Keith confirms that you can buy your way to the top right now; that’s accepted fact by everyone outside of Google’s PR team.

But then, having just said that 1000s of links from near-worthless domains does count for something these days (which certainly appears to be the case), he confidently predicts that +1s from 1000s of insignificant Google Plus accounts will count for nothing. No-one on the planet knows whether that’s true or not yet. I doubt Google themselves can agree right now.

An analogy that springs to mind is musician / critic / fan. The critic’s opinion is supposed to count for more. But what really counts in the real world is the opinion of thousands of fans.

If I were Google, every +1, no matter how insignificant the account, would be potentially as important as any other. Depending on the niche and the results set, the ‘clout’ of the account might be a factor (when returning medical advice websites you might weight +1s from people associated with an EDU domain more strongly for example). But when looking to rank sites for most B2C products (airline tickets, clothes etc) whose opinion matters most? No-one’s. The numbers are everything. Would it make sense to count +1s more strongly if the account they’re from is in constant use or linked to many others? Not to me. Just because I’ve expressed my opinion only a few times, should Google pay that opinion less heed? Is it any less valid? I don’t think so.

Social is supposed to be democratic, and the over-riding principle of democracy is that each voice should be heard equally.

And for all the hype, Google + is still largely a storm in a teacup. Plus, people are starting to notice that Google are shooting relevancy in the foot just to push it on people: http://www.focusontheuser.org

So it’s just far too early days to have any strong opinions either way in my view. People have been predicting the demise of SEO for years now, but I think they have it backwards. I personally think that the tougher a nut Google gets to crack, the more competition, the more factors you have to satisfy, the more complex it gets, the less communicative Google is, the more businesses need help!

Twitter recently decided to change its user interface and, at the same time, introduce a host of new features. These changes were meant to make it more compelling as a social networking platform and, at the same time, make it more intuitive for the un-initiated to grasp. However, there are rumblings that Twitter’s facelift has left many feeling a little … disconnected.

read the full article here.  

"Starting January 2, Harvest will no longer support Internet Explorer 7. If you are still using IE7, please install a modern web browser to use with Harvest (such as Chrome or Firefox). You have a month and a half to upgrade, but we hope you’ll do it today (it’s free! it’s easy!).

We believe this change will benefit all of our customers. IE7 was released five years ago and is two major releases behind the latest version of Internet Explorer. IE7 offers limited (at best) support for many of the modern web browser features that applications like Harvest rely on. Right now, we’re employing hacks and crutches to make IE7 usable for only a small percentage of our customers, and removing these will improve the speed and performance of Harvest for everyone.

IE7 is a terrible browser for the modern web and it’s holding all of us back. Every hour spent hacking a fix is an hour that could have been spent building something awesome."

Very true.

Needless to say clients running IE7 will still be able to receive estimates (and invoices..!).

MXMG are working with global online gaming company, 12BET.com.

In the first instance we will be developing the brand's twitter presence, using ticket and shirt give aways to leverage their sponsorship arrangements with Wigan Athletic and Newcastle United Football Clubs.

We will then be developing a web presence at www.premiertwits.com, our own premier league twitter website, to promote competitions, polls and 12BET offerings and opportunities.

All we need is for Wigan to beat Wolves this weekend!

Follow 12BET on Twitter.

"A simple, integrated solution. Amadeus e-Power removes the complexity from making travel arrangements. This frees up your employees to concentrate on what matters most: your business.

When your employees use Amadeus e-Power , they can easily plan, book and purchase complete travel itineraries within your company’s guidelines. It enables corporations and travel agencies alike to integrate all the elements of their global travel programs, including travel policies, preferred suppliers, and negotiated rates, into one easy-to-use website."

Briefly they are:

1. Satisfaction, guaranteed

Let's start with the bedrock of search marketing: there is really no such thing as guaranteed rankings when it comes to organic, or natural search results. Any company or specialist proffering such should be treated warily; ask whether they're referring specifically to organic search terms or paid search?

2. A high Google PageRank = high ranking

Despite popular belief, Google PageRank does not equal your ranking. The idea that a high PR means you're going to rank across the board for everything is a myth.

3. Endorsed by Google

Put simply, if you're dealing with a firm who make any allusion that they're "endorsed" or "approved" by Google for optimisation purposes, it's likely they're a fraud. The reality is that Google does not endorse any SEO company.

