It is useful for an SEO to check from time to time which Australian organisational websites are considered by Google’s ranking algorithm to be the best. Best in this context means trust and authority. These sites show good toolbar PageRank and have quality backlinks. Well done to their webmasters!

According to a Google.com search for “www” and limiting it to .org.au sites, here is Google’s verdict:

1. Standards Australia
2. Australian Computer Society
3. Beyond Blue
4. A C O S S
5. Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia
6. PBS FM
7. Oxfam Australia
8. Australian Copyright Council
9. Heart Foundation
10. Australian Red Cross
11. Bicycle NSW
12. FBi Radio
13. Australian Institute of Refrigeration Air Conditioning and Heating
14. Lungnet
15. Sydney Festival 2008
16. Lifeline Australia
17. Ian Potter Foundation
18. WSC
19. Engineers Australia
20. Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia
21. Alzheimers Australia
22. Vision Australia
23. The Cancer Council
24. AusCERT
25. ACF
26. Australian Psychological Society
27. Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
28. Zoos Victoria
29. Bayside Health
30. Triple R FM
31. Black Dog Institute
32. C31
33. Greening Australia
34. Amnesty International Australia
35. WWF Australia
36. 3CR Community Radio
37. Royal College of Nursing, Australia
38. National Prescribing Service Limited
39. Australian Labor Party
40. The Australia Institute
41. Quit Victoria
42. MEAA
43. Australian Drug Foundation
44. St Vincent de Paul Society Australia
45. Phillip Island Nature Park
46. Greenpeace Australia Pacific
47. RSPCA Australia
48. World Federation Of Occupational Therapists
49. Salvos.org.au
50. National Institute of Accountants
51. NAPCAN
52. Mensline Australia
53. Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
54. The Wilderness Society
55. National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre
56. CARE Australia
57. Starlight Foundation
58. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology
59. Kidney Health Australia
60. Australian Dental Association
61. The Official Great Ocean Road website
62. Leukaemia Foundation
63. Australian Academy of Science
64. Reconciliation Australia
65. 3MBS Radio
66. Ecotourism Australia
67. The Cancer Council
68. Liberal Party of Australia
69. Refugee Council of Australia
70. Sydney Writers’ Festival
71. VECCI
72. The Pharmacy Guild of Australia
73. Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman
74. Minerals Council of Australia
75. Variety, The Childrens Charity
76. Philanthropy Australia
77. The Career Development Association of Australia
78. National Asthma Council Australia
79. Green Left
80. Australian Independent Records Labels Association
81. Australian Medical Council
82. Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation
83. GetUp!
84. Arthritis Victoria
85. Lawstuff.org
86. National Breast Cancer Foundation
87. Medecins Sans Frontieres Australia
88. The Centre for Independent Studies
89. Franchise Council of Australia
90. Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council
91. Save the Children Australia
92. The Salvation Army in Australia - National
93. JOY 94.9
94. Australian Film Institute
95. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry
96. Friends of the Earth Australia
97. St John Ambulance Australia
98. COTA
99. auDA
100. AVN

Note that this list does not imply that one website is better than another. After all, the only ranking that matters is where your website appears in a search for your typical search terms, e.g. “first aid classes in Richmond VIC” (ranking for fewer words in the phrase is harder). As long as your site is within the top 10 or top 20 for your most valuable keyphrases, you are a winner!

Popularity: 24% [?]

When you try to pay for a Skype service, you will soon discover it is paranoid beyond belief, suggesting some deep-seated childhood trauma. Perhaps it was bullied in the school playground?

My SkypeIn service expires in a month, so I thought I should extend it. I am attracted by some other offerings, such as SkypeOut and SkypePro, so I try to upgrade and proceed to PayPal. This is where the fun begins. You will discover the following gems, which defy business logic:

• You cannot pay for two Skype accounts with one credit card. Imagine walking into a department store and being told, “Sorry, sir, your card was used to buy one pair of jeans in 1986. You will need to use a different credit card to buy one more pair of jeans from our store and you will need a new credit card for every additional item.” Well, it is true if the department store is called Skype. At their forum an ex-Skype customer posted the contents of the explanation:
  

  === Why was my payment cancelled? ===
  To protect both ourselves and you from fraud, restrictions apply when using your debit or credit card to purchase Skype products. In this instance your payment failed because we don’t allow you to purchase Skype products with a credit or debit card that is already used by another Skype account.

  === What can I do? ===
  Try again with another card or one of our other payment methods such as Moneybookers, regular bank transfer or retail vouchers. View the different ways to pay for Skype products at http://www.skype.com/go/waystopay .

  Or why not ask one of your friends on Skype to buy a Gift Certificate for you? Find out more about Gift Certificates at https://secure.skype.com/store/buy/giftcertificates.html

• You cannot pay with Paypal credit, even if you had a zillion $ in your account. Skype’s knowledgebase has these gems:
  

  Your Skype account is not linked to a PayPal account.

