Confabulations

Amongst the many Australians and Americans who travel abroad every year, taking Europe tours is surely one of the most popular journeys. This is particularly true of the gap year students and young people who want to see the world before continuing their education or starting work. But with so many different companies all offering Europe tours, it can be really hard to know which is the best.

The first decision that students and travellers have to make is whether to go it alone or to book Europe tours with a dedicated company. There are plenty of cost effective methods of doing it yourself in Europe, with inter-railing being a common favourite. However, this does mean that the traveller has to organise transport and accommodation themselves which can be quite daunting. Inter-railing is also really only a viable option for mainland Europe, which presents problems for those people wanting to see the UK.

Guided Europe tours on the other hand, offer many advantages. For example, there is no need for budgeting since all accommodation and transport is paid for from the outset. Also, they can be sure that the guides will show them all the must-see sites. But this option does cost more.

When visiting Europe with tour companies, travellers have to decide whether to see the whole of the continent with a single tour company, or to use several smaller companies. Often, it is advisable to use a few smaller companies and another one for the UK leg of the tour. UK tours companies are easy to find and really help tourists to get off the beaten track and out of London, so that they can get to know the whole of the country.

Europe tours are an important part of anyone’s gap year or around the world trip. But finding the right way of seeing the continent is very important.

So another year and another fantastic year in SEO. We have seen local search become increasingly important with loads of businesses uploading their listing in Google local business centre. Real time search has arrived and it is now possible for anyone to appear at the top of the search results, so long as you were the last person to update your twitter status on a popular subject.And now personal search looks set to become one of the ‘next big things’!

With Google caffeine set to fully roll out in early 2010, the future of search engine optimization has been commented on by many industry experts. Nothing is clear yet, however many people see a shift occurring from off-page efforts to your on-page optimization. Meta tags, keyword rich domains, unique and updated content, all of these features are set to play a bigger part in the Caffeine algorithm, and some SEO experts are already starting to make changes.

With a whole bunch of changes looking set to occur in the early months of 2010, it sure is an exiting time for SEO. And with that I would like to wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Google Knol has now been available to the public since July 2008, and was intended to be a knowledge forum. Expert authors are encouraged to share their knowledge with the rest of the world, and Google wanted these ‘knols’ to be the first port of call for any Internet user needing a quick answer or wanting to learn more on a particular topic.

Whilst this is what Knol basically does, its success is somewhat less than Google had hoped for. Most people you ask will name Wikipedia as the best online encyclopaedia, and a large number have never even heard of Knol. And whilst many SEO experts have criticised Knol for been to similar to Wiki, it has been no way as effective. The first page 1 ranking Knol I came across through an organic search was just three days ago, and I am a fairly considerable Internet user. When you consider that Wikipedia results are on the first page of search results for nearly every search you do, you can see just how ineffective it has been in its first year.

However, this has not stopped theories that Google gives extra weight to Knol pages because of their affiliation with the Google core domain. Aaron Walls and the Search Engine Land blog both tested knol after it launched and found that a third of articles that had been featured on Knol’s homepage were appearing on page one of Google search results within twenty four hours of it launching. To say that the homepage had no official page rank, and the site was only a day old, these results point towards the fact that Google’s algorithm supports affiliated content.

Google is fighting against spam with Knol. Every outgoing link is a nofollow, so it will not affect search engine rankings for the sites they point to. Also, Cedric Dupont has officially said that Knol will be banned from Google if spam gets out of control. But it is still a good directory to put articles onto to increase traffic for your clients, especially if you manage to get your pages on the homepage.

Knol is making online content submission easier for speakers of languages other than English. It is already available in eight different languages; Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. using the “Google in Your Language’, users can add articles in other languages as well. As of January 2009, there were articles in 59 languages posted on Knol. On average, people from 197 countries visit knol on a daily basis.

These figures should be making Knol a successful knowledge database but figures from 2009 show that after reaching a traffic peak in February, traffic has been continuously falling since. Whilst this is not unusual for relatively new websites, and Wikipedia did take two years to become really successful, with the power of Google behind it, Knol should be performing better than this. The main problem is that most Internet users just don’t know about it. For quick pieces of information on niche subjects, Wikipedia is still the number one forum by a long way. Ask any student what they use when they need quick answers and nine times out of ten, Wiki will be there reply.

For Knol to become as big as its rivals, more people need to know about it. The content in individual knol pages is good, and the authors are experts for the most part. But the fact that spamming is present and the search results tend to be too generalised makes the user experience slow and difficult. Improving this will go a long way to improving Knol and its reviews.

You may be pleased to learn that looking after a small dog isn’t that difficult. Although, some small dogs do have particular requirements worth noting. There are a few things that will need to be carefully considered before you proceed to buy one.

