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Released: May 31, 2012
Site24x7, a leading website and web application monitoring service from Zoho Corp., today announced the immediate availability of the Site24x7 app for Android. With the free app, users can connect to Site24x7 anytime, anywhere and view critical metrics such as availability status, Root Cause Analysis reports, outage reports, SLAs, and much more.
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The 3 White Lies Behind Instagram’s Lightning Speed

Fix the Document Object Model (DOM) for performance

Browser innovation and the 14 rules for faster loading websites: Revisiting Steve’s work (part 1)

Compiling JavaScript for Performance

Averages, Web Performance Data, And How Your Analytics Product Is Lying To You

10 JavaScript performance tips

Vote Now for Your Favorite Client-side Web Performance Tips

Working with files in JavaScript, Part 4: Object URLs

Now available: Maintainable JavaScript

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•  Marketing: Someone has to get the word out. No matter how good something is, people can’t support it if they don’t know it exists. Over the decades, many entrepreneurs found out the hard way that the old adage — “if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door” — is false.
• Administration: Someone has to build the database, provide metadata, keep it running, add/replace code, record scores, and take care of all the minutiae. Beyond mere administration, the project requires leadership.
• Copyright: The perfect sharing licence continues to elude us. There are many different ways to share without surrendering intellectual property, but nothing makes everyone happy. Only the public domain is acceptable to everyone.
• Scoring: Providing a score for each piece of code in the database will be done by a group of experts or by the community as a whole. If handled by experts, they will want to be paid. If handled by the community as a whole, what will stop it from becoming nothing more than a popularity contest? A popularity contest is not a good way to establish performance scores.
• Initial Training: Individual developers need to learn how to use the database, but training takes time and money.
• Choosing One From Many: If the database provides multiple solutions for the same situation, users will have to wade through long lists of solutions, compare them, evaluate the best ones, and make a selection. The more solutions there are, the harder and more time-consuming this task becomes. The ideal is to have one and only one solution for each situation, which is sure to turn into a nightmare of political infighting.
• Acceptance: Everyone needs to be on board. The smaller the community of users, the sooner we reach end-of-life on the project.
• Indexing the Database: A database requires a search engine and/or some form of indexing. Users want to be able to find a solution in a reasonable amount of time. The project requires indexing and search algorithms that are specific to this unique database.
• Funding: No surprise to see this one in the list. Who’s going to foot the bill?

Who Should Spearhead This Effort?

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<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14663" title="Old tech reviews" src="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/d83b8_shutterstock_94006795-580.jpg” alt=”Old tech reviews” width=”580″ height=”224″ />

Technology moves at a rapid pace and looking back at reviews from many years ago may seem like a crazy idea. However, we dug up some pretty ancient copies of BYTE Magazine to take a look at what reviewers thought about new computers and other pieces of tech some 20, 30, or even more years ago.

By no means do we mean to pick at or make fun of these pieces of tech or the writers of the articles, but we also can’t help finding them very funny.

The RGS 008A Microcomputer Kit – 1975

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14664" title="RGS 008A Microcomputer Kit" src="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/d549d_rgs008a.jpg” alt=”RGS 008A Microcomputer Kit” width=”580″ height=”781″ />

It was a time when, if you wanted your own computer, you had to build it yourself. In the pages of the very first BYTE Magazine from 1975, we can read about the RGS 0008A Microcomputer kit:

The basic kit consists of 6 printed circuit boards and all components necessary to build the CPI, 1K of memory, the control panel and the power supply. Molex pins or sockets, edge connectors, backplane, front panel switches and LEDs, and a power transformer are included. A cabinet, some hardware, line cord and fuses are not included. The kit sells for $375, making this one of the least expensive kits on the market.

Sure, $375 may not seem like a lot of money (it’s just over $1,600 today, adjusted for inflation), but keep in mind that you had to put it all together yourself. Do you even know what a “molex pin” is?

Imagine what an unboxing video could have looked like!

