Archive Latest Entries

Updated AdSense Manager Plugin: Ad Slot IDs and Rounded Corners

Illustration: AdSense Manager 2.6 - Ad Unit Slots + Rounded Corners The latest version (2.5) of the very popular and useful AdSense Manager plugin for WordPress by Martin Fitzpatrick doesn’t allow you to use the new ad management features that were recently implemented by Google. Previously you could track the ad performance only by their channel IDs.

Since the November 2007 an additional identifier is available for each of the ad units to which you can assign an explanatory title (for example, 200×200 ads, below article, etc.). These slots are also automatically given a 10 digit ID (like 6567667845) which is assigned to a new variable google_ad_slot inside the ad code.

Theoretically, for displaying an ad you now have to know only your publisher ID and the slot ID, while the rest of the ad’s look and feel can be adjusted through your AdSense account without ever touching the JavaScript which you have placed inside the HTML. Read more »

Standards Watch: Design Observer

Illustration for Standards Watch: Design Observer I am an avid reader of Design Observer (DO) blog — writings about design & culture. They feature essays, ideas and critique about the issues of design in its broadest sense.

Although the content and the authors are fantastic, the website still uses HTML tables for layout, fixed 10px font size and images (without alt atributes) for section headers.

In order to thank the authors for their amazing writing, I have rebuilt the layout following the best practice of web design, and using well marked-up HTML and CSS. This way DO would be friendly to all user, mobiles and search engines.

View the result: Design Observer with beautiful HTML and standards.

This layout could be easily turned into a WordPress theme which would give the authors greater control over the content and functionality of the website.