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Featured WordPress blog is Twingly

The featured WordPress blog this week is Twingly Blog, and more specificly a post by Martin Weiger called Europe’s 50 most popular startups according to the blogosphere.. Using data from their Twingly Blog Search they rank blogs in the global blogosphere from May 1 to July 31. This gives you a useful list of web and tech startups to check out for inspiration.

The blog has posts going back to September 2006, and provides lots of interesting comment and links to resources. It also contains the observation that A blog is a timeline; The fact that every blog is an ordered record of thoughts and opinions makes the aggregated data of many blogs very valuable.

This is a useful tip to remember when you are structuring your own WordPress posts, as you should consider that you are also writing for history, as well as promoting your latest product or venting your spleen. Surf back through the Twingly timeline and see how the writing style has progressed, and the rated Social Media sites and tools have emerged. Consider the way your own posts might be viewed in three months, or after a year, or in five year’s time.

The Twingly Blog uses the Neutra Theme, by Artmov which is a simple and elegant free theme. The site is hosted at WordPress.com.

Resources to check out:

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Town uses Google Earth to find Swimming Pools

The Town of Riverhead, Long Island, New York, has earn itself a place in the history of technology by employing the services of Google Earth to find swimming pools which did not have a permit. Chief Building Inspector Leroy Barnes Jr. declared that 250 permit-free pools had been identified thanks to Google’s technology. According to Chris Matyszczyk, The town has reportedly earned $75,000 through this activity.

I wonder if Google will be contacting the Chief Building Inspector to ascertain the amount of compensation to be paid for breach of the Google Earth End User License Agreement, which I note reads as follows:

1. USE OF SOFTWARE The Software is made available to you for your personal, non-commercial use only. You may not use the Software or the geographical information made available for display using the Software, or any prints or screen outputs generated with the Software in any commercial or business environment or for any commercial or business purposes for yourself or any third parties.

Riverhead’s no doubt honorable intention would be to stick within the letter of the law, so may I suggest that they donate the additional revenue to charity, as being income that they would not otherwise have been able to legally obtain. Remember, you can’t even use free Google Earth at work for personal reasons.

Then there is just the matter of the unpaid fees to Google…

To read the original article by Chris Matyszczyk, click here to see his posting on Technically Incorrect.

For more on the use of Google Earth, see the WordPress blog post by James Fee on Geospatial Technology, Web Mapping and Spatial Services website

Search Google Google Earth to find Swimming Pools

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3 Top Tips For Marketing Via Your Blog

In response to a number of inquiries about How to boost your Search position on Google, here are the three
Top Tips For Marketing Via Your Blog which we cover on our Low Cost Marketing Using WordPress one day seminar.

  • Chose a Compelling Title
  • Keep It Simple and To The Point
  • Tell Your Readers What They Want To Know

In order to boost your search engine rating on Google, Yahoo! and Bing, and make the most of your marketing effort, make sure that your blog posts take account of the advice they give about SEO. SEO is an acronym for “Search Engine Optimization”, and describes the techniques of improving the visibility of a web site or a web page in search engines via the natural or un-paid search results.

In the context of marketing your business, using your WordPress Blog to tell people about your goods and services is a great idea, so you want the most people to see it. This is the way to make Blogging help your business for very little cost, and so get the word out to as many people as possible. A good Blogger grabs the attention of their readers, and holds it long enough to establish an emotional connection, so that they will want to return.

Compelling Title
First of all chose a Compelling Title to grab the reader’s interest and attract them to visit your site. This may be repeated in the content, which will help the search engine spiders correctly rank your site. On Google, the PageRank will determine how close to the top of the search results your site or page appears in the list returned to the user. Make sure your title is relevant to your content and brings visitors who want to know more about your subject.

Keep Content Simple
Once your visitor has arrived, you have only a few seconds to give them enough information so that they can chose that they want to read on. Keep your content simple and to the point to hold their attention, and if possible provide a bullet pointed list near the start to aid comprehension. This will allow them to confirm that they are on the right site for their needs without wasting time reading the detail. It is better to have someone decide that they do not want your content and leave quickly, than have them read to the bottom and leave disappointed.

Give Them What They Want
Finally, tell your readers what they want to know, rather than what you want them to know. That means you have to write to satisfy your readers’ need for information, rather than for your need to tell people about your new Widget making process! Tell them what they will find immediately useful, so that they will feel grateful and want to visit you another time. A happy reader is more likely to buy from you than a resentful one who has had to wade through all your marketing copy to find the nuggets.

A word of caution about taking the optimization too far: some SEO experts will claim to get you to the top of Google using secret techniques known only to a few, for which you will pay a premium. As Google will tell you, deciding to hire an SEO is a big decision that can potentially improve your site and save time, but you can also risk damage to your site and reputation. Make sure to research the potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site.