4. Meta tag keywords matter

A perennial favourite myth is probably the keywords meta tag. Google's head of Webspam and all-round search sage, Matt Cutts, says: "Google doesn't use the keywords meta tag in our scoring at all. It's just a waste of time to throw a lot of phrases into the keywords meta tag. It would be a better use of your effort to do things like speed up your website, because that can directly improve the usability of your site even independently of SEO."

5. Cheat your way to the top

Attempting to tricking Google, Bing, et al, and trying to manipulate search results is a bad idea, and even if you succeed, if and when the search engines discover your site’s deception, you risk your site will be removed from the index, with potentially disastrous business consequences.

6. Keywords? Cram 'em in

The notion that keywords that every page needs a certain percentage of time to outrank the competition is a fallacy. Says Matt McGee: "I've always said you do have to use the keywords, you need to have pages that talk about the products and services you sell. There's no perfect number: it's not that if you mention the keyword seven times on this page I'm automatically going to rank well. It doesn't work that way: there are so many other factors and a page that gets a lot of inbound links with the right anchor text can rank for terms that don't even appear on the page. The notion that there's a perfect percentage for keywords simply isn't true."

7. Spending money on Google AdWords boosts your rankings

The assumption that spending money on AdWords will somehow engender you to Google and thus advantage your organic search listings is an understandable, but untrue, belief. Google has said so many times over the years, but the myth never seems to go away.

 8. Land here

Every page on your site should be treated as potential landing page; you can't assume a visitor is going to land on your homepage or your products overview page. The idea that you have one special search landing page is not helpful. All pages are possible landing pages.

9. Set it and forget it

It’s true that continually jostling for higher rankings, making incessant iterations and tweaking, doesn’t give you time to sit back and monitor the success of your hard work and can be a fruitless process. However, it's also unadvisable to go to the other extreme and assume SEO is a 'one off' project. Good SEO never really ends, much like a successful company wouldn't settle with just one single marketing investment.

10. Rankings aren't the only fruit

A lot of people come in to SEO thinking that the end goal is to get rankings; but the end goal is to make money. "If a number one ranking for a certain keyword isn't making you money, it's worthless. If a number three or number four ranking is getting you clicks, you're converting your traffic into customers, then that ranking is much more valuable," says Matt McGee.

This is my favourite myth of all. Being on top is great, but, in my opinion, it isn't the be-all and end-all and it won't necessarily yield your site maximum conversions. Naturally you need prominence, but it's the quality of the site and your content that also matters. I'd wager a site in fourth place on the first page, above the fold, that fulfils the visitors' requirements is, by and large, going to be more successful than one that belies its pole position through lacklustre content, relying more on inbound links and other good fortune to supplant its superior competition.

Read the full blog here.

Sulby Resevoir

Cameron Donald:

John McGuiness"

Michael Dunlop:

Conor Cummins:

John McGuiness - the board crew at Bungalow

Guy Martin:

John McGuiness - Win number 17

2 Bikes through Braddan:

Marshalls meeting:

Bruce Ansty:

Conor Cummins:

Leaders in abandoned SS2 race:

Guy Martin and some greenery:

William Dunlop - very fast and smooth through Braddan:

Michael Dunlop - very fast and ragged through Braddan

John McGuiness - on one wheel through Braddan:

Bruce Ansty:

Gary Johnson, on way to maiden TT win:

Conor Cummins:

Camero Donald and someone looking alot like Bob Dylan:

Keith Amor:

John McGuiness and James Toseland:

Cameron Donald:

Guy Martin:

Bruce Ansty:

Carl Forgarty:

Derek Brien (1977-2011):

John McGuiness' winning superbike:

Superbike podium:

Michal Dunlop:

Michael Dunlop:

Fire Marshalls:

Podium:

Winner:

Dan Jarvis MP introduces the website:

Thank you for visiting my brand new website. I have purposely taken the time to design an interactive and user-friendly site, so that you can be better informed about what I am doing on a day-to-day basis.

The site allows you to contact me directly through the ‘Online Surgery’ feature, so please feel free to message me with your queries and concerns and I will respond in exactly the same way as I do with a written letter. You can also follow me on twitter and facebook, and see what I am saying on the issues as well as following the latest breaking news from Parliament.

