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IMDb profiles

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Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

Google Moon
Google Moon went live back in July 2005 with relatively low resolution images of our closest neighbour. In conjunction with today's news about Google backing private moon landings through the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a new version of Google Moon has been released.
Resolution is higher, the company says. There's also short stories about things like moon landings integrated into the map (example), and you can get some 360 degree "Street View" style views in some places (example), as well as some charts.

No.1 for Stamford Weather
We did it! Stamford Web Design now lists at No.1 for the search term 'Stamford Weather'.
It was our attempt to see if we could rank for this term over the past few months and it also offers a service to the local (and international) community who want to know the weather in Stamford, UK. We also show the weather for Stamford, Connecticut for our American visitors.

Stamford Web Design in the Top 100
Stamford Web Design appears in the Top 100 for the search term 'Web Design' in Google. Ok so we list at #100 but worth mentioning all the same as there are 1,170,000,000 results for 'Web Design'!
[Results July 2007]

New Release of Google Analytics
Google Analytics has come out with a new major release. With this release, Google closes the gap between their solution, and that of many of the more expensive analytics products.
Existing users will be updated over the next few weeks, and new users will start with the new version. Existing users will be able to access both the new version and the old version for 30 days. In addition, historical data will still be available in the new version.

Personal touch to Google homepage
Google is reinventing its simple homepage to offer users greater scope for personalisation - iGoogle.

The search giant is introducing features to allow users to publish their own content on a personalised Google homepage.

It represents Google's latest move towards a more user-centric web.

10 Most Commonly Used Passwords Online
In PC Magazine's upcoming May 8th issue they list the 10 most commonly used passwords online - if you are using any of these please turn off your computer immediately.

1. password
2. 123456
3. qwerty
4. abc123
5. letmein
6. monkey
7. myspace1
8. password1
9. blink182
10. (your first name)

Gmail Now Public Beta, Open To All
Google Operating System reports that Google has opened up Gmail for anyone to sign up for a Gmail account. Some history of how getting into Gmail has evolved, below:

When Gmail originally launched on April 1, 2004, it was entirely an invite-only service. You could only get an account if someone you knew already had one and sent you an invitation. At one point, Gmail invites were even selling on eBay for well over $250 a pop.

In the middle of 2005, the system opened more widely, when Google allowed anyone in the US to get an invite by having an invitation code sent via SMS to their mobile phone.

It now appears to be officially a public beta, which means you don't need a Gmail invite or SMS code to gain access to your own Gmail account.

iPhone - Apple reinvents the phone!
Wow - what can we say? Check out the Apple web site and start drooling!! It's already on next years Christmas list!

Map of Stamford
Ok, time to get Stamford on the map. Stamford Web Design has decided to put Stamford on the map using this nice little gadget supplied by Google.

Google accounts for 78% of all UK searches- and growing
Data from Internet research firm Hitwsie indicates that Google powered 78% of UK internet searches in the four weeks to 21 October 2006, up 9% year-on-year.

Free video search on the BBC
TV Genius has announced the launch of a new search engine, searchbbcvideo.com - a service that enables users to retrieve BBC videos, held within the corporation’s archives, from one source.

Google offers personal searches
A bespoke search engine that can be included on people's websites or blogs is the latest offering from Google.
Google Custom Search Engine, as the tool is known, allows users to choose which webpages to search.
Stamford Web Design will be trying out this great new offering asap! Watch this space!

Microsoft launches soapbox!
Microsoft this week (October) launched its new video offering, similar to Google Video or YouTube. You can insert video into your web site as can be seen in this example.

And now for something entirely different — Google Dirtbike Jumping!
Is this going to far? Fun all the same, some people must be very, very bored!

Google Image Labeler Addictive
Google released this thing known as Google Image Labeler, it basically pins user vs. user to label images from Google images. The way you score points is if you both label the image with the same label.

How does it work?

You'll be randomly paired with a partner who's online and using the feature. Over a 90-second period, you and your partner will be shown the same set of images and asked to provide as many labels as possible to describe each image you see. When your label matches your partner's label, you'll earn some points and move on to the next image until time runs out. After time expires, you can explore the images you've seen and the websites where those images were found. And we'll show you the points you've earned throughout the session.

Google has a nice little MP3 player
Google has a nice little MP3 player you can use on your site, as found out by digging through Gmail code.

Microsoft adCenter Goes Live in UK
MSN's Microsoft adCenter is now live in the UK.
Microsoft had been slowly increasing the portion of ads on MSN and Windows Live that were served by AdCenter instead of those from its expiring deal with Yahoo Search Marketing. Since late February, AdCenter has handled 70 percent of Microsoft's ads on U.S. searches.
To sign up go to adcenter.microsoft.co.uk.

Stamford and Burghley Park Added to WikiMapia.org
Stamford Web Design added Stamford and Burghley Park to this great resource, WikiMapia.

