How to video Tutorials by Mike Downes (25 videos)

If you are interested in learning how to broadcast better Hangouts, here are twenty videos, pick and choose as you go. If you have a question, just ask google.com/+mikedownes

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Google Search and Kenilworth Library

A while ago, I made a page about Kenilworth Library, it seems Google likes the page a lot and ranks it as number two in a search for Kenilworth Library (only beaten by the official Warwickshire website).

For those of you who do not know Page Rank it is Google's way of ranking a website to how interesting it is.

What's in Kenilworth? is growing without any advertising at all

As of a few minutes ago (Tues 1st June 2010 at 1pm), I have made 170 posts to this site.  There have been 606 website visits with 1,660 page views at 2.74 pages per visit with an average time of 5 mins 44 secs per visit according to Google Analytics (in the last 8 weeks).

What does this mean? Well, without doing any advertising at all people are finding and using this site. I have relied on knowing that people will search the web (mostly using Google). For example, 50% of visitors have come from a web search (from 15 countries with 580 visits from the UK) which means this site has a growing readership.

I have many more businesses to add and many many more articles to post.  Many Thanks for Supporting this new website.

News and how to use this site?

If you know what you're looking for, type a word or two in the search box on the right. If you are just looking, click on word from the tag cloud (this is the A-Z contents of the site - the more times a phrase is indexed, the larger the font becomes).

There is also a list of the most recent posts (also on the right). You can scroll down to the site archive and see all the 130+ posts in date order.  If something is missing - and I know it is, just let me know (I will not stop until I answer all of What's in Kenilworth?

I am pleased to say that Google are indexing these posts with Google Street View showing as limited augmented reality, for example, see the road outside the Sweet Shop.

Data from the sites tell me people are looking at pages here for just over 6 minutes and at nearly a thousand page views, the site is growing in readership quite well. Remember, most people will see pages from websites these days without ever going past the front page.  This site is written as a blog and every single word is Google searchable - try it for your self from search page on this page or any Google search box on a mobile, laptop or pc. I know Google's page rank sorts pages and sites, but look at the way this site is moving up the Google rankings - it is doing well without any SEO or clever web page techniques (and there are many).

My advice, get a message, say it and Google will find you - it's that simple and that's it. I will and can show you how. I am a teacher by trade, but have used the web since it started - I find it easy, but as I have said before, I know others do not and I will help you.

I would like to put a group together to meet in person to help everyone blog and web publish. If you want to know more email me at info@whatsinkenilworth.com My idea is to meet anywhere in Kenilworth that has free wifi - that's Costa, Pizza Pizzo, Starbucks and maybe The Virgins and Castle (when I check it out). BT have a great way for home users to share their wifi signal, see at www.btfon.com - see the photo on the right for a quick map.

It seems the UK is short on good bloggers. It is the new way of mass amateurisation. In other words, anyone can be anything they like armed with a mobile phone, laptop and some web access. Take a look at my Google Profile and see what Pete Cashmore is all about - ever heard of him? I thought not. To be well known bloggers you must be known as a result of doing something on the web, not as a result of something else. For example, Stephen Fry is well known on Twitter etc, but he was a comedian/actor first. Martin Lewis from the www.moneysavingexpert.com is known because of his website. Martin is a financial journalist, so he may not count either. If you want to know more see the Forbes Web 25 or even the Top 100 Blogs in the world. Look at number 3, it's www.mashable.com run by Pete Cashmore. I do not use mashable, I prefer www.digg.com as Kevin Rose blogs and videoblogs about how he's done it all, see kevinrose.com.

Also, remember any text that is blue is a link to something else, for example, the word 'augmented reality' above links to the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality which describes what that subject is all about. Great, because the key words in this digital age are clickable, searchable and linkable - and if you are not any of those, Google will not find you. I think of the internet these days as Google because at at 63-90% of a market share (it depends where you get these percentages - just Google Market share for yourself).

If I have not bored you already - head on over to The Mike Downes Page and see some of the books I've read and ideas I have. See you there.

Google Business Listings - Errors and Opportunity

There is the real world and there is the Google world and in between there is someone like me. One of the tasks I have set is to close the gap where Google Maps are inaccurate and outdated. For example, searching for 'supermarket kenilworth' returns the usual results including Budgens (which closed in 2004) and Sainsburys is listed as being on a farm near Stoneleigh.

So why is this? Google Maps collects data mostly from thomsonlocal.com. I have 150 Kenilworth businesses listed on this website - which are accurate as I live in Kenilworth and I know they exist. I was happily correcting the errors and now Google are off to moderate the listings - word from the web is this could take a while.

I can provide a service for those businesses that do not have their own website and have not claimed their business listings either. If you have a Kenilworth Business and want to be found on Google, claim it yourself (you will need a free Google account) or email me and I will tell you how info@whatsinkenilworth.com and make sure you have the right help.

