uk

Monitor the UK weather via Twitter mash-up

February 2, 2009 By Dan Thornton

There’s a fantastic Twitter mash-up to capitalise on the UK fascination with weather – even if most of us will only see about an inch of snow at the moment.

Recommended via @joannejacobs, it works by Twitter users posting a Tweet with the hashtag #uksnow and the appropriate postcode. For example “#uksnow NG9 3/10”

You can see it working by clicking on the image above or visiting the site of the creator, Ben Marsh, but I don’t know how long it will be running for – you could ask him on Twitter at @benmarsh!

TheWayoftheWeb is a top 30 UK Marketing blog!

February 1, 2009 By Dan Thornton

TheWayoftheWeb has somehow made it’s way up to 27th in the January 2009 rankings of UK Marketing Blog compiled by Spinning Around.

The list is compiled by filtering the UK-based blogs from the AdAge Power 150 (Which is now up to 941 blogs in total!). And it means I’ve moved up from #39 back at the start of January, which is nice.

For the record, it’s nice to get a bit of validation and evidence than people get some value out of what I do here – which I didn’t really imagine would happen when I started blogging.

But the main reason I’m pleased to move up rankings, whether it’s Google, Technorati or AdAge is that it may lead to more people stopping by – thus increasing the proportion of people I have the opportunity to connect and converse with. Because it’s the comments, emails, Tweets and other connections which are the most valuable reward I can ever get from blogging (Adsense isn’t going to make me rich!).

So if you’ve ever linked, commented, emailed, tweeted, bookmarked, shared, phoned, chatted, conversed or promoted TheWayoftheWeb (or me!) in any way, then this is a public Thank You.

Next stop, the top 20!

Tesco arrives on Twitter – kind of…

January 19, 2009 By Dan Thornton

It appears that Tesco-owned U.S food chain Fresh & Easy has a twitter profile (as reported by Brand Republic).

Aside from the fact it might stop brands using & in their name to enable them to register on new sites more easily, it also shows Twitter is gaining more and more validity as a customer service and communication channel.

As the Brand Republic article notes – it’s interesting that U.S. mainstream companies are starting to jump on Twitter, but UK firms are being pretty reluctant – Tesco doesn’t have an account for example.

And yet:

‘UK Internet visits to www.twitter.com have increased by 631% over the last 12 months, with 485% of that growth coming this year. Twitter is more popular with Brits than Americans: last week the site’s share of UK Internet visits was 70% higher its share of visits in America.’ (From Robin Goad at Hitwise).

So why are UK firms (that aren’t in the tech space) more reluctant to jump on Twitter than their U.S counterparts? Anyone got any suggestions?

We’re the 59th top UK tech blog!

January 6, 2009 By Dan Thornton

Wikio has just updated the rankings for UK blogs, and 140Char has appeared in the list for the first time, going straight in at number 59!
Not only that, but apparently we’re 749 overall:

Wahey!

Particularly as it means I have two sites in the top 100 UK tech blogs, with TheWayoftheWeb at 71.

Not a bad start to 2009.

Maybe I’m more successful than I thought!

December 2, 2008 By Dan Thornton

Now here’s a nice boost on a Tuesday morning. I’d just spotted a post on Wikio’s top 20 influential UK tech blogs by Neville Hobson and thought I’d check out the full list.

The December rankings will be released tomorrow, December 3rd, on the Wikio site. Neville has a sneak preview of the Top 20, but I thought I’d take a quick look at the current rankings, as they actually list the top 100 on the site.

Scanning through the list for November, I spotted NevilleHobson.com at 33, and kept looking to see if there were any names I didn’t recognise and wanted to check out.

And then I spotted The Way of the Web at 70 (apparently down 3 places from October, but still!). I’m still getting used to the idea that I could legimately claim to be the 70th most influential technology blog in the UK, at least by one source!

There are details on how the rankings are calculated if you’re still finding it hard to believe!