Since the clicks from Indian traffic are not much, I assume the readers from India see the same ads and do not click anymore. You can find a list of ads from Indian advertisers below, that I have blocked. I have since then got more clicks from the Indian traffic which usually comes in at regular Indian working hours.

How to block these ads?

You need to log into your google adsense account and navigate to Adsense Set up-Competitive Ad Filter .

Then you need to copy the below list and paste it in the box and save changes. You need not copy all the links given below, use discretion, check if these ads are relevant for your website.

Good to see google targeting system and enthusiastic advertisers. But we need to choose what we want. For example, I feel that the travel websites are good for my websites, so i have retained them.

I will expand the list if it affects me.

adserver.clickjobs.com
bajajallianz.com
bajajallianz.com/BagicOnline/google/google_motor_insurance.jsp
bharatmatrimony.com
clickjobs.com
hdfcbankpersonalloans.co.in
healthinsurance-icicilombard.com
hnge.in
ibibo.com
icicilombard.com
indiaproperty.com
jeevansathi.com
jobstreet.com
magicbricks.com
monster.com
mumbaipunejobs.com
my.monsterindia.com/create_account.html
myjobsinpune.com
naukri.com
server.bharatmatrimony.com
server.bharatmatrimony.com/campaign/tracking.php
shaadi.com
simplymarry.com
tata-aig-life.com
tata-aig.com
tata-aiggeneral.com
tataaig-healthinsurance.com
timesjobs.com
timesjobs.com/candidate/post_resume_stage1.html

Warning:
1) Do Not click Google ads to find out the url of the advertiser. its illegal by google policies. right click the ad, copy the link and paste it in a word document and search for the link.
2) These ads don’t seem to go away permanently, but, you will see the reductions.

Why does your website needs benchmarking. This is good in case you are using Adsense or Adwords. Google writes ” Many customers have requested benchmarking and conversion-based advertising features. If you wish to help improve our services and take advantage of these enhanced features once we release them, select the corresponding data sharing settings.” On Google Adwords there is a feature called Conversion Optimizer, which is an optional feature within AdWords. This feature When enabled, Conversion Optimizer can automatically adjust your bids to maximize conversions at the minimum price. This feature relies on a site’s conversion data to operate, and is already available to AdWords Conversion Tracking users.

Since the data sharing will be “Anonymous”, there should be no hesitation unless you have stuff to hide. I don’t mind sharing data openly “via” Google products if it helps me to earn $. What will you get out of benchmarking?

Here is the catch though, if you do not share it , then Google will not allow you to use “benchmarking services.” Say, if you don’t use Google Analytics and still want to advertise in Google products, what would be the solution? Another issue is that benchmarking will be enabled for all profiles in your account. Since the selection is at the account level, you cannot enable individual profiles while enabling others.

Fundamental benefits of Google Benchmarking” that can give Alexa a run for its money is that “you are able to compare your site’s Visits, Pageviews, Pages per Visit, Bounce Rate, Average Time on Site, and New Visits data against benchmark data from categories of other participating websites. You can use this data to gain broader context for your site so you can identify additional opportunities to improve your site’s metrics.”

This can change how net advertising will work in few years time. There is absolutely no competition other than Alexa or even Technorati.

This service is located under the “Visitors” section of your reports. Select “Benchmarking (Beta)” to view this report. Please note that it will take up to two weeks for the data to appear since it is being categorized and collected for your reports. You can choose the vertical to be compared with in the same section. I did not find the categories that can be selected quite deep enough. I found the reason later, Google FAQ writes “Benchmarking data is also affected by the number of sites that opt in to the service over time. As more sites participate, a wider variety of categories is available for you to compare your site against.”

There is one more term you should know “sites of similar size.” You will find it in reports. Google FAQ says” Based on the number of visits each site receives, sites of similar sizes are grouped together under three classifications: small, medium, and large. This way, you can compare yourself to other similarly sized sites. You are not able to view benchmarking data for sites in other size classifications.”

So what is the refresh rate? Google is bot vague here “We regularly adjust the benchmarking data to help ensure that it is representative of participating sites and relevant for its users. Some of the factors we take into account when we reclassify the data are changes in the site’s content and number of visits. We group sites with other similarly sized and categorized sites, so we check the latest number of visitors for each site to adjust the benchmarking data accordingly.”

If you are geniunly interested in developing industry benchmarks for advertising, you should opt for it. Then we will have good Competition with Alexa and Technorati.

The Wordpress 2.5 release is most a redesign of the look and feel in the admin side. Some Javascripts have been added. Frankly, its a shock considering the older layout. The Dashboard looks pretty cool. You can update plugins without using FTP.

