Steven Mooner Usher

Google pulled out of a search advertising partnership with Yahoo due to regulatory objections, causing Yahoo shares to rise as investors hoped the move could lead to a resumption of deal talks with Microsoft.

Yahoo denied rumors it was in talks to sell itself to Microsoft for between US$17 (S$25.43) and US$19 a share but its shares were over 8 per cent higher. ‘Not true’ said Yahoo spokesman Tracy Schmaler, who also denied a rumour that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang was on his way out.

The US Justice Department said on Wednesday it had told Google it planned to file a lawsuit to block the deal, under which Google would have placed its more lucrative ads on Yahoo searches.

‘Had the companies implemented their arrangement, Yahoo’s competition likely would have been blunted immediately with respect to the search pages that Yahoo chose to fill with ads sold by Google rather than its own ads’, the government said.

Yahoo regretted Google’s decision, saying it was ‘disappointed that Google has elected to withdraw from the agreement rather than defend it in court’.

Between them, Google and Yahoo had more than 80 per cent of the web search market in August, according to comScore.

Microsoft had lobbied hard against the partnership which Yahoo initially struck with Google as a way to fend off an unsolicited takeover bid from Microsoft.

‘They didn’t want the Yahoo-Google deal to go through because they wanted to be in control of Yahoo’s assets instead of Google being in control’, said Mr Youssef Squali, an analyst at Jefferies & Co.

Yahoo shares were up 8.5 per cent to US$14.49 in afternoon trading while Google was down 4.3 per cent at US$351.18. Microsoft was down 3.6 percent to US$22.68. All three trade on Nasdaq.

‘(Yahoo) investors are reacting favorably to the news (that the Google deal is off) as it might open the door to a possible deal with Microsoft, including a possible outright takeover of Yahoo’, said Mr Frederic Ruffy, options strategist at New York-based website WhatsTrading.com.

Google and Yahoo, No. 1 and No. 2 in the Internet search market respectively, announced the planned partnership in June but delayed implementation to allow the Justice Department to review it.

Google said it pulled out of the deal rather than face a protracted legal fight.

‘After four months of review, including discussions of various possible changes to the agreement, it’s clear that government regulators and some advertisers continue to have concerns about the agreement’, Google legal officer, David Drummond, said in a blog posting.

‘We’re of course disappointed that this deal won’t be moving ahead’, he said.

A source close to the deal said that Microsoft’s decade-plus-long legal battles with the Justice Department over antitrust matters had been a lesson for Google. ‘Most observers would say that they (Microsoft) did allow themselves to get distracted,’ the source said.

Advertisers hotly opposed the search partnership, arguing that Google and Yahoo’s dominance of the market could mean they would raise prices.

But the source said regulators were more concerned that Yahoo ‘over time would become overly reliant on our system and would over time exit the search market’.

Mr Squali, the analyst at Jefferies & Co, said some sort of deal with Microsoft now seemed inevitable.

He said it was unlikely that Yahoo could grow organically and deliver high profit margins. ‘(It’s) not in the picture right now’, he said.

Yahoo could have gotten cash by selling its Asian assets, but Mr Squali said it was unlikely given the state of the capital markets.

Needham & Co analyst Mark May said Yahoo remaining independent was the ‘worst possible scenario’ for the company.

Sources have told Reuters that Yahoo is in talks about buying the content and advertising operations of Time Warner’s AOL unit.

Source

Think of some of the greatest things associated with England. Fish and chips, cups of tea, Winston Churchill, and teenage pregnancy are to name but a few. Now, if you collected the worth and impact of all of these icons of the Queens land you’d still be nowhere near the levels of magnificence that were achieved by a band of such untainted musical zest that citrus fruits have been known to call them up for ideas.

Reuben, an English institution to those that knew them, sadly split earlier this year, although officially on ‘hiatus’, it is not expected that they will return in their original capacity, though it is expected that they will return individually under new guises.

