On June 8th, Google announced on their company blog that they were using an new searching algorithm (method) for keeping track of all in information on the web. They named this new system Caffeine.

Caffeine lets us index web pages on an enormous scale. In fact, every second Caffeine processes hundreds of thousands of pages in parallel. If this were a pile of paper it would grow three miles taller every second. Caffeine takes up nearly 100 million gigabytes of storage in one database and adds new information at a rate of hundreds of thousands of gigabytes per day. You would need 625,000 of the largest iPods to store that much information; if these were stacked end-to-end they would go for more than 40 miles.

Google claims that Caffeine provides 50% more up-to-date information than their old system and has more stored information about the Internet than ever before.

Why is this big news: Analysts listen to and watch Google (G) because G’s search engines often provide more traffic to a website than when people just type the address into a web browser.

Google’s… old index had several layers, some of which were refreshed at a faster rate than others; the main layer would update every couple of weeks. To refresh a layer of the old index, we would analyze the entire web, which meant there was a significant delay between when we found a page and made it available to you.

With Caffeine, we analyze the web in small portions and update our search index on a continuous basis, globally. As we find new pages, or new information on existing pages, we can add these straight to the index. That means you can find fresher information than ever before—no matter when or where it was published.

Recently Google posted an article on their webmaster blog explaining their ranking methods. It’s all about quality. Google’s advice to owners of new websites is simple. Get involved in an online community and contribute with substance. Avoid fluff. Humor is OK, but don’t waste people’s time with ads and other junk. They discourage the purchase of links from unrelated sites or doing random link exchanges (where you trade links on sites with people who have nothing in common with you.) It is definitely a long-term game. Getting good rankings on Google is about consistency. It is not for sprinters. This race is for the turtle. Finally, Google suggests that you make it easy for novice users to link to your site. Notice below that you can post a bookmark to

Big news for WordPress users. Version 3.0 has been officially released and is available for immediate update.

There are many new features, but like a new operating system, some plugins and themes may not be fully compatible.

So far I have not seen many issues, however, some themes and plugins that really pushed the envelope seem to be failing. I’ve seen some slideshow plugins stop working alltogther.

Before you upgrade, check for updates and 3.0 compatability. Lots of developers are releasing updates like crazy.

Please watch for future posts where I showcase handy WordPress plugins and themes.

As more people read this blog, I am asked, “What is BNI?”

Business Networking International (BNI) is the best way to market your business. Period. For 25 years BNI has helped business people the world over improve their business networking skills and master the art of business by referral.

BNI is part club and part high performance selling organization. It is composed of chapters all over the world that hold a 90 minute meeting once a week. This meeting follows a specific agenda. This agenda is the same in over 51 countries. They all follow this agenda because it works.

BNI is better organized than the Mob and more fun than Chuck E Cheese and less expensive than a weekend at Disneyland. It teaches public speaking, how to market your business, how to build visibility, how to improve self confidence, and how to develop a sales force of 20 – 40 members.

I personally know people who have made thousands of dollars doing business in their BNI chapter after only a few months of membership. It really is that good. You will have to work at it, but it’s fun work with fun people.

You can learn more about BNI here. If you would like to see how business gets done in person, come visit a chapter meeting. Just  contact me.

Now I would not recommend this for many phones, smartphones can get the job done. 

In this case, I used the Palm Pre to write and post this blog entry. It’s a surprisingly simple process. It’s even simpler than using a desktop computer.

Notice that I am formatting text on the phone as I write and edit this.

 Here is an example of an image that I uploaded from my phone.

The whole process is pretty easy. It should be a real asset for a busy site owner on the go.

If you have any questions, please let me know. 

Nohl

It’s amazing how quickly patterns form. Some schools of thought say that it only takes three times to build a pattern. Other schools state that you begin to miss a pattern if it suddenly goes away.

How can you use that in your business? If you were sending emails like this one, you would be reminding people that you are there and are ready to help.

Just put this in real world terms; ever since we started sending these email, we’ve picked up a new project a week. When we stopped, people actually asked if they missed the message. Food for thought, no?

In case you’re wondering, our gnomes are hard at work developing our next web site for Focus Web Works. Features to look for include easy navigation and a blog to share news and marketing ideas.

Let’s talk soon

Nohl