It has no major issues with most plugins, but, please back up everything and disable the plugins before you begin.

Akismet improved too. Tag Management and Gravatars are better. You can add multimedia via the WYSIWYG menu. Once you have posted,you can edit it without actually going via manage tab.

Alexa.com (since April 1996) is a Amazon company, say’s the website. Among other things Alexa Site Information is an database of information about sites that includes statistics, related links and more. Is Alexa perfect model?

I had downloaded Alexa Toolbar and installed it. I am not sure if it actually helped frontierindia.net ranking. But the rankings definitely shot up. At the same time the frontierindia.net was accepted in Google News and Newsnow.co.uk . Google News and Google search had boosted the traffic. The return visit traffic also increased. There is no conclusive evidence that the claim of a Alexa toolbar helps ranking.

Another observation is that since frontierindia.net’s US and Europe traffic increased, the Alexa rank improved. Or do more US/European users have Alexa toolbars than the users from other places? Does Alexa has a US traffic bias? I see that Indian news sources have high ranks in Alexa. But I don’t discount the fact that US traffic helped frontierindia.net Alexa rank.

One thing is for sure that the page views contribute heavily to the Alexa ranking. Even if you have low visits but higher page views, your website is going to climb high. This i am saying after comparisons with other target websites (do not wish to divulge). Since frontierindia.net page views went up, it started moving higher.

frontierindia.net has no doubt a very good growth since it was started in April 2007. Its 193,465 on Alexa Ranking if it means anything to you, but i need to tell. It definitely does not have 500,000 impressions per month needed by Kontera. When i registered, it did have an option of below 500,000 per months impression, also since they said they will get back in 2 days means they might be accepting websites with less impressions. In 2 days we will know.

Update: March 28, 2008

It’s been barely 4 hours since I filled out the form and presto! I get the confirmation. Some of the key points they tell me:

1) Kontera’s team will create a unique JavaScript tag, which we will email to you within 2 business days.

2) We ask that you leave us up for a minimum of 30 days. We will work on a month-to-month basis, until we mutually agree to a longer term.

3) We pay on Net 30 terms with a minimum of $100 accrued. For example, January earnings are sent around March 1st (either check or electronic transfer). Kontera will split the revenue equally; 50% revenue share.

It answer’s some key questions on the revenue share and mode of payment. The point number 2) is important. It could be publishers take off the codes before 30 days for no revenues or Kontera has its own tracking systems for the site statistics to decide to go with the publisher or not.

Update: 31 March 2008

The code instruction came. I downloaded the Kontera Wordpress plugin from here. Its installed, I have put up the publisher code and now its running.

The customer support till now has been excellent.

Update: 02 April 2008

The first day results are out. Before tell you that, Kontera results are known the next day. You will not have real time results. I had asked the support about it, here is what he said “The reporting of your metrics has a one day delay and we apologize about that..”

frontierindia.net had got Net (kontera) impression of 536, 5 clicks and revenue of $0.26 for 31 May 2008. The impressions obviously do not tell you the actual impression of the daily views of frontierindia.net as a whole. There has been no decline in my google ads revenue. it has neither effected the average page views or other competitors for clicking like the gallery.

I had asked if i can use same codes in my other sites, here is what kontera replied ” As for putting your tag up across multiple sites we suggest for tracking purposed that you have a tag made for each one. I have put in the request for additional tags which will run through the same approval process and will be issued in a couple of days. ”

April 03, 2008

In my opinion, kontera does not pay much. For example 11 Clicks and just 33 cents. Compare it to Google Adsense, 2 clicks and 65 cents.

More as it happens…

Many people now create and share content on the Internet or blend services from various sites in their daily tasks, reflecting the medium’s clear evolution from a place for simply consuming websites.

The upcoming version of Microsoft Corp’s Internet Explorer, version 8, embraces those trends by adding an “Activities” feature that makes all that easier for PC users. It’s still in a “beta” test mode meant mostly for Web designers to try out.

Internet Explorer’s main competitor among browsers for PCs, Firefox, also has been testing an update, although the most promising features await implementation by websites.

With Activities, one of several new Internet Explorer features, Web services like Facebook, eBay and Yahoo can write tools that users can install with just two clicks.

For example, Microsoft links a slew of Activities to its e-mail, blogging and news services, among others. Yahoo Inc. has one for maps, and auction site eBay Inc. has one to search its listings. The online hangout Facebook, of which Microsoft owns 1.6 per cent, offers tools for finding friends or sharing content on its site.

