No one has a 'job for life' these days and many people do not even stay in the same profession all their lives anymore. It's perfectly acceptable to have a career change, although it's not always the easiest thing to do if you don't have the necessary skills for your new career. Fortunately getting trained is becoming easier to fit into your life and more affordable too. Take a look at our education searches for some ideas.

Top education searches:

1. Adult education courses
2. Plumbing training
3. Adult colleges
4. Distance learning degree
5. Adult literacy
6. Masters education
7. Adult student
8. Continuing education
9. Adult training
10. Online college courses

If you're lucky, you may already be working within a company that provides training. Speak to your manager and your HR department to find out what opportunities are available to you. But if you're out of work or looking to move into a different kind of work a good place to start looking for courses is your local college. Most colleges have courses for adults as well as their usual sixth-form classes. You will find a wide variety to choose from such as arts, sciences, maths, computing, languages and more vocational courses too.

You can find courses that are part-time or take place in the evenings, and many colleges have a child care service too so fitting in your studying should be easier. Another place to search for courses is on the government website Directgov. There you can find all sorts of information about where to study and what financial support is available to you such as Adult Learning Grants, Career Development Loans and help with childcare costs. So don't think that retraining and learning is too difficult to do, search online first and find out what's available to you.

Do you want to learn for a new career or have you already made a career change through retraining? Leave a comment and share your experiences with us.

Top university alternative searches:

1. University clearing
2. University admissions
3. Student loans
4. University courses
5. Gap year travel
6. Volunteer projects abroad
7. Gap year
8. Top twenty universities
9. Mature student courses
10. University prospectus

With the school term finished for the year and exam results received, sixth form students around the country will now be considering their next move. For those lucky ones who received the grades they hoped for, come September they'll be starting at their chosen university. But there are many who didn't get the results needed to enrol on their courses. So what happens next?

If you still want to go to university, there is a chance to get in through clearing, which will allow you to apply to universities but only to courses that have vacancies. This may suit some people very well, and if you are keen to get into uni straight after your A Levels then be quick about checking the clearing listings before the places get snapped up. Alternatively, you may find that there aren't any courses that interest you, if so then take this time to find out what other opportunities are available. Spend some time thinking about what your interests are and what skills you have and would like to have.

There are many jobs that require more practical courses than you find at university and for many of these you can undertake apprenticeships. Instead of being a poor student, you'd be able to learn the skills you need while earning money on the job. These usually take the form of an NVQ and cover careers from beauty to agriculture, media and the leisure industry.

Getting a full-time job will earn you more money and you can work your way up from there. If you wanted to study again sometime in the future, you could apply to uni as a mature student using your work experience to secure a place. Alternatively you might need some time out to really think about what you want from life. A gap year could be the perfect solution. It needn't be spent lying on a beach and drinking (fun as that would be). Gap years can involve teaching English abroad, doing volunteer care work, working as an au pair or doing a placement abroad with a magazine or television station. You could learn some skills on a gap year that will set you up for a great career when you come back. So if you didn't quite make the grade, don't panic! There are plenty of alternatives to university.

Are you entering university clearing or thinking of alternatives? Or is your son or daughter unsure what to do with themselves? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Top dating searches:

1. Online dating
2. Speed dating
3. Dating over 50
4. Dating Direct
5. Local dating
6. Dating agencies
7. Disabled dating
8. Dating for parents
9. Matchmaking
10. Alternative dating

Judging by the number of searches made for online dating, it's plain to see that more and more people are doing it these days. If you're single, and don't want to be, but find it hard to meet people for whatever reason, internet dating websites can be great places to meet a potential date. But although you do hear success stories, not everyone has luck online. So here are a few pieces of advice for making online dating work for you.

There are tonnes of dating websites out there so make sure you join the type of site that suits your needs. Are you after a long-term relationship, or maybe just a bit of fun, are you gay or lesbian, do you want to find someone of the same religion or are you looking for someone super-rich who'll sweep you off your feet? There are websites catering for all of those tastes (no really, even the golddigging one). So hunt around, or alternatively join up with several and cast your net wide.

