Third-party ads displayed through AdSense

If you’re an advertiser looking to manage all your online advertising through the powerful Google AdWords interface, things are looking up since Google has decided to display third-party ads, through AdSense.

At first, this new ad sourcing alternative will only be made available for English pages viewed in the United States but as the program evolves, it’s expected to be offered in other languages and countries.

For publishers, displaying these third-party ads is done automatically if the AdSense code is set to accept “images”. Since most publishers choose this option, the distribution network for the third-party ads should be quite large and varied.

This being said, countless publishers are looking to get more details about the revenue opportunities these third-party ads could bring. While the AdSense network is popular, in part, because of the “cost-per-click” model, the third-party ads are known to shy away that particular model in favor of a fixed price per thousand or per million ad banner displays. It’s still unclear how Google AdSense will reconcile these heavily differentiated payment models.

Publishers looking to filter out specific ads can still do so using the competitive ad filter and to make that job even easier, Google states that only advertisers with whom they have proven relationships and who’ve clearly demonstrated commitments to their quality standards may participate in their program — futhermore, Google policies governing ad content and formatting remain unchanged.

So, where do these third-party ads come from?

From a more technical standpoint, the ads will be served by both DoubleClick DFA and Mediaplex/ValueClick, for North America. Meanwhile, the third-party ads will come from DoubleClick Rich Media, Eyeblaster, EyeWonder, Interpolls, Pointroll and Unicast. On the research front, Dynamic Logic/Safecount, Factor TG, IAG and InsightExpress have all been certified by Google.

It seems malware will not be an issue with these new third party ads as Google specifically forbids fourth-party calls or sub-syndication to advertisers or vendors they haven’t certified. Also, publishers and users can rest assured all third-party ads are checked for malware when they’re initially entered into the AdWords system.

While this new announcement from Google will surely fire up the advertisers looking to make sense of the online advertising complexity using AdWords’ relatively simple interface, it’s still unclear if the publishers will feel this latest move contributes significantly to their bottom line or if it dilutes the currently profitable pay-per-click model.

Tags: third-party ads, google, adwords, adsense, pay-per-click, advertising, ads, banners, images

Revolution themes make WordPress look great

It’s no secret that almost anybody can launch a WordPress blog since, among other things, the PHP / MySQL script is downloadable for free as “open source” and hundreds of plugins complement the main code to help tailor highly customized blogging systems.

So WordPress rocks and millions of web publishers, from around the world, will gladly confirm it.

But is WordPress capable of handling truly professional blogs?

From a technical standpoint, it’s very solid and will surely provide you with a flawless blogging experience. This being said, most of your web publishing work will include creating -or- finding and fine-tuning a blog theme that fits your particular blog project.

The theme part, with the inevitable computer graphics work, can get a tad frustrating for the bloggers who just can’t stay on top of things, designwise. Add CSS stylesheets to the mix and some less familiar bloggers might literally run for the hills!

Imagine these bloggers’ satisfaction when they come across Brian Gardner Media’s Revolution themes, for WordPress.

These WordPress themes are more sophisticated than the average “free themes” that are abundatly available. They’re designed with the idea that WordPress isn’t just a blogging script but rather a full blown content management system — hence the name “Revolution”.

Hierarchical drop-down menus are standard and the blog’s front page model looks like a magazine instead of “just another blog”. For many bloggers, this is a way out of the cookie-cutter-like approach simpler themes may apply thereby failing to woo the blog reader.

Good looks can make the difference between an average blog going unnoticed and an online magazine-like web destination that first time visitors want to bookmark.

Is each Revolution theme expensive, at $79,95 for a single use or $199,95 for an unlimited use?

Of course not since custom design for a blog quickly runs into the thousands of dollars. With minimal customization work in any of the Revolution themes, a web publisher can proudly present a visually appealing blog that readers will rave about.

Furthermore, web designers can buy a $399,95 package to use all of the Revolution themes in all of their clients’ blogging projects.

Serious bloggers will always be looking for ways to differentiate themselves and right now, buying a Revolution theme is sure way to do just that.

Tags: revolution themes, brian gardner media, wordpress, theme, commercial theme, pro theme

Yet another price increase for the “.org”

Just last year, in 2007, the Public Interest Registry (known as the PIR) hiked the price of “.org” domains by 2,5% to $6,15 but that apparently wasn’t enough since this year, on November 9th, 2008, they increase the price -again- by 10% for a new record price of $6,75.

