Category: General

Darren reports at Problogger that Google’s AdSense has changed default Ads to Borderless Ads. Wise thinking from the Google team.

Tags: adsense

Great news for all bloggers, with a deal announced by AP with Technorati that will see links to blogs citing AP stories provided to all newspapers that subscribe to AP.

From an AP story at Macon.com:

Technorati will search blogs for postings that include links to AP stories. Links to those postings will be available along with the original AP stories on 440 member Web sites served by AP Hosted News, a service that uses AP servers to display AP content on member sites. There also will be a box featuring the “Top Five Most Blogged About” AP stories.

I’m not sure whether all 440 member web sites will take up the option, but it’s still going to provide more opportunities for bloggers to gain traffic when reporting on AP stories. Congrats to David and the rest of the team at Technorati.

Update: more details at the Technorati blog here, as well as an example page from the Buffalo News.

Tags: AP, Technorati

Valleywag reports SixAparts Live Journal team is in battle with breat feeding advocates over images on LJ blogs showing breast feeding.

I’m male, so I’m not even going to go near the whole breat feeding in public issue, but I’d share this advice: banning pictures of a totally legal act undertaken by mothers and their children in public, particularly when thise pics are in context, doesn’t bide well for the LJ team, or SixApart for that matter. Surely there would be far worse content elsewhere on LJ or even TypePad for that matter, that would warrant action than pictures of breat feeding, and I’d think from a PR perspective that SA doesn’t really need a fight with the breast feeding nazis that are likely to start attacking the company once this news spreads.

Tags: SixApart, Live Journal, breast feeding

Patrick and Andy over at Text Link Ads have announced the launch of the Text Link Ads Calculator, which can be viewed here. Very handy tool if you’ve ever wondered what sort of money you can get from TLA. Certainly I’ve been having a lot of success with them lately, both personally and with b5media, so I’d recommend it, although sign up here after you check out the calculator.

Xedant has the details on how people are gaming Adsense using Adwords and made for Adsense sites. We’ve all seen them before, but these guys spell it out far more clearly for the beginner through to the most experienced online Adsense star.

My brush with D List Fame: Elise from Big Brother:

Lots of Extra probably totally uninteresting photos coming to my Flickr account shortly….once I deal with the 1281….1282….whoops they are still downloading….emails 🙂

Tags: Big Brother

OK, so the whole ask Duncan thing didn’t work so we’ll (I’m still open for q’s) but Darren ask’s as good question:

“Why do you love Big Brother so much?”

Well Darren, the short answer:

I live in the Country.

The long Answer:

I live in the Country.

Seriously though, we don’t get Channel 10 locally where I live. I saw the first two series of Big Brother when I lived in Mandurah, about 100km North of where I am now, which could get Perth TV no probs.

Where I am now, you’ve got to have a bloody great big antenna to get Perth TV. Our first house we bought down here did, but we were about 5km North of Bunbry, and reception was variable. Sometimes we got it, some times we didn’t. It was too hard for the 3rd series. So I gave in.

Then she who must be obeyed decided we should build a house. So we moved into a rental property whilst the new house was being built. It had NO antenna at all. Getting local TV involved a balancing act with Rabits Ears. So I didn’t see any of series 4 or 5. WIN does show it late at night, but I’m not one to be up at 11:30pm to watch it.

So we come to today. I’m in the new house. Another 5km North again, and we’ve got “community” TV, ie, cabled TV to all houses on the estate so no one has to have a TV antenna (indeed, they aren’t allowed). It’s a huge mast, maybe 15-20m high (just a street away) and now I can get (most of the time) Perth TV. And hence I can watch Big Brother. I’ve not watched it for years, so I’m totally hooked. If I’d watched it every year I’d probably be sick of it, but I haven’t. And I quite like this year’s crew. Hence, I’m going on Holidays, and I’m going to a Big Brother Eviction. Yep, it’s wacky, but why not. You only live once, and I’m hoping Camilla is evicted only so I can ask her “why don’t you think you are dirty when you love to do a spit roast” 🙂

They say only in America. And only in America could law makers, elected representatives, put forward legislation that would punish and ban those under 18 from joining Social Networking sites and blogging, whilst totally ignoring the very people they are concerned about: online predators. I suppose in a society that allows every man and his dog to have a gun, that punishing the innocent whilst ignoring the guilty (or socially deviant in this case) makes sense.

From News.com:

MySpace and other social-networking sites like LiveJournal.com and Facebook are facing a new threat: a proposed federal law that would effectively require most schools and libraries to render those Web sites inaccessible to minors, an age group that includes some of the category’s most ardent users.

“When children leave the home and go to school or the public library and have access to social-networking sites, we have reason to be concerned,” Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican, told CNET News.com in an interview.

Fitzpatrick and fellow Republicans, including House Speaker Dennis Hastert, on Wednesday endorsed new legislation (click here for PDF) that would cordon off access to commercial Web sites that let users create public “Web pages or profiles” and also offer a discussion board, chat room, or e-mail service.

That’s a broad category that covers far more than social-networking sites such as Friendster and Google’s Orkut.com. It would also sweep in a wide range of interactive Web sites and services, including Blogger.com, AOL and Yahoo’s instant-messaging features, and Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which permits in-game chat.

That’s right. Punish the 16 and 17 year olds who are using these services, but the few sick people who might be a threat….well who give’s a rat you know what about them, because it’s all the kiddies fault. I’ve got to ask, do these people also think that a rape victim is responsible for their rape because they wore a short skirt? Funny really, here in Australia Muslim preachers recently said that exact thing. So the US Government, fighting their crusade against the Muslim World, is now basically trying to implement the same fanatical laws you do find in radical Muslim Countries.

Nuts really.

This from a Media Post Email:

As Shari Thurow points out, AdSense creates A LOT of so-called search engine spam, which refers to the myriad link farms and other bogus sites appearing in natural listings that make their money off a combination of AdSense and high natural search placement. Link farming is the process of exchanging links with other Web sites in order to boost your natural ranking. Google considers this a form of spam, and bans sites that have deployed the tactic.

(I added the bold for emphasis).

I’m guessing that they’ve taken this too far in defining it, but it’s scary none the less. Swapping a link or two with a like minded site isn’t just about gaming Google, it’s essentially free advertising for your sites and helps with traffic as well.

Reports Online Media Daily:

CONTROVERSIAL ADWARE COMPANY 180SOLUTIONS AT the end of last month quietly began offering streams of two shows distributed by Warner Bros. Online. The shows–the soap opera “Deception” and the animated show “Medical Island”–were created specifically for the Web.

Both programs are available online exclusively on 180solutions’ consumer site, Zango.com. Visitors to the site can only view the shows if they agree to download the company’s ad-serving software, which serves up to six pop-up ads daily, based on Web-surfing behavior.

First Sony and a Root Kit. Now Warner Bros and Popup ads. What next? Microsoft and Spyware???

Tags: warner bros, 180solutions