There are a few articles on the web about this kind of error, see one here where this company was trying to correct an entry where a hospital was having an error with it's A and E listing which stopped urgent calls getting through as Google listed the number as the general switchboard.

Translate What's in Kenilworth? into 57 languages

Google Translate let's you easily transform any web page or text into the language of your choice with 57 to choose from. Really useful for learning a new language, doing you homework or finding out What's in Kenilworth? if you are visiting from overseas. See Google Translate on the right of this page.

Google test post to assess indexing

Google is a great search engine and that is most of the time. However, sometimes text can get lost - you know it's there, but Google cannot see it.  This has happened to the post below found at:

http://www.whatsinkenilworth.com/2010/05/kenilworth-weekly-news-in-warwick-road.html

Google indexed the blog post, proof of that comes as Icerocket.com found it, see the search result.

Then comes a test when a selection of the post is searched from Google with quotation marks:

 "The KWN website has no relationship to the print copy edition. For example, headline as Fri 14 May 2010"

The post is now not found - how odd.  I have pasted he whole post (minus any links) below to see if Google searches correctly this time and then I will learn... let's see what happens.
_______________________________________________________________________
Kenilworth Weekly News‎
31 Warwick Road CV8 1LJ
01926 852 870‎
www.kenilworthweeklynews.co.uk
(The KWN website has no relationship to the print copy edition. For example, headline as Fri 14 May 2010 reads 'Police target house burglars' - that is not found anywhere on the KWN website or with a detailed Google search). What is also alarming is the KWN website has now introduced intensive advertising).

Sad times for a newspaper that was established in 1946. When you pay 50p for the newspaper on a Friday, there are very few pages of Kenilworth News (around five feature stories a week).

Currently, the Kenilworth Weekly News sells an average of 3,533 copies per week (in a town population of 26,000 or so). That was 3,704 copies per week in August 2009 as reported by the Press Gazette.

Did you know that one paper copy of the KWN laid end to end is about 24 metres in length, by selling 3,533 copies a week the paper will stretch for 53 miles - what a waste of paper and not searchable, linkable and clickable either.

The KWN is owned by Johnston Press who have financial difficulties and have shut five titles, but say they have 'no plans as we speak' to cut more titles (see The Guardian).


Johnston Press have played down suggestions that their idea of a paywall (they were asking online readers to pay £5.00 for 3 months access) for their online versions has failed, see BBC News and The Guardian once again.  In my rough estimates from searching the web, KWN may get 16% of their revenue by selling the newspaper for 50p, the rest comes from advertising. But in these difficult times advertising spending is decreasing and Johnston Press are trying hard to cope with the threat of full digital editions and competition.

For those of you who do not know, many years ago there were very few ways to get the news - the most popular, buy it every day in hard copy paper version from a newsagent (yes I know there was TV and Radio too). Since 1998 (when Google came alive) titles have disappeared as people like Google aggregate the news which means linking to all the news stories and show them in their search results.  This has left people like Rupert Murdoch not selling papers like The Times and losing money, blaming Google and trying to charge for readers for online news, see this BBC article.  Many say this will not work, I agree. On the other hand, The Guardian have introduced an iphone application and sold it via the Apple iTunes store where readers pay once and possibly never again.

This idea that a town newspaper (aka the KWN) is shrinking and may eventually close is one of the reasons I have made this website. And it does not stop there, the Official Kenilworth Town Website is also under threat as it has never really been updated since it was first published (well over a year). If you missed that article click here. Even then it caters for the large businesses but not the small ones who matter - they need the coverage most to survive.

I have always been a big fan of the Kenilworth Weekly News since my first Soapbox column in 1999, but times are changing and anyone can report the news these days - even me. (If the article is too small, click here for a larger one.

How did I do this? Polaroids and Bookshelves

At the top of this page is a bookshelf made from many photographs of Kenilworth shop signs - cropped, rotated and arranged. On the left is a Polaroid of the five political parties I made a few moments ago. So how did I do it? If I can - anyone can. Here's how:

Go to any web page or Google images will be fine. Take a screen shot (I use the Snipping Tool in Vista). Open Google Picasa, select images, create a collage. Save as an image, make another collage, use a polaroid border this time. Rotate and save again. It's done.

That was the fast version. Over at The Mike Downes Page you can get the deeper version. My aim is to get as many people as possible to know how to do all of this (if they want to).

I have taught children in primary schools for years. There is no faster moving area than technology. It is the children who can move the fastest - adults try to think too much and feel they will break stuff. They can't. I am lucky and I know it when it comes digital stuff - it makes sense to me. I know that for others it is not, that's why I want to help everyone, to give as much knowledge away for free as possible. I would like to hear from any bloggers in Kenilworth. Email me info@whatsinkenilworth.com or subscribe to these sites - let's work together and make it happen.