Dating websites often have different levels of membership: the more you pay the more priority your profile is given in searches, the more features you get to use such as emailing, chatting etc. and basically the more chance you have of finding a date than if you pay the minimal fee.

So now you've chosen a site and registered, how do you get more people contacting you? Firstly, although it sounds obvious, upload a good profile photo. You will want to know what your potential date looks like and so will they. If you don't have a picture, people are less likely to look at your profile. Once they are there they'll want to learn a bit about you so, secondly, try to give as much profile info as will paint a good picture of what you're really like. If you haven't got much to say about yourself, potential dates will quickly lose interest and moev on - it's difficult to come across as a silent, mysterious type online! And thirdly, be honest!

Make sure you check your account regularly, if you're often online, other users will know that they have a good chance of catching you and that you'll be checking your messages promptly. Plus, your account will be given more priority in search listings the more you use it.

Finally, don't be shy! Online dating allows even the most retiring wallflower to be a confident, outgoing person. When you find a profile you like, make contact with them. That's why they're on the website, after all, and the worst thing that could happen is they might ignore you, which won't matter when you have all those other potential dates to talk to.

Have you had success with online dating? What tips can you offer to first-time users? Leave a comment and let us know.

Top language searches:

1. Learn a new language fast
2. Study languages abroad
3. Learn Spanish
4. German language course
5. Russian language schools
6. How to learn a new language
7. Learn to speak French
8. Language immersion
9. Language translator
10. Language programs

This summer many people wil be heading off to foreign countries to soak up some sun and a little culture. In many of those countries, the natives will speak English because it is such a ubiquitous language. Although this is very useful for us Brits, it doesn't half make us lazy. We lack the impetus to learn another language beyond a smattering of the local lingo such as, 'Deux bieres s'il vous plaît' or 'Dos cervezas por favor' (unless of course you prefer to drink wine).

Instead of expecting others to understand you, or using a complicated mixture of pidgin English in a dodgy accent while gesticulating wildly, why not learn a new language? The satisfaction you get from studying another language is almost on a par with the frustration, but I'd say satisfaction is the overall winner. The learning curve at the start is very high and you can find yourself picking up a lot of basic words and phrases quickly. Unfortunately the hard part is moving onto more complex points of grammar, but by that stage you'll already know enough to impress yourself and your friends, and this should be encouragement enough to stick at it!

The trouble with learning a new language is that it requires a great deal of effort and patience. It doesn't happen overnight. You have to spend at least an hour every day reading, listening and studying. But if you really want it, you will succeed. Of course, the best way to learn quickly is to spend time in the country of your chosen language. So now you have an excuse to book more holidays to France, Spain, Italy or wherever you want. These days there are so many different resources available for learning languages, there's really no excuse not to. You can join lessons, use language CDs, there are online podcasts and tutorials, you can set up language exchanges through the internet and you can use your local library.

Do you want to learn a language or are you already fluent in several? Tell us about your language learning experiences by leaving a comment.

Getting a new job can be a daunting task but your fears will be hugely relieved with some proper preparation. Here are our top job-related searches and a few tips for aceing the interview.

Top career searches:

1. Jobs
2. Interview questions
3. Find jobs online
4. Interview techniques
5. Management jobs
6. Stay at home jobs
7. Cover letters
8. CV examples
9. Career changes
10. Job finder

Make sure you are on time! Prepare before the interview to see how long it will take you to travel there, what routes and transport you can take and what alternatives you have in case of traffic jams/train delays etc. Always leave yourself plenty of time to get from your home to the interview so you don't have to hurry and arrive all sweaty: first impressions really do count. For this reason, the next tip is to dress to impress. Wear something you think would be smarter than what is normally worn in the job you want to get. Pay attention to detail and don't be let down by chipped nail varnish or dirty nails, muddy shoes or an untucked shirt.

As soon as you know you have the interview, find out everything you can about the company. Use what you learn in the interview to prove to the interviewers that you have an interest in the job and that you're keen. Check the company website and if they have any, try out their products. Think of a few questions to ask about the company and the job. Also take some time to think what kind of questions might come up and prepare some answers. Search for interview questions online to get an idea of what might come up.

