In a previous post I mentioned that one of my sites, XML-Sitemaps according to Alexa was the 6707th most popular website in the world. Now I know this isn’t true as I know exactly how many visitors this site gets a day. I also have other websites which receive 5 x the amount of daily visitors yet rank between 50,000 and 60,000.

So why is my site with less visitors showing such popularity? My guess would be that the majority of people who have the Alexa Toolbar installed which collects the data are webmasters who are interested in seeing what their Alexa rank is. As my site XML-Sitemaps is geared towards webmasters this really makes a nonsense of the figures quoted as it isn’t representative of your average surfer.

Apart from the Alexa Rank figures the toolbar provides a convenient search box so you can search the internet without having to go to Google, etc, first. Now this used to be okay when Alexa was using search results powered by Google but recently they changed and now there search results are powered by Windows Live. If there was ever a reason to delete the Alexa Toolbar this would be it.

I’m sorry but Windows Live as a search engine just isn’t cutting it for me. I’m sure they are trying hard but for me its a waste of time. I’ll give you an example:

Searching for “free ringtones” (without the quotes) 5 of the top 10 results (including the top 2) are disabled blogger accounts presumably as they were spam pages designed to fool search engines, another 1 is a disabled homestead page, presumably disabled for the same reason as the blogger pages, the 3rd result is another disabled domain which says “Domain deleted – reason abuse”, another 2 are made for adverts pages which only have adverts on which you can click which just leaves 1 genuine website left.

At least with Google generally I find at least 9 of the top 10 results are genuine sites and the ones that do slip through are normally removed quite quickly.

It makes you wonder how many people will now delete their Alexa Toolbar because of this. It might be the only people left using it are the webmasters to check on their Alexa rank which is only going to make their figures even more unrepresentative of the general surfers.

Okay so I’m reading the local newspaper and see an advert from Thames Water reminding us that England is in crisis because of the drought! Thames Water which supplies the area I live in imposed a hose pipe and sprinkler ban on April 3rd 2006. Anyone who is caught breaking this ban could face a fine of up to £1000.

Thames Water has now applied to the government for a drought order to further restrict the use of non essential water.

If granted under the Drought Direction 1991 the following activities will be banned under the order:

(a) the watering, by hosepipe, sprinkler or other similar apparatus, of:-

• gardens (other than market gardens), including lawns, verges and other landscaped areas;
• allotments;
• parks; or
• any natural or artificial surfaces used for sport or recreation, whether publicly or privately owned;

(b) the filling (whether wholly or partially) of privately owned swimming pools, other than:-

• pools designed to be used in the course of a programme of medical treatment;
• the filling of pools where necessary in the course of their construction;

(c) the filling (whether wholly or partially) of ornamental ponds other than fish ponds;

(d) the operation of mechanical vehicle washers, whether automatic or not;

(e) the washing of road vehicles, boats, railway rolling stock or aircraft for any reason other than safety or hygiene;

(f) the cleaning of the exterior of buildings, other than windows;

(g) the cleaning of windows by hosepipe, sprinkler or other similar apparatus;

(h) the cleaning of industrial premises or plant for any reason other than safety or hygiene;

(i) the operation of ornamental fountains or cascades, including those where water is recycled;

(j) the operation, in relation to any building or other premises, of any cistern which flushes automatically, during any period when those premises are wholly or substantially unoccupied.

Now I live right on a lake and since the original hose pipe ban was put in place I have never seen the water level so high. At one point I was beginning to wonder whether we were going to need sandbags put outside the house to stop the flooding. We are now almost at the end of July which has seen the highest recorded temperatures ever in the UK and even now although the water level has gone down it is still quite high which makes me think where has all the water gone to cause this drought.

Thames Water’s advert in the paper it warns “Using a bucket and sponge to wash your car instead of a hosepipe could save you a £1,000 fine and 125 litres of water”.

What they don’t tell you is according to OFWAT Thames Water has the highest water leakage figure of all water companies loosing 895 million litres of water a day, 253 litres of water per property per day. So if Thames Water fixed all their leaks that would be enough water to wash your car twice everyday!

Now I am not particularly bothered about the hosepipe ban. I’m not a keen gardener and I don’t wash my car (for £5.00 you can drive down the road and have it washed and dried by hand for you) but as customers we are forced to conserve water facing huge fines if we don’t because Thames Water can’t fix their leaks quick enough. Is that fair?