The PET 2001 – 1978

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14668" title="Commodore PET 2001" src="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/c93fd_pet2001.jpg” alt=”Commodore PET 2001″ width=”580″ height=”793″ />

A highlight, according to Dan Fylstra, of the Commodore PET 2001 was that it came with a built-in cassette drive for storing programs and data. He wasn’t as enamored with the keyboard, however.

A much criticized feature of the PET is the design of the keyboard itself. It is a calculator style keyboard rather than a true typewriter keyboard. The keys are small and flat (about a half inch square and a quarter inch deep). They are tightly packed next to each other and are arranged in vertical rows rather than the slanting rows used on a typewriter keyboard. Although the alphabet follows the usual typewriter layout, the PET keyboard really cannot be used for touch typing because of the size, depth and spacing of the keys. The keyboard is said to be reliable and long lasting, but I did find that the space bar would not register correctly unless it was pressed squarely in the middle.

Cannot be used for touch typing? That certainly wouldn’t be good even today. Obviously we still struggle with many of the same issues today as the folks doing these early tech reviews.

HP-85 – 1980

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14670" title="HP 85" src="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/1cd92_hp-85.jpg” alt=”HP 85″ width=”580″ height=”793″ />

Before the IBM PC was introduced, Hewlett-Packard launched its own personal computer, the HP-85.

Hewlett-Packard’s new entry into the personal computer market: the HP-85. The $3250 unit features a 5-inch video display, data cartridge drive, keyboard, with user-programmable keys, and thermal printer. The HP-85 also offers interesting graphics capabilities. Every point on the 256 by 192 dot array can be individually addressed by the programmer. The built-in thermal printer can make a copy of any graphic design on the screen or any alphanumeric data. Sophisticated features included in this unit are a hard- ware and software self-test key;four levels of security protection for files on data cartridges; plug-in memory expansion to the basic package of 16 K bytes of programmable memory and 32 K bytes of read-only memory; ANSI standard Enhanced BASIC with the ability to chain programs together; and line editing.

What a package – 5-inch display, data cartridge drive, and a thermal printer!

The Sinclair Research ZX80 – 1981

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14678" title="Sinclair zx80" src="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/147d7_zx80.jpg” alt=”Sinclair zx80″ width=”580″ height=”806″ />

John McCallum discovered something very interesting about writing code in BASIC on the Sinclair ZX80:

ZX80 BASIC not only prevents you from making syntax errors, but it also prompts you with a cursor that tells you what it is expecting – a keyword (denoted by a K inside the square cursor) a literal (denoted by an L), or a numerical literal (denoted by an LS). When a program is expecting string input, it puts the cursor between the quotes, then expands the quotes as you enter text.

Embryo to autocomplete, perhaps?

Zork, The Great Underground Empire – 1981

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14681" title="zork" src="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/2f932_zork.jpg” alt=”zork” width=”580″ height=”817″ />

It wasn’t the original Zork that Bob Liddil reviewed, but that doesn’t seem to have diminished his enthusiasm any.

Zork requires a 32 K-byte disk system (in this case, a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I with 32 K bytes of memory and one disk drive) due to the eloquence of the descriptions and the large number of locations that are stored on the disk to be recalled at the appropriate times during the game.

Where would a 32 kB game get you today?

I was eager to test Zork’s biggest selling point, intelligent input (ie : its ability to accept free-form instruc­tions). I typed “OPEN THE BAG AND GET THE LUNCH,” in reference to a brown paper sack inside the house. The computer complied. There was water and food, so I typed “EAT THE LUNCH AND DRINK THE WATER,” to which the computer responded with gratitude for satisfying its hunger and thirst.

Absolutely amazing, don’t you think? Putting sarkasm aside for a minute, for the time it probably was absolutely amazing.

The MicroAce Computer – 1981

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14680" title="microace computer" src="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/b52f0_microace.jpg” alt=”microace computer” width=”580″ height=”790″ />

Mathematics professor Delmar Searls tackled the MicroAce computer in 1981. He didn’t have much luck in getting tape recorders to work with the computer.

