My ad rant

I readily fess up to being behind the technological times to some extent (reference my blog title). I maintain a general awareness of what's going on, what new products are available, etc., but I'm just not a techno-geek early adopter of every new gizmo or tech fad. For example, I'm only starting to learn that e-mail (and even, as I understand it, instant messaging) is passe to today's youngin's. (Which just makes me feel old. When I was an undergrad at UAlbany 10 years ago, EVERYONE was addicted to AOL Instant Messenger. Indeed, you'd often feel a sense of disappointment if you returned to your gray walled cell dorm room and no one left you an IM.) Now, I guess, it's all about social networking, which frankly I find unengaging.

Anyway, as I've been surfing on my personal laptop from home (and on which I'm typing right now), I've noticed, in recent days, an increase in the number of annyoing Flash-based rollover ads. Thinking maybe this was a recent trend of the advertising industry, I did a quick Google search, only to have this 2005 blog post from Business Week as the top result. It happens to perfectly describe what makes the damn things so irritating.

OK, so they've been around for awhile. I just can't figure out why I'm encountering the stupid things more and more over the past week. I haven't changed any settings on my security setup, so, yeah. I'm at a loss. I'll have to observe if I encounter them as much at work or on my desktop computer. And look, here's here's how to build one.

Then I found this Wired blog post from September of this year about an upgrade to another kind of rollover ad (in-text ads) that will supposedly make them less annoying by offering more "related content" in the resulting Flash pop-up. These are the ones you've probably seen, green links instead of the traditional blue, with two underlines underneath, that bring up information on products tied to whatever key word or phrase is highlighted. I recall a few sites I frequent that use(d) this type of ad, but of course I can't find any examples in their articles. So here's a link to Vibrant Media. You'll see what I'm talking about in their display.

Those in-text ads, while annoying, aren't as infuriating as the rollover Flash ads. Stupid things. So I'm curious if I'm alone on all this.

My woeful blog

Oh, poor, neglected blog. Poor, neglected readers- all, what, five of you (including myself)?

As my colleague Andrew pointed out in the latter third of this post last month, there's been some shuffling of duties inside The Saratogian newsroom to accommodate a recent staff change and some overlapping vacations. As a result most of my attention lately has been on helping put out the print product. While I've thought of blogging (my best ideas come to me on the ride home, but the motivation to write quickly evaporates once I arrive), the blog has been sidelined. Let's face it, though: I've never been a reliable blogger.

This blog lacks identity. Part of the problem is that I don't have much to write about that you, readers of The Saratogian, would find relevant. Nor do I have a schtick. I'm not a daddy, so I can't write a daddy blog. I'm not a technologist, so I can't write a tech blog. Frankly, I'm not that interested in barring too many personal details about what I AM into (nothing illegal or seedy, mind you), anyhow, and my job isn't THAT exciting that I figure anyone would want to read about what I do that much.

If I was a reporter with a beat I'd have plenty of material on which to expand or approach from different angles in this space. Alas, I'm tied to a desk most of the day - a reality that carried it's own pros and cons when I left my job as reporter and took the mantle of "Web editor."

At times I really miss being out there: meeting people, covering events, getting to know the community, writing about said people and events. I don't get to do that as much these days.

All that said, though, I'm committed to the idea of trying to develop this blog into something more than the occasional, random ramblings of a Web editor at a small daily local in a crowded media market.