The band had spent a decade perfecting their sound, with a small rotation of members, but infinite grasp of their craft. So lets take a look at the history of Reuben, a biography of Reuben if you will:

The Early Reuben Days As ‘Angel’

Sometime in 1998, longtime friends Jamie Lenman and bassist Jon Pearce realised that the tunes rocking out from their garages were unfathomably awesome, and along with the long-departed Jason Wilcock formed the earliest Reuben monster, Angel. They quickly got touring a thriving local music scene and supported, or were supported by, many bands who also came to bare greater fruits, including early formations of bands such as Hundred Reasons, Vex Red, and Garrison. They spent a couple of years producing self-recorded demo’s and releasing these themselves, one of which, Betrayed, was made available on the bands official website, though it has since been taken down.

Getting To The Known And Loved Line-Up

In March 2000, they parted ways with Jason, and Mark Lawton joined as drummer, with whom they wrote and recorded the Pilot EP, which was released in January 2001 on the Badmusic label after they changed their name to Reuben. The group decided to go ahead with recording the EP after they had won a battle of the bands in Bookham, Surrey. The final day of mixing’s £100 fee was paid for entirely in £1 coins. Following the release of Pilot EP, Mark left and was replaced by current drummer Guy Davis. The new line-up toured heavily around the UK and were the subject of a 2 hour special on Zane Lowe’s XFM Radio Show, despite not yet releasing a full-length album.

Racecar Is Racecar Backwards

The long-awaited debut full-length album Racecar Is Racecar Backwards was released in June 2004. Over 10,000 sales since the release of the album sparked off the success that everyone knew was on Reuben’s horizon, spawned the chart-bothering singles “Freddy Kreuger” and “Moving To Blackwater” and led to their nomination for a Kerrang! Award for Best British Newcomer. They have gained a very loyal fanbase with their numerous singles, which were popular on the underground music scene, receiving much airplay on MTV2.

Very Fast Very Dangerous

2005 saw the release of the band’s second album, Very Fast Very Dangerous, spawning a further three singles, including the download-only “Blamethrower”. This album received some doubt from early fans due to a distinct change in sound - replacing the quick twists, turns and time-signatures heard on their first album with a simpler sound. Despite this, the album received reasonable reviews, and many of the songs featured on this album have proven popular at live shows.

In September 2005, the band played a three-song live set on the Zane Lowe show on Radio 1 in support of the then-upcoming album. The set featured a cover of the popular Gorillaz song “Feel Good Inc.” as well as two songs from the second album, “Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em” and then upcoming single “Keep it to Yourself”.

In September 2006 the band toured around the UK and Europe with Canadian punk band Billy Talent. This was the first time Reuben played in Europe.

Los Skeletos - Thier ‘Secret’ Alias

In 2005, a band under the name of Los Skeletos appeared on MySpace featuring alternative recordings of Reuben songs on their music player. Los Skeletos played a string of gigs in the same year, promoted as “Playing the hits of Reuben”. In a recent interview posted on rockmidgets.com, Jon explains the idea behind the mysterious band:
“ We wanted to play some new songs - we had a whole album’s worth, and it’s always rubbish to go and see your favourite band and them not play the hits, so we called ourselves Los Skeletos and played a couple of shows. It meant there were no Reuben fans there waiting to hear Freddy Kreuger or any of the other singles - they got to see a brand new band playing brand new songs.

In Nothing We Trust

In Nothing We Trust, released 20th November 2006, was produced by Sean Genockey with Jack Rushton (who have previously produced albums by Engerica and Smother) in Livingstone Studios, London. The album features three confirmed guest vocalists, Frank Turner, Hannah Clark (Singer from Hampshire Band Arthur and Paul Townsend (formerly of Hundred Reasons). Throughout recording the band uploaded short videos on YouTube for each day in the studio. The album was released on 25 June 2007 via Hideous Records.

Reuben were also featured on the Print Is Dead Vol. 1 project by the UK band Yourcodenameis:milo on the track “Captain of Lies”.

