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I am sure most website designers and developers hate the thought of picking up older projects which have been badly built, designed and marketed by older colleagues!

Well that has been the case for me on more than one occasion, and sadly when you try to show them the light, all that happens is that you create a bigger mess! I was unfortunte enough to pick up the following site some years back (probably about 6 years thinking about it) http://www.notcutts.co.uk - Notcutts the company is a well established local brand from where I am from in the UK. They specialize in gardening and the sale of plants, however sadly that seems to be where their unique speciality ends

What was more sad was the relationship Notcutts had with the previous web designer, I won’t name names, but all I can say is thank the lord this person is no longer producing trash for the web. Because they were so tight with the client, the client took everyone of their words as being gospel, yet all this person had, was a basic concept of HTML, no other programming languages, no search engine knowledge, no design skills and certainly no clue as to what a website should be!

When I picked up the notcutts website, it was already using technologies I considered outdated, namely frames. Frames that fantastic relic from the web of old, a technology which looked impressive but had more flaws than the document describing the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Then of course there is the actual design of the site! I mean the site starts with the following quote “Excellence in Gardening since 1897″ but surely having a website design that pre-dates this is just too painful. What makes this so much sadder, is that I had stopped using frames when I inherited this website, yet the person then maintaining it was still proactively using frames as the technical solution of choice.

It is sad to see that long after I was involved in this technically dire excuse of a website, nothing has been done to truly release its potential. Do I blame Notcutts? Sort of, are they badly advised? Most probably! Sadly when money changes hands, it is easy for an external company to tell them what they want to hear, rather than what they need to be told, and quite frankly I think the mentality or ego of some of their staff couldn’t handle the truths about how shocking their site was/is.

This site was originally built around the pre-2000 era, when most of us were still coming to grips with windows 98! As such they were never educated about the benefits of the web, what a content management system is, what problems frames create, especially for search engines. I know when I tried to implement innovative ways with which to free up some of their budget it only landed me with a slap on the wrist from the boss, so as a way of saying thanks Notcutts, I would like to formally present you with a virtual award for having one of the technologically worst websites I have ever had the displeasure of working on.

Considering how well advanced some of their competition is, I find it sad that no real investment has been made to actually take their current website and create a truly unique online experience for their users. They could build a massive educational resource, which potentially could tie into a great ecommerce site. Not to mention actually building a list of email newsletter subscribers. Every company needs to move with the times, and embrace technology that will help their business. Sadly this website is 10 years past a makeover and I can only hope that a well established and respected company such as this might pull their finger out and get something happening!

However I guess there may be a little glimmer of light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, their sister site http://www.notcutts-design.co.uk/ looks a little nicer, and has been updated since my association ended. However I can see glaringly obvious problems with this site that can’t bring myself to go into!

Without doubt there is a multitude of information out on the web regarding ways to optimise your website for search engines and really try to bring home the bacon, or traffic so to speak!

However I have often considered alternative ways with which Google might use data to help influence rankings. This is just pure theoretical on my part, and whilst I have no proof, I am guessing at some point soon or in the future, some or all of the following will be considered.

• Google Analytics - without doubt this fantastic free tool has helped informed webmasters the world over about their websites traffic, helping to identify trends etc - however whilst us dear webmasters have been informed about this, so too has Google. I would guess that Google would base some of the algorithm on related stats. For instance a better website with great content would have a shorter bounce rate, and visitors would of course stay on site for longer! Not to mention that Google would also be able to detect keywords from other search engines and links which contribute to the flow of traffic, in fact the deeper your delve into an individual analytics account, the more you could see the benefit of using this data across a wider scale.
• Gmail and GTalk - we use GTalk at work all day, passing quick comments, links, office banter etc, is it possible Google would monitor what links we provide in GTalk? And could this then be extended further into Gmail? In fact could Google Consider the words around any links as having additional keyword relevance, possible!
• Google Docs & Spreadsheets - similarly to the point above, any links and URLs mentioned in Google Docs has the ability to be considered at some point.
• In fact the same could be said of other Google Products like Youtube and Orkut.

They are just a few ways with which Google could, in theory use off-site data to enchance their algorithms. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a load more examples of ways with which google feed information into their systems to help enhance their algorithm, and in some cases, that data would actually use real user generated information to power their search engines, in addition to code!

One of the many challenges we all face is that of reducing energy consumption, which is slowly killing our planet. Yes, we can be ignorant, we continue to leave lights on and leave TVs on standby not to mention not installing energy efficient lightbulbs!

Whilst we are to blame for these actions, a lot of blame has to be laid firmly at the door of big buinesses, housing developers and governments across the world who’ve failed to contribute anything meaningful to real, cost effective renewable energy!

We are a slave to energy, there is no doubt about that, and when you also factor in the ever increasing costs associated with energy consumption, then energy usage becomes bad financially as well as environmentally. There are ways with which we can improve or reduce our energy usage, and these can also help the environment.

