Alexandar Tzanov ~ The Titan

Meebo has finally started to monetize its home page. I like the design. Unlike many monetized backgrounds on popular web sites, their is more integrated, in style, with the content on the page. Good job.

At this time the add is for the Toyota Prius – 3rd generation.

Meebo does have some other products and services to complement its main function – integrating various instant messenger networks and protocols on the same web site. My favorite of their products is the Meebo notifier.

The Meebo notifier is a small app that sits in your system tray and it stays connected to the Meebo network, allowing you to exit your browser. The memory footprint is small, so it is not resource hog. In addition to providing notification when contacts come online and when new IMs are received, you will also be notified when any of the added accounts, like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo mail, have new emails. A feature, which can be disabled if you don’t care much for emails. Lastly, the notifier is not an Adobe AIR app. Something, which to some extend, I find to be beneficial.

One thing I would like to see Meebo support is micro-blogging services, like Twitter, Identi.ca or Jaiku.

By the way, Meebo powers the chat room on this blog.

So, do you use…

Yesterday morning I tried signing up as ad publisher on Ad4Games.com. I own few gaming sites and want to show more targeted advertisements, so this ad network seemed as a decent choice. I saw them serving banners on few other websites. When I tried to register, the town I live in is comprised of two words, as a result their system told me that only the following characters can be used “A-Z and a-z” (as seen in the image on the right). Seriously now?! The first two two word city names that come in my mind are Los Angeles and New York.

I contacted their support staff and my conversation follow:

[11:39] yvebts: Hello
[11:40] ad4game: hi
[11:41] yvebts: I am trying to register on ad4game.com as a publisher, but your system will not accept my city, because the name has a space in it
[11:41] yvebts: I can’t use – or _ because they are not accepted characters
[11:42] ad4game: just use no space
[11:42] ad4game: or write
[11:42] ad4game: space
[11:42] ad4game: we will adjust it
[11:42] ad4game: what is your website please?
[11:42] yvebts: OK. thank you
[11:43] yvebts: hivemindsgaming.com and clanmp.us
[11:51] ad4game: allright
[11:51] ad4game: i see you havent finished registering yet
[11:53] yvebts: I will attempt to complete the

…

Wow, just wow! This is the best game ad I have seen in very, very long time. Once again the Command and Conquer community is in for a visual treat. It looks like the upcoming Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 has a great cast of actors.

I really enjoy watching this video. I really love the fact that there are references of other games, movies, media and personal work of the actors. The fact that the content of this ad was not limited to just the game makes it a great video ad, which can appeal to all generations of gamers. A video to be watched over and over again.

Good job EA and long live Westwood.

Westwood Studios was the company behind the Command and Conquer games franchise. It was founded in 1985 as Westwood Associates by Brett Sperry and Louis Castle and was based in Las Vegas, Nevada. In 1992 it was renamed to Westwood Studios and it was sold to Virgin Interactive. In August 1998 it was was bought by game publisher giant Electronic Arts. The company was liquidated in March of 2003 by EA. At the time its staff numbered over 100 employees. You can read more information on Westwood Studios here.