Tag Archives: Websites

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]

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.

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).

Is myspace Serious?

I may regret saying this but: what the fuck, myspace? I tried to log in to it today for the second time and it was down. You either hate me, your users, or some mixture of both. “Login is temporarily disabled while we fix some database problems. We’ll be back shortly. 2/2/2006” So many questions flow through my mind at this point. What happens to the people already logged in? Why can I see every other part of the site except the one page that says ‘processing login’? What can really be wrong with the database that this one function has to be disabled? Why is this site so damn ugly? So on and so forth… why don’t people demand better service from one of the largest websites in the world? Teenagers are the last people I’d expect to be so complacent…

Facebook Photos

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This Facebook statistic blows me away: “10278 photos have been uploaded at Colorado today”. That’s just one day! Is it just me or are photos a powerful connector? The ease of the internet means enhanced abilities to share pictures. I think there’s definitely something to that…