The installation of Solar Panels and Wind turbines can seriously reduce your monthly energy costs by up to 80%. Both methods are very environmentally friendly, and the energy produced is free! Most businesses who install renewable energy at home will charge upwards of $3000+ for such products, meaning you will not see any financial benefit until at least 5 years, perhaps longer! So unless you are blessed with a substantial budget, these alternative energy sources are unrealistic for the majority of us.

However, in my research for cheaper alternatives to installing renewable energy at home I found this fantastic site, earth4energy - it promises that you can actually install and run renewable energy for about $400. The program does require a little DIY, but if, like me, you fancy yourself in the DIY department then there is no reason why the products cannot be produced for a lot less! I am no accountant, but my build cost of around $375 dollars will have paid for itself within 3 months based upon my current savings. Thereafter saving me considerable energy costs. The guide will set you back a few dollars, but in my professional opinion, it is a good long term investment, both financially and for the environment!

So take five mins, and click to visit the Earth 4 Energy website, and improve your energy usage today!

Having missed Monday through illness, I feel a real cynical tinge about me today, following on from my other post today about illness and disease, I thought I would touch on a subject which is really close to my heart and has affected me in the past, this fantastic subject is shareholders!

What pains me a lot today about big business is the role of shareholders, these invisible people, whose only affiliation with a company is primarily to make money.

In my opinion any true company should consist of two shareholders, or perhaps stakeholders. Those two stakeholders would be the companies staff, and its customers. Each dependant upon the other, and linked in such a way that one cannot survive without the other.

In a true business with only two stakeholders there are real benefits for both parties. If a company is successful and generates significant profit, then it should be both the staff and customers who benefit from that profit. Staff should be rewarded for their hard work, through better pay, increased bonuses, or just a bonus in some cases. Alternatively, to give something back to the customers, the company could reduce the costs of its products, alieviating some of the financial burden.

This system would become a true co-operative, it is a real relationship, built on trust and responsibility with benefits available to both stakeholders. Staff can take pride in their work and truly feel a part of the company, sharing in its success.

So when did shareholders become so evil?

Shareholders break the tight relationship in both of those parties. Shareholders are only interested in making money from a company, yet what work, or skills do they put into the company to help improve its performance? By bringing shareholders into the equation, they effectively drive up the costs for customers/consumers, whilst applying direct pressure to keep costs down - effectively trying to increase profit margins. This results in less wages and smaller bonuses for staff. The bigger the profits in one year, the bigger the pressure to increase profits the following year! And of course if profits are not increased, then the share price is effected.

What is sad about the influence of shareholders, is that they are given far greater consideration than both the staff at a company and the companies customers, in fact they have a far bigger say on how the company is run than the staff who gave their all, but cannot afford to become shareholders. It seems in recent months that the shareholders of Australia’s major banks have been given far too much consideration, take the following article http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24168153-36418,00.html - I struggled to find anything relating to St Georges Staff or Customers. How would they be affected by any deals, would staff be laid off? Will customers get a worse deal? All in the name of greed, all driven for the benefit of Shareholders.

It seems sad that in todays modern world, we still live in a society determined by class or money. Benefits only go to those with money, not the people with the skills. And it is only those people with money who have influence, not the people who can do the work.

Shareholding is Evil and I believe the pressure for increased profits has led Google to create KNOL. By all accounts KNOL is a direct competitor to wikipedia, which although has its faults is considered one heck of a valuable resource. So what benefit is there to create a competitor? Only to leverage marketshare, ultimately resulting in bigger profits for Googles Shareholders.

I won’t even mention public resources being handed over to private firms. How on earth should a valuable resource such as water be managed by a company, whose main aim is to please share holders? Governments should be managing such resources on behalf of the people who voted them into power. Any profits generated from such resources could then be ploughed back into community projects, decreasing taxes or building better environmentally friendly energy systems. There are a lot of problems in the world, and shareholders are one of those problems, created to increase individual finances, with little or no concern for the greater good.

Roll on tomorrow, perhaps I will be a better mood

Blog posts have been a bit low the past few days, been laid up with an illness, and to be honest with you, just didn’t fancy writing any content - sorry!

But now I am back to almost my best and my illness got me thinking. There are so many illnesses, diseases and medicial problems across the world that we are still no closer to finding a cure for, in some cases there are just no funds available for additional research programs. I am sure most of us have been affected by the tragic loss of someone to cancer or some other illness or disease.

Imagine what good could be done for humanity if some or all of these diseases could be cured, so that we could all live healthier and happier lives. Well take a moment and think about this instead, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States it seems that whilst research funds are limited, this is in stark contrast to the American Military Machine, a machine that has been primed to kill.

It seems that budgets in some countries put a much bigger emphasis on the ability to destroy mankind, as opposed to its ability to help mankind. I don’t entirely blame America for this, they are far from alone, they are perhaps just the biggest spender of military dollars. What is sad is that all countries live in fear, so scared of being attacked that too much money is put into different ways to kill each other instead of better ways to heal ourselves.

So whilst I think about the past few days lost to illness, I think to what might have been cured, had only 10% of the American Military Budget been available for research into diseases.