We’re at the end of the year and it’s usually customary to look back and see what was big in 2010. How about Battle of the Internet Giants: Facebook Vs. Google. Well Facebook has overtaken Google as the Internet King of 2010.

According to Google’s own Zeitgeist “Zeitgeist 2010: How the world searched” which is based on the aggregation of billions of search queries people typed into Google this year, Facebook was the most searched term in both the US and Canada in 2010. Youtube was second, and Google itself was third. (People Google “Google”?). Another source Hitwise.com, also claimed Facebook was the most searched term in the US in 2010, and it said Facebook was also the top-visited website.

Some Internet industry experts think that instead of Googling topics that interest us, we’re turning to Facebook to find content that comes with friends’ seals of approval. Facebook has an inbuilt search engine powered by Bing. Bing has a long, long way to go before it gets the kind of search respect that Google has. Especially in Canada, where some Bing features totally suck (ever tried to add a business to Bing Maps?). But, who knows, with Microsoft and Facebook working together, maybe 2011 will be the year that “Bing it” will enter the English language.

Best Vancouver Websites of 2010

I’m a huge fan of Facebook, and it’s one of my all time top websites. We have a page on Websites Vancouver for our top-sites but Facebook is too big to go in there. That page is reserved for our list of best Vancouver Websites that we happen to come across that might not otherwise come to the attention of the general Internet surfing public.

But just because it’s the end of the year, here’s our Top 10 list of local Vancouver websites of 2010:

1. www.vancouver2010.com (2010 was the year of the Vancouver Olympics so it had to be our No.1)

2. www.vancouver.ca

3. www.vancouversun.com

4. www.canucks.nhl.com

5. www.whitecapsfc.com

6. www.bclions.com

7. www.straight.com

8. www.vancouver.craigslist.ca

9. www.ctvbc.ctv.ca

10. www.cfox.com

That’s it from us for 2010…happy 2011!

Yes, it’s true – Vancouver was mentioned in the dreaded whistle-blowing website–Wikileaks. So what did this website reveal about the dark and corrupt goings on here in Vancouver? Well, actually nothing that we didn’t know already–the Vancouver Winter Games cost the city too much. Hardly shocking revelations. The Guardian newspaper in the UK published the full leaked memo in an article yesterday. It hardly made for scandal, but with Vancouver’s olympic village in the news again lately this only brings more attention to the City of Vancouver and it’s budget deficit. With cutbacks across all public services here in Vancouver, the City probably wanted as little attention as possible to this issue. Vancouver Mayor–Gregor Robertson got name checked, and the olympic village got a whole paragraph in the memo. It will be interesting to see how news sites, blogs, and critics of the olympic village comment on this over the next few days.

Already several websites have picked up on the Vancouver WikiLeaks connection. The full memo can be read on the Guardian website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/191833

If you have had your head in the sand and don’t know what WikiLeaks is, the the BBC website has a good article on it: What is WikiLeaks? Check it out here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10757263

You can read more about the City of Vancouver’s budget here: http://vancouver.ca/fs/budgetServices/operatingbudget/index.htm and about Vancouver’s Olympic Village property development here: http://vancouver.ca/olympicvillage/

It’s being reported that the huge sinkhole that opened up on Vancouver’s S.E. Marine Drive might not be fixed until after Christmas or the New Year. City of Vancouver Engineers are still mystified as to how the sink holes occurred.

If could be a co-incidence but sci-fi TV show Fringe is filmed in Vancouver and sink holes or “Vortex” happen quite frequently on the show. The sink hole below happened on Vancouver’s Granville St. during the summer. There were no City of Vancouver engineers around that day, but there were several trucks around with public information ads plastered on them with slogans such as “Be Vortex Aware” and “Fringe Events Can Happen Anywhere”.

If you happen to come across a sinkhole anywhere around Vancouver, just consider that it could be a Vortex. Dial 7-1-1 to report anomalies. Joshua jackson might even answer the phone.

For more information on Fringe see the Fox TV website. http://www.fox.com/fringe/

For more information on the sinkhole in Vancouver see the City of Vancouver website: Vancouver Sinkhole Update

The boardwalk at Port Moody, BC.

Vancouver is often in the “Top 10 places to live” lists that appear in websites and news publications from time-to-time. Anyone who lives here will agree that it is a beautiful city and a great place to live. What about the cities that surround Vancouver? There are a huge number of cities that make up the urban sprawl that is Greater Vancouver. Every couple of weeks we will have a brief look at each. This week however, it’s Port Moody.

One of the nicer cities is Port Moody; known as “City of the Arts”, it is located just 35-40 minutes drive from downtown Vancouver. It is located at the east end of Burrard Inlet. Mountains surround the city to the northwest and north – this coupled with the sea gives Port Moody a picturesque setting.

So why City of the Arts you may ask? Well, apparently the arts are integrated into Port Moody’s environment. The city has lots of arts facilities such as the Inlet Theatre, the Port Moody Arts Centre and the Port Moody Station Museum. The city is trying to push itself as a destination for artists, and has an annual Arts Festival. For information on the festival see: http://pomoartsfestival.ca/

The City of Port Moody website to see what events are taking place. http://www.cityofportmoody.com/Arts/News/default.htm it seems there are always trendy, artsy things happening out there, so it’s worth a day trip.

