SEO & Copywriting Course in Preston

We are very proud to be doing an SEO & Copywriting course in partnership with Creative Lancashire on the 31st of March in Preston, along with follow up 1 to 1 surgeries on the 7th of April.

To find out more on the course we are doing please visit our website - SEO Course on 31st March. And for more information on the courses Creative Lancashire are doing (as well as ours), visit their events page on their website - Creative Lancashire Events.

Look forward to seeing you all there, will be great fun and large numbers already confirmed, so hurry for your free places.

SEO & Copywriting Course in Leyland

We are proud to be providing an SEO & Copywriting course in Leyland in partnership with BVG on the 25th of March @ 9.30am.

For more information on this course & our upcoming courses please visit our next seminars page on our main website.

We will also be posting information on upcoming courses on our Twitter account, so why not follow us and see what is coming up.

Look forward to seeing you at one of our future courses.

Blog is back and alive

We have been a little slacking on updating out own Blog recently (well for quite a while actually). Far too busy on clients' work and our own Blog became a little neglected, so we apologise to our followers and are going to set this straight.

We will be posting a couple of Blogs about our upcoming seminars in the Blackpool, Preston & Leyland areas next, and then back to keeping our Blog updated with all things SEO, Copywriting, Search Engines & Internet.

Windows is 25 Years Old

On November 20th, 2010, Windows will officially turn 25 years old. However, like us I bet you cannot remember it even being launched. This is mainly down to the fact that at that time in 1985, Apple and DOS were Kings.

Windows version 1.0 was Microsoft's graphical rival to Apple's IBM graphical front end and was used as the front end to its own DOS system.

How far we have come and advanced since - considering now that Windows is basically the be all and end all system for PCs, with over 90% of the desktop market. With Windows XP being the most used version at the moment and Windows 7 selling over 240 million licences in little more than 1 year.

For more information on Windows turning 25, please check out this article on PC Advisor.

Remembrance Day

Google UK pays tribute to the heroes past and present with an icon of the Poppy on its home page.

Here at XP Web Services we too remember those who have fallen and those who survived, along with the ones still keeping us safe and our democracy alive. We thank them from the bottom of our hearts.

Thank you.

For anyone wishing to make a donation to the British Legion.

Ask's Search Engine Has Been Retired

Ask.com has now officially shut down its search engine. Instead opting to focus on its own question and answer service - which they went back to in July of 2010. See our previous blog post about that here.

Instead they are going to be using either Google's or Bing's search results and dedicating their staff and engineers to the Question & Answer service.
According to New York Times the website will be re-branded as "Ask.com - What's Your Question?".

A move which sees Ask join the multitude of websites and search engines offering the question and answer service, of which Google has seen fantastic results for - and who will no doubt keep the crown of the best search provider. But where will Ask.com fit in? Only time will tell we guess.

Since its creation in 1996, Ask has employed hundreds of engineers and staff members across America & China, however with the recent downturn over there, they have had to lay off many members of staff and this new move sees them having to consolidate staff into its Bay Area HQ. This will mean staff and engineers across America and China having to relocate to the Californian HQ office.

Thanks to the New York Times for the original information in this blog post.

Google Doodle - 115th Birthday of The X Ray

Today's Google Doodle celebrates the 115th birthday of the X Ray, originally discovered by scientists around 1875 but actually credited to Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895. This discovery & accreditation actually earned Wilhelm the Physics Nobel Prize in 1901 & of course changed science, medicine & physics for the rest of mankind.


Read more on this on the Guardian's website.

Google Doodle - Dizzy Gillespie's 93rd Birthday

The most recent Google Doodle is to celebrate what would have been Dizzy Gillespie's 93rd birthday.

Google has added the following Doodle on its homepage as a tribute to the late, great Jazz musician - who unfortunately died in 1993 from pancreatic cancer.

A great tribute to a great musician.

Google TV - Available with Logitech Box

Revue set top box from Logitech, has become the first device to bring Google TV to TV sets.

Revue comes with Google TV software and has been hailed as the first device of its type and is all set to revolutionise the way the internet and TV works. See our other articles on Google TV. 

Google TV was first announced back in May 2010 along with partners Sony, Intel and of course Logitech. Google TV will allow people access to a huge range of content from videos and pictures to games and email (pretty much everything most people want or need).
One of the beauties of Google TV is the ability to search the internet through your TV for programmes from the internet, computer, digital recording boxes and obviously the TV. This could return listings from various existing (and new) TV channels and YouTube.

Google has recently announced partnerships with content distributors such as The New York Times, Amazon, HBO, NBA and many more. Currently only rolled out in the United States. Over here in the UK and Europe we will have to wait a little bit longer for this service.

Currently selling for about $300 in the States the Logitech device links the device to your PC via WiFi or the old Ethernet cable.
Complete with accessories such as a remote control (free), you can also purchase a high definition camera should you wish to - currently about $160. However there will be plenty more gadgets and devices coming along very quickly, you can be sure of that.

See our other Google TV posts for other relevant information and updates.

We would like to thank PC Advisor for the full original article.

Google Doodle - John Lennon's 70th Birthday

Google's new doodle, celebrates what would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday.

Clicking the doodle will let you hear a snippet from John's infamous track, Imagine. The snippet is only just over 30 seconds, but a great way to celebrate this date in history. Whilst playing the snippet of Imagine you will see many animated images floating in and out of the smaller screen. Once finished Google then takes you to a Google search of 'John Lennon'.

Since being created some 12 years or so ago, Google has created over 900 Doodles to celebrate special events, birthdays and anniversaries from around the world. But this animated one is one of the best so far - seems Google & Google Doodles are getting more and more complicated and imaginative (sorry) since the first image of a Burning Man, 12 years back.