Per tagged articles
Balancing AdSense with User Experience
Happy users + effective monetisation?
I've been spending some time recently optimising the advertising here on Modern Life, and I've been trying a number of approaches to increase earnings while maximising user experience. It's a tricky balancing act, as effective ads are generally more obtrusive ones. Is there an effective way to keep both effective adverts and happy users? [read more...]
Windows Vista: Better designed than OS X?
On design challenges and keeping all the people happy, all of the time
This week I gained my first experience with Windows Vista. Whilst it wasn't so much of a 'Wow' starting as a mildly impressed 'Hmm', I do believe Windows Vista is a step in the right direction for the Windows operating system. It may be a couple of years late, but we'll forgive Microsoft for that seeing as they eventually made it to market. Whilst functionally, not all that much has changed, Vista has a lot of swish new minor features and visual chrome that do add significantly to the desktop experience. [read more...]
Who's Using What for RSS?
A peek inside the RSS kimono
RSS is a funny old thing - once it takes hold in a person's daily routine it becomes as essential as checking ones email or reading the morning newspaper - but as far as mainstream usage goes, it's a long way from attaining widespread approval. The technology behind RSS is not the issue - it's just the underlying transport, like the ink and paper of traditional media. If RSS is to break into the mainstream, it's the means of delivery that will make it or break it. [read more...]
Making a .name for yourself
The art of the online personal profile
Since the earliest days of the internet, back when it was an academic resource, there have been personal profile pages. We’ve come a long way from thesis attributions however- now millions of people have some form of presence online – whether it’s a personal portfolio or just a MySpace profile. So why so many, and what makes for an effective online profile? [read more...]
Good Traffic, Bad Traffic
On relevance and persistence, and what makes a good visitor
For webmasters, traffic is the major barometer of a site's success - but of course, not all visitors are equal. How can we differentiate between 'good' traffic and 'bad' traffic, and where does each come from? [read more...]
Click Survey Analysis & Heatmap
Interpretations and ramifications from a web design point of view
You may have seen the recent click survey featured on the front page of Digg.com - over 40,000 people participated and were invited to click on 8 different images - wherever they felt inclined to. We take a look at some of the results, and see what this means for web designers and usability analysts. [read more...]
Ip Assignment, Per Capita
The IP rich list - as decided by ARIN, RIPE, et al.
Under IPv4 there are 4,294,967,296 possible IP addresses - each of which may be assigned to a device or computer on the internet. 4 billion addresses equates to slightly less that two thirds of an IP address per person on the planet. As you may imagine, the IP addresses are not distributed evenly around the world - they are assigned to individual countries by Regional Internet Registries such as ARIN and RIPE. We take a look at how that information breaks down per person in each country. [read more...]
