Blogs

Google recently added a new feature on Analytics - graph annotations. It's a small feature, and I had to do a double-take to make sure I wasn't seeing things when I first saw it. You can click on any date in the graph and make a note that you can make private or share. Below the traffic graph, there's an ajax arrow that you can click on to make annotations or see a list of them. It looks like the feature only supports notes on a day in the graph and not a range of dates. It's a helpful new feature. If you launched something new on your site, you can annotate it to see how it affects traffic.

AdBrite's full page ads overlays your website with an advertiser's until you click on a button at the header to skip the ad. A while back I disabled AdBrite's Full-Page Ads because shortly after enabling it, I saw a significant traffic drop. Although it could have just been the natural order of things, I didn't want to take any chances. Traffic came back shortly after I disabled it, but again, it could have just been be the normal ups-and-downs of the the traffic cycle. I've read that since it's just javascript, it shouldn't affect search engine referrals which makes sense.

Sorta. Kinda. It's been converted to a star system. If you search for a movie and the Rotten Tomatoes page for it comes up, then you'll see a star rating (converted from the Tomatometer), the Tomatometer percent, and the number of reviews they're based on.

Ever since I saw the specs on HTC's HD2 several months ago, I wanted to get it - 1GHz processor, 5MP camera, and 4.3" screen. You see, my contract with T-Mobile then was done, so I was looking for a new phone to replace my ancient T-Mobile MDA. I had that phone for four years which, in cell phone years, is a lifetime.

This past couple weeks, I was involved in a couple marketing initiatives for BookTeller.com. First, there was an event for a Chinese School association that I had to prep for since we had a booth there. That took up most of my time for the past three weeks. Second, there was a write-up I wanted to do for the Drupal Showcase on Drupal.org.

I just received a nice surprise in my email today. It's an email from Netflix telling me that it's now possible for me to stream movies through my Nintendo Wii console. They're sending me a CD this Friday that would allow me to do that.

Like I mentioned in the Ebert article, I've been testing out ad networks on subpages of Wopular for the past couple months. I don't want to put any ads on the main channel pages until I've settled into something; also, I want to reserve those pages for premium sponsorships.

I watched Roger Ebert's interview on Oprah the other day where he revealed his new computerized voice put together by processing audio commentaries he did for DVDs. I went to his blog to see if he had anything to add, like he did for the Esquire article. Instead of a reaction entry, I got an entry inviting me to join The Ebert Club, which cost $4.99 for the year for some value-added services.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the year, I've started working for BookTeller.com, a website that offers animated children's books with voice-over narration for a monthly subscription fee. It's a great educational tool for parents and teachers to teach kids how to read.

I've been using the HTC Touch Pro 2 for a couple weeks now, and I've been really happy with it.