Travel takes care of that.

Bing has announced that it’s about ready to roll out its next generation of upgrades. And if you like Bing now, you’ll love them tomorrow.If you’re like us, you’ve paid attention to Bing’s comeback this year as it introduced a real search engine that actually competes head-to-head with Google. The search results are stellar, the spam has been minimized and the addition of cool features like Twitter results and visual search have been most welcome. Bing promises to only get better and from the looks of things they just might deliver on that promise.To start with, the plans they have for travel search look more than promising. When I want to travel, I want to know fairly early on in my search for flight information just when the best times to fly are and what can I expect to pay for a flight from point A to point B. Bing Travel takes care of that. And I can look it up in a separate vertical from main search so that I don’t have to filter through personal travelogues to find the information about flights that I want.
Even better than that is Bing’s site preview feature. Remember, Google just introduced that feature themselves, but Bing had already done that and did it even better. Nice going, Bing.
Then there’s the integration with social media. Social search, as you know, is going to be the next big battleground. We’ve already said that. But Bing has introduced a way for you to share your search results through social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. A small thing, really, because sites have been doing that for years – but not the search engines. That’s a nice feature and I think all the search engines will begin to incorporate more social features in the coming months. I’m looking forward to this race.

How much you improve your page load time

One of the factors that can seriously affect your on site search engine optimization efforts in a positive way is your website page load time. Interestingly, websites are rarely penalized for having slow load times, but if you increase your page load time you can often see positive results including increased page rankings that will lead to more visitors over time. Also, another reason to have faster load times on your website is user experience. Your site visitors will appreciate it for sure.This is not across the board. It depends a great deal on how much you improve your page load time. If your page already loads about average and you increase the page load speed by just a few nanoseconds, that likely won’t help you. But if your page load speed is a couple of seconds below par and you increase it by a second-and-a-half then that could be a significant factor in future rankings for your targeted keywords.As you can see, there are some variables that operate on page load speed. The idea is to create a faster web. More people today expect faster page load times than ever before. That creates a demand for faster page load times. Therefore, the search engines want to reward those sites that deliver on that demand.
What are some ways you can increase page load time? Here are a few ideas:
Try using fewer photos and videos. If your page is heavily packed with large files like photos and videos, they will cause your load time to slow. Try deleting some from the page.
Use external files. If you have a lot of CSS or JavaScript on a page, you can put it into a separate file and reference that file on your page, increasing your page load time. When a browser tries to read your page it will load the elements that it can find on the page and call out for the external files when it needs them. This increases your page load speed.
Make your images smaller. Large images take up a lot of data space and cause your page to load slower. Make the images smaller and see what happens.
The idea is to streamline your pages as much as possible. The key to faster load times is smaller images and external files. Code streamlining will go a long way to increasing page load times and it could mean an extra nudge in the ranking wars and more people coming to your website.

How much you improve your page load time

One of the factors that can seriously affect your on site search engine optimization efforts in a positive way is your website page load time. Interestingly, websites are rarely penalized for having slow load times, but if you increase your page load time you can often see positive results including increased page rankings that will lead to more visitors over time. Also, another reason to have faster load times on your website is user experience. Your site visitors will appreciate it for sure.This is not across the board. It depends a great deal on how much you improve your page load time. If your page already loads about average and you increase the page load speed by just a few nanoseconds, that likely won’t help you. But if your page load speed is a couple of seconds below par and you increase it by a second-and-a-half then that could be a significant factor in future rankings for your targeted keywords.As you can see, there are some variables that operate on page load speed. The idea is to create a faster web. More people today expect faster page load times than ever before. That creates a demand for faster page load times. Therefore, the search engines want to reward those sites that deliver on that demand.
What are some ways you can increase page load time? Here are a few ideas:
Try using fewer photos and videos. If your page is heavily packed with large files like photos and videos, they will cause your load time to slow. Try deleting some from the page.
Use external files. If you have a lot of CSS or JavaScript on a page, you can put it into a separate file and reference that file on your page, increasing your page load time. When a browser tries to read your page it will load the elements that it can find on the page and call out for the external files when it needs them. This increases your page load speed.
Make your images smaller. Large images take up a lot of data space and cause your page to load slower. Make the images smaller and see what happens.
The idea is to streamline your pages as much as possible. The key to faster load times is smaller images and external files. Code streamlining will go a long way to increasing page load times and it could mean an extra nudge in the ranking wars and more people coming to your website.

