FB is cool, but I just don’t get it. Perhaps it’s because I am 30+ - a Gen - Xer with no role models and therefore no need to show off the number of friends I have accumulated (hic).

Seriously though I do actually believe that the likes of FB and MySpace are doomed, because they offer little more than a vain effort to accumulate social currency. There are often referred to terms as ego-oriented versus object-oriented social networks. Ego-oriented are all about the person (or profile). Object-oriented is all about the items (object). For example, You Tube and Flickr are often cited as object-oriented, the video and image sharing are more important than the person doing the sharing. These sites have something tangible to hang your hat on and therefore will well outlast the social ego-centric networks such as FB and MySpace.

The thing about the social network sites is that it is so easy to change sites. You have not stored anything on Facebook apart from your profile. In fact, it is easy just to setup a new social site elsewhere and import those same friends again using your address books. Hence the migration from My Space to FB occurred almost overnight while us oldies slept. With object-oriented sites the actual moving of the data is much harder and in most cases not practical. Take Del.icio.us as an example; if you have built up a stream of your bookmarks going to the effort to move these is almost unimaginable and leaving them behind equally insane.

So, FB is dead, what’s next? Clearly it is about the data (the object) - the web as an application, collecting data and making it more useful for the user. Moreover, the user has the power to collect the data they want from anywhere and manipulate it in their own ways. As most know we are well underway getting the Travel Generation project live and are currently in private alpha testing. An important part of this development is this ethos - giving the user the power to collect travel data that is pertinent to them and build rich itinerary and mapping outputs that are meaningful to them. I will keep you posted when we migrate to beta release soon.

We have had an absolute comedy of errors getting Backpacking Queensland live over the last month - all that could have been avoided by a semblance of a helpful hosting company - unfortunately BQ used Web Central in Australia.

Firstly, it started well over a month ago when we contacted them regarding setting up the new site. We had all the FTP details and simply wanted to engage them in conversation regarding the hosting platform. When we enquired about Backpacking Queensland we were told that Web Central no longer hosted them and that they had moved away 2 years ago.

After nearly two weeks going back and forward with BQ, Tourism Queensland, Web Central and the previous developers it was found out that yes they do host the site and that the hosting contract actually is under the name Queensland Backpacking. Obviously really, seeing as they have a number of other domains names also registered there.

Once in and what should have been rolling we required an upgrade of the PHP version from 4.1 to 5.2. We communicate this with Web Central and are told that this is not a problem all the 2006 servers have PHP 5.2 and it would just be a case of moving this over, no cost. At the same time we also bring to light some of the other requirements, memory requirements, access to the cpanel and mod-rewrites. We wait a week - nothing happens. On chasing up WEb Central we discover that as their web developers we are not allowed to authorise this upgrade.

No problem, the guys at Gate 7 - the marketing company for Backpacking Queensland (and incidentally the place where the Web Central invoices are sent) authorises the upgrade and we wait a week. Nothing happens so we chase up Web Central again and are told that Gate 7 are not allowed to authorise the upgrade, only Tourism Queensland are allowed to authorise.

Finally, authorisation is organised and supposedly the upgrade is queued for 24 hours. Well over a week later and numerous phone calls and broken promises (such as - it will be done in an hour) an upgrade takes place - to PHP 5.0!

Back to the drawing board - fortunately, we have everything in emails saying that 5.2 is standard, no problem, blah blah blah.

Finally, the upgrade happens and when we log into the ftp site with the details given we get a Karate site sharing the same hosting. “We can see this is happening, but we don’t know why”. Get that sorted and their servers continually (read once every hour) lock us out of the FTP access. Only way around this is to lodge a ticket (the help service actually went down at one stage) and wait for it to be fixed. This must have happened at least three or four times - and all the time Alison at Gate 7 is continually on the phone to them trying to get resolution. The guys at Gate 7 have been amazing.

