There is plenty of information regarding the new EU cookie laws which have come into effect recently, as well as numerous posts from various experts in the field as to what the new cookie laws will mean for businesses. However, I just wanted to highlight how implementing the warning regarding cookies, as the new law requires, could lead to a few issues with your site and the search engines, especially if you’ve missed out a few key elements that relate to SEO when building your site.

Enter: The Royal Navy. They have successfully implemented the meta description tag on their homepage and various other pages… however not all pages have had a unique meta description included in the page header:

Add to this the fact that their new cookie warning appears at the top of the page when you first visit the site, as per the screenshot below, and you’re looking for trouble:

You see, in the absence of a meta description, Google and other search engines will usually pick up the first piece of text it finds and given it’s prominence, use it to form the snippet in the search results. Whoops:

Easily fixed, but perhaps something that shouldn’t have been overlooked in the first place. Try not to fall into the same trap.

and no, it wasn’t very funny.

As some of you may or may not know, I broke my arm pretty much in half back on the 30th of March this year in a rugby accident. It’s been a long road to recovery and I recently got the news that the metalwork they had put in to stabilise the break back in June has failed, quite catastrophically.

In order to keep a record (as well as keep myself sane), I have decided to backdate everything that happened thus far on a seperate blog and I’m currently in the process of writing up the posts.

For now, I’ve got an appointment with the surgeon tomorrow to discuss what to do about the buggered metal in my arm and to formulate some plan of action. I leave you with a link: Never Fracture Your Humerus and a picture:

They’ve done it again! Sarah and Esther have been hired to assist with the launch of BingoCams in the UK. With the concept originally trialled in mainland Europe, and following its successes in places like Holland, BingoCams has been preparing for launch in the UK since late last year, and has now finally gone live.

The concept is pretty simple… sit and play online bingo, wait until you win, and then celebrate like mad over webcam to everyone you just beat. Here’s an example, but trust me, from the other videos I’ve seen, some people go absolutely mental!

With the exception of 2005 (when Google released a logo for Korean Independence Day) the big G have celebrated St David’s Day with a daffodil/leek/dragon inspired logo since 2004… and this year is no different with a Google logo themed on Welsh National Dress.

The patron saint of Wales’ day is usually celebrated with a big bowl of Cawl (veg and meat soup, usually and traditionally made with a bunch of leeks and some lamb) whilst donning a daffodil or two, and perhaps with a leek sticking out of one’s pocket, so Dydd G?yl Dewi Sant one and all.

Let’s take a look at the other St David’s Day Google Logos:

2004

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010