Category Archives: Internet

Home Delivery Network, Internet, Rants

Why does Amazon persist with Home Delivery Network?

35 Comments

In January this year I posted about the delivery company ‘Home Delivery Network’ (HDNL) and how they’d chucked my parcel over the side gate, which was 6 ft high, into a puddle in the pissing Manchester rain, to be soaked through all day.

The post really touched a nerve as it has now received over 100 comments from people who have also been angered by HDNL’s failure to deliver parcels, their lies, their blatant disregard for property and their driver’s utter stupidity. The post has also received comments from HDNL drivers attempting to defend their actions and their company, yet coming across as total morons (one even tried to spell moron and failed).

Now, to the serious bit. Whenever you order something from Amazon, and let’s face it most of us have, you run the risk of HDNL trying to deliver it. When, oh when, will Amazon drop this utterly useless, incompetent excuse for a delivery company? I’m reluctant to use Amazon anymore, and will always check any website’s delivery terms to see if they use HDNL before ordering.

I urge anyone and everyone to do the same. Do not use any website that uses Home Delivery Network for its deliveries.

This is my plea to Amazon, for your own sake, drop HDNL like a hot coal. They’re costing you orders. They’re costing you money. They’re costing your customers time, they’re harming your reputation. Drop them, drop them now, if you care about your customers.

Internet, Rants

American racist thinks he’s insulting Obama

5 Comments

Next week America goes to the polls to decide whether they’re going to elect another Republican who can’t string a sentence together, or whether they’re going to elect a black man who many Americans have stated “scares them”.

Obama is clearly the more intelligent man and would make a better leader. He has ideas to take the USA forward and represents a bright future. McCane is a war veteran, that’s about it. Will America elect a black man president? Not if the guy who left this comment on the Just Search website has his way. The post was about how Obama has used the Internet to further boost his campaign, but some racist moron thinks that the post was made by Obama, and that he could post a comment expecting Obama to reply to him personally. Naturally I didn’t approve this comment, but thought I’d paste it here because idiots like this really do need to be exposed.

Jason Hill
http://jahill.hill17@gmail.com | jahill.hill17@gmail.com | 72.145.143.221

If you are elected will it be ok for white people to have a white college fund, a miss white america, an all white college, a million white man march, a 100 white men of america (from each state), a white entertainment television, and all the other things that blacks have that whites do not have that would be considered raciest if whites had and blacks did not have. I do not have the time to list the hundreds of other things that blacks have that whites do not. I am not raciest, but i was tought that we were all created equal.

You’ve gotta love it when people say ‘I’m not racist’, or ‘raciest’ – whatever that means. Still, this idiot continues:

If so than why can we not have these things without being called raciest. I would just like to hear what you had to say about these things that have always been taboo! Please respond, nobody else can give an anwser that i have asked that has anything to do with your campaign. I think that they are scared because they have no anwsers to these hard questions. If you are qualifed, you should not have any problem with any of it. Please respond asap.

And this idiot expects Obama to reply to him ASAP? If anyone else would like to reply to Jason Hill, feel free to reply here or send him an email at jahill.hill17@gmail.com.

Google, Internet

Blackeye Lashes

4 Comments

I was just watching TV and a very short advert asked the viewer to Google ‘Blackeye Lashes’. I’ve never come across this type of advertising before, so naturally being in front of a computer at the time, I did. The top result was this YouTube video for Dido.

As the result was in the natural results, as opposed to PPC, it’s also very risky in case someone else manages to rank for it as well. It’s also very clever, using natural SEO to display a full length advert on YouTube, promoted via Google, showcased on TV.

Full credit to the marketing company for coming up with this one.

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

Google, Internet

Microsoft now paying people to search

1 Comment

Just what is it with Microsoft and their staggering inability to make a search engine that works? People use Google over Yahoo! and MSN (or Live.com, or whatever the hell it’s called today) because Google gives you the most relevant results to a query. If you’re looking something, you’ll find it by using Google. People don’t use MSN (Live.com) because it throws back completely useless, irrelevant, crap results.

It’s not rocket science, yet Microsoft, in an attempt to get people to use their search engine, are offering free gifts and points.

I just don’t get it. If Microsoft want people to use their search engine, make it work. Make it actually give you the information you’re looking for. Don’t pay people to search, or offer them prizes to use your crap search engine, just make the bloody thing work.

