Banner Ad Dimensions: A visual chart of common banner advertisement sizes

I have recently added a simple page to my site that shows the various standard IAB banner ad sizes all in one layout. The IAB has its own listing of sizes, which have various pop-up examples, but I felt that this was a more efficient way to get the point across, and to allow for the comparison of different sizes.

Google's Anti-Phishing Tech to be part of FireFox 2

"Anti-phishing capability, which Mozilla has branded "Safe Browsing," is one of the marquee features in Firefox 2.0 and one of the reasons a third alpha is necessary... It is also built into the Google Toolbar, which is available for both Firefox and IE.

Safe Browsing inspects a visited site against a regularly updated list of known phishing sites. The list of phishing sites may be downloaded automatically within the browser or can optionally be checked against Google's online list of known miscreants."

It's interesting to see some of the 'responsibility' for this kind of protection shifting from the email server and/or client to the browser.

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SpeckTone Retro is a fun design

Speck products has released a 50's inspired retro iPod speaker system. It got a good review at iProng too. Nice idea. Don't have $150? You could also use an iTrip to broadcast your iPod to an old fashioned FM radio that you're likely to find at a Goodwill or antique shop ;-P

Google unveils online video ad platform

"Google announced Monday the introduction of "click-to-play" video ads. This latest move could pave the way for the search leader to garner additional ad dollars from blue-chip advertisers, which allocate sizable portions of their marketing budgets to TV...

"You're delusional if you don't think it's competition to broadcast TV", said Bill McOwen, exec VP-managing director of national broadcasting at MPG, the media unit of agency parent Havas. "All these media compete with one another." He said the most immediate impact it will have is on local newspaper and local television. "It'll draw clientele who couldn't afford cable TV, even at a local level, into using rich media. This will be the premier way to represent their product for a lot of clients. I'd be all over it...

Advertisers will be able to measure the effectiveness of their video ads by tracking video playback rates, click-through rates to their destination site, as well as how long users interact with the video, Google said."

QuarkXPress 7 released, but not as a Universal

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW): "QuarkXPress 7 has hit the streets, but it oddly isn't a Universal Binary (Steve Jobs, if you remember, announced at January's Macworld event that Quark had a beta UB version available). A UB update to version 7 is reportedly going to be made available later this summer..."

eMusic: Making Money Selling Music Without DRM

"The Holy Grail of online music sales is the ability to offer iPod-compatible tracks. Like the quest for the mythical cup itself, the search for iPod compatibility has been largely fruitless for Apple's competitors, whose DRM schemes are incompatible with the iconic music player... Perhaps that's why eMusic CEO David Pakman sounds downright gleeful when he points out that "there's only two companies in the world that can sell to them - Apple and eMusic."

The article does well to point out the no-brainder decision of offering DRM-free high quality MP3's as a business model. If you are into smaller label music, you'll be surprised at the bands available on eMusic (White Stripes, Innocence Mission, Pixies, Interpol, the list goes on). At about $.25 per song, it might make sense to subscribe for a month or longer and grab some indie songs for 1/4 the cost at iTunes. Also, you can get 50 free songs when you first sign-up at eMusic here.

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Amazon's 'one-click' shopping patent questioned

"The 'one-click' feature, which allows customers to shop without having to enter their shipping and billing information every time they make a purchase, is said to have 'substantial new question of patentability,' a patent examiner told the paper.

A spokeswoman for Amazon told the paper that the company was confident its patent would be upheld."

Wow, if this free's up "one-click" that will surely have a positive impact for online commerce in general and companies like Apple who actually license this from Amazon.

Adobe Talks InDesign CS3

digitalmediadesigner.com: "Adobe Systems has pulled the wraps off some of the new features slated to appear in InDesign CS3, the next release of the company's page layout tool. Officially the next version isn't scheduled to ship, along with the rest of the Creative Suite, until spring 2007--about a year away. But the Adobe gave DMN a preview of some of the new features that will make their way into InDesign CS3 and discussed the direction the company plans to take with its creative tools."

More details related to my earlier post on teasers from InDesign CS3. It seems clear that Adobe wants to come across as being pro-active with its (print) publishing software post Macromedia acquisition.

Adobe looks to Photoshop to take on Quark

"A new software suite, Creative Suite 3, will include so-called metadata tags that users can stick to images and designer creations. In addition, the new version of InDesign, which is part of the CS3 package, will have the ability to import multiple images in one step. It will also have expanded transparency capabilities and new features that mimic Photoshop tools...

