• As per Jensense, the place for all things Adsense, if you’re running Adsense, you may have noticed that updated Terms of Service they made you sign over the past few weeks.  Buried in all that dense text was something about having a mandatory privacy policy — something I admittedly glossed over.  Jensense has a sample template that you can use (which I did).  If you haven’t created one, go ahead and use this one, because Adsense now requires you to have it. (5) # // 3.8.08 @ 9:48
  • … and what about Google?  I think there’s one intangible that not enough people are yammering about with respect to new rumours that Digg maybe bought out — and that is, what happens to the community?  These are either geeks are geek wannabe’s that make up the Community at large (large “c”), irrespective of how active they’re engaged with the community.  I think a large part of what makes Digg attractive is not only its content, but its Brand — its independent, laissez-faire, pro-Geek, Linux/Apple-loving streak that is rooted in its founder, Kevin Rose.  If he goes, and its sold to Microsoft, will Digg lose its cred?  Peering at the comments over at Digg, one wonders if that might be the case.  If that perception happens (and that’s all that matters: perception), what will happen to Digg thereafter?  Could being acquired by Microsoft be the thing that does Digg in?  Well, I guess we’ll all find out soon enough (if these new rumours are to be believed).  Interesting question — would the community act as strongly if Google acquired it? (4) # // 3.7.08 @ 12:05
  • What with Blogged.com’s coverage in the past day or so, as Duncan remarked, its amazing what a little PR can do for you.  Any one else amazed yet?  For the love of pete its a Blog *DIRECTORY* — of which there are literally a dime a dozen if you so wish to Google it. More incredible, there are other players who have literally been around (in their domain name, form), for more than 10 years! Allen calls it “hand-curated”, but with all due respect, I think that’s a euphism if I ever saw one.  Blog directories have their time and place, but there’s nothing about Blogged.com that ought to raise much of an eye brow, let alone two (except, maybe that domain name — that’s a great one).  Further of all, if you’re looking for some established SEO/Link pimpage, there are at least a few other directories PR7 and higher (if you still care about such things) that are accepting submissions, like BlogCatalog and EatonWeb (both of which are quite aged properties as well). (9) # // 2.25.08 @ 8:12
  • Would you be surprised if a Digg clone got millions of dollars to clone … well, Digg? I know I would. Fine, there are some finer features that distinguish it from the king of the social news mountain, but surely anyone with a modicum of common sense can see that no other new niche player is going to make a dent in this category, particularly when it looks so Digg-like. The other thing that makes it look bush-league and less-than-primetime (and I don’t mean in an SNL-kind of way) is the fact that there are so few votes per story. 25 30 or so seems to be the top, but there are some stories with only ONE vote on the “front” page. Low engagement levels are a sure sign that things are still in their infancy, and on a social news site? Unfortunately that’s real easy to see (that, and its flattening off traffic levels — I’m aware of the possible seasonal drop, but my money is that the dip is way too large to represent a seasonal thing, but time will tell, I’m sure).  Now granted, some of it might be the weekend effect, but another way to measure mediocre engagement?  The incredible dearth of comments for most submissions. (4) # // 2.25.08 @ 7:50
  • Shattering through the $100 barrier means a lot of things to the consumer technology, as there is at least one HD-DVD which is now being offered at Best Buy for this price.  Quality issues aside and competition issues with blu-ray aside, greater penetration into the high definition loving public will *also* mean greater penetration into the pirate / torrent sites.  Not that there isn’t already a proliferation of such stuff, but you can bet in the upcoming months there will be a heck of a lot more — or rather, that more people will be ripping such material, and more people will be sharing it.  If I was the kind of person who participated in that sort of thing, I might be jumping for joy.  But I’m not, so I’ll quietly relish in the fact that an on-par Canadian dollar means that I’ll only pay $100 — in addition to shipping costs, of course, when it ever comes back in stock. (0) # // 11.1.07 @ 20:47
  • I’ve meet a few local bloggers over the past year, and one of them was David Peralty, *formerly* of Bloggy Network.  We had a chance to chat a bit at Mesh this past May, and I found him to be — in the words of some southern friends, a real straight shooter, and a professional blogger in every sense of the word.  I mean, the man makes his living from blogging — how cool is that?  He got married, he’s got a house [and he’s Canadian!]… the man does all right for himself.  I found out earlier this week that he’s joining the Splashpress crew as the head of marketing [Splashpress being the entity which owns the BlogHerald, of which I am the Editor], and I just wanted to throw him a good ol’ fashioned shout out {something I haven’t done in a while}. (2) # // 11.1.07 @ 15:48