I had to try two tape recorders before I could successfully load a program from tape. The first recorder I tried lacked a tone control and could not load a program, regardless of the volume setting. The second recorder had a tone control and loaded properly with the control set at maximum treble. The proper volume level seems to vary from tape to tape, even when they are made by the same company. Before saving a program, the program name is recorded on the tape by voice. A cable is attached between the microphone output of the computer and the microphone input of the recorder. The recorder is placed in its record mode and the SAVE command is entered followed by NEWLINE. The television screen goes blank for about five seconds, followed by a jumpy display of horizontal white lines. This indicates that the data is being output to the recorder. When the display returns to normal, the save is complete.

Much of that is standard fare for the time but what caught our attention was that you apparently had to record yourself saying the name of a program that you wanted to save.

IBM PC 5150 – 1981

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14679" title="IBM PC" src="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/ead40_IBM-PC.jpg” alt=”IBM PC” width=”580″ height=”705″ />

This was the first Personal Computer from IBM, which changed so many things. It may be even more significant for getting Microsoft off to such a great start with its DOS.

This CP/M look-alike from Microsoft offers the familiar ‘A>’ prompt character along with features for copying files and disks, comparing files and disks, initializing disks, displaying a directory, renaming files, and other housekeeping chores.

The Osborne 1 – 1982

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14674" title="Osborne 1" src="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/c77fa_osborne.png” alt=”Osborne 1″ width=”580″ height=”820″ />

Although it was labeled as a portable, as reviewer Mark Dahmke found out, it was questionable whether the Osborne 1 deserved such a classification.

A recent ad for the Osborne 1 shows a man carrying a briefcase and another carrying an Osborne 1. While I can see many reasons for carrying along a computer in my work, I doubt I would carry an Osborne 1 in the same way I would carry a briefcase. First, the Osborne 1 weighs about 24 pounds, which would tire out all but the most athletic of travelers. Second, though the Osborne 1 was designed to fit under an airline seat, I don’t think I would want to put one there.

Microsoft Windows  – 1983

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14675" title="Microsoft Windows" src="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/a1466_windows.jpg” alt=”Microsoft Windows” width=”580″ height=”808″ />

Phil Lemmons wrote a preview of the upcoming Microsoft Windows 1.0 in 1983. Today, lots of people are busy previewing Windows 8 to be launched later this year. It’s worth noting that Windows then ran off two 320 kB floppy disks and 192 kB RAM.

Microsoft Windows seems to offer remarkable openness, reconfigurability, and transportability as well as modest hardware requirements and pricing. As a result, the desktop metaphor and mouse, intended to bring computing power to nontechnical people, are finally going to reach the hands of many such people. Barring a surprise product introduction from another company, Microsoft Windows will be the first large-scale test of the desktop metaphor in the hands of its intended users.

When reading the previews of Windows 8, we’re pretty sure you will still see mentions of the “desktop metaphor and mouse.” But the discussion now will be about how Windows 8 takes users from that paradigm into one dominated by touch.

The first Mac – 1984

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14676" title="Apple Mac 128k" src="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/2e414_mac.jpg” alt=”Apple Mac 128k” width=”580″ height=”839″ />

In his review of the very first Mac in 1984, Bruce Webster called the it a “gem.” He wrote that the Mac was “rough, slightly flawed, but a gem nonetheless.” His complaints center on performance, writing that “the 128K-byte Macintosh with one single-sided drive is not a powerful machine.”

But what he wrote about the display echoes even more true today, with talk about Retina Display, full HD display on smartphone, etc.

The display is small (9-inch diagonal), but it has very high resolution (512 by 342 pixels). Every pixel is crisp. Several things make the display unusual. First, the Macintosh has no “text mode.” Instead, the display is always bit-mapped graphics. Second, the display is black-on-white rather than amber-, green- or color-on-black, giving it an ink-on-paper effect. Third, the pixels are equally dense both horizontally and vertically, eliminating the “aspect ratio” problem that plagues other graphic systems. (In other words, a box 20 pixels wide and 20 pixels high will be a square.) The effect is excellent. The display is clear, crisp, easy to read, and easy on the eyes. Because all text is graphically generated, the “what you see is what you get” word processing is available (with multiple fonts, sizes, and styles). Embedded drawings and proportional spacing are also possible. Some criticism has been made about the lack of a color-graphics capability. Frankly, I am unconvinced of its necessity. Most applications I have seen use color graphics as a substitute for detail, and the Mac can give you lots of detail.