The band released their first DVD, a double-disc offering named What Happens in Aldershot Stays in Aldershot, on 19 March 2007, with advance copies available on the February 2007 tour. The DVD features both a documentary of life in the band and a full recording of the band’s show at London’s Mean Fiddler on April 27, 2006 (including an audio commentary) and contains all the album 3 diaries currently on YouTube plus a number of other extras and short films.

On 13 January 2007, Reuben announced that they would be running their own label, Hideous Records in order to have more control over future releases… and although lack of backing and mainstream support could have held them back, they are instead experiencing the most attention from fans and media outlets alike, of all their burgeoning career.

The video for the first single from their next album, “Blood, Bunny, Larkhall” was posted on their website on 7 May 2007. It was released on 18 June 2007, in digital format and as a limited pressing of 1000 CDs.

Their third album, In Nothing We Trust was released to critical acclaim, receiving 9/10 from Rocksound, 4/5 from Kerrang! and Q magazine and 8/10 from Hotpress.

The second single from the album, “Deadly Lethal Ninja Assassin” (featuring Frank Turner of Million Dead fame) was released on the 24th of September.

The band released a new track Christmas Is Awesome for download on December 17th in an attempt to make Christmas #1 but due to an error the wrong song was registered for chart inclusion and therefore the song was disqualified from chart entry.

The third and final song to be released from the album, “Cities On Fire” was released in March 2008 as a part of the TwoByThree EP. The EP also featured the bands Baddies and The Ghost of a Thousand both of whom accompanied Reuben on a nationwide tour in support of the EP. 500 copies were made available to purchase via record shops and the internet and a further 1000 copies were available for purchase on the accompanying tour. This was Reuben’s first release on their Hideous Records label to feature other bands.

The Unwelcome And Unexpected Reuben Hiatus

On 4th June 2008, this email was issued by Barney, the band’s manager, to all mailing list members:

“I regret to announce that Reuben are unable to play their slot on the 2000 Trees Festival in July, but they would still urge people to go anyway - it should be a great weekend. They are very sorry to disappoint fans who have already bought tickets, as you can imagine Reuben hate cancelling shows. The band are all in good health but the culmination of several pressures just makes it impossible for Jamie to go ahead with it. The band are not planning any more gigs or releases for the foreseeable future - I should make it clear that the band members are all on amicable terms and are supportive of the need to call a halt. This seems like a good time to thank everyone who has helped and encouraged Reuben along the way; some of you have been there from the start, others from last week, some are within the music industry, others are simply fans - it doesn’t matter which, you are all important and have given great strength to all concerned. Thank you so much, Barney Geronimo! Management”

So where does this all leave us? It leaves us with a chasm that will unlikely be filled by any of the current crop of band, English or otherwise. Reuben provided the music scene with a sincere and much-needed punch in the balls, reacting to the stale indisposition that tit had found itself in with the deluge of mediocre-at-best ‘emo’ bands that had swamped not just the underground scene, but had found themselves bothering charts and kids bedrooms everywhere.

In much the same way Nirvana kicked their way in to recognition on a global scale, Reuben excelled at being every fans mate, an average-joe band that might build your garden fence by day, and rip your face off with blistering riffs by night.

I, and many others, will mourn the loss of this great British band, so let’s hope that this hiatus doesn’t turn in to a permanent exile, because without them, it could be our kids that end up listening to the next Hawthorne Heights, instead of picking up a guitar and learning Blamethrower by Reuben, in a damp cold garage, somewhere in a council estate, with a bunch of good friends, the very English way.

Source

I’m ashamed to admit that Justin Nozuka first came on to my radar only this spring through a friend of mine, who always seems to be first in queue when artists of his nature appear. Blending a warm sound of neo-soul, acoustic pop, and a touch of good-old melancholic balladry, he should perhaps appeal more to the female half of our population, but he carries a sincerity, if a little too sickeningly sweet at times, that infuses each song with the integrity of someone that has loved.

