""Can somebody please explain why a search of Google only produces links to the 2004 Sidmouth festival and the Mrs. Casey Music website? I thought Stuart Hughes had a new 2005 Sidmouth festival site but it doesn't appear on Google and that probably means news of 2005 is not reaching many of the people who might attend.""

The anonymous Sidmouth Resident who posted yesterday (09.26 hrs) should learn to use Google properly! Sidmouth Library staff will be happy to advise you. Use the correct search terms (including "2005") and Google puts Stuart at the top of page one. Use most search terms for the festival (including 2005) and SeeRed is at the top.

Setting up a website is no guarantee of inclusion on Google (I read someplace that 80% of websites are not even indexed by search engines because they are even worse junk that most of the 20% that are indexed). Companies that promise to submit your site to major search engines are a rip-off. If Google likes your site he (she?) will find it and index it. Submission can speed the process. Try too hard, copy material from elsewhere on high ranked sites in an effort to improve your rankings and Google may penalise you. Google might be a computer but it is clear she is a woman - usually placid and able to do hundreds of things at once and yet capable of fury if provoked. And she has a long memory. Just like Lizzie?

Some minor search engines use Google as their guide - if Google likes a site, they list it too. About 80% of hits on SeeRed that come via a search engine come via Google - it has a near monopoly across the world because it is so good at selecting what is worth reading. Jeeves is popular but I have never found him half as good as Google. Google algorithms are complicated (in fact there are many sites where geeks chat to swop notes on SEO - I only got interested when trying to get my pages on the PN highly listed. Took some doing!) But look at this link (and I shall know how many of you did, and also what you had for breakfast). http://www.seered.co.uk/google.htm
I used to be top of 300,000, now I'm only about number 8 out of 70,000. Still not bad.

It is likely that SeeRed pages on Sidmouth 2005 will continue to be highly rated by Google simply because they are well written (!) and part of a large website that Google likes for other reasons. So photos and news etc on SeeRed are likely to be widely viewed. It may be one of the top sites for people looking for news after Christmas. I could write more on this but I have other things to do - such as posting some opinions on market sectors on the other thread. By the way, if a website vanishes from listings for a few days or is seriously downgraded by Google it may only be part of a complicated thing called a dance.

Reply to Lizzie: why ask me to confirm what is on my website? Read it yourself at http://www.seered.co.uk/folk31.htm
And why don't you buy a tape recorder for listening to Show of Hands and come to a proper folk event - at least as proper as can be found in the Sid Valley! People even come from Bridport 30 miles away. Surely you can manage a short hop from your perch in Sidmouth?