I will also be publishing a daily blog. In the blog, I will be documenting the work that my offices are doing on a wide range of issues, so that you will be better informed and add to the healthy debate in Barnsley.

Additionally, my latest press releases will be published online along with articles, videos and pictures. You can also sign up to the newsletter, which will give you an overview of exactly what I have been up to in Barnsley and in the House of Commons.

I want you to feel as though you can call my office, drop into my surgery or send me an email, and know exactly who you are dealing with on the other end. That is why I am introducing my staff to you in the ‘People’ section. Kamella, Tracey, Mollie and Gavin, each bring different skills to my offices and have come from all over the country and a variety of backgrounds.

In my by-election victory, I promised to be an active, visible and transparent Member of Parliament. I hope this website helps me to achieve that.

story via Brand Republic 

Here, Toby Young, one of the school's founders talks about the experience so far...

One of the most important milestones in the course of setting up a taxpayer-funded school is the Funding Agreement. This is a contract between the Secretary of State for Education and the Trustees of the school setting out the terms on which he agrees to finance the school. He can terminate the agreement in certain exceptional circumstances, but shutting down schools is never popular and he’s usually required to give seven years notice. For that reason, it’s not something he enters into lightly. He has to satisfy himself that the school can meet various educational standards, that it has found a suitable site and that there will be sufficient parental demand to make it financially viable in the long term. Perhaps most importantly, it’s an act of trust. From now on, the Secretary of State’s reputation will be tied to the performance of your school.

I’m happy to say that today we received confirmation that Michael Gove had entered into a Funding Agreement with the West London Free School. We are the first in what I hope will be a long line of state-funded, independent schools set up by parents and teachers. It’s too early to say whether the free schools policy will be a success, but we have at least proved that a group of unpaid volunteers can establish a new school.

I can’t pretend it’s been easy. Nothing worth doing ever is. As the leader of the project, I’ve devoted between 40 and 60 hours a week to it for the last 18 months. My wife often jokes that if I spent the same amount of time on my career as I spend on the school we could afford to send all our children to Eton. Probably true, but what began as a project has become a crusade. The mission is now all-consuming. I have become possessed by a Jesuitical fervour.

This has partly been a response to the willingness of others to lend a hand. I first mooted the idea in the Observer in August of 2009 and, practically overnight, I had 150 emails from people offering to help. I invited them all to a meeting at my house in Acton and over 40 people squeezed into my sitting room. By evening’s end I had the nucleus of a steering committee. People I’d never met before offered to take on Herculean tasks, such as writing the business plan. This wasn’t done in a spirit of suck-it-and-see. Because I expressed the belief that it could be done, they believed it too. And once they’d begun to believe, I couldn’t let them down, particularly after they’d started putting in the hours.

There’s also the sense of responsibility that comes from having the hopes of so many parents resting on your shoulders. For every email I get from someone offering to help, I get 10 from parents wanting to send their children to the school. As of today, over 3,000 parents have registered with us, some with children as young as two. That’s a lot of people to let down.

Above all, I think it’s the sheer unpleasantness of the opposition. Whenever I feel my resolve slipping I picture the sneer on Fiona Millar’s face when, sitting opposite me on Newsnight, she said she wasn’t concerned about free schools because groups like mine didn’t have the wherewithal to set them up. I think about all the lies that have been told by Andrew Slaughter, our local Labour MP, including the claim that we’re trying to “oust severely disabled children” from a site in Hammersmith. I recall Roy Hattersley becoming puce with rage on Radio 4’s Broadcasting House at the very idea that children from ordinary backgrounds should be offered the same academically rigorous education he had.

This is just the end of the beginning. The next step will be to deliver a classical liberal education that’s every bit as good as that provided by Britain’s best independent schools but which is accessible to all, regardless of income, ability or faith. We call it a “comprehensive grammar” and if we can make it work it could change the face of education in this country. Ludicrously ambitious, I know, but they said we’d never get this far. As Max Weber wrote, it’s only by reaching for the impossible that you discover what’s possible.

The brainchild of wine buyer Andrew Cullimore, of IOM Wine Traders Ltd, who works with brands such as Berry Bros & Rudd and Corney & Barrow, the website employs the reverse auction concept to enable users to own or drink some of the world's finest wine without having to spend a fortune.