So, at about lunch time it looked like everything is sorted. We go to do a DB Build and there is no mod-rewrites enabled on the server and there can’t be because they are using IIS6. What a drama! It is not over yet - but this has been the worst and most unhelpful hosting experience of mine and the crews life and collectively we must have completed over 100 deployments.

We are now in the hunt for a better solution - fast!

So, on my way back from a great time at the Adventure and Backpacking Industry Conference in Sydney. Unfortunately, I don’t feel like I gave my best presentation ever - probably aimed the content a bit too technical and never got a grip on everything. Plus my leg was exhausted but that stage and my good leg would not stop shaking with the weight.

You can download the presentation, plus the extra bits here, which hopefully will make sense more.

One thing to make a comment on - in my speech I gave the throw away comment that Chris from Hostel Book had worked for me in Europe - since discovered same name, same relative age, both in Poland - but different people!! Sorry about that.

The actual conference day was great and really good speaking line up. Claire Hatton from Google followed me up and I asked her about duplicate content as per my earlier post this week. She confirmed that she would expect that sites could get devalued if it was perceived that their content was duplicate and that larger more established sites (e.g. Hostel World, STA etc) could be perceived by the Google algorithm and being the originator based on their age, size, ranking algorithm etc. It is essential that travel companies rewrite their content when they are syndicating across numerous travel sites.

Heres’ an issue that everyone faces as more resellers of products appear on the Internet - the issue of duplicate content.

Say you write great content for your website, but then you share that content with all your main affiliates or suppliers, for example, a hostel might give the same content they use on their home page to Hostel World or a tour company might do this for STA Travel, what will Google and other search engines think when they see the same content?

We know that duplicate content is frowned on and we know that those sites that have plagarised content are devalued by Google in the search results rankings even to the point of being banned for sometime. The risk is that by supplying the same copy to your partners you are in fact risking having your content considered as duplicate content and having your own site devalued.

For example, Hostel World, STA, eBookers and so on are always going to be considered more authoritative websites than your own - they have thousands of pages, thousands of links and are good quality sites. They probably have higher page rank than you too. So, when Google reads your content on their site it is highly likely that Google may interpret that content as theirs and penalise you for copying them. Now thats’ not on!

What about if some of these sites even pay for cost-per-click ads on your name. Well it is surely not a bad thing if you are say Base Backpackers and STA Travel are promoting your brand in the search results so as they sell more of your products is it? Perhaps it is. After all the sale always has a cost of commission. If you are coming up in the search engines number one for your brand you are hoping that you will secure the sale yourself - thereby paying back the investment you have made in web marketing and getting that amazing site. You don’t want to be giving away revenue for someone else trading on your name without actually doing anything for themselves.

These are interesting conundrums for the travel (and other industries). Perhaps it is time to turn against the hands that have fed us for so long, the STA Travels, the Hostel Worlds and so on. When it comes to the web you are all on an even footing and perhaps you are right to say no to large commissions and demand that these companies produce their own content about your product or even not trade on your name in the search engines.

This is such an interesting area and at the same time very confusing for all involved. In fact, it is a regular source of hours of debate amongst us guys at Xebidy, no less so the other night at 11 pm after a BBQ and far too many beers at my house.

Mat Weir our lead developer is our guru on expired domains. He buys them with some regularity to use to promote a number of sites he personally develops and promotes. He recently acquired www.queenstowntaxis.co.nz, a fantastic domain with lots of links, to promote his www.experiencequeenstown.com website, after the domain had expired of course - the problem is that Queenstown Taxis is still heavily in use by the previous owner - on their business cards, or their vehicles, everywhere. And they want it back.

Now, my understanding is Mat has done nothing wrong, he has not purchased the domain name to resell back to them nor has he purchased the domain name to trade on their business name or confuse the market, in fact, he has purchased the domain name to promote his business legitimately.

This is quite different to the well-quoted Qantas situation in Australia in which when domains were first really becoming important a couple of guys purchased the www.qanatas.com and tried to sell it back to Qantas at an extortionate rate. In this case a court ruled that they had to give it to Qantas for the same $50 they had paid for it. The ruling was that they had purchased the domain name with knowledge that the name belonged to someone else and that they were therefore attempting to profit on someone elses fortune illegitimately.