There are plenty of artists out there of a similar vain, but few have his melodies, his voice, or his simplistic brilliance. ‘After Tonight’, a US hit as a single, is a quite brilliant love-song that will have you singing even if you’re a body-building meat-head that likes to frequent Miami Beach greased-up like a thanksgiving turkey, but even this gets surpassed by the solicitously beautiful ‘I’m At Peace’.

‘I’m At Peace’ is Nozuka’s greatest achievement from the marvelous album “Holly”, an 11-track tour of his heart, soul, and mind. A gentle man through his songs, I would dearly love to have 5 minutes with the man behind the music to find out truly what sort of character he is. It’s impossible to imagine someone can write the lyrics below to be anything other than genuinely affable and sincere.

I’m In Peace

(Verse 1)
It always occurs to me, how lovely you look today
Just how you smile that way, makes my heart melt
Seemed like just yesterday, when you stole my breath away
You walked into my life, you completed my soul
When you walked into my life, you completed my soul

(Chorus)
I’m in peace,
I’m in peace,
I’m in peace when I am with you
You set me free; you’re all I need,
Lift me off my feet, beauty queen

(Verse 2)
Where did you find that soul of yours
You must have traveled through heaven, and searched through the garden of love
I swear there’s a light, when your eyes touch me
It’s like the sun reaching down from the sky
When you touch me with your eyes,
it’s like the sun from the sky

(Chorus)
(Bridge)
Your whispering,
it’s uplifting,
Sink into my body while I’m drifting
When you kiss me, really truly kiss me
Connected by our hearts, we are one

(Chorus)

Justin Nozuka is half Japanese, half American. Raised by his single mother in Toronto, following a brief stay in New York at the start of his life. He is the sixth of seven children, five of whom are boys, and his four brothers all carry an artistic flair of some variety.

Still a young developing career, he has toured with Ziggy Marley, Xavier Rudd, John Cale, and Crowded House among others, but it will surely not be long before he is the main attraction to the future Nozukas supporting act.

The following snapshots of critiques are taken from his website, which freely gives you the opportunity to listen to four tracks, two of which are the aforementioned ‘After Tonight’, and ‘I’m At Peace’.

“In his debut album “Holly”, Justin Nozuka has created eleven impressive pieces of thoughtful acoustic-soul. Filled with understated melodies, minimal production and an interesting, sometimes dark take on song-craft…4 Stars.” — BBC

“Superior acoustic soul. .4 Stars.” — Q Magazine, UK

“…Nozuka is producing material that is unlike any other singer songwriters - and consequently is beyond genre definition. Largely, it is one man and his faithful guitar - but with a voice like his, there really is no need for any other instrumentation. In truth it would only get in the way. 4 Stars.” — Belfast Daily Telegraph

“Nozuka seemed very modest, but there was absolutely no reason. He had every eye on him and it was nearly impossible to look away. Every song seemed to outdo the one before it, and when he quietly walked off, we were all aching for more.” –Chartattack.com

There are very few artists that truly slap me around the face these days, with so much diluted, synthesised, mumbled, messy hip-hop orientated bile polluting the industry (Theres a rant for another day!), but Justin Nozuka is one man, no, one sound that has wrapped me up and sold me 100% on its offerings. If you’re a fan of Jon Mayer, or even Dashboard Confessional, I implore you to go to his website and listen to the available songs, and if you’re not convinced after that, you need to check your pulse.

So, Elbow have released a new album, and the TV Advertising has them branded as the best band of their generation, which, to be fair, is quite a wild claim, and I’d love to understand the basis of that evaluation. What were their advertising company basing this on?

Sales? - Can’t be, they achieve moderate sales at best, have never had a number 1 single or album, and hardly strike any fear in to their competitions record labels. They are not the worst sales of bands about today, thats has to be said, particularly especially when we consider both the changing landscape of the music industry and the riduclous financial situation that continues threatening to cripple the UK. And with their Mercury Music Prize victory they boosted those sales, as does every winner, but that inevitably is nothing more than a shot in the arm, from which the band needed to solidify a stronger foundation than they did.