It might be annoying or tricky but try to work out what your strengths and weaknesses are. When mentioning weaknesses, always follow up with a solution for how you can counteract your weakness. Remember that body language speaks volumes about you so smile, maintain eye contact and have a firm handshake - this way you'll come across as confident.

Our final piece of advice is remember that a job interview is as much a chance for you to decide if you like the company as for it to decide if you would fit in there. Sell yourself but make sure you think you'll be happy in the job too. Do you have an interview coming up? Or do you have any interview nightmare stories to share? If you do, leave a comment and tell us all about it.

There a quite a few schemes in place to promote cycling. One such venture is National Bike Week, which takes place every year in June. The idea behind it is to get Britain active and green by eschewing cars and public transport and getting on your bike. Also, by cycling you can get to know your local community better and see how convenient it can be to use a bike for short trips.

Top bicycle searches:

1. Bicycle security
2. Raleigh bikes
3. Bikes for work
4. Bicycle tires
5. Halfords
6. Recumbent bike
7. Cheap bicycles
8. Mountain biking
9. Exercise bike
10. Single speed bikes
    

It's a very noble idea, but how many people are willing to sacrifice their cars for a bicycle? There are pros and cons for both. Cars have speed, longer distances and convenience on their side, bikes have health benefits, environment benefits and low costs! As fuel prices continue to increase, people could certainly save money by cycling to work.

However, if you live in a busy city, cycling isn't the safest means of transport - other road users don't always see cyclists and accidents can happen. Local councils have made some efforts to encourage cycling by creating bicycle paths and areas to lock up you bike securely, but are they doing enough? Do you think more people should try to get on their bike or would you prefer to find ways to make driving cheaper and greener? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Top book searches:

1. Book groups
2. Best selling books
3. Cecilia Ahern books
4. Book reviews
5. Cheap books
6. Children's books
7. JK Rowling
8. Richard and Judy book club
9. Online book sellers
10. Dan Brown

Although Richard and Judy's show will be leaving our screens next month, their successful creation Richard & Judy's Book Club will live on through the wonders of the internet. The show brought reading into many people's lives as Richard and Judy invited guests to discuss the novels being read by the book club and also encouraged viewers to call in and share their own opinions.

The success of the book club made Richard and Judy become very powerful people in the British publishing industry. When they nominated titles as best reads or book of the year, those books would quickly sell out and hugely exceed their expected sales figures. If an author got a thumbs up from Richard and Judy, they were guaranteed success. Richard and Judy even have a special category for book of the year in the British Book Awards. Past winners have been successful novels such as Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.

For summer this year, the book club has selected 8 titles to get stuck into. If you are really impressed, you can go to the book club's website and vote for your favourite. You can also use the site to form a reading group so that you can meet like-minded book lovers. These are the chosen books for this summer: Past Imperfect by Julian Fellowes, Guernica by Dave Boling, Palace Council by Stephen L. Carter, Mr Toppit by Charles Elton, The Great Lover by Jill Dawson, Mystery Man by Bateman, The Senator's Wife by Sue Miller and The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee.

Do you enjoy reading and did Richard and Judy introduce you to new and exciting novels? What are your favourite books? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Top education searches:

1. Online summer courses
   
2. Online education degrees
   
3. Adult degrees
4. It training courses
   
5. Learn a foreign language
   
6. Buy stationary
7. College funding
8. Cheap textbooks
9. Plumbing courses
   

Do you want to learn a new skill or retrain in a new career? Judging by the popularity of searches for courses in the summer time, it would seem that there are many people keen to educate themselves. The summer is a good time to start a course as there are many institutions beginning new courses around this time. There's a huge variety of subjects you can study and you can fit them around your life whether you want to learn full or part-time.

Lots of people are allured by the idea of learning a new language. You can add it to your list of skills on your CV to impress prospective employers, or even get a new job using the new language, or it could be that you want to achieve a conversational level to use when you go on holiday or perhaps you are thinking of emigrating. Whatever your reasons, if you've decided to learn a language, I say go for it! Try searching now for courses in your chosen language and you will find courses catering for all levels of expertise from complete beginner to near-fluent. Learning a new language is fun and can be a very useful skill.