Feeding time:

Of course eating is the most obvious daily activity but the average kibble available from the grocery may be over-sized for your dog. You’ll need to be sure to buy a kibble designed to fit his smaller mouth (these are easy to find among the premium dog food brands). You ought to give the miniature canines some canned soft foods.

Containment:

It is easy for them to run around and go to the toilet outside providing the area is secure isn’t it? However, fencing used to contain a larger dog may have spaces below or in between for the smaller dog to pass through and escape. Fences also can’t provide overhead protection from large hawks, which sadly have been known to carry tiny dogs and puppies away. Thus a kennel with adequate head cover is what is warranted.

Training your dog:

While the training methodologies may be the same for large as well as tiny and are not any harder, but canine experts confirm that more often than not, the smaller counterparts are usually over-mothered. Small dogs don’t think any differently to their larger cousins and believe they are part of the pack where you are their leader but if you show signs of weakness they will start ruling you. It may seem like a minor matter but just because they are diminutive and the mess they leave might not be much, it doesn’t mean they do not need to be house trained. Dog experts also suggest you make your dog work for you, to keep him responsive to your rules. Before you reward him with a treat or with his meal for having obeyed your commands, make his sit or run or do small tricks.

Dog grooming:

Small dogs have some particular requirements when it comes to grooming you need to bear in mind. Firstly, as they do not get the same type of outdoor exercise that a larger dog does whereby their nails are trimmed automatically, tiny dogs require their nails trimmed on a more regular basTiny canines do not get the same sort of regular outdoor exercise on rough surfaces that controls their nail growth like a larger dog so they will need to be trimmed more often. Brushing his teeth twice a week is mandatory, especially if he is on soft canned foods. As is evident from the above, caring for a small dog is very much the same for any dog of any size. While each requirement may seem small and insignificant, but when you do it with earnestness, it can make a huge difference in the way you keep a dog.

As the walls of the recession close in on companies across the board – be they financial institutions or component manufacturers – are facing shrinking markets, more risk-averse customers and a lack of capital to draw on. That makes the role of effective marketing even more crucial. If marketing spend can’t be accounted for, and the ROI calculated effectively then it is unlikely to get the go-ahead from the board.

In this kind of climate, the internet is clearly the preferred format for most direct sales channels. While broadcast and print can be captured to some degree through the use of offer codes, unique telephone numbers and so on the internet is far more responsive and scientifically measurable.

A little food for thought there, if you’re looking to buy some advertising this week.

It’s been raining for about 8 months now and more rain is forecast for the next week. My house is quite old and although there’s nothing wrong with the guttering, the drains don’t cope too well under the pressure. I say ‘drains’ – there’s only one, small drain for the whole house, which may have something to do with the problem. The back yard is often awash with rainwater, washing-machine water and sink water. Not toilet water thank god or I’d have to move out.

This is the only house I’ve ever lived in where the drains can’t cope with normal use – even scabby student flats didn’t have this problem no matter what you put down them. Maybe the Victorians didn’t use much water? Did they bath once a week?

Welcome to 2009, the Year of the Ox! The year began with a loud noise – the sound of millions of people tightening their belts into an uncomfortable position. Uncomfortable, but thrifty. 2009 will be the year of the miser, the year of scrimping and saving against an impending job loss or company closure. Against rising taxes and the cost of living, against fuel shortages and bankcruptices.

I for one am going to take up free hobbies. Instead of spending £70 a month on a gym subscription, £8 on a cinema ticket and £20 eating out, I shall read, make crafty objects and walk or cycle outside where the fresh air costs nothing. It may be boring but it’ll save money.

I hope you celebrated the new year well – the last day of extravagance before dark times. If you used recyclable party supplies then all the better, you’re helping the planet too.

Well, almost. It’s the wind-down to Xmas, so here are some Xmas games to keep you occupied:

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This is a small, cheating little nugget of a link which – for various reasons – I’d like to post here. Not a very interesting post, eh?

Uh-oh – my boiler broke! It was late on a freezing cold Friday night and of course, the letting agents are closed on a weekend (really convenient I know!). That meant no heating and no hot water – I found myself putting on layer after layer of dirty clothes to keep warm and contemplating boiling the kettle to wash my hair.

Of course, it would help if my house was well-insulated but I swear, even if you close all the doors and windows, the second you turn the heating off it returns to arctic temperatures. The government are having a big drive at the moment to get everyone to insulate their homes. I’m rather dubious as to the environmental benefits this will bring – after all, homes will always be demolished and rebuilt and other pollutants like cars, factories etc will still be doing their damage. One thing I do believe however is that insulation can make your home warm, and a warm home is very important (as I recently found out). The Slanket can only do so much.