  A Skype account will become linked to a PayPal account if it has successfully received money from a Skype contact. (Ash: Skype means, “Unless you can get your family and friends to pay you money via PayPal, we don’t trust you.” Does the average Joe receive money via PayPal?)

  I have a PayPal account but I cannot use Send Money, why is this the case?

  Send Money is not currently available in all PayPal supported countries. Please continue to check the PayPal website for updates.

  Alternatively, you can Send Money directly from PayPal. (Ash: What do you mean “alternatively”? You just said it isn’t available in all PayPal supported countries… Click that link. There is a picture of “Send Money” on the Australian site.)

  To send money using your PayPal account, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to your PayPal account on www.paypal.com.

  2. Click the Send Money tab.

  3. Fill out the form.

  4. Click Continue.

  5. Review the details of the payment.

  6. Click Send Money to send the payment.

Skype was definitely traumatised as a child. Or perhaps it was a an incident involving a hoodlum from Eastern Europe.

Paypal has an office in Australia, which is very much a “supported” country and currency (AU$). My PayPal account has plenty of funds in it. It has received PayPal payments from another Skype user for years (this is another of Skype’s crazy security requirements). Yet I cannot pay from my existing credit. PayPal is telling me to add a second credit card. What is wrong with the existing one? It has a zero balance (It has funds). Yet, if I try to pay some other website with PayPal, it is happy to take my PayPal balance.

While it doesn’t apply to me, I couldn’t buy a Skype account for my family members unless I had four credit cards - and I don’t. Help me out here - does buying a new account with an existing card linked to a Skype account imply that it is stolen or somehow fraudulent? Wouldn’t a stolen card be cancelled by its owner?

I get it - someone steals my wallet and before I have a chance to cancel all my cards, the thief rushes to an Internet cafe and opens a Skype account with it! Perhaps this is the MO of terrorists who are about to discuss their next plot over Skype using a stolen card. Yeah, right.

PayPal payments to Skype are a hot topic in the Sype forum. Clearly, Skype’s management prefers to annoy its customers than risk some fraud (and I’d love to know what type of fraud occurs in this case). How do other companies survive in the e-commerce world? Comments?

Popularity: 29% [?]

Good news. A couple of days after I rubbished NotchUp for blocking my access when I mentioned the difficulty of entering a non-US address, they have fixed things. Not just for me, but for all comers outside the US. You no longer need an invitation - just go to www.notchup.com and sign up. It is still in beta.

trainsem.gooruze.com

Popularity: 28% [?]

NotchUp is a new recruitment site that is currently in beta, but you need to be invited to get in. You supposedly get paid to be interviewed. How much? You supply your current salary into a calculator, e.g. $150,000 works out to $630. Yeah, right.

I got an invite and imported my LinkedIn profile and connections. Great idea, but NotchUp isn’t the first to do this. The first hiccup for me is that it wouldn’t take a 4-digit postcode and there was no field for the country. Typical American form design, I thought, so I added a zero, giving myself a location perhaps in New England, except that 03030 doesn’t exist.

Helpfully, I wrote to NotchUp and suggested that they should open up to international applicants given the LinkedIn import facility and to fix the form. I invited about 200 of my LinkedIn connections, as I will supposedly get 10% of their first year’s salary if they find a new job through NotchUp. Sweet. I can imagine that some of the LinkedIn stalwarts may never need to work again.

I heard back from Customer Support:

Thank you for your interest in NotchUp. We are currently accepting registrations from the United States only. We are looking forward to expanding our site worldwide, and we expect that to happen during the first half of 2008. We hope you will check back with us.

To add insult to injury, my login has now been disabled. What a waste of time for me and others who may meet the same fate!

LinkedIn has a very powerful recruitment backend that isn’t well-known to ordinary mortals and I get the occasional enquiry from recruiters owing to this. USAns, do you think NotchUp’s model will work? With the exception of some highly specialised occupations, I can’t see this model working for the bulk of the population.

The LinkedIn profile import facility is a double-edged sword. If I were an employer who liked a profile in NotchUp and didn’t want to pay to proceed, I would simply use Google to search for a unique sentence and find the person’s LinkedIn profile.

Popularity: 30% [?]

If you have a web hosting account with cPanel, chances are that you use Fantastico, by Netenberg. Its founder Ilias Moisidis will pass on all donations made via PayPal to the appropriate relief agencies who are looking after the victims of the fires in Greece. Visit http://www.netenberg.com for a donation link.

Popularity: 34% [?]

I was cancelling my dedicated server at The Planet (EV1) and noticed that cancellations have to be confirmed by telephone or chat. I tried to reach customer service or technical support, both of whom are advertised as 24×7, but both were offline. Perhaps their definition means “24×7 during business hours”?

Popularity: 28% [?]