This isn't really a web authoring query as such, but it is web-related
and you lot seem as good a bunch of people as any to ask the following
question....

One of my websites, http://www.britishsurnames.co.uk, has had a
massive increase in traffic this morning. It's an order of magnitude
higher than normal (I've already had more than twice as many pageviews
in a few hours than I would normally get in a whole day), and it's not
bot traffic - it's coming from a wide range of IPs, the logs show the
usual distribution of user-agents and cookie/javascript acceptance is
normal (one of the giveaways of misbehaved bots or screenscrapers is
that they increase traffic but don't send cookies or follow javascript
links). 

However, I have no idea why I'm getting all this extra traffic. My
immediate thought was that I'd been Slashdotted or Dugg or whatever,
but the logs don't show particular referring source. It's all pretty
much the same as it's always been: search engines. There are, though,
a couple of oddities. Firstly, I'm getting a lot more from sources
other than Google. Yahoo and AOL, as well as "own brand" search sites
such as Sky and Virginmedia, are showing up a lot more than usual.
Secondly, the most common search terms this morning seem to be
variations on "surnames website", which doesn't usually feature at the
top of the keyword stats.

My guess, therefore, is that either my site in particular, or the use
of the web for surname research in general, has been featured in the
media today - either a Saturday newspaper, or on breakfast TV this
morning, and this has prompted a lot of people to head for their
computers and start searching. But it's not the newspaper I read, and
I wasn't out of bed early enough to be watching breakfast TV :-)

So, can anyone out there shed some light on it? Has anyone seen a
feature on surname or genealogy research in the media this morning? If
so, what was it, and what paper/channel?

(For the benefit of non-UK readers of aww, this is all UK traffic, so
it must have been the UK media. I apologise for asking a regional
question in a global newsgroup, but I'm there's a sizeable British
contingent here and my hope is that at least one person has seen what
I've missed!)

Mark

<uk.net.web.authoring>
<Mark Goodge>
<Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:22:37 +0100>


> However, I have no idea why I'm getting all this extra traffic.
> 

You could install a chatroom (or create one using bravenet e.g.) and ask 
people why they are visiting your website - and where did they get the 
link or hear about it etc .


-- 
www.phpguestbook.co.uk/phpgb
(the best php guestbook on planet earth)

On Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:22:37 +0100, Mark Goodge wrote:
> One of my websites, http://www.britishsurnames.co.uk, has had a
> massive increase in traffic this morning. [...]
> 
> My guess, therefore, is that either my site in particular, or the use
> of the web for surname research in general, has been featured in the
> media today - either a Saturday newspaper, or on breakfast TV this
> morning, and this has prompted a lot of people to head for their
> computers and start searching. But it's not the newspaper I read, and
> I wasn't out of bed early enough to be watching breakfast TV :-)
> 
> So, can anyone out there shed some light on it? Has anyone seen a
> feature on surname or genealogy research in the media this morning? If
> so, what was it, and what paper/channel?
> 
> (For the benefit of non-UK readers of aww, this is all UK traffic, so
> it must have been the UK media. I apologise for asking a regional
> question in a global newsgroup, but I'm there's a sizeable British
> contingent here and my hope is that at least one person has seen what
> I've missed!)


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7588968.stm


-- 
Safalra (Stephen Morley)

A Colour Picker Widget For JavaScript:
http://www.safalra.com/web-design/javascript/widgets/colour-picker/

On Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:31:03 +0100, Safalra (Stephen Morley) put
finger to keyboard and typed:

>On Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:22:37 +0100, Mark Goodge wrote:
>> One of my websites, http://www.britishsurnames.co.uk, has had a
>> massive increase in traffic this morning. [...]
>> 
>> My guess, therefore, is that either my site in particular, or the use
>> of the web for surname research in general, has been featured in the
>> media today - either a Saturday newspaper, or on breakfast TV this
>> morning, and this has prompted a lot of people to head for their
>> computers and start searching. But it's not the newspaper I read, and
>> I wasn't out of bed early enough to be watching breakfast TV :-)
>> 
>> So, can anyone out there shed some light on it? Has anyone seen a
>> feature on surname or genealogy research in the media this morning? If
>> so, what was it, and what paper/channel?
>> 
>> (For the benefit of non-UK readers of aww, this is all UK traffic, so
>> it must have been the UK media. I apologise for asking a regional
>> question in a global newsgroup, but I'm there's a sizeable British
>> contingent here and my hope is that at least one person has seen what
>> I've missed!)
>
>
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7588968.stm

Hmm. Could be that, I suppose. Especially since the site linked from
that report is either painfully slow or not working at all.

Mark

At 15:20:59 on Sat, 30 Aug 2008, Mark Goodge 
 wrote in 
:

>On Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:31:03 +0100, Safalra (Stephen Morley) put
>finger to keyboard and typed:

>>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7588968.stm
>
>Hmm. Could be that, I suppose. Especially since the site linked from
>that report is either painfully slow or not working at all.

Definitely so, I'd say.  There was an item about it on Radio 4 this 
morning while I was having my shower.  World surname distribution: Welsh 
names in Patagonia, that sort of thing.
-- 
Molly Mockford
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety - Benjamin Franklin
(My Reply-To address *is* valid, though may not remain so for ever.)

On Sat, 30 Aug 2008 19:40:34 +0100, Molly Mockford put finger to
keyboard and typed:

>At 15:20:59 on Sat, 30 Aug 2008, Mark Goodge 
> wrote in 
>:
>
>>On Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:31:03 +0100, Safalra (Stephen Morley) put
>>finger to keyboard and typed:
>
>>>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7588968.stm
>>
>>Hmm. Could be that, I suppose. Especially since the site linked from
>>that report is either painfully slow or not working at all.
>
>Definitely so, I'd say.  There was an item about it on Radio 4 this 
>morning while I was having my shower.  World surname distribution: Welsh 
>names in Patagonia, that sort of thing.

Yes, if it was on the radio (and possibly breakfast news on TV) as
well then that makes it much more likely - people will have heard the
report but not noted the web address, then gone to their favourite
search engine to look for it but ended up at my site instead as the
one in the report is too new (and too badly designed for search
engines) to get a decent ranking. 

Ah well. I just hope Google don't think that all the extra Adsense
clicks are iffy. 

Mark
-- 
My rather pointless blog: http://mark.goodge.co.uk
My less pointless stuff: http://www.good-stuff.co.uk

In uk.net.web.authoring message <6ilib4t4hbsj4jabsrtic8rjarnooj517m@news
.markshouse.net>, Sat, 30 Aug 2008 15:20:59, Mark Goodge
 posted:

>>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7588968.stm
>
>Hmm. Could be that, I suppose. Especially since the site linked from
>that report is either painfully slow or not working at all.

Or <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2648378/Whats-in-a-name-A-
great-deal-say-researchers.html>; it may also be in the printed paper.

-- 
 (c) John Stockton, near London. *@merlyn.demon.co.uk/?.?.Stockton@physics.org
 Web  <URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/> - FAQish topics, acronyms, & links.
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