If you are fed up with your current job, you may decide to retrain by taking courses for another profession. Skills such as computing, beauty therapy, hospitality, nursing, teaching and counselling can all be learned on courses and once you have become qualified they will lead to exciting new careers. It really is worthwhile learning these new skills as it can make a huge difference to your life.

Courses can also be taken simply for the enjoyment of the subject. There are many art courses available that could lead to a new hobby such as pottery or creative writing. But as well as learning something new and drawing satisfaction from that, you will also meet new people who share your interests.

Are you planning to start a course soon? Leave a comment and tell us about it.

Top wedding searches:

1. Wedding accessories
   
2. Wedding cakes
3. Wedding insurance
4. Wedding dresses
5. Wedding planners
   
6. Wedding flowers
7. Honeymoon advice
   
8. Wedding rings
9. Wedding gifts
10. Fair Trade diamonds
    

Whether you're inundated with wedding invitations or ploughing on with your own planning, wedding season can be chaotic, but also fun. If you are a guest, you'd think you'd be able to just sit back, watch the happy couple and then enjoy the free food and drink! In reality, there's more to it than that. If you're close to the bride or groom, you may have to attend hen and stag parties, then there's choosing a gift, choosing an appropriate outfit, possibly booking a hotel and finding the wedding venue.

If it's your own wedding, there's so much more to do! Many people find it less stressful to employ a wedding planner to take care of all the details in an efficient way. Although, a lot of the planning is fun in itself and most brides (and mothers) wouldn't want to relinquish the responsibility. One of the most stressful things to do that cannot be palmed off to someone else is deciding on the guest list - a potential minefield!

Being both a guest and a participant can be an expensive business. Check out Walletpop's money saving tips for brides and grooms. For guests, remember that you can always club together with others for the gift to save you being the bearer of a single silver spoon. Stylish outfits can be found on online auction sites (hey if you can buy 5p wedding dresses then why not wedding outfits too?). You don't have to stay in the £100 per night hotel, the cheap B&B down the road is just as good. And make sure you check the directions and map before setting out to the venue - it doesn't do to be late! Read more on Walletpop for more money advice on surviving the wedding season.

Weddings - do you love them or loathe them? Leave a comment and tell us what you think.

Top flower searches:

1. Tickets for Chelsea Flower Show
2. Roses
3. Rhino greenhouses
4. Next day flower delivery
5. Hanging baskets supplies
6. Ordering flowers
7. RHS gardening
8. Gardening Direct
9. Hotels near Chelsea Flower Show
10. Garden fountains

Gardening groupies and flower fanatics - I'm sure you needn't be told that the Chelsea Flower Show begins tomorrow. It's probably the most famous of the four Royal Horticultural Society's gardening shows and makes an excellent outing for both gardening experts and amateurs alike.

The amazing gardens on display take lots of planning and about a week or more to build and plant. They are then judged in five different categories:

• Flora Gardens and floral exhibits
• Hogg Exhibits of trees
• Knightian Exhibits of vegetables, including herbs
• Lindley Exhibits of special educational or scientific interest
• Grenfell Exhibits of pictures, photographs, floral arrangements and floristry

There are four medals to be won in each category ranging from gold, silver-gilt, silver and bronze. The quality of the gardens on show is incredibly high as world-class designers flex their green fingers and get digging. The show features ideas that influence future gardening trends and showcases the latest gardening products. Highlights of the show are the urban gardens, courtyard gardens and show gardens, although this year there are fewer sponsors and so the focus is more on making the most of small gardens.

Are you a keen gardener or does do you find flowers boring? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Are you buying a digital camera or printer? How do you know which model will suit your needs? Choosing a bad camera will easily cost you a few hundred pounds. In fact, buying a digital camera need not be a difficult task. I'll highlight the key considerations you need to think through before making that purchase decision.

• Firstly, the megapixel rating of a digital camera determines how much fine detail you can capture in your shots. You won't need more than 2 megapixels. If you want large printouts of your gorgeous photographs, then you'll probably want to get 5 megapixel cameras and above.
• Secondly, you'll definitely want a camera with decent optical zoom. I'd recommend getting at least 3x optical zoom in any camera you buy.
• Thirdly, if you are getting a point-and-shoot camera, make sure you find one that's easy to use. User controls to set resolution, macro mode, flash and exposure should be within easy reach.

