Chris Brandrick

Over the last week or so the current round of Google page rank (PR) updates have been rolled out. And ChrisBrandrick.com went from a 0 to a page rank of 4.

For those of you unfamiliar with page rank, it is Google’s method of rating the importance of a website within the web as a whole. So for example a site with more presence and links will supposedly be ranked higher than those without. Google explains Page Rank like so:

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important”.

Now many debate that the Google Page Rank may not be as important as it once was, especially to advertisers, but it still holds value and is a small indication as to whether your site is making an impact on the web. With this in mind, I’m celebrating the fact, so for the month of August advertising on ChrisBrandrick.com is only $10. $10 gets you one months exposure on the right sidebar in the available 125×125 spot. Interested? Just drop me an email at chrisbrandrick@gmail.com or leave a comment.

Whether you code, design or even write, if you are involved in the creation of websites in any way then ‘A List Apart‘ want to hear from you. It’s time to fill in the annual survey as put out by the site to see how the industry we work in is shaping up and how our trade is practised throughout the world.

It’s a fairly straightforward survey and only takes 10 minutes of your time to complete, and no doubt once the results are published it will make for some interesting reading. You can get to the survey by clicking the image below or just following this link, let us know in the comment form below if you filled it in, and what your thoughts are.

As some of you who follow me on Twitter or have me added on Facebook may have realised I am now back in the UK, after my holiday away to Turkey. I had a really nice break away, and you can now check out the pictures of my trip on my Flickr page, I also have some on my Facebook too.

Now I’m back I would also like to announce that Kufu (as previously blogged) is now officially open for business, and we are on the look out for new clients. So drop us an email!

In addition to working for Kufu, the rest of my summer will involve finally getting Gamebrit off the ground, which has been ridiculously delayed for several reasons, it’s amazing to think I have had the domain for nearly a year now! But yeah keep an eye out for updates on that one.

But in the mean time, keep it on ChrisBrandrick.com! Subscribe to my RSS feed, or even add me as a Technorati fave.

Wordpress today announced that version 2.6 of the popular blogging platform is now available to download, for free of course. This version comes more than a month earlier than expected and is packed with a fair few new features, including a post word count, new media functions, and the ability to view your blog with a different theme before making it live. Check out the below video for the full details:

Pretty cool additions I’m sure you will agree, and I will be upgrading to the new version as soon as I get back from my holiday.  In other news the holiday is going well, and the weather is lovely, I will be sure to update my Flickr with a lot of pictures upon my return, but in the mean time here is a shot of me enjoying the sun:

That’s right folks, after what seems like a pretty busy year (so far), what with University, moving house and starting up Kufu (which is now online by the way), I am off on an all-inclusive holiday to Bodrum in Turkey for two weeks.

Flickr has a really nice selection of pictures from the area which are worth checking out, and I have to admit it has gotten me really excited about going, which thankfully is only in a few hours time. So with that, I am off, my flight is in less than 8 hours so I need to get some sleep, see you in two weeks!

Despite being offline for over a week now, I wanted to quickly touch upon the closure of j0n.org. j0n.org for those of you who don’t know was a blog (mainly video entries) run by Jon Wheatley about his various online ventures, be them web development, design or even software development.

I came across his blog thanks to Tyler Cruz, and since then I have even blogged about Jon’s projects due to me wanting to expose them for the good they are, for example the superb Mac application that is GrabUp (which if you don’t have, get!).

But now there is no more j0n.org and despite me being somewhat disappointed at the lack of updates from a personal inspiration for me, he is now blogging over at Indie Startups about “independent startups and entrepreneurs”. The new blog is great, and a superb way to find out about new unique independent sites, check it out.

Just a quick post for those of you who follow my picture taking over on Flickr. I recently went for a nice evening stroll with my ladyfriend and the good old DSLR and think I took some rather nice shots.

You can view the set here, or by visiting my usual flickr page. Feel free to leave a comment or two, be it here or directly on Flickr.