Andy Moore

Seems image ads are making news today in Mobile, AdMob send out a mail saying image ads are ‘go’ from early next week and Google are launching them too according to Fierce.

AdMOb:

As part of our ongoing commitment to deliver optimal performance for our advertisers and publishers, we are excited to announce an enhancement to AdMob Text Link Ads.  Beginning early next week, we will allow advertisers the option of adding an image to their Text Link Ads.  Images drive user engagement by helping advertisers better communicate their message.  Early testing indicates improvements in ad performance when an image accompanies a text call to action.

Google:

Web services giant Google announced the launch of mobile image ads, a new version of its AdWords flagship advertising product redesigned to fit on device screens. According to Google, the ads essentially reformat its standard image ads for desktop web pages–each mobile image ad is keyword-targeted, priced on a cost-per-click basis and linked to a mobile web page. Google added it will only show one image ad per mobile page, promising publishers the choice to show text ads, image ads or a mix of both, with Google dynamically returning the ad it expects to perform best. Mobile image ads are now available in the U.S., U.K., Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Russia and Spain markets.

Seems like good news that things are moving forward like this but let’s be honest image ads are a bit 1997 ain’t they?

moslate.mobi

It’s pretty damn random sometimes how ideas are born…..

A couple of nights ago I was watching some junk on teevee, some bumb blonde from Birmingham who worked as a lap-dancer was considering doing some adult modelling and went to see a shoot being filmed.

She seemed to look down her nose at the folks working in adult which is funny as she’s a lap dancer, albeit one with a face like a slapped arse. No offence luv but I’d rather have a lap dance from a chick with a great smile rather than one with a face of misery like John Prescott.

Funnily enough it was a mate who was filming the shoot (yes I know some classy folk) so I gave him a call yesterday morning. Somewhere in the conversation the word translation was mentioned and it got me thinking.

An hour after the call I’d found a sweet class to hook up with Google’s Language API and freshly registered a domain to give the idea some life.

http://moslate.mobi/ As in MObile tranSLATE - it’s the result of playing yesterday aftenoon when I should have been working on some overdue stuff but the urge to be creative was stronger than the desire to do the other stuff so I went with it.

It’s flakey as all automated translation services are but the next time I’m in Spain I’ll try it to see if it works, after all anything has to be better than shouting and pointing, ah the joys of being typically English…..

And if you disagree you’re wrong

Russ over at Mowser is skint, pissed off and throwing in the towel crying ‘anyone currently developing sites using XHTML-MP markup, no Javascript, geared towards cellular connections and two inch screens are simply wasting their time‘. Russ, sorry to hear times are hard but you’re talking crap.

The small screen and the limited connection are why IT IS WORTHWILE DEVELOPING FOR MOBILE.

The mobile web, small screens, poor connections and the iPhone are not the problem, the Mowser business model is the problem.

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Am I alone to think that the LG viewty feels like some cheap shitty camera that’s been bought from somewhere like Dumpton Market. You know the kinda place, plethoras of junk for next to nothing…

Serious. It’s really a bit pooh

I ordered a quad of mobile phones last week from O2: Samsung D900i, Sony Ericsson K770i, Motorola RAZR 2 and the LG Viewty.

It was the LG one I was most excited about so it was the first to come out of the box, first impression was dissapointingly poor. It felt so scrappy and cheap I wasn’t impressed.

It’s touch screen interface is a pain in the arse, tap once to make it vibrate, then tap again to confirm, it’s almost as frustrating as Vista.

Browsing was sucky, I found it difficult to navigate my way around on the web as the browser isn’t up to much.

Considering there’s been a LOT of hype on the teevee here it is a real let down so I’m using the Sony K770i at the moment and it rocks!. Lovely phone, lovely design build, lovely interface - it’s not trying to be too smart or too funky, it’s great to browse with and simple to use.

I’ll call O2 and get them to drop me off MY THIRD N95 when they come to collect the LG.

I would write a proper review of the LG but to be honest and blunt it was a sack of shit and I didn’t want to use it long enough to write something up.

I’m just waiting for someone to comment now how how great the Viewty is. Fire away, go for it but tell me you’ve never used an iPhone before you do…..

I finally got around to upgrading my installation of WordPress to 2.5, the first thing I checked was how the plugin rendered pages and posts, all seems well through the age old problem of the “Default category for mobile posting:” is there but at last I can re-create it and finally get it marked as done on the development tracker.

2.5 seems nice but the new interface is going to take a little getting used to, so far I’ve lost a load of hacks and mods I’d made to the theme but the thing I’m missing the most is the interaction with Nabaztag on each page load.