I've made another tweak to the Travel Notes design and should probably call it Travel Notes 2.10 - as we look forward to 2010.

Hopefully, I won't be tempted to change the look and feel again; at least until we have upgraded all the pages; some going back to version 0.97 - when Travel Notes™ was first launched.

I know, it's embarrassing.

Since our first release, in 1997, there have been many changes in web design and what people expect from their Internet experience.

There is also a lot more competition for viewer loyalty and a lot more noise to sift through; to find the real gems.

Some websites we used to like haven't kept pace, while others have exceeded all expectations.

There's also a lot more e-mail in our inbox and the spam has become ridiculous.

We've also dabbled with database driven content, travel forums and open mailing/discussion lists.

While there were some advantages, the moderation and verifying of all the different forms of user-submitted content just took up too much time. Some sites don't bother to use the power of editorial control, and seem to do quite well, but it's not something that I'm comfortable with.

It takes a keen eye to spot the 'fake reviews' and see through the tricks of cunning marketing hopefuls. Just look at how many 'Press Releases' are around.

Social Media on Travel Notes

Social media has really exploded lately, which is very exciting as I have always embraced the idea of travellers coming together in the form of an online network; having established the 'Network of Travellers' - in The Tropics of Geocities, way back in 1996.

That's why I've now created a Directory of Travel Tweeters on Twitter and will be adding Google's Friend Connect to the newly designed pages on Travel Notes™.

This is a great way for fellow travellers to come together across a large number of websites, so please join us to add your comments.

Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan

This is really something I need to apply to myself more often, and have a new personal work plan to try and help me stay focussed.

Mondays - Africa & Middle East.
Tuesdays - Asia & Oceania.
Wednesdays - Europe.
Thursdays - Latin America & Caribbean.
Fridays - Canada and United States.
Saturdays - General Travel.
Sundays - Travel Articles and Videos.

Of course, 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' so I will continue to travel and connect with friends online; as work can be fun too.

Follow Michel on Twitter - @TravelTweet.

- The logo is the direct link to the Travel Notes homepage; especially useful if you want to run a quick flight search or get to one of our other sections from the front page.

- The pull-down arrow, beside the logo, presents you with a list of toolbar options.


As we improve the toolbar, there's no need to install an 'upgrade'; just refresh the toolbar and you'll be where we are.


Using The Travel Notes Toolbar Search

The quickest way to search is just type your keywords into the search box and use the power of Google.

On the search-returns page, you'll also get links to other search resources we think are useful. No need to type the search terms again, just click the link you want to re-try the search on.

- Alternatively, you could click on the arrow in the search box to select the particular source you want to use, to get to your destination faster.


We'll be adding more regional and country-specific search engines to the list.

The 'Travel Community Search' actually searches across up to ten authoritative travel sites. We can always change the sources we use, if needed.

- To set the search rolling, you can either click Go or 'press enter' on your keyboard.


Highlighting Text

- The highlighter on the toolbar is dimmed by default.

- The highligter glows when you select some text on a webpage, or have something in the search box. Selecting text on the webpage also enters it in the search box.

You can then click on the glowing arrow, to find out how many times the selected text appears on the page.

- Or you can click Go and search for the highlighted term.


Travel, Notes and New

- The 'Travel' menu takes you to our country pages, where you can find all the latest travel notes and related links. There's also an option to 'Add to Travel Notes', right at the top.

- The 'Notes' option allows us to stay in contact with our users and our users to reply to us, right from their browser.

- While the 'New' section keeps you up-to-date with all the latest RSS feeds from some of the best travel articles being written on the Internet.


Radio

- I've already pre-tuned the radio with music stations from around the world.

While we'll be expanding this list, you can also add your own radio stations, or files from your computer, to personalise 'your' radio even more.




Visual Media and Chat

- This is where we have international television, with live streaming, and a collection of travel vidoes.

- The 'Travel Photography' section is for professionally illustrated travel features.

- The online chat opens up in a new browser window. To be honest, we'll need more toolbar downloads for this feature to be a success.


And Finally

- There's only so much we can fit on a toolbar, without it all getting messy and confusing, so tucked away on the right is access to your e-mail notifier settings, pop-up blocker and live weather.

It's also where the 'gadgets' get stored.



The weather symbol is a dynamic weather icon according to the current weather conditions where you are.

As you can see, it was quite cool outside when I took the screen shot.