What's the best way to share or print your photos?
There are many options, from printing and burning onto CDs or DVDs, to emailing and uploading the photos on sites like Flickr. You can share your pictures by having a hardcopy printout. All you need to do is get a good photo printer and some quality printing paper, then print away! Or if you don't have a printer why not submit your images to an online photo print website. Make sure you do some shopping around first - digital photo printing services don't come cheap.

Storing your photos on CD and DVD is a very good option for sharing photos, particularly if you have an immensely huge photo collection. One of the best ways to share digital photos is to upload them to a website. There are many online photo storage sites available. It allows you to upload photo albums and determine who can view those albums.

If you're a total newbie, don't go for the latest digital SLR. Start off with a cheaper camera first. Learn, experiment and build up your digital photography skills. Once you're more skilled, then proceed to upgrade to a better camera. Has digital photography made taking photos easier or more complicated? Leave a comment and let us know.

Top Digital Photography Searches:

1. Buy printer
2. Order digital prints online
3. Digital photo print services
4. Photo printers
5. Digital camera printers
6. Laser photo printer
7. Digital photography
8. Digital camera developing
9. Best online photo sharing
10. Photo frames 4x6

Last week we took a look at the top searches in interior home improvements and this week we'll show you the most popular searches in improving your home's kerb appeal.

Top searches in home exteriors:

1. Gardens
2. DIY conservatories
3. Lawn care
4. Garden furniture
5. Exterior sliding doors
6. Roofing contractor
   
7. Patio
   
8. Siding contractors
9. Lawn fertilizer
10. Garden spotlights

The garden gives the first impression of the exterior of your home and many green-fingered people enjoy planting and growing their own plants. A bit of gardening can yield beautiful flowers or tasty fruit and vegetables. If you prefer to have a lawn, keep it looking immaculate by mowing and clearing leaves away, and patios or decking can finish your pristine garden. Conservatories are also a great way to utilise your outdoor space and keep exotic plants in. More practical extensions to your outdoor space are garden sheds and garages - great places to store your tools and appliances out of sight.

The exterior walls of your house may need painting or cleaning and pebbledashing often needs maintenance, although these big jobs may require a professional. You can search online for exterior proerty maintenance companies in your area. Smaller jobs you can undertake yourself are painting the moldings and trims and growing or pruning climbing plants. Doing these things can make a huge difference to the appearance of your house. Next turn your attention to the windows - exclude drafts and noise by installing and updating double and secondary glazing. To maximise the light in your home you could have roof skylights installed. While you're working on the roof, remember to check for cracked tiles or broken gutters and also check the gutters aren't blocked with dead leaves.

Once you've got your home's exterior looking pristine, let the world see how good it looks by installing some exterior lighting. Choose some stylish lighting fixtures to compliment your house and garden and your neighbours will soon be as green as your lawn!

Formula 1 is an expensive and exciting sport with fast cars, exotic locations, beautiful women (check out the pit babes here) and lots of money flying around. The drivers can earn huge salaries - sometimes in the region of £10m a year! There is also prize money to be won by the top 10 teams of the championship but these figures are not often disclosed. The teams need vast amounts of money in order to have the best staff and the best high-tech cars. So it's not at all surprising that the drivers live extravagant playboy lifestyles while we normal folk read about them jealously in OK and Hello Magazine.

Lewis Hamilton, last year's F1 champion, is just an ordinary boy from Stevenage whose father held down three jobs to pay for his son's interest in racing. Now, all that hard work has obviously paid off! Lewis owns a home in Switzerland (as do many F1 drivers to take advantage of the tax breaks - for him an estimated £4m+ a year!), he was also looking for a London pied-à-terre to share with his glamorous Pussycat Dolls lead singer girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger. He recently bought a 90ft yacht worth £5m that has eight bedrooms including a master suite, a VIP suite and two guest cabins and a luxury lounge with plasma TVs. The yacht is painted to match Hamilton's McLaren racing car in silver and black and is kept in Monaco.

