There is a lot of buzz in forums recently after Google announced their intention to remove PageRank from the Google toolbar. Many argue that this is a tool used only by webmasters to SPAM the web. Is Google trying to find an easy way out by blocking access to information about it’s algorithm that could potentially help people to manipulate the index? Is this strategy a little short-sighted in many respects?

Firstly Google users are not all the same. There is a great gap between the average user and the advanced user. The latter are the trend-setters, the people that teach everyone else what PageRank is. An indication of page/website importance. In many ways sharing this information is the most engaging social aspect of the Google search engine. It signifies preference from people with websites that link to a particular page they find meaningful and useful. Of course importance is also demonstrated in rankings. Google ranks important pages higher. How are you to determine importance however if you are being referred from another website or a social network? Read more

Many business people and especially SME’s are very surprised when consultants suggest the setting up of a blog. Retailers seem to be more shocked by this new-found craze, as they call it. They cannot understand why people would read them and are completely lost as to what to write. Which is understandable as we are not all born writers.

The main problem however is the lack of understanding of the core dynamics of the web. Read more

Finding a good domain to register and kick-start your business with was never easy. Things have however become much worse recently. There are many reasons for this.

If we are going to start naming and shaming we have to start with ICANN. These are the people that control the rules around domain registration and them being an American company they seem heavily preoccupied in protecting the rich and the wicked. The rules around domain registration and ownership are not just difficult to understand but also extremely vague and impossible to reinforce. In this way a company that goes after a domain registered by one of ICANN’s approved resellers has no chance in winning in court. This is simply because they can easily prove that the parked domain was registered in ‘good faith’ and it is being withheld until the company decides to spend too much money (A link of their mambo jumbo can be found here).

Second culprit is Google offering AdSense ads. Read more