| HEADLINE: | INTERNATIONAL ADDRESSES |
| November 2005 | Physical addresses for bead stores outside Australia, Canada and the U.S. in the International Retail Bead Store index (Blue Pages) are being checked for proper format. At GuideToBeadwork.com, the term ‘zip’ is used generically and refers to ANY postal code used in the physical addressing for ANY country. It is the American (U.S.) term for our postal code system. It is short, unambiguous (unlike ‘PC’) and, hopefully will not be too confusing for international visitors. No changes are planned in how it is used at GTB at this time.
The bead store list began in 1996 with about 100 stores in only the three western states (CA, OR and WA) and I never dreamed I’d need to deal with proper physical addressing in Nepal (for instance) but that day has come. There are several different major formats which have been implemented but the changeover will be an ongoing process for a while. The region most affected is the United Kingdom which uses counties in its addressing format. |
| HEADLINE: | Washington and New York Explode! |
| October 2005 | Both Washington state and New York exceeded 100 stores last month. As a result, both are receiving their own City Index in the same format as California’s. These retail store listing (Blue) pages get pretty large and unwieldy when they have so many listings. The Washington City Index is already posted and the New York Index will be posted in early November 2005. We hope you enjoy these two new City Index additions and that they improve your ‘finding a bead store’ experience.
The ‘by Store Name’ and ‘by Zip Code’ pages remain unchanged and you can even navigate to the old ‘by City’ pages, but the only links to them are on the ‘by Store’ and ‘by Zip’ pages. |
| HEADLINE: | Google Search comes to GuideToBeadwork.com |
| August 2005 | You can now search JUST GuideToBeadwork.com using Google technology. You can also search the entire web from any Google search box at GTB (like the one on this page). Either way you will be presented with some ad links that are NOT GuideToBeadwork.com (even with a GTB-only site search, but it is only a few ads and generally its easy to tell them apart from the search results).
More information about Search options can be found at the Site Search Engine Page. We sincerely hope you find that the addition of Google search enhances your experience of the site. We are anxious to hear your opinion! |
| HEADLINE: | GuideToBeadwork.com welcomes Google AdSense |
| August 2005 | GuideToBeadwork.com began beta-testing Google AdSense in mid-August. Our main goal is to enhance the quality of your bead browsing. After an initial trial period, we are currently satisfied that the ads delivered by Google are indeed mostly relevant and we hope they will provide an even better experience for you at GTB. Please do not click on Google ads solely to support GTB. Well-intentioned though it may be, it doesn’t help anyone in the long run and we sincerely ask that you refrain from doing it.
We have chosen NOT to exert any control over what kinds of ads are presented by Google. We feel pretty confident at this time about Google’s ability to match appropriate content and are allowing them to choose the ads presented unfiltered by GTB. Google exhibits strong policies against inappropriate content which we agree with and encourage you to view at their website. When Google is unable to provide relevant ads, its stated policy is to provide Public Service announcements or an alternate ad comprising our old Barnes and Noble/Amazon links which are still active. We sincerely hope you find that the addition of Google enhances your experience of the site. We are anxious to hear your opinion. Thanks in advance. –Nick (the webmaster) |
| HEADLINE: | BANNERS at GuideToBeadwork.com |
| July 2005 | The free banner program at GuideToBeadwork.com (begun in early 2001) is officially discontinued. There are approximately fifty current free banner holders. Most of these are also currently retail bead stores with a listing in the International Retail Bead Supplier Index (aka Blue Pages). All current free banner holders will retain their free banners indefinitely (as long as unclaimed banners remain available) with one exception.
Listed bead stores with free banners will lose their banner if they allow their active-textlink fees to lapse. This is currently the only penalty for non-payment (other than link deactivation). No information within a listing changes and all Blue Pages listings remain free to all and always will. |
| HEADLINE: | PAYPAL is ENABLED at GuideToBeadwork.com |
| March 2005 | Payments may now be accomplished through PayPal for both Retail (Active Text Linking) and Wholesale (Yellow Pages Listing) services at GTB. Please note that a small handling fee is added when utilizing PayPal which may be avoided by sending a check instead. |
| HEADLINE: | YELLOW PAGES – Price Increase Alert |
| February 2005 | Quarterly and yearly prices change to $50 and $150 respectively as of March, 2005. Thanks to all Yellow Pages clients for their faithful support the last three years almost a third of our current wholesalers have been with us all three years !! |
2005 Archive
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