Cult Status? - Hardly. True, they are a popular band within a certain market, but how many people really give a crap about listening to an hour of tumble-dryer recordings? Ok, perhaps thats a little harsh, I am neither a fan nor a opposer to their style, I think they have a place in music and they write music that can relax as much as it can evoke you, but when you consider cult bands or artists, particularly of their generation, you really need to be considering the likes of Muse, Radiohead, Jon Mayer, Damien Rice, to name but a few. Moreover, these have all achieved far greater commercial success, whilst building up a ridiculously avid fan-base, both for live shows and released material.

Technical Ability? - ….just excuse me a second while I clear the pee from trousers and replace the rib that just cracked. Even harkening back to the very breif list of cult bands we see the likes of Radiohead and Muse, both of whom push the boundaries continually with the development of their sound, seismically shifting their focus to slap you around the face with sonic fists. Elbow are the musical equivilant of a damp digestive biscuit on a monday morning… in Hemel Hempstead. Perhaps technical ability is a somewhat ambiguous marker for greatness, as you are somewhat confined by the limits of your genre, but there are the likes of the aforementioned Damien Rice and Jon Mayer, the Doves, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and I’ll even somewhat cheekily include Jeff Buckley, who although passed away last decade, would still hold merit today.

So do they really have any right to make such a claim? No, is the short answer, and noooooooo is the longer answer.

This is a shockwave file from a client of mine.

Anyone that uses Google, (the qualifier for this is the fact you are human) will have noticed that beneath that iconic search bar is a new link, directing you to Google Chrome, a Google web browser that as with all things Google, comes with a hype that could perhaps be hugely unmerited.

Before we get to the ins and outs of its functionality, appearance etc, let’s just take a look at the history of the web browser, and why Google would take this route.

The web browser was really born in the late 1980’s, when a variety of technologies, most famous of course the WorldWideWeb, laid the foundation for the first web browser, which brought together a variety of existing and new software and hardware technologies. Web browsers communicate with Web servers primarily using HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) to fetch webpages, which are located by means of a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). In simple terms, they interpret the information that webmasters want you to see, and present it to you in the form of a webpage.

Historically, Microsofts’ Internet Explorer has dominated the market, and currently still holds approximately 75% market share, Mozillas’ Firefox pulls an impressive 20%, and the rest divided between the likes of Safari, K-Meleon, Flock, Konqueror, and Opera.

The market is packed with perfectly capable alternatives…ok, perhaps perfect capable is stretching their achievements, but there are many variations out there that offer you slightly different takes on the idea, and personally Firefox is my browser of choice, but thats largely due to the fact it is not IE.

So why a browser? Well, Google have a suite of Applications, Programs and Indentures (API’s), most notably Google Maps, Android, Google Earth, and Gears, in addition of course to their search services. Could Google be aiming to unify their API’s with Chrome? This is an opinion I’ve seen and heard touted about the internet, but I feel there is a far bigger picture here.

Google Chrome may appear to have its teeth cut for a battle with Internet Explorer, but the Microsoft product that Google is ultimately setting its itself up to destroy is the Windows operating system. In reality, the search titan hopes that its browser, in the short term, will simply make it easier for businesses to deploy their online applications.

Anyway, that’s one for the future, right now we have the issue of where Google Chrome fits in to the current landscape, and my suggestion is that we tuck it discreetly behind a bush and forget about it for the foreseeable future. With it being Google, that may prove to be more difficult than it should be, but in the core elements of its functionality it offers nothing new, nothing exciting, and certainly nothing to challenge Firefox for my attention.

Google’s first major publicity of Chrome came in the form of a 38-page comic that resembled the in-flight instructions of a plane more than it did the release of a major weapon in Google’s considerable armoury. Suffice to say Marvel will sleep easy. The sedate nature of its release suggests Google really aren’t all that bothered about the success of this project, at least not in the near future, and were really just hoping for a little bit of the limelight following Yahoo’s protracted kissing and cuddling with Microsoft before their acrimonious fall-out and subsequent fisticuffs and chest-pumping. Google love a headline, if they were a film star they’d surely become Scientologists and marry some failed actress from Dawsons Creek, but where they normally maneuver that attention well, here I feel they fail on the basic principle of the product letting them down.