Say you are reading a news article you’d like to email to friends. Simply right-click and choose Microsoft’s Hotmail, and the e-mail service opens in a new browser tab with that item already added to the subject line and message body. Or if you’d rather blog about the item, then simply right click and choose Microsoft’s Live Spaces.

Mapping is initially the only service where there is choice of providers: Yahoo or Microsoft. In either case, you also get a thumbnail image of the map if you select an address and right-click. You can expand the map in a new tab with another click.

Other uses for Activities include looking up definitions of selected words or translating phrases to and from other languages.

Anyone can write an Activity, and each developer can choose whether to offer the thumbnail. You don’t need Microsoft’s permission beforehand.

Once Activities are available for the services used most, including Google Inc’s Gmail and search, a lot of time can be saved in not having to manually open new tabs and copy words or paragraphs to launch other services.

Having said, you may encounter a few frustrations.

For one, a new tab pops up every time you want to send an article or map, even if Hotmail or Yahoo Maps is already open, quickly cluttering the browser.

And clicking a “mailto” link in a Web page — the ones you might come across clicking on a name or a “contact us” link - opens a standalone, desktop e-mail program rather than Hotmail, meaning you have to manually copy and paste in the recipient’s e-mail address to use a Web-based e-mail service.

Microsoft says these two issues will be addressed before the final release, a date for which hasn’t been announced. At least one more “beta” test is expected this year.

Firefox also has a “beta” out for developers.

Firefox 3, available since November, offers a number of improvements related to bookmarks. The new version lets you add keywords, or tags, to sort bookmarks by topic, and a new “Places” feature lets you quickly access sites you recently bookmarked or tagged and pages you visit frequently but haven’t bookmarked.

The two most notable features, however, still need enabling by developers of the Web services. One promises offline support, which would let you compose Web mail without an Internet connection and send it once you’re back online. The other allows Web-based “mailto.”

An obscure browser called Flock already supports “mailto” links through Gmail and Yahoo and has a wealth of good features meant to foster sharing and connections with friends on Facebook, Yahoo’s Flickr, Google’s Picasa and other services.

But Flock, which is built on top of the same open-source Mozilla code that Firefox uses, isn’t as widely used as Internet Explorer or Firefox, meaning many Web sites haven’t been tested on it and they may not work well.

The new versions of Firefox and Internet Explorer both have security improvements. Previous versions warned users when they were about to reach a “phishing” scam site. The new versions also protect against sites that attempt to exploit known security flaws to automatically install malicious programs on your computer.

The new Internet Explorer also highlights the domain name in Web addresses to help you spot scams. In the Web address “paypal.com, scamsite.com,” for instance, the “scamsite.com” part is highlighted so that you don’t mistakenly believe you’re on PayPal and can safely enter your password.

The new version also adds “WebSlices,” which quickly alerts users to updates on their eBay auctions, Facebook friends and other frequently viewed services. The concept is similar to the Really Simple Syndication feeds that major Web browsers now permit, except those tend to be text headlines, while WebSlices can incorporate photos and interactive features.

Of course, unless you’re designing a Web site and need to test Firefox 3 or Internet Explorer 8, you shouldn’t upgrade to either yet. But the new Internet Explorer does show a lot of promise.

Can’t talk now. System’s down.

Sorry for the holdup. Looks like a temporary glitch in our network has part of Yahoo! mail down, so you’re briefly without service. Rest assured the alarms are blaring in the basement and our team is working frantically to get you up and running ASAP. Again, the snag is on our end — so there’s no need for you to do a thing.

Back to it,
Yahoo! Mail Team

Not that I really am affected. But, yahoo has had problems before. Today is Good Friday. May be everybody is in church. may be it will be not up till Easter.

Happy Easter Yahoo!

Most advertisers are still experimenting with video advertising and rightfully so, according to a recent study by Burst Media, which surveyed more than 2,600 online users in December 2007. Half of the respondents (50.7%) stop watching an online video once they encounter an in-stream advertisement. The benefits for watching online video advertising need to be greater in order to engage viewers and be more successful.

The type of content an online consumer is viewing has a lot to do with the success of a video campaign, according to Steve Silberberg, head of ad sales development for the digital interactive entertainment company, Slingo, Inc. “When video ads are served in front of non-video content, like an engaging casual game from http://www.slingo.com, the online viewer has a much bigger stake in the overall experience, because the payoff to the end-user after the video ad has played is higher.”

