Google has announced that they plan to acquire the ad network Doubleclick soon. They even started sending info out through Google Groups. What are they planning? They’re not giving much away. Time for some educated guesses.

Some qoutes from Google:

“This new partnership represents a tremendous opportunity for us at Google to broaden and deepen our inventory of available ads and to better serve both our publishers and users. Together, Google and DoubleClick will empower agencies, advertisers, and publishers to collaborate more efficiently and effectively, which will, in turn, provide a better experience for our users.”

“Sponsored information served by Google has always been, and will always be, clearly distinguished from objective content available via our search results and across our partner network. We want you to find the information that you are looking for—be it in an ad or elsewhere—quickly and without hassle. We know that our collaboration with DoubleClick will serve and advance this goal.”

Hmmm…. That sounds like the web will be getting a little less annoying soon. How? I’m thinking Google may be trying to kill pop-up ads and other irritating ad types. Google has always had bits in the AdSense policy forbidding you to put AdSense on a site with more than x popups per session. They seem to take a dim view of pop-ups and other annoying ads. Maybe they’ll stop providing the service of pop-ups and those annoying flash ads that expand across the page and annoy the heck out of you.

There’s a good chance that Doubleclick will become integrated with the AdSense program too. They did talk about broadening and deepening their inventory of available ads…

Yeah, yeah. Don’t use tables. Blah blah blah. Use CSS and all that. CSS can be a pain at times (especially if you want it to work in Internet Explorer…), but it works really well…when it works. Really, if you’re making a new layout, use CSS. Here are some really cool CSS-based layouts. Inspire yourself.

• MediaTemple - This web host has a really cool and professional layout. They’ve got a black header with shiny black “plastic” tabs. Drop-down menus come out from the tabs and the links in them are highlighted with a cool rounded-blue image. See for yourself.
• Ars Technica - “The Art of Technology” is this tech blog’s tagline. Their layout is even better than their tagline. The header is a nice red, with navigational tabs along the bottom. Below that, it looks like the designer is a fan of cubism. Everything is in a box. It works well though, and is surprisingly well organized.
• DHTMLSite - A spartan layout with a navigation bar at the top. The logo is right at the top of the left-hand column. Even though the layout is lightweight, it still looks crowded.
• Wordpress.org - Not to be confused with Wordpress.com (the blog host), this is the site where you download the real Wordpress software (which is grwat by the way). The layout is reminiscent of a newspaper, being a light white-grey with black text and horizontal lines. Nice and uncluttered, it still looks great.
• Good-Tutorials - Their layout changes too often, unfortunately (a couple of times a year it seems). The current one is well designed, featuring blue gradients, tan, and white very well. Uncluttered and well though-out, it’s pretty good for a tutorial site.
• The Leaky Cauldron - Prepare to be blown away. This layout is all CSS and images. Easily edging out the Table-based Mugglenet.com which has a black background too), this is easily the best-designed Harry Potter site. That’s not an easy goal either, there are some amazing lesser-known ones. The Leaky Cauldron is the biggest HP site on the web (getting over 100,000 unique visitors a day). The layout is amazing, and AJAX is used quite well.
• Feedo Style - ORANGE! Amazingly it’s not that hard on the eyes, andi t’s not that dreaded “Safety Orange” either. Horizontal navigation, one-column content, not too bad. The diagonal-line-gradient on the background is a nice touch as well.
• Digital Web Magazine - Nice and clean. Blues, tan, white, etc. There’s a refreshing lack of advertisements as well.
• PotterCast - Considering it’s a sub-site of the Leaky Cauldron, I’d expect no less. Probably the best layout I’ve seen on a podcast site so far, it looks very unique (without being totally off-the-wall).
• YouTube - Airy (read: no visible lines around the edges), it looks very much like a Google site (despite not starting out as one).
• PC World - Hmmm. Reminds be of Ars Technica a little… It looks different in several ways though. It’s a bit heavy, clocking in at 74 settings on 56k and 12 on a T1. Reds, greays, and white again. It’s very dynamic, and much more cluttered than Ars Technica.
• Digg - Digg… Take a look at it yourself. The header’s the main part, and the lower segments are just divided by lines and padding. The header conveys an amazing array of information and navigation.

Google recently opened up GMail, so anyone can signup without an invite or cellphone. What are we supposed to do with all our invites now? I have 50 still! They continue to accumulate, even though no one needs them anymore. Why doesn’t Google just remove the limit entirely and just say, “Hey, invite all your friends to GMail!”? It would make more sense.

On a similar note, April is “Pester Everyone You Know Until They Get GMail Accounts Month”. Happy pestering.

We need more alternatives to Digg.com. Digg is a great idea, but it’s gone awry. I’d like to see more sites that offer similar functions (in a similarly user-friendly site), but without the problems of Digg? Read the rest of this entry »

Is OpenID The Way To Go?

It’s an interesting concept, but with recent developments, it may not be the way to go.