MXMG were engaged to build the brand from the ground up, designing the logo and overall 'look and feel', as well as the website itself.

Here’s how Andrew put’s it…

"Maybe you are always on the lookout for a bargain, often hard to find in today's rapidly accelerating fine wine market. Do you yearn for a return to sensibly priced 1st growths and competitively priced Cru Classé Claret or maybe dream of affordable Grand Cru Burgundy?

Perhaps you are interested in wine but have never had the opportunity to purchase, try or enjoy top wines because of the expense. 

Whatever your reason, Unique Wine Auctions is now giving you the chance to acquire some of the world's most famous wines at the lowest prices imaginable.

We run auctions in a completely revolutionary format. Firstly all bids are placed blind and secondly instead of selling to the highest bidder we sell to the bidder that has placed the lowest unique bid, or to put it another way, the bidder of the lowest value for which there is only one bid. Quite simply, if you placed a bid of 1p and no one else participating also placed a bid on 1p then you would be declared the winner!

Entering our auctions is easy, registration is free and placing a bid costs as little as £1!

The maximum bid value in any auction is 10% of the retail price. During the auction all bids are blind, however after placing a bid you are informed whether your bid is either, not unique, unique but not the lowest or currently the lowest unique bid. There are a set number of bids to be placed in each auction and once they are used the auction closes and the winner is announced.

You can check out past auctions, the winners and their winning bids in the 'closed auctions' section on the right hand side of our home page.

You can have complete confidence in the provenance of all the wines we sell. We only source wines from leading UK based fine wine suppliers and importers with whom we have built up a relationship over a number of years."

visit www.uniquewineauctions.com
 

Amadeus asked us to develop a series of images to support the evolution of their 'Check My Trip' product. This was for a prelaunch initiative, so whilst we were not able to use detailed product info, we needed to communicate ease of use, and human interaction with an environment that had traditionally been perceived as a little cold and technical.

Here are the final results:

A week ago, Google released their new user interface, Google Instant. In the UK at present this is available to Google account holders who are signed in and use Internet Explorer 8, Firefox, Safari or Chrome. Google aim to roll it out to all browsers and to mobiles; it is also likely to become the default user interface.

The official (and vaguely creepy) introduction video is here:

How Instant Works

Regular Google users are doubtless familiar with the ten ‘search suggestions’ that have appeared for some time. Google Instant builds on that feature to show a results page for the suggestions too. Here’s an example of how it works.

I type the letter ‘a’ into Google Instant, and Google will show five suggestions – ‘argos’, ‘amazon’, ‘asda’, ‘asos’ and ‘a’. What’s new is that

(a) The word ‘argos’ is auto-completed – the ‘a’ I typed is in black and the rest of the suggested term is in grey, and
(b) Without hitting any other key or clicking, Google is showing results for ‘argos’.

As you continue to type, the suggestions and the results shown will change. I add a ‘p’ to the search box and now Google is now suggesting and showing me results for ‘apple’.

How to Modify Search Queries Quickly

To see results for the second through fifth suggestions, use the down/up arrow keys. If the word suggested in the search box is correct but you want to add to your query (for instance let’s say I’m looking for ‘apple macbook pro’), then either hit the right cursor key or press TAB to select ‘apple’ then continue to type the rest of your query.

Not a New Idea!

Despite the fuss Google are making about this, it was actually originally thought of by someone at Yahoo in 2005 (http://bit.ly/dvbKqh), and then again by someone else working for Microsoft’s Bing in 2009 (http://bit.ly/9ewPoE ). As these articles reveal, the achievement is the fact that this is being done on a large scale.

What Does Instant Mean to Site Owners and Advertisers?

It’s only been a week, but early indications are that this could have a major effect in three areas:

1) Advertisers using AdWords - These are Google’s paid ads that are shown at the top and to the right of their results.

2) How much traffic websites receive on more specific queries - Commonly referred to as ‘long-tail’ traffic, this is traditionally the bulk of any site’s traffic.

3) How people actually use Google and what they search for.

Let’s look at AdWords first.

