But this short post is not about bathing sloths at all. This post is about Finn, who started Finnweasel at the age of 7 – which probably made him one of the youngest bloggers in the world – and who has now started another blog in which he will be reviewing cars from the point of view of a kid. His car reviews are carefully written and he takes the time to sit in each car that is lent to him and take many precious notes on his iPad about what it is like to be in a car from the point of view of the ones who travel with you at the back. Did you know that the fabric of the seats of a Ford Focus CL is actually quite itchy on the calves of those whose legs don’t reach the floor? Had you thought about the many compartments that make it handy to stash lollies on long car journeys? And how about boot space to fit a kid’s bike?

If he carries on with his task of reviewing as many cars as he possibly can, who knows, maybe his site will become a point of reference and market research for car manufacturers. In the meantime, I recommend that you check his site for some informed, witty and entertaining reading from a 9 year old backseat traveler. www.kidscarreviews.com.

So we’re still trying to understand. All we can think about is a sudden increase in traffic from Australia as it increased significantly recently thanks to its popularity now that we live here. Vogue Australia mentioned it on its home page recently, but Google probably  didn’t notice that since the Adsense department is different from Search.

The very reason for this ban remains a mystery and I don’t think we’ll ever know why. I attribute it to Google playing God again, deepening my strong antipathy for what it’s become: worldwide digital evil represented by pretentious geeks whose ultimate goal is to control your online habits and profit from them, and who will not hesitate to obliterate your site from the worldwide web if their mathematically-driven algorithms tell them it’s the right thing to do, no questions asked.

Dear beauty bloggers and bloggers of all kinds, it is my duty to tell you not to link out to these sites. Blog aggregators are asking for what we call in our SEO jargon “link juice”. Once they have enough links, their PageRank will rise, and so will their relevance to the eyes of Google. As a result, there is a risk in the long term that Google finds their site before it finds yours when users look for things – i.e. they want to grab what we call long tail search traffic – your search traffic. Why are they doing that? To sell ads and make money.

So don’t be fooled, these blog aggregators will never bring any significant traffic to your site. Because their primary aim is to sell ads, not to bring traffic to your site. On top of this, Google is increasingly identifying their content as duplicate, therefore making them irrelevant and invisible – which is why they need hundreds of blogs linking to them, in the hope to be able to beat Google. However their plot is becoming too obvious to search engines.

My word of advice? Don’t bother with them, they are time wasters, and they WILL decrease the power of your blog if you link out to them.

Today, when checking the ranking of my friends at Après Restaurant, a French restaurant in Sydney for which I did some SEO, I noticed that Google had changed a few things around when displaying results for a commercially-related searches when the name of a place is part of the search term.

The map showing the results is now located on the right sidebar, above Adwords, and stays visible as you scroll down the page. Google is evidently trying to emphasise its Maps, of high relevance when the name of a place is part of the search term.

I also noted a revision of their algorithm. First, Google now displays links to customer reviews from more than its own Google Places. Second, preference is given to businesses that have registered their presence through Google Places and it seems that businesses that have pictures as part of their Google Places profile are also given a priority.

Finally, there are some major differences between Chrome and Safari. The former currently shows Adwords links and the latter doesn’t. There are also some differences in the SERPs when comparing both browsers. Overall it seems that Chrome showcases what to expect across all browsers when the whole process is deployed across the board.

A major improvement from Google that highlights the ever-increasing importance of local results.

Local Search using Chrome

Local Search using Safari

Google somehow missed the boat by poorly integrating Twitter into its search results. They are kept at the bottom of the results page and only available to Gmail users. Once again Google have been egocentric in their social search offering. Their integration of Twitter is more a display of technological prowess than social vision in the field of search.

It is not in Google’s interest to integrate search. Their business model is based on one-click-and-you’re-out – Google wants you to use the site as often as possible and as quickly as possible. With this in mind, Google also needs to make as much money from you as possible, which is exactly what happened with Google Instant, making Adword results prevail more than natural results.

Bing’s move to integrate Facebook and enable users to sign in by using their Facebook account is a bold and very smart one. Bing has always been about usability, as shown by their search applications for hotels and flights, for example. This move marks a natural evolution of search and a full integration of everyone’s social network – half a billion of us so far, and still growing.

What’s in it for Facebook?

Only 4% of worldwide searches are performed using Bing, and quite frankly, Facebook doesn’t need Bing to pursue its growth or cement its position as the world’s prevailing social network. Facebook doesn’t need Bing, full stop, so what’s really behind this partnership? It can’t just be for users or as favour from Mark Zuckerberg to Bing. This is big business after all, not philanthropy.

My take is that the next logical step to this partnership will be the integration of search within Facebook, proudly brought to you by Bing. This win-win situation would keep Facebook users on the site and would boost Bing’s popularity and ad revenue share. Once on Facebook you would be able to perform a search with social, sponsored and natural results displayed within Facebook.

More than a social network, Facebook could then become the world’s first and largest Social Engine.

What does it mean for SEOs?

Pure SEO will not survive unless it integrates comprehensive social media strategies and SEO agencies will have to become integrated Digital Media Agencies. A domain currently left to techies, SEO will pursue its natural move towards being an integral part of Digital Marketing, a sphere in which it’s always belonged but so far hasn’t been given a real place.

Days by the pool are spent mostly on large day beds, the view’s amazing and the staff is the friendliest staff I’ve had in any hotels.

The only major drawback this resort has is the overpriced food. There isn’t anything simple that can be ordered and spending a whole day here means spending as much on food as you do on rooms. Unique dining experience is great, but every day, 3 times a day is pushing it. In the morning I want muesli, not fancy 5-star muesli with coulis and decorated plate with it. This place lacks simple, affordable food, which would probably boost its occupancy rate. We had to go to the local supermarket to stack on snacks and breakfast things because we don’t fancy spending $60 every day just for breakfast for us 2 and our 8 year old.

Would I come back? I don’t think so. Because sometimes one just needs a pizza for dinner and that’s not possible here at The Elandra Resort in Far North Tropical Queensland.