You Have Control!» Google

Google Index Woes

Philip de Lisle — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 07:52:58 +0000

I wrote an article for the American Chronicle (“Where Did Customer Service Go?“) back in June 2008 which is even more topical today in these harsh economic times.

I was thrilled, and not a little surprised, to discover that it was #1 on Google!

But then disaster struck! The American Chronical “back end” truncated my article to less than one sentence so my Google ranking dropped to #4 – which is astonishing in itself and just goes to show how powerful the correct web page title can be. The problem with the back end was quickly corrected but sadly Google hasn’t been back to reindex my article since the 1st week in January.

So any suggestions how I get the Google bot to return?

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Google as a saviour

Philip de Lisle — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 23:35:05 +0000

The CEO of a company I chair has created a very interesting blog based around irrevent thinking.

Unfortunately it was hosted temporarily on my now defunct hosting platform.

I thought he had a backup of the database. He thought I did. Result? Panic all round!

But Google Cache saved the day. We lost one comment, but as I knew the commentator personally, a quick email telling them what had happened resulted in them recreating it.

End result? Blushes all round (and a proper daily backup routine) but ultimately a huge sigh of relief!

Google is getting an increasingly bad press as people worry about how much power it wields and how much personal data it collects, but in this case it really did prove to be a saviour. Respect.

The Joy of a Child

Philip de Lisle — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:57:59 +0000

My four year old has been through the mill since he was born. Chronic eczema as a baby, glue ear requiring grommets at 2 and he’s so long sighted he’s off the chart. As a consequence he’s never been confident riding his bike even with stabiliser wheels.

(Un)fortunately we’ve booked a family holiday at Center Parcs where a bike is an essential not a luxury. So what to do? A friend offered us a “tag along” (a single, rear wheel contraption which links to the back of an adult bike) but when we got it home, we discovered that he couldn’t touch the ground which made him even more nervous than before.

So I hit Google. And discovered something called a Trailgator which turns an ordinary bike into a tag-along.

This thing is brilliant. So much so that said son is now seriously keen to go for bike rides. Loud cries of “faster Daddy, faster” accompanied by peels of laughter.

Seeing and hearing him be so happy makes me almost cry. Fantastic!