I have also seen another recent case in Australia where a large Australian touring company let one of their domains expire and a small operator in the same area purchased the domain and built a site on it. The court in this case also ruled that the domain had to be returned because both companies were operating in the same area and therefore the second company that now was using the domain was confusing the market.

I don’t know what is fair and what is not. Firstly, when a domain expires it sits in a type of state of limbo for about 3 months to give the original owner a chance to renew. So it is not a case of it expiring and then the next day someone else owning it. Secondly, when a domain expires it is available to everyone, surely it is open market. I agree with the Qantas situation where these guys had no other intention but to profit off Qantas. But what about the tour company story? They clearly did not have an intention to profit off the other tour company (I don’t know how public this whole scenario was so I don’t want to be going around saying company names at this time) simply they intended to promote their own business with a domain that was good and because of its’ history and links had good Google rankings. Is there anything wrong with this? And what about Mat, he has purchased a domain to promote his own information website in a completely different market. He has pointed the domain to his page about Queenstown taxis - this is fair is it not.

The one thing I do know is make sure you have got your domain management in order. If your domains are looked after by your web master or similar make sure they know what their doing and that they have in place the processes to know what is happening with your domains at any point in time. If it is managed in house make sure that person is onto it. And, finally until it is clear keep your eyes peeled for good domains that you might be able to acquire to promote your business.

This was sent to me this morning by my mate, Neil Geddes - something to liven everyones day. These are questions that have appeared on the NZ Tourism website and the official responses:

Q: Does it ever get windy in NZ? I have never seen it rain on TV, how do the plants grow? (UK).
A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die.
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Q: Will I be able to see kiwi birds in the street? (USA)
A: Depends how much you’ve been drinking.
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Q: I want to walk from Auckland to Wellington - can I follow the railroad tracks? (Sweden)
A: Sure, it’s only three thousand miles, take lots of water.
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Q: Are there any ATMs (cash machines) in NZ? Can you send me a list of them in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown? (UK)
A: What did your last slave die of?
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Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing in NZ? (USA)
A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe. New-Zea-land is that island in the middle of the Pacific which does not
… oh forget it. Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Auckland city. Come naked.
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Q: Which direction is North in NZ? (USA)
A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we’ll send the rest of the directions.
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Q: Can I bring cutlery into NZ? (UK)
A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.
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Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys’ Choir schedule? (USA)
A: -New-zea-land is that quaint little country , which is
….oh forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Auckland city, straight after the hippo races. Come naked.
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Q: Can I wear high heels in NZ? (UK)
A: You are a British politician, right?
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Q: Are there supermarkets in Auckland and is milk available all year round? (Germany)
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of vegan hunter/gatherers. Milk is illegal.
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Q: Please send a list of all doctors in NZ who can Dispense spider serum. (USA)
A: poisonous spiders live in A-meri-ca which is where YOU come from. All NZ spiders are perfectly harmless, can be safely handled and make good pets. You should find some for yourself when you get here. Especially the ones with white tails
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Q: I have a question about a famous animal in NZ, but I forget its name. It’s a kind animal and lives in trees. (USA)
A: It’s called a Drop Bear. They are so called because they drop out of Gum trees and eat the brains of anyone walking underneath them. You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.
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Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Can you tell me where I can sell it in NZ? (USA)
A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.
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Q: Can you tell me the regions in Auckland where the female population is smaller than the male population? (Italy)
A: Yes, gay night clubs.
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Q: Do you celebrate Christmas in NZ? (France)
A: Only at Christmas.
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Q: I was in NZ in 1969 on R+R, and I want to contact the Girl I dated while I was staying in Wellington*. Can you help? (USA)
A: Yes, and you will still have to pay her by the hour..
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Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? (USA)
A: Yes, but you’ll have to learn it first

An interesting email came across my desk the other day about some well-known guys in Australia that have been launching a number of new sites promoting Northern Territory travel.