So in summary

  • Chose a Compelling Title to grab the reader’s interest
  • Keep your content simple and to the point to hold their attention
  • Tell your readers what they want to know, so they will visit you another time

To maximize the potential of your visitors, without spending a lot of money on marketing, apply the three tips listed above and you will satisfy your readers’ needs, help them to feel good enough to want to come again, while aiding the search engines put you it the correct place in the rankings. That has got to be a good deal,and a win for everybody.

Other Resources:

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LCD Screens Ruled Hazardous Waste By Environment Agency

The Environment Agency has now ruled that LCD screens contain hazardous components, which will have an impact on businesses that have been using flat screens for some time and may now be considering replacing them. The liquid crystal substances themselves are not hazardous, but the back lighting fluorescent tubes are, as they contain mercury.

According to the Environment Agency website (which will not be winning any awards for accessibility or functionality in the near future):

On the evidence we currently have, all electrical equipment containing cathode ray tubes and most LCD televisions should be classified as hazardous once they have been designated waste. Waste Plasma displays and televisions do not appear to contain hazardous components and at the present time we do not consider these hazardous.

If the hazardous components referenced above are removed from the waste electric or electronic equipment, and there are no other hazardous components present, the equipment will not be classified as hazardous.

For more informationm on the subject, see the Hazardous Waste Links below:
Environment Agency Website
Environment Agency PDF

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More on Internet Explorer 6

As most people who visit this site will be aware, TechCo Support have been patient voices calling for the scrapping of Internet Explorer 6 (IE6), and a move to newer standards based applications which support tabbed browsing. With a large number of web developers in our stables, the persistence of IE6 and its numerous bugs, odd interpretation of standards and peculiarities is a consistent drain on resources and a barrier to progress.

We came across this resource for dealing with the persistent bugs in IE6 which contains lots of usefull information and further links to IE6 nuggets:

Other Usefull Links and our earlier rants about IE6 may be found below:

Finally, if you missed our posting on IE6 and SEO, see:

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The Spending Challenge Featured Blog

The featured WordPress blog this week is actually a UK government site called The Spending Challenge.

It uses a Theme in a directory called Coalitiondocdg, which may be a custom solution, with Contact Form 7 plugin by Takayuki Miyoshi to capture your feedback. It also uses Recent Posts with Excerpts plugin by Stephanie Leary, which lists your most recent posts with excerpts, optionally limited to a category.

According to the home page, The Spending Challenge is your chance to shape the way the UK government works, and help us get more for less as we try to bring down the deficit. It seems to be open initially to people who work in the public sector, but after 8th July the process will be opened up to the wider public. It is easy to make a suggestion via the site, and the email address is optional, so there is a level of anonymity.

For what it is worth, my suggestion was to allow (or even ecourage) organisations to save money by using open source web applications like Apache, MySQL and WordPress on the national infrastructure to provide a low-cost generic platform for non-critical applications.

To visit the site and see an example of WordPress in action in government click here to visit The Spending Challenge.

If you are interested in adding either of the plugins to your WordPress site, see the links below:

You can download the plugins from the links above, or alternatively, if you are in the Install Plugins section of your site Dashboard, search for Recent Posts with Excerpts or Contact Form 7, and the when you have found the right one, click on Install Now.

If you are interested in those plugins, you may also be interested in the Contact Form 7 Widget by Stephanie Wells which allows you to use Contact Form 7 Forms in your sidebars.

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Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) In Force

The European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive was first ratified by European ministers in 2003, and was eventually meant to pass into UK law in August 2006 although, delays by the Department for Trade and Industry held it back.

As of 1 July 2010, the new Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) regulations are intended to ensure that major producers, rebranders and importers of household electrical and electronic equipment are signed up to pay for the responsible disposal and recycling of their goods. The WEEE legislation finally came into effect 2 January, although those affected have had until July to ensure they’re fully compliant.

If you have an interest in the disposal of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, the Government Guidance Notes on the WEEE Regulations are well worth a read:
Click here to read the WEEE regulations: Government guidance notes (PDF)
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/tna/+/http://www.dti.gov.uk/files/file38209.pdf

Code of Practice for collection of WEEE from Designated Collection Facilities
http://www.dti.gov.uk/files/file37922.pdf

For a cautionary tale, see the fine handed out to Plymouth City Council for WEEE breach

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Three Million iPads in 80 Days

Apple® today announced that it sold its three millionth iPad™ yesterday, just 80 days after its introduction in the US. They claimed they hit the two million mark in less than 60 days from launch on 3 April 2010. They only began shipping the iPad in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK at the end of May.

It is estimated that developers have created over 11,000 new apps for iPad that take advantage of its Multi-Touch™ user interface, large screen and high-quality graphics. Apple claim that iPad will run almost all of the more than 225,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for the iPhone® or iPod touch®.

To find out more, click here to visit Apple website.

