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real-time websites but when it comes to real-time developments etc, Twitter has the upper hand – Google News is too out of date.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

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

http://friendfeed.com/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8032788.stm

This is how not to have a nice site layout: http://www.lingscars.com/links.php

These four sites are a bit nicer:

http://jobagencies.com/63/IT-Telecoms-Job-Agencies/1739/Langley-James.html

https://www.amazines.com/Business_Opportunities/article_detail.cfm/812739?articleid=812739

http://www.escapeartist.com/jobs15/uk.htm

http://www.hirefire.co.uk/agency_sitemap_by_location.aspx

Here are a list of links related to Beverley in East Yorkshire.  In fact, it’s the East Riding of Yorkshire, but that’s too long to type every time!

The following links are for hotels, accommodation and general links on the local area.

http://www.find-whatyou-search.net/company-1846767-the-barn-house-hotel/

http://www.euro-t-guide.com/Stay_Coun/UK/UK_Stay_UK_N_1.htm

http://www.risposteatutto.com/hotels/316892c-9-beverley.html

http://www.businessesonthenet.co.uk/index.php?search=beverley

http://pr-gb.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=73949&Itemid=9

http://www.bestsyndication.com/?q=node/25658

http://www.leedsguide.co.uk/reviewsfull.php?id=10214

http://www.eastriding.gov.uk/az/face_service_live_proc?p_aplaws_ref=147&p_category_ref=1977&p_app_ref=&p_spec_ref=

If you have any more then add them in the comments.

The most popular account on Twitter, @cnnbrk, has just been purchased by CNN for an undisclosed sum. In fact, Twitter doesn’t actually allow the purchase of accounts so quite how they bought it is unclear. But the owner of the account is on good terms with CNN and is even rumoured to be working with them so perhaps he was paid as part of a larger consultancy position.

Whatever, this may be the first of many ‘transfers’ of popular Twitter accounts – it’ll be interesting to see how it pans out.

Looking for places to get links from?  Try these:

http://www.1stdirectory.com/Companies/1642098_Crown_Office_Interiors.htm

Web Design Berkshire

http://www.doweb.co.uk/index.php?action=query&q=crowninteriors

http://www.lingscars.com/links.php