Lewis isn't the only F1 driver taking advantage of Switzerland's tax breaks. In that country you will also find houses owned by such current and past legends as Jean Alesi, David Coulthard, Fernando Alonso, Alain Prost, Jacques Villeneuve, Jackie Stewart and Michael Schumacher. In fact, Schumacher's palatial home is a 650 m² mansion with its own underground garage and petrol station, and it's situated on a private beach on Lake Geneva.

Don't assume that these fabulously rich drivers are tied down to one country. David Coulthard also owns houses in London, Belgium and another tax-haven, Monaco. He also owns several luxury hotels in the UK and in Monaco. Monaco has long been a popular home for F1 drivers, no doubt because of the Grand Prix circuit that takes place in its streets. But surely aslo because of the casino in Monte Carlo, the first-class hotels and exciting nightlife and the leisure facilities for the rich and famous. In Monaco you will also find the houses of Jenson Button (who also owns houses in the UK and Bahrain), Nico Rosberg, Alex Wurz, Giancarlo Fisichella and Felipe Massa.

There are many more perks to being a rich and famous racing driver. For example, Felipe Massa is good friends with the Swiss watchmaker Richard Mille. Mille has dedicated several watches to the F1 driver and I'm fairly certain that he is given his own models to wear. Another brand of expensive watch that likes to sponsor F1 drivers is TAG Heuer. They have Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Räikkönen, Sébastien Bourdais and Heikki Kovalainen as some of their 'brand ambassadors' who are sponsored by the company and get to wear their stylish watches.

Apart from watches, F1 drivers are usually given a carmaker's top performance model when they sign up to race under them. Imagine being given a top of the range Ferrari, for free! Most top F1 drivers own fantastic sports cars, or - like Fernando Alonso - classic cars, and of course if asked they would all state unequivocally that the best perk of being a Formula 1 driver is driving all those super fast cars. Although, there are so many more attractions to the lifestyle than just driving such as travelling the world and staying in exotic locations.

The Grand Prix circuit visits some of the world's most exciting places such as Brazil, Japan, Italy, Abu Dhabi and Spain amongst others. Of course, all F1 drivers get to fly first class while being served gourmet meals, champagne and other complimentary drinks. Some drivers, like Rubens Barrichello, even own their own planes! His Embraer Legacy means that he can travel quickly between his races and therefore have more time to spend with his family. Having your own plane would certainly cut down waiting time at the airport! Being so well-travelled, F1 drivers know all the best places to go for luxurious holidays. They are really spoilt for choice: first-class hotels, their own boats (Giancarlo Fisichella's is moored in Sardinia), luxury cruises or even staying in one of their own many homes around the world.

To sample just a small slice of the good life, you could plan a trip to one of the Grand Prix race venues. Formula 1 tickets can cost between £50 - £470 depending on whether you want to see tests or races and where you sit. Should you want to see the races in foreign climes, you'll also need to book some flights and hotel accommodation, but it would so be worth it to be at the track, smell the burning rubber and petrol fumes and hear the engines revving and roaring. Then maybe bump into some of the drivers and discuss the best watch brands and whether flying first class or by private jet is preferable ... ok, maybe not.

Do you plan to see the Grand Prix in person? Who do you think will win this year's championship? Leave a comment and tell us what you think.

Top F1 lifestyle searches:

1. Designer clothes
2. Race cars
3. Expensive watches
4. Luxury cruises
5. First class flights
6. Champagne
7. Yachts
8. Autoblog
9. Tax havens
10. Grand Prix circuit

The BBC programme Who Do You Think You Are? has featured such celebrities as Rory Bremner, Fiona Bruce, Rick Stein, Zoe Wanamaker and Kevin Whately. These celebrities delved into their family trees to discover where their roots lie.

By searching through archives, museums, personal diaries and other sources of information, the celebrities unearthed fascinating stories about grandparents and great-grandparents involving war, immigration, scandals and great acheivements.

Finding out about your family's past is fascinating but it's not the easiest thing to do. Happily, there are places you can research online for example: freebmd.org.uk for some birth, marriage and death records in England and Wales, familysearch.org for selected parish records and rootsweb.com. These are all free to use so get the most out of them! You should start by drawing up your family tree, but if you get stuck creating it, there are plenty of online tools to help you or you can purchase family tree building software to make the task easier.