AOL Keyword Searches
AOL has released search data to the public. This includes over 20 million search queries from 658,000 of AOL's users. Apparently 658,000 AOL users are estimated to be around 1.5% of the total Google search population. This data is from March 1 2006 - June 1 2006.

Ever wondered how technologically enabled your neighbours are?
By entering a postcode in the e-Society profiler search box and clicking "GO", our classification will tell you about the type of technology use in your neighbourhood and those areas with similar profiles within Great Britain.

Funny Firefox Movie
This one made us laugh but only one for web geeks I'm afraid...enjoy!

Let your fingers do the walking...
Stamford Web Design means business so that's why we're on YELL.com (THE UK's LOCAL SEARCH ENGINE) for Web Design in Stamford.

Google Notebook
Search is all about finding the answers you need. Unfortunately, some kinds of questions--like where you should stay and what you should do on your Hawaiian vacation, or what kind of digital camera you should buy, or what the latest treatments for arthritis are--can't always be answered in one sitting, or by visiting one site.
That's why Google built Google Notebook--to give you an online "notebook" where you can organize all your research, add personal notes to it, and share it with others. Google Notebook surfs along quietly with you as you browse, letting you clip and annotate whatever text, images, and links that help answer your question, all without ever leaving the webpage you're on.

Stamford - High Quality Resolution on Google Maps UK
Google Maps UK has finally started showing a high resolution map of Stamford and the surrounding area. An even higher resolution is usually not too far behind!

Buy It When You See It – Use Your Phone
Just launched in the UK:
PayPal Mobile's "Text to Buy" commerce application allows people to purchase items, transfer money or make charitable donations with their phone by text-messaging product codes directly to the eBay-owned payments company. To use the feature, members must register their phone numbers with the service and choose a PIN number to secure their payments.

Fun with George
Drag George - Drag George with your mouse and then drop him.

It's not all work and no play here at SWD!

.eu did you?
Did you get your .eu domain name? We did!

Since the first-come-first-served launch of .eu on Friday 7th April, there have been over ONE MILLION domain names registered in this new European domain space. These registrations are in addition to the over 300,000 domain names that were submitted by trademark and other rights holders during the sunrise process.

At current registration rates, .eu will therefore pass .biz to become the seventh largest domain space worldwide (after .com, de, .net, .co.uk, .org and .info), sometime later today.

This level of registrations is completely unprecedented in the history of the domain name system and demonstrates just how much demand has been building up for the .eu domain space since it's introduction was first proposed by the European Commission some five years ago. To put this into context, .eu has reached in just three days a level of registrations that took the USA's .us domain space four years and China's .cn space three years to reach.

Google Holds 75 Percent Marketing Share in the U.K
Internet Giant Refers Nearly Three out of Every Four Searches in the U.K., Far Outpacing its Nearest Competitor.

Google offers a free web page creation and hosting service
Google has rolled out a free web page creation and hosting service that uses a simple, web-based, what-you-see is what-you-get interface designed to make it easy for anyone, obviously SWD were the first to try it out!
First thoughts....nice, easy, produces very simple 'non-complicated' web pages.

Hot Air Ballooning Over Stamford
Some video footage SWD took last year.
Take a Hot Air Balloon from Stamford, across Burghley Park and on to Barnack. with Google Video (broadband required).

Google Dance and fun with Google
SWD has some fun with this short video.

Video Added To Aces High Collectables
Aviation video has now been added to Aces High Collectables to add to the user experience!!

Mountain View visit SWD
Someone at Mountain View, home of Google (California), visited the SWD web site, November 2005.

Google Web Analytics
Available to all SWD Clients.
Google Analytics tells you everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your site. You'll be able to focus your marketing resources on campaigns and initiatives that deliver ROI, and improve your site to convert more visitors.

Frapper - fun using Google Maps
I have added 'some' of my clients to this new Google map application from the people at Frapper (USA).
You too can create groups of friends, clubs, etc for free!

Google Leads in UK Search Race
According to new research from Hitwise, Google powers 7 in 10 UK searches. The study also reported that 94% of all UK searches come from the top four engines. ...Google, Ask, Yahoo Search, and MSN Search powered nearly 19 out of 20 (94%) UK internet searches. This equates to 14% of search engines (8 out of 57) powering 94% of searches, and the trend for consolidation is increasing, the research revealed.

Placeopedia - Burghley House on the map!
Enter Placeopedia, a "mashup" that pinpoints geographic Wikipedia entries on Google maps. It's a simple but powerful idea that integrates two excellent sources of information, appealing to both the left and right brain.

Playing with the search engines
We learn by doing, right? I had noticed that the term 'Stamford Weather' had been searched for on Google over 360,000 times! WOW
So I thought I would try to get a page listed if you searched on Google UK for the term 'Stamford Weather', within two weeks I had a great listing!! Check out the link!
Remember search rankings change so let's see how long I stay on page 1 of Google!!
Contact me if you want to know more on how I did this.