Nick J. West

The weather, at least here in Utah has been mild this winter due to an El Nino pattern affecting the west. This has of course sent the winter weather, and all its glorious snow to go elsewhere this season, namely the Midwest and the eastern seaboard. My second home in Atlanta even experienced a record snowfall of 3-5 inches.

Last year the pattern was similar but we were able to eek out a few steady weeks of storms that left an average of 4-8 inches in the valley each storm. This year it has been 1-3 inch storms relegating most of the snow to the mountains and the central Utah mountains.

Spring is still a few weeks away, and the frost can still happen until mid-May so there’s no planting anytime soon but I do predict a mild, but very wet end of winter and into spring.

Why? The willow trees are already beginning to yellow and the buds bulge, the willow tree being one of the first trees to green with most hardwood trees greening 4-8 weeks later. Another sign that spring is nearly here, the blue jays and robins are busy building their nests and singing their mating calls.

I will be taking a trip across the Southwest and Southeast U.S. this spring and I eagerly look forward to all the beauty of our country, especially the flowers along Texas byways and the flowering trees of the South.

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Filed under: Jotts

Microsoft unveiled it’s new or re-branded search or in their words “decision engine” today. At first glance, it’s nothing more than “Live”, with a new face. Are the results any different? I would wager that it depends on the nature of your search query.

If your search involves commerce, products or things like “travel” you’re presented with options that don’t require you to leave Bing to view, example being a current air-fare to Atlanta. Displayed are the top results, but instead of requiring a “click” you see the results of the lowest or top fares immediately.

If your search involves something more mundane, your likely to see the same results you saw on Live.

I sincerely wish Microsoft the best in this endeavor but it seems a waste of money, especially with the upcoming buzz around the amount of the spend on promoting the new “decision engine”.

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Filed under: Microsoft, SEO Industry News

I was thinking the other day about the process of naming a new business.

The long process that it is has been complicated further by the advent of the Internet. Naming a business now also requires that you also have a matching name for your web presence.

There’s not alot of single word names left available with a dot com extension, and only a few million more on dot. net. So, do you settle for a dot net when dot com isn’t available?

Choosing a dot net over a dot com is like the difference between opening a hot dog stand business in Winnemucca, Nevada or New York City’s Wall Street.

If at all possible, choose a dot com domain name. Think outside the box and change up the spelling, come up with a new word entirely. Sometimes, it only makes sense to go with dot net. If your selling widgets, and widgets.com is taken, widgets.net may be acceptable. The problem comes when the owner of the dot com see’s your success, he may attempt to copy it and easily take part of your hard earned market share.

For more about domain name registrations visit Blue Bayou, Llc. for excellent everyday pricing on all domain extensions.

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Filed under: Blogging, Domain Registration, Main, SEO Basics, Web Services, Webhosting