And dictionaries, currency exchanges and all you other useful free tools. You can now no more send me to the pit of your murky online lair somewhere miles below ‘the fold’ before I find the answer to my questions (another one there, Q&A sites, aha!).

Nope, no more. Now that Google has realised how many milliseconds you take away from me with your location based ads for girls in Leeds and belly tucks in Bradford. You will soon fall from your lofty perches unless you change your ways and make my life easier!

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2012/01/page-layout-algorithm-improvement.html

It can only be a good thing (unless of course those ads are for Google?!)

Most of the UK will be making snowballs instead of working today, or just maybe hiting the world wide web for some shopping

What does this mean for the economy?

Buses can’t get anywhere, the post will be delayed, schools are shut, people won’t get to work and productivity will be as bad as on Tyneside when an ex-Real Madrid and England striker signs for Newcastle.

Not to mention the high streets who will have to endure wet umbrellas and slushy entrances all for a handful of bedraggled punters who braved the conditions or are stuck in the town centre.

All round, snow days are probably slow days, economically.

But I wonder whether the same applies to online retailers? Surely a day when many people are usually cooped up at work shouts opportunity to those flexible enough to move on their feet. There’s potentially a lot of people at home today with a little more time to turn the PC on whilst the kids are watching the box and have a browse for the replacements for those unwanted presents or a holiday to get away from all this weather?

If you’ve got some spare budget and are willing to take a punt, I’d be tempted to take a gamble and capitalise on this theory, ensuring PPC visibility, a burst of display and maybe even a well-worded, quick-thinking email, and maybe just turn a slow snow day into a blizzard of online enquiries or sales.

Just over a week ago I attended the British Guild of Beer Writers dinner in London and put faces to the names of many bloggers and beery folk I’ve met through the internet over the last 6 months, spending a day rambling around London with some great people and seeing some new friends pick up well deserved awards.

At work we scooped a DMA award for the Best Online Display Advertising for our campaign for Republic, fighting off competition from some really fantastic campaigns, brands and agencies (you can see the best online display ads here on the link above)

Rick Harrison who works with me at AWA also scooped the top prize in the National Trust and Sunday Times photo competition for his shot of a walker descending a steep path in the Lake District. I’m deeply jealous of his new Nikon D90 but my claim to fame is that the winning shot was actually taken on my camera (albeit by Rick before he sold it to me!)

Golden Twit Award commendations for Real Ale Reviews: I'm a commended social media practitioner now I guess!

And to top it all off, I recently found out that my beer reviews blog, Real Ale Reviews, had won two commendations from the inaugural Golden Twit Awards organised by The Drum magazine.

The award makes the Real Ale Reviews team particularly proud because of the categories it is in: ‘Writing’ and ‘Information Service’. These nicely describe two of the pillars that the blog was built on – to help add to the great beer blogging and writing that is out there, but to also make beer reviews accessible to a wide audience and to provide useful information.

I’m hoping that the next few weeks and months will be just as exciting, although there’s a lot to live up to now!