Port Moody Real Estate

Property prices are lower out in Port Moody than in Vancouver, you can buy a Port Moody condo for a lot less that in Vancouver. That is why a lot of people commute. The public transit system is pretty good, and when it comes to value for money, you can’t beat the value Port Moody real estate offers compares to Vancouver prices.

Here is a list of Port Moody websites for anyone interested in this beautiful city:

City of Port Moody – City of the Arts
Includes photos, events calendar, and tourist, business and resident information.
www.cityofportmoody.com/

Port Moody, BC | Tourism BC – Official Site
An overview of the sights, events, attractions and things to do in Port Moody, British Columbia, including information on hiking, golf, water sports,
www.hellobc.com/en-CA/RegionsCities/PortMoody.htm

Port Moody – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Just the Wikipedia page about Port Moody. Good for stats and so forth.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Moody

Next week we’ll have another quick look at one of Vancouver’s near neighbouring cities.

Remember the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games? It seems like so long ago now. Gold medals, huge crowds, a lack of snow all made headlines around Canada and around the world. We forget about the mini riots by anarchists and instead remember the good times. It was a memorable month or so and a great time for Vancouver.

A recent report on the use of French during the Games recently praised several Vancouver websites designed in both of Canada’s official languages – French and English.

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) showed that it was possible to update a Web site by simultaneously posting English and French versions of Web pages. This is an important lesson, as the Internet is increasingly becoming the general public’s preferred source of information.

Overall, VANOC was very successful in providing information to the public in both official languages (e.g., information documents, athlete introductions, event results, commentary) and in effectively communicating with the specialized groups such as the media.

You can see the French version of the Vancouver games website here: http://www.vancouver2010.com/fr/?olympics

Other Vancouver websites were also given praise: The Tourism BC and Tourism Vancouver websites were translated, and some sections of the Vancouver and Whistler websites were available in French. The two cities received funding from Canadian Heritage to help them provide services in French.

A new type of Vancouver real estate website has just launched on the Interweb. Condo Score is a new “independent community review” website for property buyers and sellers–but specifically aimed at those in the market to buy a condo in Vancouver. The concept seems simple, just search for buildings by area, map or address and then read the reviews and check the “Condo Score”. “Condo what” you say? Condo Score (this could be the next buzz word that the kids use when talking about where they live.) A Condo Score is based on several factors including buildings maintenance, location, people and amenities.  The “People” rating factor probably refers to how nice the neighbours are, but we have to wonder, do hot neighbours get a higher score?

According to the site, a Condo Score is created in “real time” and averages out based on the number of reviews for each building. So the more reviews a building gets, the better the science behind the score. The website says that Condo Scoring can be used by virtually all condo buyers today. A Condo Score gives a good overall picture of a building: maintenance, location, people, and amenities are all rated between 1 to 5 stars. I doubt I ever lived in a 5 star building, but I do live in hope.

A Vancouver Condo Review Website

So, do we need a Vancouver condo review site? I think that it doesn’t hurt. This is a pretty unique approach to real estate website marketing, and it could take off like Facebook did. I doubt we’ll see a movie like the Social Network though! To promote the new site and generate new building reviews, the owners of Condo Score are offering weekly prizes of $25 iTunes gift cards–all you need to do is write a good condo review on the website. You can easily look up a friend’s building and hit the share building button to forward to a friend for review. Who knows your friend may win the $25 gift card from iTunes. No purchase necessary–just write a condo review. See http://www.CondoScore.ca/ for full details.

Condo Score is the kind of local Vancouver website initiative we like here at Websites Vancouver, a good idea that is well executed. That’s why we have added Condo Score to our ‘Top Sites’ page–this is our list of the best Vancouver websites, and by best I mean our favourite Vancouver websites.

Check out the Vancouver Christmas Market — it’s located in downtown Vancouver on the Plaza at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre (on Georgia, between Cambie and Hamilton).

Their website Vancouver Christmas Market.com has full details. The market itself  will open for 28 days in 2010, opening on Sunday, November 28th and closing on Friday December 24th. The market will be open daily from 11.00am till 9.00pm.

Check it out and bring the kids.

Yahoo!, as a search engine, has been on the slide for a few years now. Earlier this year Bing started providing the search results for Yahoo! in the US and Canada. Yahoo! has unveiled its annual Year in Review for 2010, and the results could lead us to believe that no one over the age of 16 uses Yahoo! for search purposes.

Here are the Top Overall Searches On Yahoo! in 2010

1. BP Oil Spill
2. World Cup
3. Miley Cyrus
4. Kim Kardashian
5. Lady Gaga
6. iPhone
7. Megan Fox
8. Justin Bieber
9. American Idol
10. Britney Spears

Since the ‘BP Oil Spill’ or disaster in the gulf lasted for nearly 1/4 of the year (86 days), it should not come as any surprise that the story stayed in the top of search queries of the year. The rest of the results however are pitiful. We hope this is only a reflection on the youth of today, and not the general US public. It is sad that Justin Bieber and Lady GaGa rank ahead of such huge world events such as the Haiti earthquake, the Iceland volcanic eruption and the Chilean miners.

The Vancouver Olympics did make the top 10 Canadian searches, but didn’t register on the Top 10 overall search list.

We are going to do our own Top 10 of 2010 – Top 10 Vancouver Websites though. Lady GaGa, Britney Spears et all will not be making an appearance.