I recently posted on cre8asite about BOTW moving in local search, one of the moderators posted the below stats - I thought I might need to refer to the later so I posted it here.

Compete - Directory Search Market Share by US Visitors for July 2008
Business.com:...5,829,592
DMOZ.org:.........1,324,690
Chiff.com:.............490,601
Joeant.com:..........302,678
BOTW...................292,889
Ezilon.com:...........115,185

Quantcast - Directory Search Market Share by US Visitors for July 2008
Business.com:.........6,083,709
Dir.yahoo.com:....... 3,132,742
DMOZ.org:...............2,096,178
Chiff.com:.................. 634,728
Joeant.com:................578,613
Directory.google.com..355,822
Ezilon.com:.................157,681
BOTW...........................61,100

Billed as the slowest car ever built the Audi R8 is now just over 1 year old and this year there will only 750 built for the UK.

The R8 is built in Neckarsulm in Germany at a rate of 20 per day. So getting hold of this stunning car is incredibly difficult. That said we at BestCarFinder have had theirs on order for sometime now and should be expecting it's arrival on the 1st of September ready for the 58 plate!!

As such we have put some great leasing deals together specifically on our own STOCK Audi R8 4.2 Quattro Coupe 2dr. This is a real rarity for anyone wanting the R8.

I'm not taking credit for all these, some I found and maybe adapted over the past few months but have found them invaluable - So thought I would pass them on for everyone else to use.

Convert BBCode Function

    public string BBCode(string strTextToReplace)
    {
        ////Define regex 
        Regex regExp;
        ////Regex for URL tag without anchor 
        regExp = new Regex(@"\[url\]([^\]]+)\[\/url\]");
        strTextToReplace = regExp.Replace(strTextToReplace, "<a href=\"$1\">$1</a>");
        ////Regex for URL with anchor 
        regExp = new Regex(@"\[url=([^\]]+)\]([^\]]+)\[\/url\]");
        strTextToReplace = regExp.Replace(strTextToReplace, "<a href=\"$1\">$2</a>");
        ////Image regex 
        regExp = new Regex(@"\[img\]([^\]]+)\[\/img\]");
        strTextToReplace = regExp.Replace(strTextToReplace, "<img src=\"$1\" />");
        ////Bold text 
        regExp = new Regex(@"\[b\](.+?)\[\/b\]");
        strTextToReplace = regExp.Replace(strTextToReplace, "<b>$1</b>");
        ////Italic text 
        regExp = new Regex(@"\[i\](.+?)\[\/i\]");
        strTextToReplace = regExp.Replace(strTextToReplace, "<i>$1</i>");
        ////Underline text 
        regExp = new Regex(@"\[u\](.+?)\[\/u\]");
        strTextToReplace = regExp.Replace(strTextToReplace, "<u>$1</u>");
        ////Font size
        regExp = new Regex(@"\[size=([^\]]+)\]([^\]]+)\[\/size\]");
        strTextToReplace = regExp.Replace(strTextToReplace, "<span style=\"font-size: $1px\">$2</span>");
        ////Font color
        regExp = new Regex(@"\[color=([^\]]+)\]([^\]]+)\[\/color\]");
        strTextToReplace = regExp.Replace(strTextToReplace, "<span style=\"color: $1\">$2</span>");
        return strTextToReplace;
    }

Strip HTML From String Function

    public string StripHTMLFromString(string htmlText)
    {
        return Regex.Replace(htmlText, "<[^>]*>", string.Empty);
    }

Count Words In A String Function

    public int WordCount(string Text)
    {
        string tmpStr;

        tmpStr = Text.Replace("\t", " ").Trim();
        tmpStr = tmpStr.Replace("\n", " ");
        tmpStr = tmpStr.Replace("\r", " ");

        while (tmpStr.IndexOf("  ") != -1)
            tmpStr = tmpStr.Replace("  ", " ");

        return tmpStr.Split(' ').Length;
    }

As a big ASP.NET advocate, I'm loving the recent surge in open source / free ASP.NET applications that are hitting the web - And what's more because Microsoft have given us some great building foundations with the frameworks like the ASP.NET Membership Provider, a lot of these open source programs are very high quality!  More so than some of the paid applications.

I thought it would be a good idea to create an ever growing list of all the open source ASP.NET applications I could find - Obviously I haven't had chance to download or install every application so I can't vouch for them (The only ones I have used I'll mark with a *)

e-Commerce / Online Shopping Carts

1. Dash Commerce - http://dashcommerce.org
2. Dot Shopping Cart - http://www.dotshoppingcart.com/
3. VevoCart - http://www.vevocart.com/
4. e-Shop ASP.NET - http://fkn1337.com/e-shop-aspnet-mysql-script/
5. PressTopia Shop - http://presstopia.com/dnn/Default.aspx?tabid=236 More...

I had the challenge recently of creating an A5 flyer that we could use to hand out round local business parks, I say challenge in the fact that anyone in this industry knows how 'touchy' people and businesses can be when approaching them about their website.

Because a lot of small businesses get friends or associates to design and build their website, or they have had a lot of input in the design and functionality - Even with the most innocent suggestions of improving the site to help the business, people tend to jump straight into a defensive mode and trying to have a conversation about improving anything is almost impossible!

So to try and get our name about, my mission was to create a double sided flyer that:

1. Caught peoples eye
2. Instantly let the person know what type of service we are offering
3. Wasn't pushy but got to the point
4. Came across as friendly and warm More...

I have been with PayPal for some time and use PayPal payments pro for a number of website's, recently I needed to speak to someone about my account and spent 45 MINUTES trying to get through their stupid electronic phone system.

So to save anyone else in the UK trying to get through to PayPal here are a couple of numbers and a little tip:

0870 730 1880

0870 730 1881

TIP!!!

Now to actually get through and speak to a HUMAN..  Keep saying MAIN MENU until you get the main menu and then say AGENT this transfers you straight to a PayPal agent!

I know everyone and their uncle does these types of lists, but as I have about 4 zillion bookmarks I thought I would collate them here and maybe the list could be useful to other people.  I find the design part of web design the hardest and takes me the longest (Being an in-training programmer ) so these types of site are great and give me a lot of inspiration and help with colour matching / schemes.

1. http://cssremix.com/
2. http://cssmania.com/
3. http://www.cssheaven.com/
4. http://www.cssbeauty.com/
5. http://bestwebgallery.com/
6. http://screenfluent.com/
7. http://cssprincess.com/
8. http://www.cssclip.com/
9. http://www.csselite.com.ar/
10. http://www.piepmatzel.de/
11. http://www.webdesignerwall.com/
12. http://www.studio7designs.com/
13. http://www.thedesignedtree.com/
14. http://www.professionalontheweb.com/
15. http://freelanceswitch.com/working/34-places-to-get-design-inspiration-online-and-off/
16. http://www.designbyfront.com/portfolio/index.html
17. http://www.flickr.com/photos/splat/sets/981332/
18. http://www.stare-at.com/
19. http://www.n3o.co.uk/portfolio.aspx
    
20. http://www.clearleft.com/portfolio/