It’s something I’ve come to notice more and more of recently: poorly positioned Google Adsense ads are spoiling my visits to a large number of web sites. I notice it the most when I visit a popular link on Reddit or Digg.
In order to capitalize on the sudden increased traffic volume someone slaps up ads on the popular page which, in some cases has you scroll past them to get to the content.
I’m not stupid: I know it’s placed there just to milk to traffic cow. Ads done this way don’t make me want to click on them.
I headed over to Digg and clicked the top link. While it may have no scroll pasts, it does have at least 4 different Google Adsense blocks littered around the page. That has got to have some effect on page load time and performance.
It’s okay to have ads. Just don’t make them intrusive.
Moving on, I’ve involved myself with the CouchSurfing community on Jeju. This Saturday we’re trying to schedule a meeting for Couchsurfers based here. Holly’s Coffee (City Hall). 6pm.
I’ve had a profile for a while now and tried CS properly for the first time in Iceland last year. Meeting the people I did in Reykjavik made the whole trip undeniably memorable.
A ‘thank you’ to Aaron Fowles, ex-jeju resident and now passionate CS’er for his assistance putting this together.
You may notice I’ve been relatively quiet on the Google news front. Don’t worry though – with the release of Google Sites last week I’ve been plenty busy.
And what’s the first thing every does in England when there’s an earthquake?
“I know… we change our Facebook status….
Dan Clough excuse me house can you please stop vibrating…
Keely Power loves earthquakes…..shake me more, SHAKE ME MOREEEEE!
Helen Halliday just felt an earthquake in Leicester…or was it a nuke?
Dave Glover thinks that either a massive lorry just drove past his room, he is drunk, or there was just a minor earthquake… one of those.
John Staff is sad to say Rover the mouse has left the building. EARTHQUAKE!”
Well it’s been a long time coming, but I’m finally leaving my primary Hotmail account that opened in 2001.
Along with the other services Google offers (reader, docs) it just makes plain sense.
Gmail is a far better mail client.
So I’ve been busy moving everything over. It has been a relatively painless experience so far - the places and people I get the most emails from have already switched. Filters have been set up to sort incoming mail into the various folders. Every time I get an email to Hotmail I reply using Gmail.
It’s a case on keeping an eye on Hotmail for those periodical emails that arrive from an account somewhere that’s important, but not that important.
Something else is guiding me too.
The development of Google Android, “the first complete, open, and free mobile platform”.
The project homepage is here. And there’s a video below. Stick with it as there are some exciting possibilities for journalists.
Posted by jejulifeblog
