The AdSense interface has been modified. It is much cleaner and more straight-forward.

You will need to review the new agreement and change your bookmarks. The old bookmark no longer functions (if you had it bookmarked with a password save). - /reports-aggregate is now report/overview

The new interface makes it much easier to navigate your reports - which makes it much easier to spot patterns for optimization.

The basic interface has an overview of content vs. search and quick links to the most popular advanced reports. I am not sure if there are more substantive changes - I have not noticed them - but I think this could be a great step forward to understanding and maximizing Google AdSense potential.

The changes also mean that the AdSense Notifier plugin for Firefox is broken. Hopefully a new release will come up soon to fix it.

The Wall Street Journal has an article today asking if newspapers should sponsor reporters’ blogs. So, let’s address what was said.

WSJ takes example of Matt Marshall, whose blog SiliconBeat, is sponsored by the Mercury News, where he is a reporter. Matt used his blog to raise questions about rumours of the Microsoft acquisition of Claria, a topic he was also covering as part of his regular beat. The only difference was that Matt could say just about anything he wanted on his blog, without an official review from an editor. He could raise points and facts that could not be brought to light in traditional press.

“I could definitely see how in journalism circles people could look at what we do and be a little bit nervous,” Mr. Bazeley says. But “when we sit down to write news stories, we put on a totally different hat.”

SiliconBeat (www.siliconbeat.com) and other blogs like it represent a departure from the just-the-facts tradition of mainstream news reporting… To date, it is relatively rare for newspapers to sponsor reporter-written blogs.

Why is it rare? For a newspaper to sponsor a blog of this sort, it would have to be o.k. with bias, opinions, and a whole range of commentary. A newspaper is traditionally thought of as non-partisan press - unbiased reporting. Although the owners of the press, the reporters themselves and other factors influence the selection and coverage of news in subtle ways making them partisan to some degree, it is rare for the opinions to be overt or controversial.

Read the rest of my article on the Qumana blog…

Technorati Tags: wsj, blogging, journalism

Technorati Tags: http://www.technorati.com/tags/blogging, http://www.technorati.com/tags/journalism, http://www.technorati.com/tags/wsj

So, I just confirmed my trip down to Blogher. Quite excited to be going. Blogher has been buzzing around just as much as Gnomedex. I’m interested to see how the event goes off, what the vibe is, and all of that.

Will be event blogging the whole thing, of course. I think that has to be the most exciting aspect of blogging for me - being in the vibe, catching it. I think it’s a great opportunity to share not just the outline of what’s going on, but to really catch its value for others.

If you are going to Blogher and want to meet up, leave me a comment. I’m coming over on the 29th and arrive fairly decently at dinner time. Will be staying over till the afternoon of the 1st of August to mingle and enjoy the sunny weather.

Hope to see you there!

Thanks to Qumana for helping me go down. I’ll be promoting both Qumana and Lektora while I’m down there, and am looking forward to sharing some of the new features to come. Trust me, it’s exciting stuff.

Technorati Tags: blogher

Technorati Tags: http://www.technorati.com/tags/blogher

Ok, here is something I’ve noticed about the way I read and write now. When I first started blogging, there was that “catch up” period, so to speak. I felt like not only was I needing to understand what the heck blogging was and how it fit in culture, marketing and business, but I felt really behind in the news.

So, catch up period over. I think. Now, when I read through my feeds, I bookmark less. Is this a sign of being not interested in the news out there or being more selective? Are things just in a summer slow period? Perhaps. I also think it’s part of a knowledge cycle - the one I’ve passed is a blogging cycle. And certain topic cycles.

Now, I can read stuff and pick out what is new or has a different angle, and know it. Have an opinion. That’s great.

But it also makes my news reading a little more stale. Even at 262 feeds, if you can imagine it.

So, I think I need to reinsert some energy into my reading, and this will in turn grow back into my writing. How? By jumping into some new topics. I don’t know what yet. I need to do some more on cooking and baking (haven’t had much luck finding those blogs to feed me some interesting stuff), but I also want something new.

Any ideas?

Has anyone else experienced the same cyclical effect of being behind - getting caught up - then being in a lull?