Ugg Trainers - gotta have them!

 Ugg's are not on my personal fashion radar. My daughters wear them like a second skin but they are horrendously expensive in my opinion and I find my eye's water when I have to replace their Uggs which, it's fair to say, is not that often as they do seem to last. I will stick to my FitFlop boots for the winter which are cheaper (though not much) than Uggs and don't scream middle-aged fashion victim with questionable fashion sense at me.

Mukluk boot £145 FitFlop

However I am really really tempted to buy a pair of Ugg trainers as my Converse are literally wearing thin and these are sheepskin-lined so will give me loads of comfort in the summer without socks...

What do you think? Bad idea? Ugg trainers £105.

An update on the Google bar

Two months ago, we announced our plans to roll out a new design for the Google bar. Our goal was to create a beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google. Based on your feedback, we realized there were some elements of the new bar that we could improve, and with that in mind, we’re introducing an updated version that we believe will provide a better experience.

The new design retains many of the feature changes we made in November that proved popular, including a unified search box and Google+ sharing and notifications across Google. The biggest change is that we’ve replaced the drop-down Google menu with a consistent and expanded set of links running across the top of the page.

We'll be rolling out this new version of the Google bar over the next few weeks. In the meantime, we invite you to read about the new design in our Help Center, and send us your feedback.

Posted by Eddie Kessler, Technical Lead

Congratulations to Amit Singhal on his election to NAE

This morning, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced the election of 66 new members, including our very own Amit Singhal, Google Fellow and lead on Google Search. Amit joins a list of nine of us Googlers who have previously been recognized by the NAE: Sergey Brin, Vint Cerf, Jeff Dean, Sanjay Ghemawat, Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, Dick Sites, Ken Thompson and myself.

Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. The Academy recognized Amit for his contributions to information retrieval and search, where Amit has creatively applied and extended the science of information retrieval to new heights that were almost unthinkable when the field was founded. In so doing, he has had a tremendous and beneficial impact on the world with sustained excellence of Google’s search.

Amit was similarly recognized by the Association of Computing Machinery two months ago. I encourage you to read more about his important contributions in our blog post from December. Congratulations to Amit!

Posted by Alfred Spector, VP, Google Research

Preparing your site for a traffic spike

Webmaster level: Intermediate

It’s a moment any site owner both looks forward to, and dreads: a huge surge in traffic to your site (yay!) can often cause your site to crash (boo!). Maybe you’ll create a piece of viral content, or get Slashdotted, or maybe Larry Page will get a tattoo and your site on tech tattoos will be suddenly in vogue.

Many people go online immediately after a noteworthy event—a political debate, the death of a celebrity, or a natural disaster—to get news and information about that event. This can cause a rapid increase in traffic to websites that provide relevant information, and may even cause sites to crash at the moment they’re becoming most popular. While it’s not always possible to anticipate such events, you can prepare your site in a variety of ways so that you’ll be ready to handle a sudden surge in traffic if one should occur:

• Prepare a lightweight version of your site.
  Consider maintaining a lightweight version of your website; you can then switch all of your traffic over to this lightweight version if you start to experience a spike in traffic. One good way to do this is to have a mobile version of your site, and to make the mobile site available to desktop/PC users during periods of high traffic. Another low-effort option is to just maintain a lightweight version of your homepage, since the homepage is often the most-requested page of a site as visitors start there and then navigate out to the specific area of the site that they’re interested in. If a particular article or picture on your site has gone viral, you could similarly create a lightweight version of just that page.
  A couple tips for creating lightweight pages:
• Exclude decorative elements like images or Flash wherever possible; use text instead of images in the site navigation and chrome, and put most of the content in HTML.
• Use static HTML pages rather than dynamic ones; the latter place more load on your servers. You can also cache the static output of dynamic pages to reduce server load.
• Take advantage of stable third-party services.
  Another alternative is to host a copy of your site on a third-party service that you know will be able to withstand a heavy stream of traffic. For example, you could create a copy of your site—or a pared-down version with a focus on information relevant to the spike—on a platform like Google Sites or Blogger; use services like Google Docs to host documents or forms; or use a content delivery network (CDN).
• Use lightweight file formats.
  If you offer downloadable information, try to make the downloaded files as small as possible by using lightweight file formats. For example, offering the same data as a plain text file rather than a PDF can allow users to download the exact same content at a fraction of the filesize (thereby lightening the load on your servers). Also keep in mind that, if it’s not possible to use plain text files, PDFs generated from textual content are more lightweight than PDFs with images in them. Text-based PDFs are also easier for Google to understand and index fully.
• Make tabular data available in CSV and XML formats.
  If you offer numerical or tabular data (data displayed in tables), we recommend also providing it in CSV and/or XML format. These filetypes are relatively lightweight and make it easy for external developers to use your data in external applications or services in cases where you want the data to reach as many people as possible, such as in the wake of a natural disaster.

