I'm Your Biggest Fan
— blogger flunks job interview because of daily fan letters to Star Jones via Tom Coates #World of Warcraft teaches the wrong things
— grinding and the time commitment are two big reasons why I can’t get into current MMOs via Simon Carless #Kottke reviews first year as a pro blogger
— 1,450 people donated a total of $39,900, but almost entirely in the first three weeks #All Google's Roads Lead to Kansas
— with ground photos of the farm at the default center of Google Maps #Neil Young's Perfect Echo Volume 1 '67-'71
— full album of heart-breaking rarities via hype.non-standard.net #MP3: Postal Service remixes Feist's "Mushaboom"
— with new vocals by Ben Gibbard; also, the cover of Nina Simone’s “See-Line Woman” (local copy) is worth hearing via hype.non-standard.net #Democracy Player
— making it drop-dead easy to subscribe, watch, and share video channels online; like a BitTorrent PVR community via Boing Boing #Woman loses custody of son for participating in Subgenius holiday
— anyone familiar with the Church knows it’s religious parody and performance art #Techcrunch previews Flyspy, historical airline ticket search
— like Zillow, blows up industries by making hard-to-find information widely available #"Lost Camera" unlost, but not quite found
— a Canadian couple found the Flickr fan’s camera, but won’t give it back via Andre Torrez #The Perils of Metadata
— Washington Post accidentially exposes their anonymous botnet hacker with photo metadata via Delicious #Gelf interviews the Smoking Gun on the aftermath of their Million Little Pieces expose
— excellent interview on the history, media coverage, and a potential followup via Simon Carless #Bizarre "Contract of Wifely Expectations" emerges in Iowa kidnapping case
— the text may be offensive #NBC demands YouTube remove "Lazy Sunday" video
— biting the hand that feeds you; they should have paid for that kind of amazing promotion #Bradley Horowitz on Creators, Synthesizers, and Consumers
— only a fraction of a community needs to be active for everyone to benefit via tech.memeorandum.com #Ning launches redesign
— the popular apps page is useful, and they’re doing a much better job of explaining what Ning is #John "Spumco" Kricfalusi's new blog is fun
— there’s a character named “Waxy” in the kid’s show collage via @mylifeinbeta #
Waxy Hits the Deck
In the past, I’ve never been a big fan of advertising. It’s very often irrelevant, obnoxious, and almost always diminishes user experience. While there are clever TV commercials, print ads, and outdoor campaigns that win worldwide acclaim, I’m not sure any user would shed a tear if every ad banner disappeared overnight. (It’s no wonder that the Firefox Adblock extension is downloaded 100,000 times weekly.)
The rapid rise of contextual advertising takes a step in the right direction by attempting to recommend ads related to the page you’re currently reading. I’ve been minimally running Google Ads on the Waxy.org archives since May 2004, and I’ve generally been happy with the results. The ads themselves were still a bit ugly and only occasionally relevant, but it was an acceptable sacrifice since they covered my hosting bill every month. (About $150/month, if you’re curious.)
Now, a little bit of news. Late last year, Jim Coudal started a boutique advertising network called The Deck. A few things make The Deck’s approach unique among other online ad networks I’ve seen.
First, every advertiser must offer a product or service that the Deck members have used or paid for, and we’re very picky people. Second, the ad slots themselves are very limited (currently only six slots), forcing us to choose best candidates. And the ads are cleanly designed and unobtrusive, without animation and limited to one per page.
I’d like to see a world where online ads are meaningful, representing the ideals of the writer and the interests of the reader. Careful moderation and unobtrusive presentation will hopefully lead to a better experience for everyone, which in turn means better results for advertisers. It’s an interesting experiment, and I’m proud to be in the company of net legends like Jeffrey Zeldman, Jason Fried, and John Gruber. Neat guys with very good taste.
Anyway, I’ll report back in a few months with the results. For more information, read John’s explanation of why he switched, and Mister Snitch’s analysis some trends in blogger ad networks. And if you have something to advertise you think we’d like, get in touch.