Atari 1024ST – 1986

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14677" title="atari 1040st" src="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/d4786_atari-1040st.jpg” alt=”atari 1040st” width=”580″ height=”827″ />
Finally we’ll look at a preview rather than a review, covering the Atari 1024ST in 1986. Right off the bat, Philip Robinson is clearly smitten with the 1024ST.

Atari’s new $999 1-megabyte 1040ST… establishes a price break reminiscent of the Commodore 64′s. And… the 1040ST will be the first computer to begin its retail life at a price that represents less than one dollar per kilobyte. The 1040ST is clearly a bargain, with over 1 megabyte of RAM (random-access read/write memory), its operating system in ROM (read-only memory), an internal 720K- byte double-sided drive, an internal power supply, and the same features and functionality that already make the Atari 520ST an attractive purchase.

What’s your favorite tech review of all times?

If you spotted that we actually included 11 reviews, then a small gold star to you. We were just having too much fun going through these all tech magazines that we completely lost count.

But this was just a small sample of the vintage tech reviews we could find, each with a funny story to tell, especially in light of how fast technology develops. And in some cases, also, what doesn’t change too much over the years.

Do you have a particular tech review, be it of a computer, software, game, or something else, which you treasure for a particular reason?

Share it with us in the comments below.

Image (top) via Shutterstock. Quotes and pictures from BYTE Magazine from here.

This was a post from the guys at Pingdom, a site monitoring service that makes sure you’re the first to know when your site is down. Check it out for free.

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<img class="alignleft wp-image-1311" title="Great Wall of China" src="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/df7ac_Great-Wall-of-China-300×199.jpg” alt=”" width=”192″ height=”127″ />Since we have already discussed the history of the Golden Shield project and how the Great Firewall of China works, it is time to see how the Chinese netizens can get around it. There are a number of ways to get through. Even those without skills can seek help from tech-savvy individuals and still get around the Great Firewall.

The different methods to bypass the Great Wall require different levels of dedication and resources. The Chinese government is always trying new techniques to prevent users from circumventing the shield. Controversially, internet censorship is helping smaller industries to develop. Let’s have a look at what’s currently available at hand.

Proxy Servers – The most common way to get past the blockade is though a proxy. They are relevantly cheap and seem to do the trick. They can be extremely slow and this is part of the reason why people don’t want to use them. Proxies are also insecure. Paid services perform rather well, however free proxies are unreliable and dead slow. Users need to constantly have at least a couple of proxies at hand. It might also be a good idea to test the performance of proxy servers and even monitor them. Here is a good list for your consideration.  FoxyProxy offer a brilliant proxy switching tool, supporting regular expressions, used to match URLs where proxies are required. They also offer paid proxies. We were able to test out a couple of them and like with any good paid service, they seem to be working great.

VPN – A bit pricy, but reliable, solution for Chinese residents to browse the net, free of all censorship. Virtual Private Networks are widely used by businesses, who need secure encrypted channels for their intercompany needs. Many organizations use VPN for remote access to shared resources. VPN services are freely advertised in China and anyone can sign up. It is not likely for VPNs to be policed anytime soon. Local banks, retailers, software vendors and a lot more depend on VPN. Shutting it down would bring business back to the Dark Ages.

Tor – Tor is the most widely used traffic anonymizer. It scrambles your traffic, so it is very hard to predict which page the client actually wants to load. Additional encryption is required if you want to feel safer with your privacy. It is rumored that the Chinese government is currently testing ways to obstruct internet browsing through Tor. Many of its privately hosted bridge nodes become inaccessible from China only a couple of hours after being setup. According to speculations, Chinese internet service providers are testing out a new system to find out if hosts are really connecting to the servers they show to be headed for. It is currently affecting nearly 20% of people connecting from China. Tor staff is working to figure out what exactly is going on. At the moment Tor can still be used, but mind that traffic can be intercepted and no encryption is present.