In case you didn’t already know, OpenID is a decentralized identity service. Basically it lets you login to any OpenID-capable site with the same credentials. Your login data isn’t tied to one huge corporation though (in theory). You register and OpenID with an “OpenID Provider”, basically a website that stores all your login credentials and processes requests from other sites. Anyone can become an OpenID Provider.

The major advantage of OpenID is you get one “username” (more of a URL) that you use on any OpenID-ready site.

One thing I’m not a huge fan of is the way you login to an OpenID-ready site. Registration couldn’t be simpler. Just hit register and provide your OpenID. You’ll be redirected to your OpenId Provider’s site, where you’ll have to give the new site permission to use your OpenID by entering a username and password. Can you guess how you login? You head over to your OpenID Provider’s website (like www.myopenid.com) and enter a username and password. Yournow logged in to OpenID. Now to login to an OpenID-capable site, just enter your OpenID URL (which looks like http://you.yourprovider.com). You’ll jump over to your Provider, where you’ll enter your password. Having entered the password, you’ll bounce back to the page you where on previously, now logged in. The major advantage of OpenID is you get one “username” (more of a URL) that you use on any OpenID-ready site. Personally I think the whole process is a little clumsy and needs work. It’s an interesting concept, though.

What are these “recent developments” that make OpenID less of a good idea?

• AOL has an OpenID tied to every account.
• Microsoft is doing the same as AOL.
• Microsoft is trying to “integrate OpenId into Vista” (uh oh).

Those huge corporations will likely try to take the Open out of OpenID. They will struggle to become the largest Provider, and etc etc. Microsoft is trying to “integrate OpenID into Vista”? That can’t be good.

Let me point something out. If someone gets your OpenID password, they instantly have access to every OpenID-ready site you use. “Oooh, a credit card number.”? You don’t want that to happen, do you? OpenID must not be used with sites that store credit card numbers. OpenID makes it easier for crackers to get access to your stuff. All they need to do is get login data from one site, and they have access to everything. If Microsoft is integrating OpenID into Vista (probably with a patch or Service Pack), then we can assume that Vista will be storing your OpenId URL and password so that it can log you in easier. Does that sound like a good idea to you? Given Microsoft’s reputation for security…

If someone gets your OpenID password, they instantly have access to every OpenID-ready site you use.

But having huge corporations “getting into the OpenID business” isn’t good. It all helps them in their quest to conquer the internet. So these companies will have control of the systems that let people log in to tons of sites on the web. They could block sites, for example. Say AOL doesn’t want you to use a site that competes with one of their services, they just stop their OpenID’s from contacting the sites servers and… Do you get the message? These companies will do anything to totally rules the web. Look at Yahoo. They’re buying sites up and integrating them into their main site (Del.icio.us, Flickr, etc). I’m guessing they’ll be an OpenID provider soon. Have you heard of “Yahoo Brand Universe”? Basically they’re trying to take on fan sites like The Leaky Cauldron, or other somewhat smaller sites (Leaky isn’t that small. They get over 100,000 unique users a day). Here’s an article about Brand Universe. Sounds like they want to take over the web, doesn’t it? They want to attempt to put fan sites out of business. It’s to late to do that to Harry Potter, though. Fan sites like Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet have huge followings, then there are smaller fan sites fitting into Harry Potter niche markets (like The Site of Requirement).

If AOL, MSN, and possibly Yahoo are OpenID providers, what’s to stop them from buying up the smaller providers in their attempts to become the biggest provider? Nothing.

If AOL, MSN, and possibly Yahoo are OpenID providers, what’s to stop them from buying up the smaller providers in their attempts to become the biggest provider? Nothing. If AOL said they’d pay you $3 million for your OpenID-providing site, you’d have a lot of trouble resisting that much money, wouldn’t you. It will happen.

That’s why I’m not a huge OpenID fan. I like the concept, but it’s going to blow up in everyone’s face. That’s why I’m taking a different approach in NTugo, a new site I’m working on. I’m thinking of having OpenId’s working in tandem with NTugo Accounts, so you’ll be able to login with a username and password or an OpenID. An NTugo Account will optionally have an OpenID tied to it so you can login either way. Suppose one of those corporate OpenID’ers decides to block OpenID logins to NTugo (supposing NTugo got big enough for it to matter). A user could just login with a username and password instead. If they still want to use OpenID with NTugo, they could proceed to their profile page and bind an OpenId from a different provider to the NTugo account. Good idea, or what?

Hmmm. Maybe go and see what you have to do to become an OpenId provider….

Bored? Online games are a great way to pass time and have fun. Not to mention the fact that they’re free. Free is good, right? Here are some games and gaming repositories that offer free online games you may like.

Games

• RuneScape
• DragonFable
• Tactics Arena Online
• Stick Arena

Places to Find Games

• Miniclip
• Addicting Games
• Postopia
• Candystand

There are others of course, but this list should keep you busy for a while.

Is it really possible to get free web hosting without looking unprofessional? Yes! You can actually find a web host with the following:

• 200MB (or more) of storage
• 5GB (or more) bandwidth
• PHP
• MySQL
• cPanel
• NO ADS
• etc

How can Geocities get away with giving you that horrible package full of annoying ads? They market the heck out of their service, and assume you won’t know what else you can get. Even their paid hosting is way overpriced (check out 1and1).

