Not an overly inspiring start to this eGram, but important for those with half an eye, or a full 2 eyes, on how their site is being referenced by Google and found by searchers. Google's spokesman for page rankings has confirmed that, at the end of May, the company made TWO major, permanent changes seeking to return "higher quality" search results.

First, they have a new infrastructure, called 'Caffeine', which offers them a far far greater processing power. They have always crawled the web to discover new content constantly, but the impact of new content could take 2 weeks to 1 month to take effect. 'Caffeine' gives them the overhead to factor in new content and new links (PageRank) constantly.

This has been driven by the huge takeup of Social Media and the 'real time' element of search. They have for some time included Tweets in their results pages; this is the next step. They want the latest on everything, so having a blog and an effective presence on sites like Twitter is very important now.

The second change is how they deal with what are called 'long tail' (more specific) queries. This is still ongoing and subject to revision, but it looks like the importance of natural, varied text on the page (using synonyms around the keywords rather than just repeating the keywords), and making sure that internal pages link to each other wherever appropriate — again with a natural variation in the terms used — has received a boost. The consensus seems to be that this has been taken a step too far and needs to be scaled back a little. What is being seen at the moment is that more relevant pages from less well-linked sites are being outranked by less relevant pages from better-linked sites.

My view is that small/medium companies should, as a minimum, maintain a presence on Twitter and a regular blog. Google is looking for fresh and regularly updated content, and both these elements are an easy means to generate feed for the Google monster.

Everyone of working age online by 2015

The 'Digital Tsar', Martha Lane Fox, has announced plans to get everyone of working age in the UK using the web within five years. Lane Fox said that she found that more than 90 per cent of all new jobs need basic internet skills and seven million jobs were advertised online last year, but that 'Ten million of us in the UK have never used the internet - the equivalent of the entire populations of our five biggest cities combined - London, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow and Sheffield - all being left without the tool that we now heavily rely on every day.'

Worldwide, we send 55m tweets via Twitter a day. In the UK alone, 25m of us are on Facebook. 16m people watch TV or listen to the radio via the web. Millions of us now use sites like Meetup.com to get together offline in our local communities.

- 3.1m over-65s go more than a week without seeing a friend, family or neighbour and half of all internet users say the web increases contact with friends who live further away. Yet 6.4m over-65s have never used the internet, with 63% of them saying they 'see no reason' to get online.

- 90% of new jobs require computer skills. Seven million job adverts were placed online in the UK last year. Without web skills you're increasingly cut off from the labour market. Yet 270,000 of the 1.5m people claiming Jobseekers Allowance of £0.8bn a year are without these basic skills.

- 58% of us buy goods and services online in the UK and the average household saves £560 a year by shopping and paying bills online. To give over-65s the same amount that the average household saves from shopping and paying bills online via the State Pension would cost Government £6bn a year."

iPad

I bought an iPad. I know why I bought one, but that's a long way from being able to justify the purchase. Rory Sutherland seems to get it about right;

"In the end I ignored my own advice and bought an Apple iPad, purely, as I explained to my wife, 'for the purposes of research'. The very same 'research' that has by now filled two or three desk drawers with a ridiculous assortment of electrical chargers, the devices they once charged mostly lost, burnt out or forgotten.

Weeks later, my verdict on the thing is curiously complicated. What I mean by this is that the Apple iPad is a magnificent, life-enhancing device, which in many ways lights a future path for technology... and I really do like it: but I'm just not quite sure that you should buy one."

I'm pleased I have one, it's better than the iPhone for watching media, and web surfing - but how much better than a macbook air or notebook computer is it? I don't know that, but I do know this: It's new, shiney, and mine. 

ETSI produce globally applicable standards for Information & Communications Technologies including fixed, mobile, radio, broadcast, internet, aeronautical and other areas. They are recognised as an official European Standards Organisation by the European Union, enabling valuable access to European markets.

This graphic formed part of a booth design for a forthcoming exhibition. Here it is in virtual action...

Amadeus came to MXMG, having completed their value proposition work for Airline Ancillary Services, one of their flagship solutions. It gives airlines the ability to distribute (book, price and pay) their value add services such as lounge access or excess baggage across all distribution channels in compliance with industry standards.

Our job was to bring this to life. See it here:

As a customer of Radcliffe Butcher, I can testify to the wonder that is their sausages, and you need to try Manx Lamb sooner rather than later as well... Radcliffe's deliver across the Isle of Man, and to the UK too.

The Venda e-commerce platform has proved to be one of life's simple joys as well. Venda provides all you need to sell online. You can benefit from the expertise of the eCommerce provider that delivers websites for clients like the British Museum, Arsenal and De Beers. The sites are ideal for small retailers being fully featured, easy to operate and maintain.

* Instant shop from global market leader
* Best practice from leading online retailers
* web/telephone support
* All inclusive pricing

It's proven, its easy to use, and the product development and support provided ensures our clients are getting the best possible online retail platform available.

Following our work on www.amadeusrail.net, we were contacted by the Hotels department of this global travel technology company to deliver a site that would effectively communicate how they are working with a membership base of 5,000 hotels in the fields of hotel distribution, sales and marketing.

Creating new branding and imagery, along with a content management system, Amadeus LinkHotel now presents a clear and cogent message to potential new customers about the benefits of their service.

Amadeus IT Group is a global leader in the provision of marketing, sales, distribution and technical solutions to the travel and tourism industries. Operating from one of the largest civil data centres in the world, Amadeus brings massive computational powers and the highest levels of reliability and security to our customers. We are committed to long-term technology development, investing millions in research and development each year, to expand our product portfolio based on customers’ current and future requirements. Amadeus operates in 217 markets employing 8,500 travel industry specialists, including 450 dedicated hotel experts.

Its been invaluable in those terms, and has taken the MXMG team into developmental places we would not have otherwise gone. However, its also been quite fun, and shown me the value of Twitter in making connections with people WAY outside your sphere. I've come to regard it as a human search engine, perhaps not as instant as Google, but infinitely more surprising and rewarding. Facebook is good for keeping in touch with those in and around your network of friends, but Twitter, if you throw yourself at it, will take you way beyond.

Anyway, House of Twits has gone from a few Twitter feeds to incorporate blogs from all parties (including Green's, UKIPs etc) and I'll shortly be adding some voting functions, still hoping it serves some purpose in 'breaking political reaction', as well as providing MXMG with a very effective experimental laboratory.

Oportfolio is a new 'personal financial management' company, set up by Oliver Whitehead who has over a decade of industry experience behind him. Crucially, the website gives clients the facility to login and view all information related to their mortgage and insurance details in one place. Oliver hasn't persuaded Iggy Pop to sell his soul to promote the website, but clients won't need much persuading of the benefits of the Oportfolio service, and Oliver's approach to client care.

When a client presents you with outstanding photography to be included in the design of their new website, you start out knowing the job is half done for you. Sun Biofuels did just that, but the quality of the imagery actually presented us with a bit of a challenge. Proud as we are of our design, we didn't want anything distracting from the message conveyed by the photography, such was their power to communicate the Sun Biofuels' brand. So, here is the site - the video is worth a watch too. www.sunbiofuels.com

The homepage seeks to achieve that goal. On the other hand the MXMG World page just allows me to share the blogs and videos I'm enjoying, as well as the Twitter feeds I'm following.