Sorry, the movers screen and rankings data is all over the place today because I have tweaked the ranking algorithm so that it takes account of people who have made referral connections.

This is to ensure that the ranking system continues to work as originally intended, i.e. allowing the most connected people to move up the rankings, rather than just the most visually appealing (or unusual!) people who get lots of profile views.

The movers screen and ranking changes should straighten themselves out overnight when they are recalculated.

I think this new algorithm will make the ranking system fairer for those who join as time goes on, as well as emphasising one of the primary aims of the site - letting people discover their 'six degrees of separation'. This way, people can now proactively gain ranking by making connections, as well as by generating profile views.

Google has given us a pagerank of 5 - which shows us as an "important, high quality site". Which is even better news for people wanting to advertise their website via their profile.

The ranking system is starting to settle down nicely, with those people with the most referal links (and the most friends visiting their profile) moving up the rankings. In fact, our current number one ranked person moved from lowest to highest ranking in the space of a week by telling all his friends, so if you are on the site and haven't told all your friends yet - do it today!

We reached our first milestone yesterday - 100 people on the site, from 6 countries. These 100 people represent 100,000 of the worlds internet users, and 650,000 of the people in the world, and we have at least one example of '6 degrees of separation', so we are on track so far!

Thanks to everyone who has helped spread the world so far - there are still 1 billion more internet users out there who have not yet visited the site, so please continue to tell your friends!

Our traffic rank at Alexa got updated again, and we reached the top 37,000 sites on the internet today!




We also said Bonjour to our first French profile this week, and even got a mention on the The Times website technology section, which was pretty exciting.

Thanks to everyone who is spreading the word - please keep it up!

Our first German profile added today, adding a splash of purple to the picture board. Not sure what he is holding in his hand... answers on a postcard please. Looking forward to seeing more purple on the page soon, as well as some of the other European countries.

Erklären Sie bitte Ihren Freunden über die Million Leute-Seite.
(Please tell your friends about the Million People Page)

At least I hope thats what it says...

Our Alexa ranking has been updated again - not bad for a site which has only been online less than two months... and our daily traffic rank means we are the top 63,000 sites on the internet!

For all you ranking junkies out there, I have added a new page on the site which shows the The Million People Page's biggest movers (up and down) on the site. This page will be updated when the rankings are recalculated each day.

Your change in ranking is also now shown on your profile page, so you can see how much you have moved up or down since the last ranking update.

Remember, your ranking on the site depends on the number of visitors to your profile, so by telling lots of people you are on the site you could be one of the movers and shakers too!

Read an interesting blog entry by Richard Ball of Apogee Web Consulting in which he comments:

"The problem with [pixel advertising] sites is that they have little or no useful content. If you were launching a new magazine, you wouldn't have each page full of ads. Advertisers are looking for content that will attract visitors. Ads themselves aren't content. This is why I think pixel advertising will only survive if it evolves."

The Million People Page is primarily about people, and the connections between them. Ads (aka favourite websites) play an important role, but are a secondary focus to content (people), which is what makes The Million People Page an attractive proposition for people wanting to advertise their site.

In fact, an average 10% of our daily visitors are returning visitors, so not only are we building traffic (our daily traffic on Alexa this week has put us in the top 165,000 sites), but we are retaining it too. After all, people are more interesting than ads

As Richard is somewhat a guru on pixel advertising - being the author of a top ranked pixel ads lens on Squidoo - it was especially exciting to get an email from him with the suggestion that we show the top 100 pictures by default for a while to save people an extra click. So, thanks Richard!

We had our first Irish visitor add a pixel profile today, and the picture was of the lady in question's gorgeous dog (in case you wonder why I am not linking individual profiles in this blog, it is to avoid any bias in rankings). The favourite website - The Million Dog Wall Project deserves a special mention however, as it is a not-for-profit pixel type site raising awareness for Animal Rights. I'm more of a cat person myself, but some of those pooches look very lovable.

I have also noticed a couple of Million People Page wannabes popping up in the last month (it was bound to happen). Most are not as featured as the original though and one of them is asking $5 per picture (with no profile)!

One other pixel site I came across worthy of mention is Million Dollar London. I love the twist on the original pixel advertising format with all the moving buses, taxis and tube trains. The homepage takes a fair bit of time to load, but it is worth it to hear the 'mind the gap'.

Reminds me of all the years I used to commute to the 'big smoke'...

Well, this week the Americans seem to have overcome their shyness and have started joining the site - 6 joining today alone - although for some reason many of them seem to be a little camera shy... This week also saw our first Kiwi, so it seems there is some life downunder after all (and the Kiwis are beating the Aussies so far )!

After drifting a little in the week, traffic has started spiking again - over 350 unique visitors and 1000 page views today alone - so perhaps some of our newer signups have been busy telling their friends. It is always exciting to login and see the new signups and how many people have been on the site, and we have been getting lots of positive feedback on the site, so thank you.

I have enhanced the image upload facility so that images which are not square to start with are cropped to 90x90 pixels rather than squeezed. This should hopefully cut down some of the distortion in some people's photos, and means that it is no longer so important whether the photo is square to start with.

Yesterday was a busy day - 8 people added profiles - so looks like things are beginning to happen. Chains of referrals are starting to appear (we already have 4 degrees of separation on the site) and people are starting to change ranks as the profiles get viewed by new visitors.

No international profiles yet, so if you have any friends outside the UK, get them to add a pixel profile!

It was very exciting to login to my email over the weekend and see the first flurry of paypal receipts, plus a heap of emails from friends who think the idea is great. So, the homepage now shows a small pink line in the top left corner representing these pioneers, which you can click to reveal their photos and profiles.

Thanks to everyone for their support so far, and for those of you who have not yet added your profile - I know it is a big decision which photo to use, but the homepage will look much better with you on it! And remember to tell your friends.