With these anyone can browse forbidden content. Internet censorship in China is evolving at a steady pace. Over the last couple of year, authorities and ISPs have been moving away from the old school ways for preventing people to find and publish content online. We’ve seen a shift in how the government treats internet users and “harmful” websites. The new, refined approach makes it hard for people to actually say if a website is censored or not. Only particular pages might be affected and the number of sites might vary depending geographical location. In the meantime, a lot has been invested to create nuisance for people willing to browse the internet. Certain pages are blocked; some services are so slow that they are actually rendered useless (Gmail is one good example). People choose local alternatives simply because they work better and have the same functionality. This way China is also providing growth for its internally developed services and products. Making tools and websites hard to use and providing adequate alternatives is what most people seem to be OK with.

We would love to hear a good story on the subject. If you like to share your experience, leave a comment below. If your site is blocked from China, or you recently had the misfortune of getting behind the great firewall, let us know. We would also love to publish your story on the blog!

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<a href="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/f3628_<a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook-ads2.gif”><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-5259" title="<a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook-ads2″ src=”http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/f3628_<a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook-ads2.gif” alt=”" width=”161″ height=”216″ style=”float:right” />Choose CPC model and lower bid

<a href="http://blog.monitor.us/2012/05/practical-guide-for-<a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook-ads-part-3-design-targeting/”>Designing your <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook ad is not an easy job (if you want it to be effective), but the real tricky thing is pricing. In the end, you want to achieve good results with the minimum budget, right? So determining your ads budget and CPM or CPC is as important as their design. Let’s explain quickly what this CPM and CPC are. CPM and CPC are the two options for how you can pay for any internet advertisement. Advertising on <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook is no different. CPM (Cost per Mille) means that you pay for every 1,000 impressions – i.e. for every 1,000 times that your ad is shown to users.  CPC (Cost per Click) means that you pay for every click on your ad – i.e. when a user actually clicks on the ad, not just when they’ve viewed it.

Which model you choose depends on the goals of your campaign. CPM makes sense when you want your target group to understand a message or you want to create general awareness. CPC is more suitable when you want users to go to your page – and then you pay only for people who have actually interacted with your ad and taken action, rather than those who may or may not have seen the ad (as with CPM). CPM is cheaper than CPC, but keep in mind that you can receive a lot of impressions on <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook, and this doesn’t mean that every user has actually seen your ad. Users can be distracted by a lot of other things on <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook, and despite the fact that your ad may have loaded on pages 4,567 times, only 100 users might’ve actually seen it. And if this happens, you’re wasting your money. In short, try to avoid CPM ads and use them only in cases when you’re sure they’ll be more effective than CPC ads in terms of budget and results. CPC guarantees that you get as many users on your page as you pay for. And another thing for CPC: <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook will want to have its money, so it’ll make sure that your ad gets as many impressions as it needs to, to assure the ad generates the needed clicks to get the maximum exposure for your budget. CPC <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook ads in general generate more impressions than CPM ones.

The next step in <a href="https://www.<a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook.com/ads/create/”>Creating your ads page is Campaigns, Pricing and Scheduling. The example which will help us explain <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook pricing is aimed at the following target group (inspired by last week’s Champions league final): we want to advertise to men, who live in the UK, are between 27 and 32 years old, are single and interested in women, and who are supporters of Chelsea F.C. This target group contains 32,820 people and we’ll assume we want to advertise a subscription for Chelsea TV to them. Firstly, you need to determine your account currency and account time zone.

Campaign & Budget

Every <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook ad is associated with a campaign so that you can manage your ads more easily. Give your campaign a name and be aware that you can change this name later; don’t spend too much time inventing it. You have two options for the campaign budget – Budget per day or Lifetime budget. If you choose Lifetime budget, <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook will distribute your ad budget throughout the duration of your campaign. If you choose daily budget, this means that on every day of your campaign this amount of money will be spent. Once you hit your budget total (per day or for the whole campaign) your ad stops appearing and you’re no longer charged. You can always increase the budget though.