They have introduced something called an Omnibox, which is just the search bar wearing a tutu, and fails miserably as a nonpartisan addition to the browser. People have the option with most other browsers of selecting home page etc, but this bar doubles as a search engine on … you’ve guessed it, Google. The merging of the address bar and search bar gives Google too much control over navigation. It separates companies and website operators from their website addresses and brands. Companies spend heavily to establish and maintain brands. Google has just imposed itself between consumers and businesses. Direct navigation has now become proprietary search, whereby Google uses its discretion to filter out web addresses and domains that it deems less relevant. I object heavily to this and see it as no less than bullying, so for this alone I have boycotted the browser, but more poignantly, they have thus far failed to release a Beta version for the Mac. As a Mac user i find this rather insulting, and as an opponent of Microsoft and every filthy moral they stand for I am infuriated.

I shall leave it at this: as a writer/consumer this story is fun, it sometimes even shakes hands with endearment, but as an employee of a web development company, and having test-driven it on a PC, I am more excited by the recession thats’ somewhat fallaciously drowning the spirit of a perpetually melancholic UK. Chrome will not affect things for my employers within the next 3 years at least, and I predict that it probably never will.

In a quiet Somerset bedroom, shuffling away manically, at the latter end of the last millennium, sat a young gentlemen, robust but malleable in build, nonchalant and apathetic in character. In the room below him bustled dozens of atypical gentleman, all handing out ludicrous money in exchange for pleasures of the throat, unbeknown to whom, the little fella upstairs was only years away from climaxing his efforts. Ryan was, of course, masturbating his guitar frets with feverish enthusiasm, pursuing the excellence that now epitomises the crisp clarity of his live performance, and the gentleman were no less than the paying customers of the Crown Inn, Ilminster.

On Monday 18th August 2008 was a double jamboree for those close to Ryan, as that fateful day not only saw the release of his Album, cleverly titled “” (the album art is a Scrabble rack with the tiles all blank), but also we had to waste money on buying some presents that he scarcely deserved, by virtue of it being his birthday. Ten years on from a deluge of fond memories of knowing Ryan before he was ridiculously good, the fruits of his dedication have ripened in to a sublime acoustic collection of genuine quality, a reservoir of sometimes melancholic, sometimes introspective, always alluring insights to a genuinely dear person.

Having grown up with many of the songs as backdrops to an eventful youth, and progressive adulthood, its apt that songs such as ‘Feel Any Feeling’ are opening the album in the finest possible fashion. I’m not one to pigeon-hole and typecast, but fans of John Mayer, Howie Day, Josh Groban etc would find more than enough moments throughout the album to ask themselves “why is this boy unsigned exactly?”.

The track listing is as follows:

• Intros
• Feel Any Feeling
• For You
• There’s A Scene
• Forgive Me
• My Weaknes
• 3D
• If I Fall
• How Things Change
• Footprint
• Destiny
• Panic
• Mellow Rumours
• Look FWD

Without any deference to the rest of the tracks on the album, highlights definitely include ‘Feel Any Feeling’, ‘There’s A Scene’, and ‘Destiny’, and the instrumental ‘Mellow Rumours’.

‘Feel Any Feeling’ exerts a confidence in his clear ability to manipulate the guitars limitations to his advantage, delicately dancing a cultivated wire, with a less than simple technique when coupled with the mundane tasks of both playing the tune and singing whilst holding a gloriously pain-soaked reverberating ‘drum’ rhythm by using the body of his acoustic guitar. There is also a noteworthy extension of his vocal chords, that perfectly parades the aforementioned dedication, drenched in integrity and fidelity to every word he sings.
‘There’s A Scene’ offers a glimpse of the soft-romanticism that flows through him on stage, with a Kooks-esque rhythm that if it doesn’t sucker you in on first listen I would sincerely question your existence.
‘Destiny’ sees Ryan extend his arm to a more popular and accessible sound, and with no detriment to the music at all, a simpler structure. The result is a gorgeous array of vocals and guitar that could easily be a throwback to any genre as much as it could be the new sound.

