New Ad Type at InfoLinks

InfoLinks users should really be aware of this, as it could affect publishers that use other ad system, so, in case some aren't I am making note of it here.

InfoLinks has recently announced a few new types of revenue generating ads. I have opted out of most of them because they have, by and large, been pretty worthless forme personally.

• First was the "related links" bars, which was fine, amounted to a long bar of links that would be related to your content. Didn't generate much.
• Next was the "Tag Cloud", which I thought about trying, but it only came in one leaderboard style shape. No dice, if I was going to use it, it would have been a small column ad.

Well, now they released an ad that shows up only for folks that come from search engines (taking a page from Chitika's book I guess) and it lays over your content at the bottom of the browser. There are two huge areas of concern for this.

1. It is opt out, everyone is automatically opted in, not cool.
2. It could violate terms of service for users of Google AdSense by laying over the top of the ads if they are in that lower area of the first fold of your page.

I am not sure about most of you, but AdSense generates a heck of a lot more money for me than InfoLinks does, so if you are an AdSense publisher, I recommend going to your InfoLinks control panel and opting out until we get some official word of compliance (or lack of it) from Google.

I like InfoLinks, personally, it's a nice little bit of beer money each month, so I don't want to sound like I am trashing it, because I am not, just want people to be aware. I am not a fan of being automatically opted in to stuff, I'd prefer to opt in by personal decision.

TC Summit Day 2

Fun day, though the first comment in this post is going to be that most everything of relevance is protected by the non-disclosure agreement I am under, so I can not, and will not say any specifics.

The day started with a bus ride out to the GooglePlex in Mountain View. Cool place, we had a great breakfast, good breakout session, I was in the AdSense breakout which was very informative, and we got a lot of info and got to ask a lot of questions, but was not long enough, we had more to ask. That being said, what I can say, is that they are readying help to many pain points in the AdSense program, which is great. They have listened to good suggestions and found some great solutions to some problems that have been long standing.

Lunch was good, got to hang out with Googlers, chat over a good meal enjoy the beautiful day outside and then break for the second breakout. The second breakout would be of no interest to any of my readers, but I enjoyed it greatly. More internal plans and processes.

As usual the day ended with a great social time, some good live music and plenty of campus tours and trips to the Google Store. I couldn't help but bring home a couple YouTube t shirts for my daughters, since it's their favorite site on the internet.

The campus is big and very nice, lots of Google colored bikes all over campus that are used for between building transportation, and great outdoor courtyard with tables and chairs, game, basketball and tennis courts, inside is amazing, bright and vibrantly colored...some people bring their dogs to work, play fetch with them over breaks, maybe go bowling or play pinball...very cool. It was a privledge to visit.

One take away from this that I can share. If you need help with Google Products, don't go to third party "support forums", stick with Google's own forums. They are planning and executing some amazing support systems and recruiting good folks to staff them. Everyone I met was enthusiastic and very knowledgeable in their selected product(s).

TC Summit Day 1

Well, one of the first things they reminded us is that we all have signed current NDA agreements, so while I can talk about the summit, I can't share some things. One thing I can share is that I am typing this blog post on the brand new Samsung Chromebook I won at the summit.

The summit has been a lot of fun, not only for the information I have learned but the people I have met. The fellow TC's I have finally been able to put a face to the name of and the Google Employees I have interacted with over the years.

We listened the some great presentations from the YouTube team, who are up to some very cool things to widen the reach of YouTube within a standard code base using new coding standards, the mobile team, which is really doing some cool stuff, the Chrome OS team, which has been something I have been interested in since being part of the original Chrome OS pilot program, and Google Search gave us a look inside the making of Google Instant. The ensuing panel discussions gave us a chance to ask them questions, that sometimes put them under fire, but was generally fun and interesting. I didn't say anything, as I am holding my comments for the small group breakout sessions as they are more focused questions about specific products and processes.

The most fun is probably the meal times and social times after the days events. We sit down with other TC's and googlers for have a decent meal, at night some drinks, and just get to know each other, talking shop, or about our families and lives outside of the geekiness.

Today we are heading out to GooglePlex to spend the day out there in breakout sessions, touring the campus and mingling about. Looking forward to it.

Google Global TC Summit

I am taking off today for the Global TC Summit at the Google Headquarters. This summit is a collection of trusted "TC's" (Top Contributors) within the Google support forums and product testing efforts. I have been selected as a contributor for the Google AdSense, and have held the Top Contributor title for a couple of years, and hope to learn some cool things about other Google products as well.

They have encouraged us all to bring our mobile devices, tablets, laptops and so on in order to blog and use the social networks throughout the event, so expect some cool posts from the summit in the next two days.

Day 1 (tomorrow) will be in the hotel we are all staying at, a day of lectures and presentations. Day 2 we are being bused to GooglePlex for breakout sessions by the team(s) we are on, and I am really looking forward to it.

I hope to have some great information to share over the next 72 hours or so.