“I woke up today feeling tired. When I looked at my navel, there was a bit of fluff which I removed. Then I realized my left shoulder was itching, so I scratched it.”

Too many blogs out read like the made-up quote above, and this particular one will try to stay away from that kind of navel-gazing. By some counts there are more than 8 million active blogs as of March 2005 when I am writing this. Some of these like Blogcount are solely dedicated to counting them.

So “Why another blog?” is a pertinent question. Here’s why:

• I want to blog about what I’ve been doing since 1998, namely helping consultants and small businesses make the most of their Internet presence.
• This is a field which is changing rapidly thanks to technologies like blogs and Internet advertising. Consultants and small businesses don’t have the time or the resources to keep up with the changes, so I’ll aim to do that for them.
• Too few business blogs use photos much, and I want this blog to be an experiment on how to integrate them. My inspiration for photos in blogs is Seth Godin’s Liar’s Blog. I’ll keep you posted.

Philippe with his (almost) 3 year old twins, Evan and Sophie

In 1997 I was working in the City of London in an investment bank when one day the IT staff set up a fast Internet connection on my computer. It changed my life. I spent the whole day surfing the early web, and from that day I realized that I wanted to be involved with it somehow in my professional life.

It took 2 years to transition to working as a web developer. After moving to Palo Alto (California), I started creating basic sites for charities (like Re-Cycle). After working for an Internet start up (bivio, improbably still alive today), I set up no diamonds web services.

In 2003 I started reading blogs regularly, and in 2005 decided I had to start writing my own blog, mainly to write about essential Internet resources for consultants and small business straight from Silicon Valley.