Online video ads generally do not offer a big enough reward in exchange for the user’s time; most online pre-roll ads are followed by similar content, video content following video content, that often does have a strong payoff. For a two-minute video, a thirty-second pre-roll advertisement is one-fourth of the total experience, which is too much for most viewers, especially online where everything is so fast-paced. The potential payoff to the online user needs to be bigger for them to put up with that level of intrusion. The online medium is very different from television where viewers are watching half-hour or hour-long shows with an average advertising pod of four to five minutes on prime time television.

If the payoff is big enough for the user, with more engaging content, the effectiveness of the ad goes through the roof. Each and every Slingo.com free game begins after a pre-roll video ad, and more people are willing to watch it because they know that the free casual game they will play as soon as the ad is over will truly engage them. The average Slingo.com game player spends over 10 hours playing free games on http://www.slingo.com per month. That equates to an average of 100 video ads every month delivered to a highly targeted engaged audience.

Merry Poppings, the latest free game from http://www.slingo.com that is preceded by a video ad, is a great example of maximizing the combination of video ad content with casual game content. This Slingo.com casual game consists of two play modes, the midway mode and the sideshow mode. In the midway mode, the casual gamer can play up to 10 levels, where each level of the popular online game is separated by a pre-roll ad intermission. In the sideshow mode, a pre-roll ad intermission is broken up into seven-minute game play intervals. Anyway you play it, from an advertiser’s or a casual gamers’ perspective, there’s a reward — to an advertiser, it’s engagement; to a gamer, it’s a free game.

The key demographic for online casual gaming is a virtually untapped market — women aged 35 to 65. Frank N. Magid Associates, a world leader in research-based consulting, published findings on the favorite leisure activities of women in a recent article in Advertising Age. The study reveals what Slingo.com has known for over 10 years — that playing free games online is one of the top leisure activities of women aged 35 to 65, which is the core demographic of http://www.slingo.com.

According to the Magid study, casual games are the third-favorite activity of all women. The results are especially revealing when the study looks at women 55 to 64, in which casual gaming is second only to watching TV. (Source: National Online Magid Media Futures Survey, March 2007). With Slingo’s ad model of only one video ad at a time, online viewers are
willing to wait and, more importantly, to watch online video ads, as opposed to watching a TV show where they usually change channels and surf during a pod of six or seven commercials before their program returns.

Online video advertisers can learn from the casual online gaming experience with the video ad-engagement-reward model.

I never forgot the lycos spelling, so naturally, i typed it out lycos.com and what I see? May be a game site? Never mind, it ranks 1,668 in Alexa bar. Haha…. a Dog as a logo, what on earth?

Anyway, I read the current description of Lycos in the release ” a leading Internet portal and e-commerce destination in Korea with a growing presence throughout the Asian markets. Lycos, Inc. operates search and technology web sites that foster online communities, including the new Lycos Cinema video platform, combining community with high- quality broadband video content. Other Lycos products and sites include Lycos.com, Hotbot.com, Tripod.com, Angelfire.com, Gamesville.com, Lycos Mail, WhoWhere.com and The Lycos 50(TM). Lycos was acquired by Korean Daum Communications Corp. in October 2004 and has its U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts.”

I remember only hotbot, tripod and angelfire. All others must be a new addition.

Hotbot logo has not changed.

I am not sure if angelfire logo has changed, but the site looks very East Asian or you can say a webserver company. The colors… that’s what I meant by East Asian.

Tripod definitely looks like an webserver company, may be it is.

AHHHHHH! the Lycos Mail looks very Angelfire type.

I checked the Wayback machine (click Here) I don’t seeing this format then. This is Dec 12, 1998.

I checked 1999 end… Look here, yeah, more like it.

This is how I last saw it ( Look here ) . So, I must have quit Lycos in 2000. If you scroll down, you will see the netscape logo too.

Anyway. I am not going to use it currently, but, if some one uses it, can send me an feed back.

Intel sees a big market for the Internet connected devices that can fit in one’s pocket and for what it is calling the netbook, a low-cost PC costing around $250.

The new chips, previously code-named Silverthorne and Diamondville, are made on Intel’s 45 nanometer chip making technology and slated for introduction toward the middle of this year.

“Diamondville and Silverthorne both represent an attempt by Intel to sell chips profitably for a whole lot less,” said Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at market research firm Insight 64. “This is the first new processor design coming out of Intel since the Pentium Pro in 1995.”

Intel announced that the Centrino Atom processor technology brand aimed specifically at mobile Internet devices, formerly code-named Menlow.

Atom includes the Intel Atom processor, a low-power companion chip with integrated graphics, a wireless radio, as well as thinner and lighter designs.