January 2006 was a good month for Maybole’s web site www.maybole.org with over a million hits! One of the monthly reports on the site’s activities gives the number of hits on the site as a result of search strings which are the words used in Google and other search engines. For Maybole the word castle is at the top of the list and second is the auld lang syne mp3 file on the site which for January is no surprise.

Maybole's web site has achieved another incredible month. The number of page hits for January 2004 was 526,220 with almost 2,100 hours being spent online viewing the site from all over the world - that's 87  days. Rich Pettit, webmaster for www.maybole.org, says, "I suspect this could be the result of some new computers purchased for Christmas or maybe January was a good month for staying indoors and more people going on the Internet. In any case half a million hits in one month is pretty good." He continued, "Some of the referring sites are surprising. For example the Bristol football site at www.otib.co.uk generated 504 visitors and www.theinsiders.com a US football site directed 399 visitors to us. A Canadian political site at www.rabble.ca sent us 157 visitors. I believe these are all from message boards on these sites. Has someone found something of sports or political interest in Maybole?"

What did www.maybole.org look like in years past? Click on the image on the left or here to view some of the pages archived by the WaybackMachine.

RICH Pettit and his family visited Maybole last week - and the town s 'webmaster' revealed May was another record month for 'hits' on www.maybole.org The site last month had almost 450,000 page hits from all over the world, including one from Eritrea in East Africa. Rich and his family are in Scotland for a reunion of the McWhirter clan, which has attracted people from all over the world. more  (From the Ayrshire Post  June 2003)

Maybole Community Council has been Highly Commended in the Calor Scottish Community Website of  the Year Awards for its website.

The Ayrshire community was presented with its award by Magnus Magnusson at a ceremony in Edinburgh  today (Tuesday, November 19, 2002), after beating off stiff opposition from throughout the country.

"Maybole's site is an excellent example of a community utilising the Internet to communicate both locally  and to anyone interested in the town regardless of their location," commented Gavin Tomlinson, Calor  Scotland Communications Manager. "The site successfully combines a vast range of information with  simple, intuitive navigation. more

MAYBOLE web site www.maybole.org continues to be very successful, and in August, there were 307,384 page hits from all over the world. One person at least was surprised when learning that these figures were a monthly total. They had thought they were cumulative from when the site started three years ago! There is no doubt that the quality of contributions from both locals and those abroad are what makes the site so popular. And it has been successful in bringing some families and friends together. One example of that is the recent reunion of former pupils who were at Carrick Academy in the early 1960s. Dot Murchie, who now lives in Australia, had asked some months ago if anyone remembered her. A photograph of Dot and her classmates was found and put on the website, leading to the idea of them getting together. The site recently carried photographs of that reunion and they were then published on the Maybole site. This is Dot’s reaction to seeing them: "Just saw the pictures of the reunion and it brought a wee tear to my eye. “I wondered if you would pass on a message to them all for me, just to say how much I really regretted not being there, and how lovely it was to see them. “I am trying to place them all with the school photo, but a few I am having difficulties with. “Janey (Reid) will fill me in when she returns. Regards from Oz. Dot" "PS: I wonder if you could find out for me if Ruth Donachie has a emailaddress. I went to Dalrymple Primary School with her (sorry to be a pest)" You’re not being a pest, Dot; this is exactly what websites are about. From the Ayrshire Post September 20th 2002

As Maybole's website approaches its third birthday, statistics show an incredible 327,059 'hits' on www.maybole.org during the month of July. And it seems there is someone in just about every country you can think of checking out Maybole. For 'hits' came from places like Papua new Guinea, Guam and Botswana, as well as more familiar countries. Read the Ayrshire Post article. August 2002

MAYBOLE'S website continues to attract incredible attention from all over the world. Statistics for March show 303,329 `hits' on www.maybole.org And those viewing it spent 1,518 hours checking out matters old and new on Carrick's capital. Site authors Rich Pettit, from Clearwater, Florida, and Maybole Community Council chairman David Kiltie are delighted. And they have paid tribute to everyone who has contributed material to make the site so interesting. Rich has designed pages for new work by Dave Killicoat of Maybole Historical Society, who wrote to Rich saying: "I am stunned. What an example of how information can be presented and preserved, with easy access to all."  Ayrshire Post 19th April 2002.

MAYBOLE'S website has doubled its level of interest in just a year. Organisers say the site is now attract 250,000 page hits a month - and the figure for December was twice that for the same month in 2000. The largest group of browsers are in America, with many ex-pats in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa also checking in. A site spokesman told the Post: "What is a bit more surprising is the number of other countries that regularly log on - around 70 in total." They include Panama, Nicaragua and Puerto Rico in North America; Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, Peru and Uruguay in South America. "In Europe, nearly every country you could name logs on! Germany has the big-gest group, but Bulgaria, Russia, Iceland, Ukraine and Moldova also take a look. "Turkey is the biggest group in Asia with Japan second." A breakdown by continent shows the number of countries regularly logging on: North America (6 countries), South America (6), Europe (30), Asia (26), Australia and Oceana (2), Africa (3). You can log on at www.maybole.org

Article in 
Family Tree Magazine

The World Wide Web helped a Maybole couple to enjoy a surprise Christmas outing - thanks to their daughter in California. Maybole exile Lorna Sturgeon had already been lapping up the information and pictures on the town's own website