The interesting point pertained to how long a new URL exists before it gets’ any decent Google rankings. Our URL at Xebidy has only be going since February and we have only just gone up to page rank one after the recent Google page rank shuffle. Not exactly a meteoric rise - but it is not something we ever working on.

The interesting thing was that these guys had given themselves at least 8 months, citing the middle of next year to be when they would start to be up the rankings. I personally was a bit surprised by this speed - a bit quick in my opinion. But these guys are good and they do have a huge amount of websites to leverage off.

Then again we also know that Google looks for sites owned or operated by the same web masters etc and discounts the value of their links etc. So perhaps they are being optimistic. I am intrigued to watch.

It is of more interest for my own two pet projects, Breathe and Travel Generation. Both are new URLs and both are due to be launched early in 2008. How long will they take to have any impact on the search engine rankings? 12 months perhaps.

Best we follow out own advice and start comprehensive Internet Marketing now!

Unfortunately, no matter how good the content you write is - ain’t nobody going to read it. Well it’s not that bad - but you certainly can not expect someone to curl up on the couch and read your website. They will, however, probably scan it for a few seconds to see if it’s what they are looking for, and move on if its’ not.

To this regard there are a few essential rules to keep in mind when creating your website.

Create visual order: your content should be presented in an order across your site that tells your readers the importance of your content. Combine this with colour, contrast, font size and weight and relative positioning against other content to emphasise its’ importance.
Make the page easy on the eyes, but at the same time interesting: The quickest way to lose readers is with small type, bad colour combinations and wide columns.

The introduction is the important part of the content: your website visitors tend to skim the read your introduction paragraph first and for this reason it should be concise and summarise what you web page is about.

Use headlines to draw a users attention into paragraphs: giving paragraphs headings serves to highlight the paragraph for the user who can subsequently read quickly or detailed through your work. Use the content of the headings to draw attention to the paragraph and summarise its’ content. A good tool. to use is to ask a question that is subsequently answered in the following paragraph. (and don’t forget your keywords for search engines!)

Writing effective web content is not easy. Verbose sites loose a readers interest, too sparse a site and the user feels that page has nothing to offer. Finding the right mix of imagery and content is essential to capturing your readers interest while they scan through the Internet looking for that “right” page.

I have been involved in a lot of web designing in the past few months on a variety of projects and I am always asked to look at web designs. It is probably the best part of my job - as although I can in no way call me self a web designer I think I have a pretty firm idea of what works and doesn’t and probably more importantly I spend a lot of time looking at other websites.

One of the most important parts of web design is typography. Selection of fonts can make or break a website. Here is a few rules of thumb that I think can be applied to font selection:

1. Only use one or two fonts throughout your site. I was asked to look at one new site only a few weeks ago and there were no fewer than 4 fonts used on the one page. The page looked confused and messy. It was difficult for the reader to cast their eyes quickly over the page and digest the information.

2. The use of small font sizes should be combined with good letter spacing. I believe that using small font sizes such as 10 px is not necessarily a bad thing if combined with at least 1px letter spacing. This makes the words easy to see and easy for a reader to cast their eyes over the page.

3. If you are looking to create an expensive looking page use Georgia over Times New Roman - just my opinion!

4. Combinations of italics and bold used with the same sized font for headings and important sections can make for a stylish page. I have two favourite sites that do this very well (http://www.jontangerine.com and http://astheria.com/)

Finally, remember perhaps the most important rule in web design with regard to font selection. A font is not embedded in a web page - instead it is only rendered on the screen if it exists on the viewers computer. In this way there are really only 5 or 6 fonts that are considered safe fonts - that is fonts that appear on both apple mac and windows pc computers. The safest and most often used fonts as arial and verdana - they are sans-serif fonts, meaning they don’t have any of the loopy things between the letters like say Times New Roman and are therefore much easier to read on the web.