MySpace Ads Suck

I was running some numbers today because, well, I hate myspace. Usually I can handle people’s unique background images and their silly javascript cursors but I hate the crammed, ad-filled look.

myspace.jpgI took a screenshot of the ‘above-the-fold’ view I see on my resolution (1280×1024). I end up seeing almost a perfect 800×800 square. Now as you can see there are two very prominent ads taking up prime visual space on my home page. The top banner is a 730×90 and the second (much more obnoxious) ad is 300×300 in size. Let’s do some math:

  • Total Pixels: 800 x 800 = 640,000
  • Banner Ad: 730 x 90 = 65,700
  • Box Ad: 300 x 300 = 90,000
  • Total Ad Space = 65,700 + 90,000 = 155,700
  • Percentage of Page filled with ads: 155,700/640,000 x 100 = 24.3%

I thought, ‘Wow, 1/4 of the page is dedicated to advertising’. I tried to think of some way to weight the box ad since it’s right in front of my face. I wasn’t successfully clever enough. I started thinking some more and I realized, ‘is 24% typical?’

google.jpgGoogle’s page does expand to fit the full screen so there may be more total pixels but perhaps a smaller percentage?

  • Total Pixels: 1264 x 800 = 1,012,000
  • Top Links: 935 x 85 = 79,475
  • Side Links: 660 x 300 = 198,000
  • Total Ad Space = 79,475 + 198,000 = 277,475
  • Percentage of Page filled with ads: 277,475/1,012,000 x 100 = 27.4%

Wow. Perhaps I was quick to jump to conclusions. Google is dedicating more space for ads than Myspace. Granted, the links don’t take up the entire section and you don’t even seen them everytime. Additionally, the ads are more-or-less out of the way and certainly less obtrusive than Myspace’s.

I guess there are a few things to take away from this post. First, quality ads (Google’s) are important. Second, unobtrusive is a plus. Google has trained me to look to the top/side if I want to spend some money. Myspace is just taking up room and being an ugly annoyance.

Myspace is obviously laughing it’s way to the bank while I complain. But, hey, this was a fun exercise…

PS: Facebook is only 15.2% and I couldn’t name a single ad ever run on the site.

[tags]myspace, social networking, advertising, internet[/tags]

Dealing With Stress

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I?ve been reading a bunch on stress (given I?m a workaholic) and I?ve done some thinking: I rarely ever feel stressed so I never have to deal with it. I?ve never understood why this is, though. Maybe I?m stress proof, maybe it?s how I live my life? My question to you is:

How do you deal with stress?

Do you ever lock yourself in the library for days at a time? Do you try to work harder and faster on the task at-hand? Do you work on the easier task first? Do you stop and take deep breaths? Do you tap your pen or move your leg up and down thousands of times a second? Do you tell yourself that the situation isn?t as bad as it seems? Do you ?retreat? and ignore everything else going on?

If you find yourself doing any of these things you may want to read more about the different ways to approach stress.

Reactive: Reactive approaches are the easiest. It?s as simple as responding to stress and trying to cope with it once it arises. This includes stopping and taking a deep breath or quickly tapping your pen and even writing faster. Sure, reactive equals ?immediate? but is limited to the short-term.

Proactive: Being proactive is about developing resiliency strategies: how you spring back to normalcy after being stretched in a hundred directions. This includes conditioning yourself to deal with stress (healthy diet, exercise, relaxation) and even reshaping your personality.

Enactive: Being enactive means creating an environment that eliminates stressors. This is the hardest approach because it takes a lot of work and a lot of time. Though, the benefits are permanent. For many their strategies include time management and even redesigning the way they approach work.

In the coming days I?ll address my personal strategies but, once again, I submit to you:

How do you deal with stress?