There are other genealogy websites which may require you to pay for their use but they usually offer you a free trial period. These are sites like ancestry.co.uk and genesreunited.com. You can try searching for births, marriages and deaths records as these will likely hold important information about relatives. The 1911 census, which can be found online, will also be an excellent mine of information.

If someone in your family had a military past, the records for military history are very accurate and could help you learn some secrets about your family's past. Or maybe there was a black sheep in your family - you could learn about their exploits through articles in newspaper archives or through the Old Bailey's archive of proceedings in criminal trials.

From the 27Feb - 1 Mar 2009, Who Do You Think You Are? Live took place at the Olympia exhibition centre in London. If you were able to make it down there you would have seen all kinds of brilliant stands and talks that explained how to go about researching your family history. One brilliant exhibitor was Family Tree DNA. The experts from this company can use DNA testing to discover where your ancestors came from. But don't worry if you missed the show, you can still search online for DNA testing for yourself.

Top family history searches:

1. Family tree
2. Who Do You Think You Are?
3. Ancestry
4. Births marriages deaths
5. DNA testing
6. Family history
7. Genealogy
8. 1911 census
9. National archives
10. Local history

The credit crunch and falling house prices mean that not many people are able to move house right now, so instead of changing your location, you can change your house. If you make the most of your living space, you may not even recognise your home any more!

Top DIY searches:

1. Home improvement
2. Power tools
3. Wood flooring
4. Wallpaper
5. Curtains
6. Carpet
7. DIY
8. Paint colour chart
9. Loft conversions
10. Upholstering

A simple way to start some home improvement is to declutter your house. If you take a good look around and can see lots of junk that you never use, clothes you never wear and things you keep 'just in case' that are really not as useful as you'd thought, it's about time to get brutal and throw all that rubbish away! If it seems a monumental task, you can hire the services of a clutter consultant who will help to bring order to your chaos. You may also need to visit some recycling centres and think about waste management if you have a lot of stuff to get ride of. Or if you truly believe in 'waste not want not' you could make some cash from your clutter. Go to a car boot sale, sell your items through AOL Classifieds, list your items on eBay or another online auction site, or give it away by listing it on Freecycle.

Once you've dealt with your clutter, you may find that your house doesn't have the best storage solutions, which is why the clutter built up. If you have large items to store then you should search for storage companies that keep your belongings locked up safe until you need it. These can be especially useful if you decide to extend your house and need to keep furniture out of harm's way for a while. There are all sorts of useful home storage solutions available such as furniture with multi purposes, foldaway beds, stackable boxes and space-saving shelving.

So now your home has plenty of space - you can see the walls! But when was the last time your walls were decorated? Maybe it's time to tear down that flock pattern wallpaper and paint over the cracks. At the Ideal Home show you'll find lots of exhibitors such as B&Q and BBC Good Homes Magazine who can offer advice on how to redecorate without blowing your budget. There are also many retailers of carpets, painting and decorating equipment, tools and soft furnishings. Of course, you can also check out their websites for further information. Search for ideas about painting colour schemes and soft furnishings to match.

Finding the right kind of furniture to match your newly decorated room is important. You can find all sorts of ideas on the website for the Ideal Home Show about how to update your furniture. You don't necessarily have to buy new things, an alternative is to refurbish old items that have become worn. For example, a chair with tatty coverings could be upholstered in new bright fabric.

Consulting with an interior designer could inspire you to change your home around on a grander scale than just decorating. Building an extension could repurpose and maximise your available space. Adding a loft conversion or renovating your basement may also increase the value of your property. However, make sure you shop around and get lots of advice before embarking on this kind of project. Extensions can take a long time depending on the kind of work you want done.

After all your aesthetic home improvements have been made, you might want to think about how green your house is. Small changes such as using energy saving lightbulbs will help both your pocket and the environment. Companies like Whirlpool are starting to produce energy efficient white goods - washing machines and dishwashers. Why not search for more ways to make your home environmentally friendly?