In Schedule you have the option to run your campaign continuously or for a fixed period of time – you can specify start and end dates. Continuously running campaigns can be set only with daily budget. Be very careful with the schedule.  You can change it at any time during your campaign, but still, check it twice when you’re setting it up, especially when you’re dealing with Time Zone differences (e.g. if you live in India and you want to advertise in the USA, be sure that you’ve set the right hours).

<a href="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/dc4f3_pricing-1.png”><img class="aligncenter wp-image-5693" src="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/dc4f3_pricing-1.png” alt=”" width=”599″ height=”286″ />

Pricing

Now we come to the trickiest part of <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook advertising. You need to be aware of how <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook ads pricing works before running a campaign and determining your costs. You’re “fighting” with all the other advertisers for the attention of a particular user – it doesn’t matter what you’re advertising. Let’s say that Tom, 30 years old, single, living in London, Chelsea FC fan, is a member of our example target group. But, Tom is also interested in fashion, loves BMWs, drinks Heineken and likes travelling. Because of this he’s also in the target groups of a new man boutique in Oxford Street, of the new BMW 3 Series, of Carlsberg (who want to advertise directly to competitor’s fans) and of a tourist agency that offers cheap vacations in Hawaii. So you see that even though Chelsea TV doesn’t have anything in common with the other four advertisers, our ad will still have to compete with them in order to be shown to Tom and to win his attention.

What does competing mean in this case? <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook advertising is a bid-based system. You determine the maximum amount that you’re willing to pay for your ad (for CPM or CPC) and the other advertisers do the same. You compete with their bids when you want to advertise to Tom, for example. The larger your bid, the greater the chance that your ad will be shown. But all the bids are very dynamic. They are dependent on a lot of factors and they change every minute – one of the reasons is that the number of ads and their bids change every minute. So what is the right bid? <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook helps you with this by suggesting bids.

You have two options for Pricing: Simple Mode and Advanced Mode. With Simple Mode (shown below) <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook suggests a bid for your ads and your campaign running with it. <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook guarantees that you will never pay more than the maximum bid, and the likelihood is that you will pay less.

<a href="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/9bb57_pricing-2.png”><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-5697" src="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/9bb57_pricing-2.png” alt=”" width=”504″ height=”95″ />

You have another option, which I strongly recommend that you use – Advanced Mode. With this option you see a range of Suggested Bids and you manually choose your Max Bid. The bid ranges for CPM and CPC for our target group are:

<a href="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/9bb57_pricing-3.png”><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-5699" src="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/9bb57_pricing-3.png” alt=”" width=”495″ height=”165″ />

<a href="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/9008c_pricing-4.png”><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-5701" src="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/9008c_pricing-4.png” alt=”" width=”426″ height=”158″ />

Tip: use the suggested bid range as a clue – you can set a bid below the range or above it. As I mentioned, the higher your bid, the more likely it is that your ad will be shown. However, the highest bid doesn’t always make the best sense. Why? Because you can get great results with the lowest bid that <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook offers you, although this depends on the creativeness of your ad’s design and how precisely its targeted. So go low as a start – if you choose CPC in our example, select a bid in the range of 0.60 – 0.63 USD. You can always increase the bid if you see that your ads are not running well with it, but if you choose a high bid in the beginning you will not be able to determine if you could have achieved the same results with a lower price.

Place order

After you’ve placed your bid, you need to review your ad. Check once again that everything’s the way you want it to be and then place your order with <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook. This means that you send your ad to <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook, so that <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook can approve it. The approval may take up to 24 hours. <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook checks to see if the ad content is appropriate according to its <a href="https://www.<a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook.com/ad_guidelines.php”>guidelines. For example, if the content of the ad is of a sexual nature or about weight loss, you won’t be allowed to run your ad. If disapproved, you’ll receive an e-mail with the reasons for disapproval and an option to “correct” your ad via the button “Edit Ad”. If you don’t see this button, you’re not allowed to correct it and you need to create a different one that adheres to <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook ads guidelines. When your ad is approved, your campaign starts running.

