Mathew Browne

Google have been frustrating SEO watchers for a couple of months now by putting off updating toolbar PR for most sites, although they’ve annoyed a lot of pro bloggers by downgrading PR en masse for a whole heap of blogging sites.

Presuming you weren’t one of these unlucky few, I’ve found a way to check your current Pagerank, as long as your site is in the Google Directory. As most people realise, Google gets their data from Dmoz, so if you’re in one directory, you’re almost certainly in the other one. The difference between the two is that Google Directory sorts it’s directory listings by PR.

My web design business, MB Web Design, currently displays PR4 in the toolbar (and has done for months and months). However, check my listing in Google Directory and it shows PR6. I’ve seen a couple of other sites with different toolbar PRs versus their PR in Google Directory. So, go and have a look. You may be pleasantly surprised.

I think that Google’s sudden demotion of PR value for leading blogs is a way to deter such sites from selling links purely for the link juice. Some evidence supporting this theory follows:

• Autoblog’s toolbar PR dropped from 6 to 4. Interesting that in Google directory it’s a 7.
• Engadget’s toolbar dropped from 7 to 5. In Google directory it’s still 7.
• Andy Beard dropped from 5 to 3. Nope, in Directory he’s still 5.
• Search Engine Journal dropped from 7 to 4 and… you guessed it.

Interestingly however, ProBlogger went from Pr6 to PR4, but according to Google Directory, has no PR at all…

Feel free to contibute any other discrepancies between Google Directory PR and toolbar PR.

And congratulations to South Africa, deserving world champions. I must say, I’m glad that they won but it’s a shame that the final went without a try being scored - not a good advert for the sport as it was rather dull. That, however, has been England’s game and it had worked well for them until tonight.

I’m now left with that deflated feeling one tends to get at the end of a party or on the night of December 25th - what am I going to do with my weekends now? I guess I only have a few months to wait until the Six Nations.

The competition really has been the story of the underdogs.

• England, after suffering a 36-0 defeat to South Africa in the pool stage, go on to reach the final.
• Argentina shock France on the opening night…
• …Then they wipe the floor with them in the 3rd place playoff
• Fiji steal a 38-34 win from Wales to knock them out of the tournament at the pool stage.
• Georgia come within a whisker of beating Ireland.
• Tonga’s amazing comeback (and near victory) against South Africa 30-25

The list goes on. It really has been quite amazing to watch, especially the better-than-expected performances by the so-called “minnows” of the rugby world cup against the established sides. I was in St. David’s Centre in Cardiff when Portugal scored against New Zealand, to an enormous, rapturous ovation by the Welsh AND Australian fans in attendance. The perceived gulf of standard between the minnows and the established nations is narrowing, but such sides really need to be in regular competition against other good teams. Once every four years simply isn’t good enough.

What happens next? Well, Wales have a friendly against the newly-crowned world champions South Africa in November. Wales, whose form has been disappointing at best, are without a coach. I am debating picking up some tickets to the game. The probability of witnessing a hiding is high, which would make this an unattractive prospect if I was a fair-weather supporter. Alas, I’m not.

Or at least, someone at ITV is a prick for hiring this guy to do commentary.

Thank you Will Greenwood for completely ruining the South Africa V Argentina game with endless references to the England squad, and selling Josh Lewsey’s injury the previous night like he’d been shot.  I’m not the only one to notice this:

Facebook group

Thread moaning about him on ITV’s forums

The Will Greenwood Drinking game

How Will Greenwood are you?

If there’s any justice in the world he will never, ever be let anywhere near a microphone again.

My fiancee’s laptop finally gave up the ghost a couple of weeks ago - in exactly the same manner as mine, the power socket broke and the cost of fixing it was a bit much. I figured that money would be better spent invested in a new laptop. The Missus wanted a pink one, to go with her pink phone, pink iPod, pink Nintendo DS, etc… it’s a girly thing, I don’t get it. And Apple have a lot to answer for: remember when gadgets were silver or maybe black?

Anyway, I use a Dell laptop these days and I couldn’t be happier with it. It’s robust, it’s expensive but value for money and it’s lasted. So, having found out they do a pink version of their Inspiron laptops I figured, why not? So I ordered her the pink Dell laptop thinking it would be an average laptop with a gimmicky colour but hey, it’s a Dell so it’s not a complete waste of money.

And then it arrived. It’s beautiful! OK, personally I’d prefer it in another colour - they do 7 others - but this is really a nice machine. Guys, buy one for your girlfriend/wife/mistress and she’ll love you forever.

The best of the rest

There are other laptops on the market with a pink or “choose your own colour” gimmick. The specs of the Dell are great, the price is reasonable, but the only thing some buyers might find disappointing is that it isn’t pink all over, i.e. it’s just the screen over that’s pink, the rest is silver. But actually, that looks a lot better than the other models where the whole case has been sprayed a hideous shade of bubblegum pink. The Dell is classy. If I had to get a different one, here’s what I’d go for:

VAIO CR Series Notebook VGN-CR290EAP Make a unique fashion statement with the with the drop-dead gorgeous VAIO CR notebook dressed in Cosmopolitan Pink. Featuring a stunning 14.1″ widescreen LCD with XBRITE-ECO? LCD technology, this thin-and-light style icon is an astonishing sight to behold. Backed by the Windows Vista operating system and Intel Centrino Duo processor technology with Intel Core? 2 Duo processor, this lightning-fast, super-powerful mobile notebook is packed with entertainment and design extras. From a built-in web cam and AV controls to its unique color and comfortable, easy-to-clean keyboard, the remarkable VAIO CR notebook delivers entertainment, power and pizzazz. Computers VAIO Notebooks VGN-CR290EAP

My web design business, MB Web Design, recently moved from position #3 to #2 on Google.co.uk for the term “web design”. Since then I’ve been inundated with enquiries and click-through traffic from Google has nearly doubled. Doubled! All because I’m one position higher, it’s really quite remarkable. How long I’ll stay at #2 is anybody’s guess - the top few contenders maintain constant and aggressive online marketing and link-building campaigns. For now, at least, it’s nice to feel like Mr. Popular.

Some absolute tosser has spent the day tearing around the area in his orange Lamborghini. While I appreciate his taste in vehicles, I don’t appreciate the fact that the offensively-loud engine is drowning everything out - comparable to the planes going over from London City Airport - for the 2 seconds he has to speed up between speed bump and traffic lights and/or roundabout.

The title of this post has been shamelessly SEO’d in the hope that he’s vain enough to input “orange lamborgini” and “london” or “docklands” to see if anyone’s mentioned him. Well congratulations pal, you got my attention. Now fuck off to Silverstone where you can race it properly without interrupting my conversation.

P.S. My grumpiness has nothing to do with England beating Australia at the rugby. Honest.

Is anyone getting this message in their comment spam folder about 20 times per day? (more…)

Now there’s a headline that grabs your attention. (more…)

My fiancee will shortly be applying for her foundation medical school as her five years studying medicine at KCL draw to an end. One of the critical elements in this application is the FY1 application form, and it is very annoying indeed. (more…)