How AdWords Works

When you advertise on Google, having your ad shown is called an ‘impression’. Ranking for ads is determined by how much you pay for each click your ad receives, and also by what is called ‘click through rate’ (CTR) – the ratio of clicks to impressions, expressed as a percentage. If your CTR is good you could achieve a higher ad ranking than someone paying more per click who has a lower CTR.

How Instant Changes That

Google have stated that they are going to count a 3 second pause as an impression for ads on the result page. Going back to my first example, this means that if I paused for 3 seconds after typing ‘a’ into Google before then typing ‘p’, then anyone bidding on the term ‘argos’ would have an ad impression recorded.

The potential is there for a great deal more impressions to be recorded. You might expect that this would be fairly even across all advertisers, but not necessarily. Depending on the terms advertisers are bidding on - and how they are bidding - this could see some business’ advertising costs rise more than others.

Bear in mind also that the Google AdWords Keyword Tool displays this impression data to potential advertisers considering what phrases to advertise on and how much to bid. The more perceived demand there is, the more advertisers are likely to be prepared to bid.

Finally, if as an advertiser you want to be found for ‘macbook pro 17 inch’ and know that a searcher typing that phrase would probably see results for ‘macbook’ along the way, would you consider bidding on that term also to get your ad seen sooner? I suspect many will try, meaning that already expensive popular terms could get even more expensive.

These changes could well mean bidding wars. Indications are that click costs have risen for some advertisers even at this early stage.

How the ‘Long Tail’ and User Behaviour Could Be Affected

I’ve addressed these together because they’re closely related.

Traditionally, new websites and those with fewer resources to allocate to search marketing have still been able to grab a share of Google traffic.

This is because for every competitive term (i.e. ‘macbook’) there are many more detailed queries (i.e. ‘second hand macbook pro 17 inch’) for which there is less competition. The bulk of search traffic has always been on these ‘long tail’ terms – usually 75% on most sites. In fact, 20% of search queries every month are unique.

Well-established sites with big budgets can and do wage war for the web’s trophy terms (which often turn out to be poor converters), but by building a comprehensive and relevant website in the correct manner and establishing a foothold in Google you would normally expect to see a lasting return on your investment in the form of a steady stream of traffic on long tail phrases. Without worrying about going ‘toe to toe’ with major players, you could focus on attracting people looking for exactly what you do.

Changes to Google’s algorithm this past year have made this harder to do. Whilst Google Instant isn’t an algorithm change I think it will add to the problems many webmasters – and searchers - are already experiencing.

The Tail Wagging the Dog?

Google’s Suggestion feature shows the ten most likely phrases. However Google Instant shows five – half the choice. Will searchers complete their planned search enquiry or will they choose the closest suggestion, even though it’s not exactly what they were going to type? I think many will accept a close suggestion.

If they do, then sites that don’t show in the results for the suggested phrases will get far less traffic. The only way for them to compete is to get into the suggested results. These are more competitive in the first place, and will become increasingly so.

Furthermore, the suggested keywords dataset is probably complied from completed search queries, website content and the terms people bid on in AdWords. If website content and bidding habits change to meet the suggestions, then the result could be to reinforce current suggestions still further, with further impact on user behaviour. It’s a vicious circle that could lead to more businesses competing on fewer terms.

Again, it’s far too early to say for sure, but some webmasters in the US with very large sites are reporting that their page views per visitor are significantly down this past week. This could well mean that they are being found for less specific queries, and that less searchers are therefore finding what they want. That would mean going back to Google and searching again – which is supposedly the opposite of what Google say they want.

Conclusion

As a search marketer, I find this potentially alarming. The reason search has always offered a good return on investment to business is because it is driven by people actively looking to buy something, or to find out about something.

Google Instant has the potential to turn people back into ‘surfers’ rather than ‘searchers’. That might mean more traffic for some sites, and less for others - and also less relevant traffic for many. Relevancy is core to search and to businesses looking to make money from search – be that me, you or even Google themselves.

I see Google increasing revenue significantly at advertisers’ expense. In the worst case scenario, those that can’t compete receive no traffic. Apart from Facebook, Google is the internet to most people.

As a searcher, I find it a mildly interesting feature. However, what has bothered me about Google results for nearly a year now is not how fast they are returned, but how they are increasingly not what I’m looking for. In fact, after trying Bing a few times, I now use it as much as Google because I find their results equally relevant half the time, and more relevant at least half the time.
 

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.