Ahmed Fahour gets stamp of approval

AHMED Fahour has landed "a dream job", but it's not running one of the country's big banks.
The former chief executive of National Australia Bank's local operations, who missed out on the top job to Cameron Clyne, has been appointed chief executive of Australia Post.
And his move back to Melbourne from Bahrain, after less than four months heading up Islamic investment bank Gulf Finance House, is so sudden that yesterday afternoon he still hadn't told his parents.
"The ink is just getting dry on the letter," he told the Herald Sun.
"I'm a bit jetlagged because I only flew in last week. But it's a massive honour for me. This is a truly iconic company. This is a dream job."
Mr Fahour left NAB in February to run the Australian Business Investment Partnership, a government scheme dubbed "RuddBank", which planned to support commercial banks as they refinanced commercial property loans.However, he was soon left without a job because the scheme was voted down by the Senate.
By the end of August, Mr Fahour had relocated to Bahrain but head-hunters were soon circling with the opportunity to succeed Graeme John, who ran Australia Post for 16 years.
It's believed Mr Fahour was also approached by Members Equity Bank earlier this year to potentially fill its still vacant CEO role.
Mr Fahour said yesterday that after completing the "first phase" of his 18-month contract with Gulf Finance -- including an organisational restructure and a $450 million capital raising -- the Australia Post opportunity made sense.
"We got those things done quickly and fortuitously because things haven't turned out in that market very well with the Dubai (debt) problem."
Mr Fahour, who will begin his new job on February 1, said Australia Post was one of the most successful post offices in the world in terms of its efficiency and low delivery prices.
He said the biggest challenge for the public company was how to move its traditional mail business "into the digital world" to compete with mobile phones, the internet and email.
Mr Fahour said yesterday he would focus on sealing international partnerships along the same line as the company's logistics joint venture with China Post, adding that his track record at NAB made him confident of striking an enterprise bargaining agreement with the company's 35,000 workers.
Postal workers in NSW and Queensland said yesterday that they would return to work today to deliver Christmas mail although a mass meeting and rally might still go ahead in Melbourne today.
Mr Fahour said yesterday that a government sell-off of Australia Post was not on his agenda.
And the former banker said he had no plans to expand the postal company's agency banking services.

Dollar down on greenback boost

THE dollar opened weaker today as stronger-than-expected home sales in America raised expectations of a US rate rise by mid-2010.
At 7am AEDT, the dollar was trading at $US0.8770/74, down 0.28 per cent from yesterday's close of $US0.8794/99.
During the offshore session, the local unit traded between $US0.8753 and $US0.8833, according to IRESS data.
Sales of existing homes in the US rose 7.4 per cent to an annual rate of 6.54 million in November from a downwardly revised 6.09 million, the National Association of Realtors said.
It was the highest level since February 2007 and above market forecasts of 6.25 million.
First home buyers taking advantage of government tax credits was a main contributor for the sales increase, the National Association of Realtors said.
Offsetting the strong homes sales were data showing the US economy grew slower in the third quarter of 2009 than originally reported.
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American gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annualised pace of 2.2 per cent in the September quarter, the US Department of Commerce said.
The final estimate for US GDP was slower than the 2.8 per cent rate estimated in November.
GFT Forex director of currency research, Kathy Lien, said the stronger housing data supported the US dollar.
"The US dollar continues to gain traction," Ms Lien said from New York. "Even though we had pretty weak GDP numbers for the third quarter with downward revisions, this was offset by the strong rise in existing homes sales."
Ms Lien said the home sales data indicated the manufacturing and housing sectors in the American economy were "chugging along" and added to market expectations the US Federal Reserve would lift interest rates in mid-2010.
The US Federal Reserve has kept its key funding rate at a target range of zero to 0.25 per cent since December 2008 in a bid to stimulate the American economy.
Higher interest rates can support a currency as investors move funds for better returns.
"That does indicate the US economy is on track, although we had downward revisions in GDP numbers," Ms Lien said.
"Everyone is looking to a Federal Reserve rate hike in June and the housing numbers confirm the belief that the recovery in the US economy is accelerating," she said. "So, traders have to readjust their positions for that."
Ms Lien forecasts the dollar to trade between $US0.8700 and $US0.8835 during the domestic session today.