To listen to some of the songs from the album, and to place orders and contact Ryan himself I urge you to get over to his Profile and allow yourself to discover a talent of unbridled capacity.

The greatest crime in the world is not developing your potential. When you do what you do best, you are helping not only yourself, but the world. I sincerely hope the world are one day beneficiaries of his gift.

To you my dear friend, I raise a glass and say ‘congratulations’ on a fine album that will most certainly act a stepping-stone to stronger rewards, and I look forward to witnessing the development and release of your second album, which will be released through a label, of that I am certain. I do find you rather annoying and tiresome though, and fat. Well, I say fat, you’re more just…an irregular shape, like a garethlellogram. So… just email me when you release it yeah.

For the uninitiated, Matt Cutts is God. He invented life and gave it some order. If he were to cry I would drink his tears and never wee again. Either way, he’s posted a rather bizarre story on his blog, or, whats more likely is that he’s posted a great story and I’m not worthy enough to understand.

In actual fact, the post itself is fine, an informative tutorial on Javascript Bookmarklets, but within this he’s referenced a service that just plain confuses me, particularly from an SEO perspective.

The site serves as a URL shortening service. You type a long URL in, and hey presto you have a shorter version that when published and clicked on a webpage will go through them. What the purpose of this is I really do not know? I have never needed to shorten a URL that badly, and yes, with SEO you need to make URL’s more search engine friendly, but to drive them through another site would obviously defeat the object of this. the standard practice for this is Mod ReWrite, and it works wonderfully, is easy to understand, and easy to put in to action.

There is obviously a point to the service they provide, but I’m not the man to understand it, so if anyone knows why this is helpful then please, let me know!

Those in the SEO industry will be familiar with Advanced Web Ranking, a software that collects hundreds of search results for selected keywords in selected search engines, and displays the results in an easy-to-report. You can customise the display to include results for the top 1000, 500, or 100 results, but recently it has only been displaying the result if it is in the top 10, and any result there after is deemed to have dropped out of the top 100, and is displayed as such.

I have wrote to AWRs’ support team, and have had zero response, and it has no been approximately a week since my correspondence to them.

The problem is, in an industry that demands results, I am exposing myself to the claws of disgruntled customers, and I feel Google should acknowledge their responsibility to the hundreds of thousands of SEO’s out there that rely on these statistics to prove the fruits of their labours. Google needs SEO as much as SEO needs Google. Without the optimisation work we do on sites all over the world, there would be a deluge of technically poorer sites, our work is to present a website in its optimum state, and only black-hat SEO should be punished.

Still, there’s always Cuil.

There are many painful memories I hold of my childhood, force-fed runner beans, hand-me-downs, and my older brother to name but a few, but missing from this list, thankfully, is the doctor.

My doctor, that shall remain nameless, has never been much of child person, but nevertheless he treated me well, served my needs, and did the job that my parents national insurance contributions had part-paid for. Its’ been several years since my last visit to a GP, and I can only assume he is now a rock star doctor with scantily clad bubble-head blondes hanging from his arms, a tour of his luxurious penthouse due for broadcast on Cribs, and an unmerited ego based solely on the affections of a public that don’t know him. I base this on the fact that i was denied access to him, which i find just ludicrous. It appears receptionists in your local surgery now double as bouncers. I now have to return 36 hours later than I originally needed attention, having suffered terribly and weathered the worst of my illness without any medical help, after booking myself in to HIS schedule as to not inconvenience him…and there was me assuming his professional time was supposed to be dedicated to us! I’m so naive.

Now, I could very easily rant for a few thousand words about the diabolical state of our health system, and how it is only deteriorating, but the sad sobering fact is that we all know this, and I was not surprised by my treatment (or lack of it).

The NHS was once a beacon that other countries aspired to, where did it all go so wrong?