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According to CBS Money Watch reporter Laura Vanderkam, emails sent from 6–7 am are about three times more likely to be opened than emails sent at 4 pm. This is because when people come into work, they read email starting with the first unopened emails. By contrast, at the end of the day, any given email is not only buried in an pile of other emails, but as people prepare to leave the office anything marginal or not related to the task at hand will just be deleted or ignored. Vanderkam actually recommends sending email on Sunday afternoon: many people check email on Sundays on their smartphone and not too many messages come in making it more likely to be read. But, even if it’s not read, it’s still likely to be top of the pile on Monday morning!

Read the full article here.

Have you seen the new housekeeping methods that Facebook have come up with? If not then read on at http://newsroom.fb.com/default.aspx

What has the internet done to us? No more Encyclopaedia Britannica after 244 years of publishing http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17362698 The world is online.

Perth has been chosen by the Queen along with two other cities in the UK, Chelmsford and St Asaph, to gain City status for the Diamond Jubilee. Read more here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17364651

The European Pipe Band Championships are coming to our area for three years starting from 2013, what a boost to the local economy. For more information and how the Grant Park in Forres won the bid, read more here http://news.stv.tv/scotland/north/300494-more-than-100-pipe-bands-to-descend-on-scots-town/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Designers are still churning out websites today that the public cannot navigate through on their smartphones or tablets. Flash is the biggest culprit. Does this matter – yes it does if you rely on your website for business and bookings. Have a look at the article from the following link where you will see just how important it is to make sure your website is compatible for the modern devices out there:  http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Online-Travel/Mobile-bookings-expected-to-triple-in-2013/

Love it or hate it, Social Media is here to stay and has a very important role to play in all travel trends. It is being used in every marketing activity to increase bookings and Hoteliers around the globe are incorporating Social Media in their marketing strategies. More information at http://www.hotel-industry.co.uk/2012/02/how-to-manage-social-media/

According to this article http://www.scotsman.com/business/media-and-leisure/olympics_already_boosting_scots_tourism_businesses_1_2093436  yes they are! London is proving very expensive to stay in for an extended period of time so the public are looking for alternatives after they have seen their event. Also, other ways into the UK are proving popular avoiding any potential chaos at Heathrow and Gatwick making Glasgow and Edinburgh airports a good alternative.  According to this article, bookings for areas such as the Highlands and the Outer Hebrides are up some 300 percent this year from a baseline in the low thousands. Positive news for 2012!

Two Scottish cities are among the top five destinations for breaks in the UK. Edinburgh ranked second in its list of the top 10 places customers had booked to visit in January. The capital was only beaten by London, which took the top spot. Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, came in fourth, behind third-placed Manchester. Hopefully, the increase in visitors to Scotland will extend beyond Edinburgh and Glasgow and the businesses further North will also benefit. Please follow this link to read the full article: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5h-loibVQBoMxYusl_vARcfy2fD3g?docId=N0012001326977830780A

Google’s search results are undergoing their most radical transformation ever, as a new “Search Plus Your World” format begins rolling out today. It finds both content that’s been shared with you privately along with matches from the public web, all mixed into a single set of listings.

The change is live now, though not everyone will see it until it fully launches over the next few days. It’s only for those signed-in to Google.com and searching in English.

The new system will perhaps make life much easier for some people, allowing them to find both privately shared content from friends and family plus material from across the web through a single search, rather than having to search twice using two different systems.

However, Search Plus Your World may cause some privacy worries, as private content may appear as if it is exposed publicly (it is not). It might also cause concern by making private content more visible to friends and family than those sharing may have initially intended.

The new format and features will also likely cause Google to come under renewed fire that it is leveraging its search engine to favor its own content and crowd out competitors.