New versions of the applications will be available in the spring of 2007, according to Adobe. That's also when Photoshop and Creative Suite will become available with Intel-based Macs, according to an earlier Adobe announcement."

As a big fan of InDesign, anything to further incorporate the best features of Photoshop (or Illustrator for that matter) should only improve productivity.

URGE Logo Reminds Me of QuickTime Logo

Wow, with a "G" that looks so much like the distinctive QuickTime "Q" in both color and form, you'd think this service would be Mac compatible.

I guess Microsoft is going to be putting the "M" in MTV. It will be interesting to see if this attempt to buy 'Cool' gets past generation-whatever's BS radar...

Microsoft's Expression Web Designer vs. Adobe's Dreamweaver

"The balance between supporting standards and allowing your designer creative freedom is delicate and hard to achieve. To date, the only Web designers tool that has effectively been able to allow artists creative freedom and build a site on standards is Adobe's Dreamweaver. But, hang on, Microsoft thinks they have an answer, too. The newly released Expression Web Designer is a tool for the designer that is built on standards..."

Interesting article covering some pros and cons. Not that in-depth, but a good precursor to a discussion that will soon heat up.

Skype Offers FREE Calls

"Calling people on Skype is totally free. It's also free to call landlines and mobiles within the US and Canada until the end of the year."

CSS Library Launched

Via digg: "Dynamic Drive's new CSS library: Here you'll find original, practical CSS codes and examples such as CSS menus..."

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Dreamweaver 8.0.2 Updater Available

FYI - "This product update improves code generated by Dreamweaver for server behaviors and for active content such as Flash. If you haven't installed the 8.0.1 updater yet, simply install the 8.0.2 updater to get all the fixes for both updates... Full Release Notes are available."

Go and get it...

CSS3 Preview

"Joost de Valk - CSS3 Preview"
- Handy site for tracking developments in CSS3.

Trendio.com - The first stock exchange on headline news

"On Trendio.com, you can bet on the popularity of politicians, sporting teams or events, ideas, stars, natural catastrophies, etc., in fact on any word that makes the headlines."

Here's a virtual marketplace focusing on keywords (read "Tags") in news headlines, interesting idea.

AIM offers free local phone numbers

arstechnica.com: "Faced with a declining user base for its dial-up service, AOL has turned its attention to AIM in the hopes of keeping eyeballs (and ad revenues) from further defections. The newest initiative to be bundled with AIM is "AIM Phoneline," a VoIP service integrated directly into the instant messaging software. The big draw here is a phone number - AOL is giving one away for free to each user.

If you're thinking to yourself, "Self, there must be a catch," you're right. The free phone number will only accept incoming phone calls, and you'll still have to sit at your computer"

Great, hopefully this will heat up the competition and Skype will feel compelled to something similar.

Microsoft AdCenter

"AdCenter is Microsoft's own homegrown ad-delivery system. It replaced Yahoo technology that the company had been using to serve ads up to its MSN site. Potential advertisers can register for an account online, then complete a four-step process to getting their promos delivered."

FCC approves Net-wiretapping taxes

CNET News.com: "Broadband providers and Internet phone companies will have to pick up the tab for the cost of building in mandatory wiretap access for police surveillance, federal regulators ruled Wednesday."

Wow, $7B seems really high. We should talk to China, I think that their internet censorship and surveillance program was like 1/3 the cost.

Open Office's OpenDocument format will be first to ISO Standardization

via digg: "Although there are a few procedural red-tape type things left to do - OpenDocument is guarteeneed ISO standard status as ISO 26300. This likely means Microsoft's so-called Open XML format will be rejected. This is huge news for open standards and for anyone who wants to actually own their data."

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scanR, Scan, copy and fax with your camera phone or digital camera

"scanR uses advanced imaging processing and data extraction technologies to convert photos into legible, searchable PDF files."

Here's a nice idea, online OCR plus a lot more. Have a scan or photo of an information heavy piece like a whiteboard or document? This new online service will convert it to a searchable PDF, for free.

Adobe & Macromedia Websites Merge

Just when I was getting ready to write a critical blog entry about how adobe.com and macromedia.com needed to be combined to clear up confusion, they have gotten around to doing it. It's no small task, so I'm happy to see that it has been taken care of. As of this posting, the site is a bit buggy. Typing macromedia.com now redirects to adobe.com.