We're sorry if anyone's had trouble getting onto Shopsafe today, apparently the DNS server for our host is in the states and has been affected by the hurricane in Florida.

It's very frustrating, and maybe time to look at a different hosting company....

And that's *not* a dogwhistle to every hosting company out there!

More people than ever before are going to be shopping online in the UK this Christmas, but are you going to be shopping safely? Whether you’re buying the food and drink for the Christmas party or shopping for Christmas presents, you need to shop safely. Here are the Shopsafe.co.uk “top ten mistakes people make when shopping online”:

1. Buying from a site that doesn’t have a secure server to encrypt your credit card details. Make sure you look for the padlock. You’d be crackers not to.
   
2. Buying from a web site that doesn’t have any contact details, or only has a PO Box. Don’t leave your common sense under the Christmas tree and buy from a web site you can’t get in touch with.
   
3. Buying from a web site that you haven’t heard of, or that doesn’t display an accredited logo, like the shopsafe.co.uk seal.
   
4. Buying from a web site that sent you an unsolicited email. Like unwanted guests at a Christmas party, don’t pay these any attention.
   
5. Buying from the first web site you found without shopping around. There are thousands of web sites, some with great Christmas deals, make sure you find them.
   
6. Not checking the delivery prices and times. Don’t buy something for Christmas if the small print says it won’t be sent until the New Year.
   
7. Entering the wrong address or card details when you’re paying. If that special present doesn’t turn up because you didn’t give your correct details you’ll feel a right turkey.
   
8. Not using a credit card. Credit cards offer more protection than other cards.
   
9. Not printing out your order confirmation. You’ll need your order details in case it doesn’t arrive in time.
   
10. Going over budget. Shopping online can be so easy, but try to be a bit of a Scrooge!
    

We've now set up our annual "top toys for Christmas" page, which shows the toys predicted to be the big sellers this Christmas. Remember that year when everyone ran out of Buzz Lightyears? Make sure you don't miss out on this years big sellers, see our top toys for Christmas.

Wow - google maps have gone taken it one step further (one giant leap!) and have mapped the moon! Check it out: http://moon.google.com.

Zoom in all the way and you'll see the rumours are true!!

Still soaking your conkers? Well snap out of it - it's time to start buying Christmas presents!

Our web server statistics show that "christmas shopping" and "christmas presents" are the top two phrases that people are using in search engines before coming through to Shopsafe. That means that everyone has started their Christmas shopping already, well ahead of last year and well ahead of you.

To help you out we're creating a huge pile of Christmas gift ideas, we'll be adding more and more ideas as we find them. If you've any suggestions for Christmas lists email them to graham@shopsafe.co.uk. but remember, I'm not Santa.

Today we launched the Lingerie for Women web site, intended to save you time when shopping for women's lingerie.

We've collected together the products from different Shopsafe approved shops, so you don't have to go backwards and forwards between them to find what you're looking for.

So far we've only got Figleaves products up and running, but we'll be adding more lingerie retailers this week. And if our customers find it useful we'll try it with other products.