It Means Nothing

There have been a number of large figures knocking around these past few days; figures in numerical terms that is. For once, they are not related to the numbers of unemployed or the size of the town halls' debts. They are figures for internet usage - those for websites of the town halls and centrally.

To take the town halls first. The other day, the "Diario" ran an article in which it explained that Alcúdia's site was the most popular on the island (I presume Palma is excluded from these). It has registered an annual number of just shy of 275,000 "entradas". I'm afraid at this point I get confused. What do they mean by an "entrada"? (From what I know, an "entrada", in computing terms, refers only to what I'm doing at the moment - making an entry.) Almost certainly it does not mean "hits", so probably page views. Assuming it is, it's not such a bad number; not brilliant, but not bad. Alcúdia tops the list with Manacor not far behind but Sa Pobla a fairly distant third, and Pollensa back in ninth spot. The article doesn't give a number for Pollensa, but Sa Pobla is some 110,000 behind Alcúdia and is six places above Pollensa.

Quite why Alcúdia should head this list and why Pollensa should lag behind, I am at a loss to explain. It's not as if the towns' populations are that markedly different, and if one takes population into account, then Manacor should come ahead of Alcúdia. Nor is there any clue in these websites being international. Alcúdia's site is in Catalan by default. There is a Castilian link, but it only gives menu items and not text. Pollensa's does not have a Castilian link, though both - eventually - get to their "sister" websites in different languages for tourists (in Pollensa's case, a complete waste of cyberspace). No, can't explain this.

But as in Spanish, so in English, there is the issue of terminology. Maybe someone can enlighten me more as to the application of "entrada", but whatever is used, there is so much confusion when it comes to terms and to statistics. And that brings me to ...

The figures for the town halls pale into cyberspace insignificance against those for the Balearic Government's tourism website - illesbalears.es. According to "The Bulletin", it received - get this - 85,168, 261 enquiries during the first nine months of this year. 85 million? What on earth does that mean? In fact, what are "enquiries"? If it is an accurately-reported figure, it is colossal, but as ever with these statistics it is not what it seems. Hits, and I have to assume that this is what enquiries means, are about the most useless statistic that can be dragged out for website traffic. Though useless, the number does give an indication. The site is obviously popular, and is evidence of how important the internet is, especially for the holidaymaker, though in the case of this site the overwhelming majority of visitors are Spanish - and you can see this for yourselves on Alexa.


GOBBY AGAIN
I thought our friends GOB, the environmental pressure group, had been keeping a low profile in matters Puerto Pollensa. Unusually for them, they seemed to have had little or nothing to say about the pedestrianisation. Maybe because there are enough voices doing it for them, or maybe they're in favour of it and know they'll be on a loser as they'd be placed in the mayoral circle of waggons and find themselves being similarly surrounded. And it would never do to act as the posse for the mayor and the Pollensa administration when there are other enviro controversies with which they can shoot arrows at him. Big-time controversies. Ho-hum. Like the parking area next to La Gola. Does anyone really give a damn, other than GOB? "Unsuitable", they say about the parking, without of course offering any solutions as to where there might be some alternative. I'm afraid I lose my patience with GOB who do, sometimes, make some valuable interventions, such as when they have, in the past, criticised the management of Albufera. It's enough to make you want to drain La Gola and pave it over, just to get up GOB's noses, which are of course immediately above their gobs.

Anyway, there was political support for GOB from the United Left and the Mallorcan socialists at the town hall, but their opposition to the parking was not sufficient to prevent support for it to proceed. Mayor Cerdà, rightly pointing to the need for parking in the area of La Gola, reckons that the "general" plan for the town keeps in mind the other need - that of "natural space" - which GOB claims would be eliminated were the parking area to be constructed. Some might say - what general plan?


A LITTLE BRITAIN CHRISTMAS
No, not that Little Britain, this Little Britain. Our own. Steve and Urbano. And as they're such nice chaps, on the WHAT'S ON BLOG (http://wotzupnorth.blogspot.com) are the Little Britain Christmas specials. The goose may be getting fat, but work your way through that list and it won't be the only one. Chops are being licked even as one reads it.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Adam Adamant. Today's title - Welsh band; not the Manics, the other ones.

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)