[tags]stress, personal, workaholic[/tags]

Facebook Fun

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Another day, another post about Facebook. I was wandering around today and found a few interesting things. First, this site looks familiar. Second, if you login and try to open blast.php you get redirected back to the home page. What does that mean? Well, pages that don’t exist will give you a 404; this page actually loads something. Something called a ‘blast’ is coming soon…

Facebook Valentines

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valentine.pngYes, Facebook is offering ‘Facebook Valentines‘. Cute idea, but there are some problems. Don’t get me wrong, I love Facebook and everything those hard working individuals produce… I guess they’ve spoiled me: I expect the absolute best.

First, the annoucement box is not pink! Sure the text is red but it really should stand out a bit more. Second, the picture shown to the right is obviously not zooming in on a Facebook Valentine. Lazy lazy… Third, I can’t wait to see the “Hey Jon, your Mom isn’t on Facebook so would you mind telling her ‘thanks’ for me?” Valentine. Ehh, is it worth the $5? I wish Facebook would provide more statistics on Annoucements (number shown, number of impressions/clicks, etc). That’d be neat.

2006 Superbowl Commercials

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Being a Denver fan (and resident) I felt it was only necessary to root for the guys who beat us (Steelers). My logic brings me to the conclusion that we were #3 this season. Way to grab the bronze, Broncos! Anyway, I was simultanously doing other things during the game tonight but luckily I can download all the commercials into iTunes. PS: How cute was that clydesdale one?

Review: coComment

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Scoble points us to a cool new website called coComment; it makes so much sense! I thought I was the only idiot wandering around blogs, posting comments and then having to manually go back and see if there was a response. Apparently not…

coComment is a new (beta) service to track your comments on other blogs. I installed a little bookmarklet and tested it out earlier today. What you do is type in your comment on someone’s website, click the ‘coComment’ bookmarklet then hit submit. It will then track your comment and any subsequent replies. Unfortunately only Blogger, MSN Spaces, myspace, Typepad, WordPress and Xanga blogs are supported.

..and yes, it is in beta so theres some things to be worked on. The FAQ says that soon you’ll be able to “integrate cocomment in your comment form so all comments are entered into Your Conversations page”. It’ll be pretty easy to make a WordPress plugin for this and once this process is automated I’ll be in heaven. Now that I think about this, the process of clicking a bookmarklet everytime I make a comment seems a bit absurd. Thank goodness Brian has already created a Greasemonkey script.

But… why can’t Technorati or somebody else just scan blog comments and look for people who put in the same name/URL combination?

In any case, I like the ‘Blog box’. Essentially you can put a box on your site that shows your visitors where you’ve been commenting lately (because it’ll obviously be more insight and another look at our genius musings around the web).

Workaholics

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Shivani is a member of Work Anon. I’m looking to join:

Hi my name is Devin and I’m a workaholic.

I think it all started when I arrived at college (last year). I had only worked two jobs in my life (a lifeguard and retail sales) and I realized there had to be something better. Once I found stuff I really liked I did a lot of it. Now I’m a workaholic. I’ve even changed my entire sleep schedule to try and get the most out of every hour in the day.

In fact, even though I have all kinds of stuff on my plate (school, three jobs, life) I wish there were more. I guess I get bored easily. I want to move quickly from one thing to the next. I think I want to do everything I can until I find something worth ‘settling down’.
Unlike Shivani’s point (society, jobs, raises) I think my workaholism is driven primarily by my own self-motivation (not to say she isn’t driven). I’m saying that I don’t necessairly work a lot becuase society has told me to be that way. I didn’t play the whole 4.0-in-high-school game nor do I play it now. No, I didn’t apply to 37 different schools. I simply did (and still do) what I want(ed) to do.

Now that I sit and think about it, I don’t know exactly what ‘self-motivates’ me. It’s clearly not the pay. It can’t be any perks or benefits. I think I just like to synthesize. I like to create things or do things that I can later point to with pride. People think I’m crazy but, hell, I like doing it.

This may be (one of many reasons) why I don’t have a girlfriend, though…