Furthermore, Alexa A.S. Raad, CEO of the PIR didn’t find it necessary to explain why such an increase was suddenly made necessary. She and her “senior management team” just decided that they would levy more “internet taxes” from the 7-or-so million dot org domain name owners.

Here’s a copy (in .pdf format) of Raad’s letter to the ICANN, announcing the PIR will be unilateraly jacking up the .org prices, in November.

So as far as accountability goes, the PIR isn’t going to win any prizes soon.

Perhaps the “senior management team” desperately vyed for a huge salary increase and simply decided to tax everyone else for their own lifestyle upgrade, who knows? The PIR provided no reason whatsoever for the increase so “the real reason” is up for speculation.

This new “.org” increase which applies to all new registrations, renewals and transfers between accredited registrars isn’t the only price hike the ICANN has blessed as the “.com” will increase 7% to $6,86 and the “.net” will go up 10% to $4,23, in October of 2008.

The most probable cause for all these increases is likely related to sheer greed, lack of credible oversight and a domain name scheme based on a largely unaccountable oligopoly.

In clear, domain name owners are powerless against these new taxes being forcefully levied against them. Such a state of affairs is unacceptable and until the price hikes are properly justified, there should be no upward movement in prices since, by all means, the only they should be going is… down!

Domain name owners shouldn’t be complacent against the tendency of the PIR-type of domain monopolies to jack up the prices whenever they want (probably on a whim) without any need for accountability.

For the readers who wonder who the “senior management” people are, at the PIR, here’s a shortlist:

• Alexa A.S. Raad - CEO (she signed the “price increase letter” to ICANN)
• David Maher - Senior Vice President, Law & Policy
• Pamela Miller - Director of Operations and Compliance
• Lance Wolak - Director of Marketing
• Nayla Foster - Head of Global Sales
• Lawrence C. Martin - Director of Finance & Administration

It would be interesting to see if their salary will increase after the Noverber 9th “.org” price increase since without properly justifying their 10% hike, it’s entirely plausible that they will personally profit from their “support” for it.

If you read through the PIR web site, you’ll find wholehearted tidbits like “this globally diverse group is committed to protecting your interests” but when the price of the “.org” registration goes up 10% without a single word of justification, it’s pretty hard to imagine that particular intervention was only made to “protect YOUR interests” as it was more likely intended to TAKE MORE MONEY FROM YOU, wether you like it or not.

Tags: dot org, .org, pir, public interest registry, registrars, icann, price increase, domains, renewals, transfers

Verisign’s push for stronger SSL encryption

If visitors to your web site need to transfer sensitive information, they’ll feel a lot better knowing their session is encrypted with SSL.

Why is that?

Well, in the case of a low-level 40 bits encryption, a hacker’s “brute-force” attack on a given session would likely result in the complete access to that session in around 4 hours (using a high-end home computer system) which is, let’s be honest, better than no encryption at all.

For the record, that 4 hour breach was possible back in… 1997 — imagine the same “brute-force” attack with today’s much more powerful compters and you quickly get the picture.

Without SSL, there’s no protection whatsoever from “technically talented prying eyes” so that’s why some of your visitors feel more comfortable transfering their data within SSL-encrypted sessions.

So, what’s “SSL”, anyway?

The popular acronym “SSL” is short for Secure Socket Layer. It’s a protocol originally developed by Netscape (now being shut down, by AOL) for transmitting private documents online.

Technically, SSL uses a cryptographic system based on two keys to encrypt the data where one key is public (known to everyone) while the other one is private (kept secret from the world, by the recipient of the message). Both browser branches, Netscape Navigator and MS-Internet Explorer support SSL so a growing number of web sites use the protocol to transfer confidential user information, namely credit card numbers.

Spotting SSL-enabled web destinations is very easy as by convention, URLs that require an SSL connection to work start with “https:” instead of the standard “http:”.

But is there a more secure SSL encryption level than just 40 or 56 bits?

Fortunately, yes. Verisign and host of other credible providers offer 128 and even 256 bits encryption. For the day-to-day uses of banks and responsible companies managing web transactions, 128 bits should be more than enough, though.

You see, 128 bits of encryption represents a dramatic increase in complexity over mere 40 bits. If you’re good in math, you’ll be happy to learn that 128 bits SSL encryption has 300 spetillion times more combinations that 40 bits — again, that’s 300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times!