Sadly them seem completely unable to do that, much like so many other so called search engines.

Don’t bother with frills, prizes, paying people or fancy Ajax features, just offer a search engine that gives you results, devoid of spam. Then people will use it.

Google, Internet, SEO

Google PageRank update kicks me again

7 Comments

If I cared about PR (which I don’t) I’d be annoyed that this site has once again received a mauling from Google in terms of PageRank and has been reduced to a PR2.

As I said, I don’t care about PageRank… but, it is bloody annoying considering this site should be a PR5, if it were not for the penalties received in the last 12 months for various activities.

But I don’t care about PageRank, so it’s all good.

Besides, traffic and PageRank are completely unrelated, as rankings within Google have remained unharmed (and in many cases improved) and thus traffic is also high, higher than it’s been for some time. PageRank is purely an ego thing where people like to brag about how much green is in their toolbar. As you know I’m a modest guy (shut it) so don’t care about PageRank.

Unfortunately some advertisers still do though (because they’re imbeciles) and only want PR4 or PR5 minimum sites to promote them.

That’s another story though, and one that revolves around education of online marketing. Plus, did I mention that I don’t care about PageRank?

Internet

Sunday Sport writes about my site

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Lads comic (sorry, newspaper) the Sunday Sport and Daily Sport has found one of my more offensive websites, YourCarIsShit.com. They liked the site (as it’s right up their street) and did a piece on it on their website.

At the time of writing this it’s the front page story! Yay, I made the front page of a tabloid, sort of…. ish.

I wonder if they’d be interested in some of my other sites… I have one that’s even more offensive than the modded car site.

Google, Internet

Computeach reviews?

27 Comments

When I posted about the IT Training company Computeach last year, I was slightly shocked at the number of negative comments the post received from people who had received bad experiences with the company. It’s one of my most commented blog posts.

Just last week however someone commented on the post asking where you can get legitimate reviews of Computeach, so I had a look and found a website that offers Computeach Reviews.

When you search for ‘computeach reviews’ in Google, you’ll see a sponsored link (on Adwords) for a site that offers:

Read real stories and experiences from students of Computeach!

When you click through to the site you’re presented with Computeach Reviews from supposedly real students, however all is not what it seems. The website computeach-reviews.co.uk isn’t a website offering genuine balanced reviews from people who have taken Computeach courses; it’s a website owned by Computeach.

The whois details show thus:

Domain name:
computeach-reviews.co.uk

Registrant:
Andrew Jones

Registrant type:
UK Limited Company, (Company number: 1242854)

Registrant’s address:
University House
Jews Lane
Dudley
West Midlands
DY3 2AH
GB

These are the details for Computeach… interesting isn’t it? If you’re genuinely looking for real reviews for Computeach, you’re better off going to a truly impartial source, such as ciao.co.uk.

It’s important before you spend any money on a product or a learning course that you seek out reviews online from impartial sources, and people who have already experienced what you’re looking for,

Internet

BD Recruitment reply to my post

6 Comments

A while back the recruitment agency BD Recruitment sent out a spam email to every SEO in the North West, with the contact details visible for all of them. A schoolboy error to say the least. After I posted the tale of how they’d done that, I was contacted by BD Recruitment via Linked In.

The message said thus:

Hi Darren,

I saw your little piece on BD Recruitment on Mr Daz. What can I say apart from everything you said was right. However, Sandra is a trainee and didn’t really think about what she was doing with that email, and will certainly not do it again.

I have worked very hard to get BD Marketing to where it is today. We have testimonials from Mediacom, Mindshare, OMD and many of the top agencies in the World. I have placed many very senior SEM specialists in to various successful agencies around the UK and have also placed people that you know personally.

I’m sorry that you have had this experience with BD but I assure you that this will never happen again.

Paul Lewis

Now that’s all fine, but following this BD Recruitment were contacted and asked not to try and poach our staff by contacting them direct. However they have done this again, via a woman named Stephanie Pender from BD Recruitment.

Just what is it about recruitment agencies and their desire to poach staff from businesses, even if they’ve dealt with the business themselves in the past? They’re just ruining relationships they already have.

Paul, thanks for the apology, but do stick to your word and steer clear. Tell Sandra and Stephanie to do the same.