Britain stuck in recession

BRITAIN remains the last major economy in recession according to official data released overnight, although signs of recovery emerged as the country's output shrank less than previously forecast.
The Office for National Statistics said that British gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 0.2 per cent during the July-September period compared with the previous three-month period.
Although the data was better than a previous ONS estimate of minus 0.3 per cent, analysts' consensus forecast had been for a revision to minus 0.1 per cent.
Britain officially ends 2009 as the only top economy in recession after the eurozone, France, Germany, Japan and the United States have all emerged from a deep downturn that was sparked by the global financial crisis.
"Gross domestic product contracted by 0.2 per cent in the third quarter of 2009," the ONS said in a statement.This has been revised from a fall of 0.3 per cent in the previous estimate of GDP, due to upward revisions to construction partly offset by downward revisions to production and services.
"GDP remains 5.1 per cent lower than the third quarter of 2008," added the statistics office.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government, heading for defeat in next year's general election according to polls, believes that the country has returned to growth during the current fourth quarter.
But markets must wait for the release of official data in late January for confirmation.
"A reasonably strong return to growth in the fourth quarter of 2009 seems all but certain, as retailers benefit from what is looking like a strong Christmas," said Ben Read, an economist at the Centre for Economics and Business Research, an independent consultancy.
Britain's economy, which is struggling with high unemployment and massive public debt caused by the financial crisis, has contracted for six quarters in a row - its longest recession since records began in 1955.
British finance minister Alistair Darling recently admitted that Britain's recession would be deeper than thought - with the economy predicted to shrink 4.75 per cent this year compared with a prior official estimate of 3.5 per cent.
The economy is expected to grow by 1.0-1.5 per cent next year, Mr Darling added, matching his previous forecast.
"Whilst we fully support the view that growth will soon reappear in the UK economy albeit at a very low level we continue to caution on expectations that growth ... will continue throughout 2010," BGC Partners senior strategist Howard Wheeldon said following the release of the data.
"Whilst the rate of job losses in the UK has clearly slowed we have as yet been unable to find sufficient evidence of new investment intention within the corporate sectors that might lead to a period of new job creation and thus a period of renewed and sustainable growth," he added.
There was meanwhile better news for another European nation on Tuesday, as Denmark announced it had emerged from recession in the third quarter thanks to its economy growing by 0.6 per cent compared with the preceding three months.
The technical definition of a recession is two or more quarters running of contraction, on a quarter-by quarter comparison.

NAB in spotlight over 'Berlusconi Bonds'

BANK analysts yesterday questioned National Australia Bank on its decision to hold more than $12.7 billion worth of sovereign bonds issued by Italy's debt-laden government.
The Herald Sun reported yesterday that NAB had taken on the massive portfolio of so-called "Berlusconi Bonds" as collateral under a short-term funding arrangement with another bank that it did not name.
Concern is mounting in financial markets that southern European countries such as Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy may have trouble servicing their bulging international debts because of the deep economic recession in the region.
The risk of governments in these countries defaulting has risen sharply in the past six months, in turn offering high-risk bond investors higher returns.
One of Australia's leading bank analysts, Brian Johnson of CLSA, said NAB's willingness to hold such a high level of Italian bonds reflected its higher risk appetite than the other three major banks.
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"The question here is why is the bank holding so much Italian risk?" Mr Johnson said. "They are getting a higher yield, but it's not riskless."
He noted that, to lift returns in recent years, NAB took on more risk by investing in US sub-prime mortgages, collateralised debt obligations and other complex investments.
These exposures, which were not shown on the bank's balance sheet, delivered strong returns for the bank's shareholders until the global financial crisis forced the group to book losses of more than $1.4 billion.
"In order to ratchet up returns, NAB . . . took on proportionately more risks and these were more poorly invested than its Australian peers," Mr Johnson said. "This (the Italian bonds) is just an extension of that, whereby NAB has a higher tolerance for risk than the other major banks."
A NAB spokesman defended the bank's decision to accept the Italian Government bonds as security on its transaction with the unnamed bank.
"Italian Government debt is considered an appropriate part of any bank's prudential liquid asset portfolio, being widely accepted as a liquid asset in secondary private markets, as well as eligible as collateral at the European Central Bank and the Bank of England for normal market operations," the NAB spokesman said in an emailed response.
The value of the bonds, which are officially known as "Italian Government Reverse Repurchase Transaction Assets", have probably been falling since September when NAB reported them as worth $12.78 billion.
The bank spokesman said any negative movements in the value of the bonds would not be reflected in the bank's profit because they were held as collateral for the short-term funding NAB was providing the unnamed bank.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority is overhauling liquidity rules that apply to local banks, including NAB.
Under proposed reforms, APRA wants bank boards to issue risk tolerance statements for liquidity risks that take account of the quality and diversification of assets taken as collateral.