Click on your dynamic weather icon in the toolbar and you can get quick access to weather conditions for anywhere in the world.

Privacy - Toolbar Help - Toolbar Privacy - Uninstall Instructions

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Toolbar Feedback
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I look forward to your toolbar feedback; especially suggestions for other search engines, radio stations, visual media and gadgets to add - or what's not working and might need deleting.

Go to Download Page - or download the toolbar for your preferred browser direct from here:

Toolbar Download For Internet Explorer

Toolbar Download For Firefox

Technorati: travel, toolbar, search engines, radio, downloads, free

I've been working away behind the scenes on a new feature for the travel community.

Now you can get to your destination faster with the TravelNotes Toolbar.

Download our personalised toolbar for all the latest travel news (from a variety of influential sources), links, features and special discounts; available to toolbar users only.

You can narrow down the millions of Google search returns with our pre-selected 'quality' travel domains (and we're looking at more), or use the full power of Google if you prefer.

Make good use of your time online with quick access to the best in travel, with speciality search engines at your fingertips and a pre-tuned, world radio; where you can also add your own favourite stations or music files.

Our ideal is to give you the toolbar that you not only want, but a toolbar you need, enjoy and just can't be without!

Downloads are available for Internet Explorer and Firefox (Mac users too) and more features are planned; especially when we hear your feedback.

So let me know what you think - straight from the TravelNotes Toolbar itself.

Technorati: travel notes, toolbar

I'd like to apologise for the time it takes for us to get to link submissions. If you want to jump the queue, it's best to pay for the Express Submission service or add some beneficial travel tips.

We're more interested in adding useful content to Travel Notes and updating the material we do have, than just adding thousands of links. And yes, we do have thousands of link submissions waiting in the review folder.

With that said, we're currently updating the Middle East section and will be searching through the link submissions we have for that region.

Technorati: Middle East, link submissions, travel notes

We've finally upgraded the North America section of Travel Notes.



All the North America pages, including Canada and Mexico, have been upgraded and the links checked with Link Alarm. Broken links have been removed, if we didn't find where the old link has moved to.

Run a Free Link Check on Your Website Today!

Choose a state in America to begin your adventures:

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

Of course, we can't keep Travel Notes up to date without you so keep sending us feedback from your latest adventures and tips about your home town.

Happy Holidays!

Technorati: North America, United States

Happy New Year

The picture above was taken on New Year's Day, 2005 in Kosice - Slovakia.

Those of you on the Travel Notes Mailing List will already have received most of this in the e-mail I sent before Christmas but as I'm on the road over the Holiday period, I pre-wrote this to launch on New Year's Day.

What's New For Travel Notes in the Year Ahead?

Firstly, just as I thought we had everything how we wanted it, with the new Travel Notes design, and I started to work on reducing the submitted links in our in-box, I started receiving some feedback that, in select cases, the text on the Travel Notes website was too small.

Of course, we can't design adequately for every browser, screen resolution and operating system combination but I admit, on the larger screen resolution sizes, our font does tend to shrink too much.

Some people also surf with their browser settings changed to alter the font size.

While we won't ever be able to please everybody, I would like things to look better for most visitors looking for travel information and special travel deals on Travel Notes. So I've decided to make a few more subtle changes to correct the balance.

Every page on Travel Notes is still HTML and hard coded (unlike this blog here), with minimum reference to PHP and stylesheets, so it means I'm going to have to update every page again.

Some pages are still looking very tired, holding onto their much older design versions (we'll use the word design lightly here) so I'm going to be very busy in the early part of 2006 trying to paint every page with a uniformed look. And, of course, I still need to get some travelling in occasionally; so please bear with
me.

We've also got some new sections we're planning to add to Travel Notes in the New Year.

We're keeping this under wraps for the moment but one thing we will do is have a special Travel Blogs directory.

This hasn't been launched yet but already my Travel Blogs bookmarks is getting fairly large, so it's time to get them all online and share some of the travel adventures with our visitors.

While we're away..... If you'd like to see some of the places we visited in 2005, the Travel Notes 2006 Wall Calendar is in the shops. Hang it on your wall!

For our regular blog readers (yes it's actually taking off), what would you like to see more of on the Travel Notes Blog in 2006?

I won't be around to moderate comments for a while, so maybe you'd prefer to use the Travel Notes Feedback form.

As always, your feedback is appreciated.