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Government Action Plan on Open Source Awry

A colleague recently invited me to comment on a proposal they have been reviewing before a major government department undertakes a technology update in the near future. I was reminded of our post back in April last year optimistically titled UK Government Encompasses Open Source. I wonder if I might have been breaking out the champagne bottles a little early, as it seems that little has changed in the glacial world of government IT thinking. Obviously my colleague, the government department involved and the suppliers involved will not be named for legal reasons.

It appears that it might take the closed world of government procurement and suppliers a few more decades before the radical concepts of open standards and best value impinge on the practices and closed thinking. After all, Open Source would mean we could use WordPress, PHP and MySQL on Apache for non critical applications such as Intranet sites, for example, or the Joomla portal engine and content management system.

However, the proposed technical solution in the, soon to be rolled out, upgrade is likely to exclude Open Source (presumably on grounds of security!) and any operating system except Microsoft Windows. I will not stoop to comment again on the browser version, as you can read previous musings in A Few More Nails in the Coffin of IE6

In a touch of spookiness reminiscent of the best spy movies, since starting this post, the source material has disappeared from the Cabinet Office web site! At the start of writing it was at www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/cio/transformational_government/open_source.aspx, but the link now returns a Page/Document not found! It is not just us who are pointing to the missing link, as writetoreply.org also carry the broken link at writetoreply.org/ukgovoss/, along with some of the details.

For those who did not dig into the content of the paper before it disappeared, the document outlined the expected expansion in the use of Open Source and Open Standards, with the main action points as follows:

  1. Clarity in procurement
  2. Increasing capability within Government
  3. Reuse as a practical principle
  4. Maturity and sustainability
  5. Supplier Challenge
  6. International examples and policies, and keeping up to date with developments
  7. Industry/Government joint working
  8. Open Standards
  9. Open Source techniques and reuse within Government, and appropriate release of code
  10. Communication, Consultation and Review

Government Action Plan on Open Source Awry
If only someone had a copy in their cache, we could read the whole thing. If you are linking to this post or referring to it or it’s source, please use the tag #ukgovOSS to enable interest in the subject to be tracked.

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IE6 in a Corporate Setting is Malpractice and SEO

There has been a few comments back on our post, from back in March, containing the quote from Ed Bott, who stated that “Any IT professional who is still allowing IE6 to be used in a corporate setting is guilty of malpractice“. One person, who we will not name, offered the comment that IE6 is the basis for a whole developer community, so recommending it’s discontinuance was irresponsible and unprofessional. Besides, the commentator sneeringly pointed out that “hundreds of people had used that expression in web commentary.

Ignoring the obvious response to the “whole developer community” thing, of course we immediately did a quick Google search on the expression, and sure enough there are good number of matches (408 exact matches at time of writing). Does this mean that a large number of people had come to the same conclusion and used the same expression spontaneously, or was there some blatant manipulation of the search ranking by unscrupulous Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts.

This also poses an interesting observation about the way the search engines, like Google, rank pages. If you search for the phrase Any IT professional who is still allowing IE6 to be used in a corporate setting is guilty of malpractice, the original page from Ed Bott appears fourth, and then does not appear again until page two; that is eighteenth in the results set.

At time of testing, the top three results, beating the original post, are as follows:

  1. LessThanDot (a phpBB powered Bulletin board)
  2. Integrity Technology Group (a Joomla powered site)
  3. A Twitter link (with the exact quote verbatim)

This is interesting, and shows just how important your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be. The Bulletin board beat the Joomla entry by having repetition of the phrase “Any IT professional who is still allowing IE6 to be used in a corporate setting is guilty of malpractice” twice in the body, plus a partial reference in the title.

The Tweet came an honorable third by repeating the exact quote, and due to the limited number of characters available had the highest match to “noise” ratio.

Could it be that “IE6 in a Corporate Setting is Malpractice” proposition, repeated often enough, could get you a top position regardless of the content of the surrounding article?

By the way to avoid this post jumping immediately to the top of Google simply by repeating the full phrase ad nauseum, we have deliberately shortened it to IE6 in a Corporate Setting is Malpractice. However human readers will be able to substitute the full expression unconsciously, and so allow us to sleep at night! The expression we have distilled down to is concise, accurate and meets the requirement for this exercise.

If you want to see for yourself, try the links below to search for the full expression:

As an intellectual exercise, we have dutifully entitled this posting IE6 in a Corporate Setting is Malpractice, and at the time of posting Google returns no results for the exact phrase “IE6 in a Corporate Setting is Malpractice”. Over the next few weeks we will keep searching for the expression and see how many web sites pick it up. Any that do repeat it in their content will become the subject of extra scrutiny to see if they are brilliant SEO expert who we need to model, or cheap rip-off sites to be added to our SEO blacklist.

IE6 in a Corporate Setting is Malpractice
If you are interested in playing the game, and contributing in some small way to the sum of human knowledge, click here to search Google for the exact expression IE6 in a Corporate Setting is Malpractice. Let us know what you think.