We’d love to hear your tips and tricks for weathering traffic spikes—come join us in our Webmaster Help Forum.

Posted by Susan Moskwa, Webmaster Trends Analyst

Add a Bobble and Spread Some Warmth...

I love to knit but I never have time – doesn’t stop me from loving hand-knitted sweaters, scarves and hats though and I love them even more when they are produced to raise funds and awareness for a truly great cause.

Knitwear label Grannies, Inc. has designed a limited edition hat to raise money for Age UK’s Bobble Day (Friday 10^thFebruary) – the annual fundraising event which urges Brits to dig out their brightest winter woollies and dress them with fluffy Age UK bobbles to raise funds to help keep older people warm and well in winter.

Lovingly crafted by grannies in the UK, the official Bobble Day hat in vibrant orange, yellow and pink, with an oversized bobble (or pom pom) on top, is made from 100% British spun merino wool yarn. The limited edition hat is available exclusively from Grannies, Inc, costing £35, with £8 going directly to Age UK’s Spread the Warmth campaign.

Bobble Day aims to highlight the plight of people in later life during the colder months, as over 200 older people die needlessly every day in winter because of the effects of cold weather. Age UK's Bobble Day is part of the Charity's annual Spread the Warmth campaign, which aims to make winter warmer for 360,000 older people by providing information, advice and practical services. These include getting warm and nutritious meals to older people, helping to keep homes warm and giving free information and advice 365 days a year.

  

Please help Age UK Spread the Warmth this winter. Make a donation simply by calling 0800 169 87 87 or visiting Age UK. You can show support for Bobble Day by turning your Facebook profile picture all woolly with the new Knit Me app at http://on.fb.me/knitmeapp.

Going gothic with bestselling author Anne Rice

Bestselling Southern American author Anne Rice is coming to Google headquarters to discuss her latest book, The Wolf Gift, on Friday, February 24 at 10am PT. One of the most popular authors of contemporary fiction, Rice has bewitched readers with her vampire chronicles, tales of the Mayfair Witches and other metaphysical gothic fiction for more than thirty years. Submit your question online between now and Feb 23 at midnight PT, and it could be asked during the Interview with the Vampire—we mean, the interview with Anne Rice. To watch the live broadcast, tune in to the Authors@Google YouTube channel on February 24 at 10am PT. If you miss it, the recording will be posted in its entirety after the interview is over. For more information on Anne Rice and her new book, read the full post on the Google Books blog.

Herself Silk Scarves come to Matches.com

I'm always on the look-out for new accessories that are not just here-today, gone-tomorrow in terms of their style. If I am paying a bit more for a scarf or gloves I want to know I will get more than a season's wear out of them. That is why I love this new label to come to Matches Fashion. Herself, designed to complement the illustrative magazine of the same title, is a range of pure silk scarves featuring tropical and big cat designs that leap out. Brilliant colours and bold geometrics make a statement that will liven up your Spring wardrobe no end. I am tempted to get more than just one if I'm completely honest as I have fallen in love with them all! Herself from Matches Fashion, £149 each.

Bird of Paradise

Fantasia

Panther Chain

Tancredi Leo