The Fubra Blog
Our new web site and where we are at in 2007
Our web site was getting very, very old and so we have decided to re-vamp it a bit so that it gives people a bit more of an idea about what we actually do.
I am ashamed to say that we had kept our old web site for so long since it did not really describe our company and lead most visitors to believe that we are a web design consultancy. We got asked frequently if we could help with people’s internet ideas and it was my job to explain that I was sorry but our current web site is a bit old and we no longer do any web development or consultancy work for clients.
The response was mixed some people said ‘ok thanks anyway’ and others got pretty angry! So hopefully our new site, while it still has a long way to go, gives people a bit more of a taster of what we actually do.
Our mission at the moment is to build up a base of advertising clients who will pay us to appear on our network of web sites and make sure that we use the money that they pay us to make better web sites and improve the sites we already have by adding new features.
You might notice a lot of our sites are not yet launched even though they are on our web site with logos. This is really so that you can get more of an idea of the bigger picture at our company. We are intending to build a lot more web sites and it’s important to me that people who visit the site realise the size of our ambitions.
At the moment we are running 55 web sites that receive over 3 million visits per month generating 36 million page impressions, there are approaching 2 million subscribers to our central login database, Fubra Passport, and 96% of our visitors are based in the UK and aged between 21 and 70.
We expect that 2007 will be our big year and we will start to create a household name in the UK but we have got a lot of hard work ahead and a long way to go so wish us luck and if you like any of our sites tell your friends about them!
Google PHP API Documentation
In case anyone didn’t know, there is actually now an open source library for PHP to interact with Google Adwords API. So, to save you reinventing the wheel check out this google php api.
ADSL2+ trials in the UK
Now that Fubra Limited has obtained RIPE membership, we are a step closer to become a full ISP and can now confirm that we are investigating the possibility of trialing an ADSL2+ service in the Farnborough and Aldershot areas.
Anyone who lives in those areas and would be interested in signing up to this pilot ADSL2+ service should contact paul@fubra.com.
The birth of a map revolution
Since Google launched their maps website at the beginning of this year, developers all over the world have been “hacking” together their own interpretation of the map system, plotting everything from chicago crime scenes to farnborough hotels on top of the google map interface. At the time there was a bit of mystery as to how google would react to hundreds of third parties using their system for free.
However, as of the end of June, Google announced a Google Maps API, which effectively means that they are officially endorsing the use of their maps by third parties.
Strategically, this is an utterly brilliant move by Google. By embracing the developer community, and making their map system both free and extremely easy to implement into other sites, they will soon be the most widely used map service on the web. They will go from not having a map service, to become the world’s leading online map service in less than a year. If that isn’t a smart move, I don’t know what is!
Google Adwords Professional
Wow I did it, I passed the test and now that makes me a Google Adwords Qualified Professional. Technically that means we know lots about adwords and how to use it effectively. It was actually quite good because I learned a few new things I didn’t already know like how adrank works (Max CPC * CTR * Relevance?).