Tjeerd D. Brenninkmeijer

Google will be using site speed in web search ranking.

A quick website is no longer just a nice-to-have as Google is using a new signal in their search ranking algorithms: site speed. Site speed reflects how quickly a website responds to web requests. Speeding up websites is important, not just to site owners, but to all internet users. Faster sites create happy users and based upon internal Google studies it is proven that when a site responds slowly, visitors spend less time there. Faster sites don't just improve user experience; recent data shows that improving site speed also reduces operating costs. Users place a lot of value in speed — that's why Google decided to take site speed into account in their search rankings. They use a variety of sources to determine the speed of a site relative to other sites.
Increasing speed as part of your search engine optimization can be crucial. Per day millions of searches are performed on the internet by people who are trying to find exactly what they are looking for. A high ranking will enable companies or governmental institutions to get the right information to the customers or civilians. In some cases more than 70% of the website visitors find their information through a google link and if speed is one of the algorithms why not try to make your website as fast as possible.

So this just might be another reason why you need to (re)consider Hippo. Based upon the ranking Computable presented you can conclude Hippo is the fastest, robust and most reliable Content management systems to built your website with in the Netherlands. But I think that also applies to other country's ;-)
In the list provided by IP-label, the speediest website (rijksoverheid.nl) is built on Hippo. IP-Label based its ranking on frequent visits to the mentioned websites. Based upon these visits they constantly measure availability and speed of the homepages and calculate average performance.

So during the slow, warm and lazy summer months take some time to have a look at your websites performance. For some inspiration go to http://code.google.com/speed/ or check out this video (with a good quote at the end "As a product manager you should know that speed is feature number ONE and that your next one is whatever it is."). Not only to improve your ranking in search engines, but also to improve everyone's experience on the Internet and keep your customers happy ;-).

Last week, for the second consecutive year, Hippo sponsored the OSBC - Where Open Source meets Business in downtown San Francisco.

Living up to its reputation as the most business oriented open source conference out there, the OSBC offered a chance to interact with other business leaders of open source companies and discuss how we're able to combine great free for all software with the payroll of a professional organization.

At the second OSBC since Lehman Brothers, this was a good moment to reconfirm what was tentatively said last year: Companies see Open Source technologies as a great way to control cost, and while the rest of IT struggled, Open Source companies continued to grow at a rapid pace.

However, Open Source as a money savings device is no longer a hard sell. It has become such a popular theme, that other advantages don't get the attention they deserve. Clearly part of the mission of the OSBC is to set the record straight and focus on the open source method and technologies as a source of competitive advantage

Meanwhile, in the exhibitor hall, the Hippo team was showing off the latest demos of Hippo CMS 7.3 and a pre release version of Hippo Portal 2, due to be released before the Summer. As an attention grabber, the demos met some stiff competition from the other side of the table where orange hippos were stacked up.

The OSBC was just the first in a row of US conferences for Hippo to sponsor this year. If you have a chance to attend, find us the coming months at CMSExpo in Chicago, Web2.0 in San Franciso, JBoye in Philadelphia and the Gilbane conference in San Francisco.

Keep an eye out for more events to be announced on our website.

Today we will leave the office by taxi to a secret 'kart' location where we will be treated to some (non alcoholic) drinks, some "bittergarnituur" and a presentation by Stefan. Later on we will get a short introduction in how a kart works (probably only useful for myself) and do a training lap.
Three races will follow after the best classed drivers will compete in a grand finale!
The best driver will get a bottle of (very cheap) champagne after which the barbecue will be lit.
We'll have food, beer and laughs until ~8 after which the official programme is over. We'll see what happens afterwards.

And of course the one true winner of the evening will receive the Golden Hippo!

A golden what? A golden Hippo? Yes! a golden Hippo! Not just one, they're like Pokemon, gotta catch'em all! One can 'catch' (i.e. win) a golden Hippo by popular vote (how open source awards should be won). Once every quarter each member of our professional services department can be voted. Clients, Hippo partners & colleagues can vote the 'best' Hippo consultant (and yes, we disabled the option that you can vote for yourself or your chief ;-)

Just like today the golden Hippo will be awarded on a team event (organized by our very own event committee) and it is accompanied with a nice little bonus. This bonus, while nice, should be publicly disregarded by the receiver as insignificant compared to the true honour of receiving a gold coated piece of wood with a rubber hippo on top!

And our partridge in a pear tree? Replaced by a single platinum Hippo which is awarded at the end of each year to the true master of the Golden Hippos. This should be considered as an even more important cheap statue :-)