The Google Adsense blog have a post up on how you’re not allowed to combine images with your Adsense ads. Apparently there is some confusion on the matter. Basically, you’re not allowed to have images in conjunction with your Adsense ads that might be interpreted as a part of the ad unit.

Two good examples are provided at the Google Adsense blog post, so if you’re an Adsense user you should probably check ‘em out. Although I sure think the “duh!” factor on this one is pretty high, ah well…

Originally posted on December 19, 2006 @ 10:00 am

GigaGamez is the latest addition to Om Malik’s growing network of blogs.

Broadband is transforming the business of games, while games are transforming the business of broadband. Over the last few months I’ve doing my best to cover that evolution for GigaOM, and now I’m helping Om Malik launch this sister site, fully dedicated to telling that story in full.

This probably means that the games coverage over at GigaOm will disappear, which I think is fine since it felt a bit misplaced anyway.

Good luck to Wagner James Au and Jason McMaster who’ll head up this new blog from now on.

Originally posted on December 17, 2006 @ 9:00 am

Russian Standard has acquired the domain vodka.com for $3 million from an undisclosed seller. According to news reports, the reason for the acquisition is to make it easier entering the American market.

The domain now points to Russian Standard’s website, which is in English if you enter it that way. Now, having a good domain name sure is important, and I can’t really get that “wow” feeling over a puny amount such as $3 million. I mean come on, this is the liquor business, they make solid dough and having the number 1 premium name for your niche is worth a lot. Why didn’t Swedish vodka maker Absolut buy it? The answer is simple: They don’t need too, because they have an established brand in Absolut and don’t want to take any focus from it.

But vodka for $3 million? Not for me, I prefer single malt whisky.

Originally posted on December 17, 2006 @ 6:54 am

As of a few minutes ago Digg has officially exited the stone age. The site appears to have been vastly improved and well revamped to make it run smoother, and be a bit for friendly to multimedia. All I really have to say is its about time. Kevin Rose shares his thoughts via Video.
[Read more…]

Originally posted on December 18, 2006 @ 8:21 am

Mashable’s social networking awards are open for nominations. The awards will run from today to the end of next week, and the winners will be announced on Thursday, December 21st.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

The Awards are not specifically for social networks launched in 2006. The networks don’t need to be US-based, but they should be open to registration from anywhere in the world and should have an English version available. You can nominate your favorite sites in the following categories. To nominate a site, put the site name and category in the comments. Alternatively, you can write a post on your own blog and trackback or link to this post. You can nominate one site in each of the twelve categories. Voting will begin on Monday night and continue until Thursday night.

The categories range from large-scale networks such as MySpace and Facebook, to niche networks such as Dogster and MothersClick, with 10 other categories in between.

Originally posted on December 16, 2006 @ 12:28 pm