead of trying to rank for website design, these guys are looking to rank for website design and then the localities that they cover.

Nice idea – wonder if it works for them?

Website Design Berkshire - 

Website Design Henley -

Website Design Maidenhead - 

Website Design Newbury - 

Website Design Reading - 

Website Design Slough - 

Website Design Swindon - 

Website Design Windsor - 

Website Design Wokingham

I see that Google News has had a bit of a spring clean – the gap between Twitter, Google and blogging is getting even smaller.  Google is still great at the static, less real-time websites but when it comes to real-time developments etc, Twitter has the upper hand – Google News is too out of date.

http://www.theredtree.com/business_and_economy/

http://www.greenstalk.com/category/Hobbies_and_Recreation/Travel/Hotels_Europe/

http://www.greenstalk.com/category/Internet_and_IT/Web_Design/

http://www.incrawler.com/dir/Computers_and_Internet/WWW_and_Internet/Web_Site_Development/

Am I the only one that’s confused with this expenses issue?  It seems that many politicans have gone on a spending spree at the taxpayer’s expense but I can’t believe that they’d actually do such a thing.  I’d understand if it was just one or two politicans making the most of their expenses but it seems like it’s the whole lot of them, charging for cat food and all sorts!

When I worked on expense there was no chance I could claim for anything like that.  I could claim for accommodation, food and travel incurred on a business trip and that was it.  I can understand the second homes allowance but the way that MPs have abused it us unforgivable!

Anyway, here are a couple more links worth checking out.  Nothing to do with MPs but handy for me !

http://www.ntopsearch.com/VisitEngland/en-GB/Details.aspx?contentID=75807

http://www.thebestof.co.uk/local/beverley/business-guide/feature/the-barn-house-at-walkington/11762