You can run a website for only $7/year if you try hard enough. Buy a domain name from 1and1.com for $7/yr and grab some free hosting (1and1 also has some nice bargain-priced hosting in the $3/mo range that surpasses the quality of most free hosts).

Where can you get good free hosting? Here are a few places to check out.

• Awardspace
• Cybertoad Networks
• EJ.AM

There are also a few free hosting directories where you can find more.

• FreeWebSpace.Net
  
• GoFreeHost
• Webhosts4Free
• Free Web Hosting List
• Top Free Web Hosting

Give free hosting a try. It’s great for running small to medium sites/blogs. If you outgrow it you can always move to a cheap paid host. I’ve successfuly run websites off free hosting (until the sites outgrew the hosts). No one guessed that I wasn’t on a paid host (though the frequent downtimes on one of then could’ve tipped people off).

Need a layout for a website, but don’t want to design it yourself? Go with a premade template. You can modify it until it’s unrecognizable in less time than it would take to start from scratch. A couple hours versus a whole day. Here are some good places to get templates (in no particular order).

• Templates Box
  
• Zeroweb
• Open Source Web Design
• OpenWebDesign
• Zymic
• WebDesignHelper
• Layouts4Free.com

I was running a quick Google search a couple minutes ago and noticed something different about the main Google page. Guess what it is. They took the AJAX auto-complete system they had in Google Labs for ages and added it to the main Google page. Now, whether you like it or not (I’m still deciding) you get suggestions as you type your search query. Cool or not? I don’t know yet. It may help you come up with a better search term or it may annoy you. Who knows, we’ll figure out soon enough.

Thinking of starting a blog? If so, you’re probably trying to decide what system to use to run it. I’d say the top two are Blogger (blogger.com) and Wordpress (wordpress.org. Blogger is mainly a pre-hosted service that stores all your stuff on Google’s servers. Not a bad arrangement, unless you want more control over everything (you know who you are). Wordpress is a set of PHP scripts you upload to your web host and follow some instructions to install it (it’s pretty easy and only takes 10 minutes or so). “Wordpress.com” is a service that gives you a limited Wordpress blog that’s hosted by someone else (sort of like the Wordpress version of Blogger). I don’t recommend this, unless you are unable to install Wordpress (if your host has Fantastico it can do it for you in 30 seconds by the way). If that’s the case, you may prefer Blogger anyway. I like the look and feel of Wordpress and it’s added power. I may move this blog over to a Wordpress setup eventually (keeping the same address, or course — you’ll barely notice a difference). One cool feature of Wordpress is a “Blog Importer”. If your blog used to be on Blogger or another service, Wordpress can import all your old posts and stuff. Cool or what? Well, enough ranting, it’s time for the Head to Head.

Blogger
Okay, first up is Blogger, Google’s offering.

Blogger has a nice feature set, but doesn’t clutter things or make itself hard to use. It’s a great introductory blogging system, letting you host your blog on Google’s servers or partially on your own. You can use either a subdomain resembling you.blogspot.com or point your own domain at the blog. The template system used since it’s launch in 1999 is amazing. You can install a new design just by pasting some text into a box, or by using one of the included ones in the template gallery. Making your own doesn’t take much beyond basic HTML and CSS knowledge either. You can still use that great template system or the new “layouts feature” that allows you to modify one of the several included designs just by dragging and dropping. Unfortunately this makes it harder to code your own new design. You can use either of the methods, since Blogger understands both. Comments, feeds, posting by email, multiple authors, and lots of other useful features are supported as well. Blogger’s pretty good, especially for the novice user (even if you have plenty of web experience, you may like Blogger).

Wordpress
Now it’s time for Wordpress, the option for those who want absolute control of everything.

If Blogger has a “nice” feature set, Wordpress’s is spectacular. You can separate your posts into categories, write static pages (an about page is a good example), you can easily manage a blogroll, etc. You can configure virtually anything if you want to. The templates used for Wordpress are available all over the web (just Google “wordpress theme”). They’re not quite as easy to make as Blogger ones, though you have a lot more you can do. It’s best to create a web layout first, then start template-itizing it with Wordpress’s “template tags”. Wordpress requires having a place to host it (with PHP and MySQL support). You can get such hosting for as little as $2.99/month. That price includes your own domain too. I like Wordpress a lot, it’s not quite as easy to use as Blogger, but it’s easy nonetheless. I highly recommend Wordpress, but NOT the service known as wordpress.com (it’s practically useless unless you want to pay them for “premium services”).

Conclusion
I highly recommend either Blogger or Wordpress for anyone wanting to start a blog. Blogger is great for people who are just getting started with Blogging and don’t know much about the inner workings of the web, while Wordpress is great for more experienced people. If you can set up a Wordpress blog (or if you know someone who can set it up for you), you’ll definitely not outgrow it when your blog becomes popular.