Click-through rate (CTR)

One of the most important <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook pricing factors is the Click-through rate (CTR). CTR is a fundamental indicator for measuring the success of online ads. It’s defined as the number of clicks on a particular ad, divided by the number of impressions and expressed as a percentage: the higher the CTR, the more successful the ad. CTR is the factor upon which the price of your <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook ad depends most. If your ad has a high CTR, you’ll pay a lower price for it: the more effective the ad, the less it costs. To get high CTR you need to design eye-catching ads and target them precisely so that you can increase the odds that users will interact with it.

As you can see, creating a <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook ad is a complex process and everything is inter-connected. monitoring of the ads needs to be done continuously. How to successfully manage and monitor your running campaigns to get maximum results from your ad budget, we’ll see in Practical guide for <a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook ads, Part 5: Managing and monitoring.

<a href="http://blog.monitor.us/2012/05/do-not-overpay-for-<a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook-ads-practical-guide-for-<a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/03/17/facebook-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>facebook-ads-part-4/” rel=”nofollow”>Go to Source

What’s Wrong With The DOM?

How To Fix It

Conclusion

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<a href="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/0360e_Untitled-1.jpg”><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-5347" style="float: right;" title="JavaScript Performance" src="http://www.website-monitoring.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/0360e_Untitled-1.jpg” alt=”Javascript performance tips” width=”250″ height=”250″ />

Every week we cover JavaScript performance tips in our blog and this particular blog post is also dedicated to JavaScript performance. We’ve collected top 10 JavaScript performance tips that will improve your website’s performance.

1. Download Faster With A Few Adjustments

When web pages have high amounts of varying content, it can cause pages significant lag time. Components including images, style sheets and scripts often cause the loading process to slow down.

You can make your pages load faster by reducing the size of your images or changing the format from high-resolution JPEG files to GIF or PNG format.

You can also clean your code, ridding it of unnecessary characters, including tabs, spaces and comments. You can use one of the many free tools, like Clean CSS that reduces your code.

2. Using Image Maps May Not Be Worthwhile

Image maps can cause confusion for navigation to users of your webpage, and you want super-easy navigation. Image maps are good for displaying information in image format, but only with grouped images.

Another downside of using image maps is that they are difficult to create and time-consuming. There is a large amount of code — which can cause slower download and coordinates must have precision. Even when you can see the image map, it can look confusing.

New alternatives to image maps include programs such as CSS Sprites or using in-line images.

3. Displaying Images Without Causing Crashes

A web page that hosts many images eats up computer resources and can cause crashes. Keep crashes minimal by streamlining your code; keeping it simple and clean, host photos and other high-resolution images on independent sites. A better option is to use CSS Sprites, which allows you to combine an unlimited number of images while lowering the amount of HTTP requests for a single image, which speeds the load time of retrieving images from one source instead of combining from separate locations.

3. When Not Using JavaScript Is Better

JavaScript is a powerful tool used by many developers, but there are times that using it can slow down pages, or worse, a browser could disable it and make the page look off to users.

Make sure you absolutely need to use JavaScript, because it may have compatibility issues. If you can create a better result by using HTML and CSS, by all means use them, and only use JavaScript if the other way does not work.

5. Reduce Requests – Reduce Wait

Just like asking ten questions when one would suffice is the same principle of HTTP requests. When you receive all your information with one request, it makes load time faster.

For example, each HTTP request uses 500 bytes – and each received object uses 500 bytes plus headers. Each additional request sent uses more bytes instead of one 500 byte request and reply, you use thousands of bytes for the same-sized image.

Traditional imaging methods use spliced portions, which rejoins the pieces for end users. Each slice requires a separate request; where, using image maps, inline images or CSS Sprites reduces HTTP requests and speeds up the process by sending images in a single piece or fewer pieces.