If your web site initiates 128 bits SSL connections with its users, you can estimate that for a hacker to breach one of your sessions, using the same “brute-force” approach as the one decribed earlier, it would take well over a trillion years. That more than enough for your users to feel comfortable with transfering their sensitive information over the web, with your company.

That’s also the main reason why Verisign, based in Mountain View, CA, is pushing so hard to get companies to secure their online properties with 128 bits and higher SSL encryption.

Some of the oldest browsers and operating systems can get in the way of a smooth experience of SSL encryption for some users who are unfortunate enough to be using proverbial dinosaurs to go about their computing tasks but for anybody using 2003-and-after technology, 128 bits encryption shouldn’t be a problem.

The reason why the bulk on online communications occur without encryption is mainly because of the weight it adds to unencrypted data. You see, a bit of data travels quite fast on the internet but wrap it with 128 bits of encryption and from a technical standpoint, it becomes 128 times heavier. So if “everything” on your web pages suddenly becomes 128 times heavier, that could seriously impact on the user experience, especially if he isn’t connecting to the internet using the faster pipelines like ADSL or cable.

For this reason, SSL encryption is generally limited for use in the sensitive zones of a web site, like the credit card checkout step, at the very end of the entire shopping process.

While you can get an SSL encryption key from a wide range of providers like Entrust, GlobalSign, GeoTrust, RapidSSL, MBNX, Comodo, Thawte and many others, a growing number of companies are looking for features like Server Gated Cryptography (SGC) which dynamically provide every site visitor with the strongest encryption available to them and Extended Validation (EV) SSL Certificates that turn the address bar green and allows viewers to experience new interface advancements, which are namely offered by Verisign.

In other words, the SSL encryption market is getting very competitive and the prices are lower now than ever before. Ultimately, a company can issue both SSL encryption keys itself, thereby completely circumventing the very need for an external provider -but- there’s the certificate integrity question being raised when such a practice occurs.

So, for most companies (especially the smaller ones), it’s more credible for the site visitors when a major SSL key provider garantees the very integrity of the system.

The bulk of information available online will never need SSL encryption since it’s intended for public use but for those more sensitive bits of information, companies can rely on either 128 bits or (for the hopelessly paranoid) 256 bits of encryption to keep their users safe from hackers, lurking in the darker corners of cyberspace.

Tags: ssl, encryption, 40 bits, 56 bits, 128 bits, 256 bits, secure, https, browsers, public key, private key

Is there a future for Quebec’s “.qc”?

The whole world is aware that Canada operates the “.ca” domain name suffix and furthermore, every province and territory has its own identity, such as “.on.ca” for Ontario, “.qc.ca” for Quebec and so on.

But the identity matter is boiling nowadays in the Province of Quebec where Parti Quebecois representative, Daniel Turp, has launched an online petition, called “Opération Point-QC” to build up support for the rise of yet a new domain name extension, specially tailored for Quebeckers — it would be labeled “.qc”, without the trailing “.ca” as in “.qc.ca” which is the way it’s set, right now.

The Bloc Quebecois, a federal political party defending the rights of Quebeckers, has also added its weight in favor of the establishment of the “.qc” domain name suffix.

Quite recently, in September of 2006, the ICANN has granted the Catalans with a “.cat” extension, mainly for their particular cultural and linguistic needs online. The “Dot-QC” movement hopes to emulate that wildly successful operation thanks to the Fundacio puntCAT. The Catalans have set an important precedent that paves the way for an easier acceptation process for all similar requests made to the ICANN, in the future.

The current “pro-dot-qc” operation is conducted in French only, probably to prove a point about the Province of Quebec’s special status, as the biggest francophone community in America.

Are culture, linguistic differentiation and national identity enough to convince both the Quebeckers and the ICANN of the necessity for a “.qc” domain name extension? Probably but to this day, only 6,345 people have signed Daniel Turp’s petition to request the new “Quebec-centric” moniker. While the number is significant for a Province the size of Quebec, it’s still rather small considering the attention the “Dot-QC Project” got in the local media.

More people will likely add their name to the petition in order to show their support for the project. Until that happens, there will be lots of people wondering if there’s a future for Quebec’s very own “.qc” domain name extension.

Tags: qc, quebec, canada, point qc, dot qc, domain name, suffix, extension, culture, identity, language