MesaShoppers

Below are the 12 most popular blogs as measured by the number of lnks to those blogs during the past sixth months (as of October 26th, 2007):

1. Engadget – review of new gear and electronics
2. Gizmodo – top blog of Gawker Media and a guide to gadgets
3. Boing Boing – reviews of cool stuff
4. TechCrunch – review of new internet products and companies
5. The Huffington Post – political site
6. Lifehacker – tech trips, tips, and downloads
7. Ars Technica – tech business news
8. Mashable! – blog all about social networking
9. Blog di Beppe Grillo – current events commentary from an Italian
10. Icanhascheezburger.com – odd cat photos
11. Daily Kos – liberal political blog
12. TMZ.com – celebrity news

According to a survey commissioned by Sam’s Club nearly 50% of small-business owners take only major holidays off – or nothing at all.  That is less than half the average number of vacation days used by the rest of the world, including Canada, Britain, and Japan, as reported by the World Tourism Organization.  Among small-business owners who said they do plan to take a vacation this year, the majority – 66% – with take only one week off all summer long.  These owners take on all or most of the responsibility of running their business and worry that their businessess will suffer if they are away from their work for an extended period of time.  Even if they do go away, they constantly check in with their employees and customers.

Stop overworking you small-business owners and enjoy your life!  Overworking can lead to serious health hazards, impede relationships at home, and can inhibit productivity at work while creating higher turnover.

Vacations are important!  So go on one!

There is a great online service that allows do it yourself travelers to automatically organize all of your travel information into one itinerary regardless of where you booked the trip, accomodations, or services.  TripIt (www.tripit.com) is “a personal travel assistant that automatically organizes all your travel plans.”  The founders created the site to simply the Internet travel experience where more and more people are taking advantage of proliferating online travel tools.

Users forward travel confirmation emails to the TripIt website, and the TripIt Itinerator instantly incorporates them into a master itinerary.  TripIt then automatically adds daily weather forecasts, local maps and directions, destination informaiton and other useful tidbits.  Travelers can access their information online, in printed form, via a mobile device or in a calendar.  Users can also create networks of TripIt “friends” who can view each other’s travel calendars.  Best of all, the whole service is FREE and easy to use.