6. Optimization Strategies for Better Performance

It is important to rework one area of your website at a time, so you can check what changes help load times, what elements you can work without and finding other time-consuming culprits, including server performance issues.

Some programs that can help in the server-side process include HTTPWatch and Fiddler. Cuzillion helps when you want to experiment with various configurations of your web page.

7. Best Third-Party Web Hosts

You can reduce your HTTP requests by using third-party services. Allowing a third-party to host your images and RSS feeds allows for one HTTP request and creates faster load times.

Some top third-party hosts allow users to look at your images in different sizes, according to their preferences.

Flickr provides hotlinks you can embed on your web page, but you cannot directly link to each particular size.

ImageShack offers free services, but you have to allow ads to show to enjoy that freedom.

Mobypicture hosts your photos, allows you to keep all rights to your content and does not sell anything without your direct permission.

<a href="http://<a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/05/04/twitter-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>twitter.com” target=”_blank”><a href="http://www.website-monitoring.com/blog/2010/05/04/twitter-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/”>twitter has joined the image hosting game, but works with PhotoBucket so all the same rules apply.

When choosing third-party hosting make sure to read and heed all rules and regulations. If you worry about copyrights and the company selling your content, find hosting that allows you to keep all rights to your content and says so.

8. Ways to Reduce Image File Size

Large image files have the potential to overload servers and make web pages load slowly.

You can cut image sizes by using online services that make them smaller. Many online services allow you to resize your images on their site without having to sign up for use. A couple of sites you can try to get started include Shrinkpictures.com and JPEGreducer.com.

Another effective way to make images load faster is to change their format. You can use Paint or Photoshop to convert files from JPEG photo-quality images to lower resolution GIFs.

When changing images from JPEG to GIF you lose high-definition quality, so using a GIF works well for charts and 2-D images; whereas, JPEG preserves quality when needed.

9. Web Page Profile Tools

The best websites offer quality content, quickly. It is important for you to analyze your site to make sure download speeds stay fast. If you offer great information, but users have to wait, they often leave before the page loads. When you depend on revenue from your web pages, users leaving early make your money adventures slim.

Testing your web page loading time is usually a simple process. Monitor.Us provides a free enterprise-grade <a href="http://www.monitor.us/free-system-monitoring-SaaS-sign-up?adv=13378&loc=5″ target=”_blank”>page load monitor for it’s users. The monitor  is testing not only JavaScript performance, but also a set of other important metrics such as the load speed of different elements on your website, how internal and external links are affected during loading etc.

10. Good Webpage Source Code Cleaners

Remember that jumbled, extensive or incorrect code causes your pages to load slower or not at all. Using a source code cleaner, helps you navigate your code, cut unnecessary information and find and correct errors.

HTML Optimizer at iWebTools site allows you to copy and paste your code, and it automatically optimizes your code. It may not look as good as before you inserted it, but it can make load times faster.

HTML Tidy checks and cleans source files and works well within deeply nested HTML. It also works on hard-to-read code, making it more comprehensive with user-selected options including indentation and word wrap.

Word 2000 HTML Cleaner works well for programmers who write code in MS Word 2000. For $79, you receive source code ready for use in ASP application. Obviously, this code cleaner targets a specific audience, but may help you save time with complex codes.

123 HTML Protector Software protects your web page code and prevents others from using your source code, scripts, links and images. With this program, it makes it difficult for users to manipulate your code, which could wreak havoc on your pages.

All these programs work well for new to experienced coders. HTML Tidy is the most straightforward and easy program for anyone that wants to clean their code without worrying about style and readability.

Rather you are just beginning your coding process or have written code for years, you can always find new resources to create effective, stylish and quick web pages.

We are currently running a poll on our website and we’d like to know your opinion on the most useful  performance tips. Please take a minute and vote for your favorite website performance tips. We appreciate your participation.

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Compiling JavaScript for Performance

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Getting snappy – performance optimizations in Firefox 13

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Web First for Mobile

HTML5 Audio – The State of Play

Working with files in JavaScript, Part 2: FileReader”

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