Telecom Giant Vodafone Gets Into Location Based Social Networking With Pocket Life

Pocket Life, a geo-aware social network backed by mobile network giant Vodafone, has launched to the public. The service allows users to update their friends on their current locations automatically, and also allows them to syndicate status updates and their recent activities to popular social networks like Facebook and MySpace. You can also use GPS to create a route (say, for mountain biking or hiking) and share that with friends over the network.

At launch Pocket Life is compatible with over 30 phones, including a number of Blackberries, Nokias, and Samsungs, with the iPhone listed as “Coming Soon” (you can see the full compatibility list here). If you have a compatible phone, you can download the software by visiting http://mob.pocketlife.com from your phone’s browser. You can also use the site from your computer at PocketLife.com, though this doesn’t feature automatic location updates. To get a feel for more of the site’s features, check out the walkthrough video.

Pocket Life has many similarities with other geo-aware social networks like Whrrl, Limbo, and Loopt, which recently signed a deal to become available on every mobile carrier in the US. Pocket Life is getting a late start, but with giants like Facebook and MySpace largely sitting on the sidelines in the race to take social networks mobile, it still has a fighting chance, especially given its backers.

Vodafone is the largest telecommunications network company in the world, with huge mobile market shares in many countries (it also owns minority stakes in some large mobile companies, with a 45% stake in Verizon). If its phones started to carry Pocket Life as a default application, it could easily overwhelm its competitors in many regions.

Bambuser Gets A Facelift, Rejoins The Mobile Video Streaming War

We haven’t covered live video streaming startup Bambuser until now, but the Swedish startup is rapidly shaping up to becoming a formidable contender to the likes of Qik, Flixwagon, and Kyte in the race to turn mobile phones into portable TV studios. Bambuser has just released an updated version of its site, which features a new embeddable player and more intuitive interface. The site strongly resembles Qik, which we’ve covered extensively. Users can stream videos directly from their mobile phones to their profiles on Bambuser and can also syndicate their video elsewhere on the web using embeddable video players. Videos can be streamed over either Wi-Fi or 3G, and the software supports a range of phones running on Symbian and Windows Mobile platforms (you can see a full list here). The site’s biggest differentiator is its ability to automatically pinpoint where users are streaming from using GPS, which it then presents in a Google Map alongside its videos. It’s not a major feature, and is one that Qik and its competitors could likely implement without much trouble (Update: Qik actually does have it). In the end, it will be the service with the best quality and ubiquity that will win out (so far Qik has the advantage in terms of compatibility - it already supports BlackBerry, which Bambuser doesn’t). There may also be another entry into this space soon: we’ve received leaked footage of a mobile version of Ustream, a live video streaming site that until now has not supported mobile devices.

Delta to Roll Out Wi-Fi on Some Flights

Delta Air Lines is expected to begin offering Wi-Fi service to its passengers on Tuesday, according to a report in The Washington Post.

The wireless service, which will enable passengers to connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi-enabled laptops, PDAs, or smartphones, will cost $9.95 on flights of three hours or less, and $12.95 on flights of more than three hours. The airline is partnering with Aircell, which also supplies in-flight Wi-Fi technology to other carriers, such as American Airlines and Virgin America.

The service will be available initially on shuttle flights between Washington's Reagan National, New York's LaGuardia, and Boston's Logan airports, according to the report.

The Atlanta-based airline plans to eventually outfit its domestic fleet of 330 aircraft with Wi-Fi, which amounts to about 60 percent of Delta's seats flown every day.

Virgin America rolled out its Gogo Inflight Internet service to passengers on a single Wi-Fi-enabled plane on November 24. By the second quarter of 2009, the company expects to offer Wi-Fi on its entire fleet of planes.

Several other airlines, including American Airlines and JetBlue, have announced similar in-flight Wi-Fi plans.

Airlines have been talking about offering in-flight broadband for years. But so far, the service hasn't really caught on. Boeing first offered a service called Connexion, which debuted in 2004 on a few international carriers, including Lufthansa, SAS, All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, and Singapore Airlines.

Boeing then canceled the service in 2006, when it was unable to find business among domestic airlines. A big problem with Connexion was that the entire system was bulky and weighed around 400 pounds, making it nearly impossible for it to be used on smaller domestic planes.

Best cell-phone service

 

Verizon is a standout cell-phone carrier for most people, based on our exclusive best cell phone service survey of readers in 23 cities. The company received high marks from survey respondents in overall satisfaction and customer service, and service is available in most of the country.

Overall, cell-phone service has become significantly better, judging by the annual survey conducted in September by the Consumer Reports National Research Center. Contract terms for cell-phone service are less onerous, and there were fewer problems with call quality in this year's survey. The best carriers even came through after a hurricane hit one of our survey cities.

Sixty percent of readers were completely or very satisfied with their service. That appears to be a substantial improvement over 2007, even though we made some changes to our survey this year, including expanding the number of cities we rate and the coverage areas within them.

The improvement means cellular satisfaction is now closer to the average among all services we rate; it had previously been among the worst.

What's behind this surge in satisfaction? There were fewer problems with connectivity, the ability to widely receive service that's free of static and dropped calls. Overall, 42 percent of readers reported that they had no major complaints about service, up from 29 percent in our previous survey. In particular, they were less likely to cite as a top complaint the automatic extension of their cell-phone contract as a result of changing their service.

Carriers have curbed such practices because of increasing competition and the threat of consumer-rights legislation in Congress. Added pressure came from more than 100 class-action and other lawsuits coast to coast, including one by the Minnesota attorney general, and several key court rulings favorable to consumers.

In apparent response to the legal and regulatory action, all the carriers have stopped automatically extending contracts when consumers make changes to their service plan. And now all but Alltel reduce early-termination fees of $175 to $200 as the contract term progresses.

One of the biggest concerns identified by our survey was the high cost of cell service, the top complaint for 14 percent of respondents. Since we surveyed readers in September, before the onset of the economic crisis, that might not reflect today's heightened concern for reining in costs.

Our analysis of the carriers' pricing uncovered a cost-cutter you might not be aware of: pay-by-the-minute, or prepaid, service. It's offered by all major carriers as well as providers such as Virgin and TracFone. Some prepaid plans could save you a lot, especially if you use your phone infrequently or want unlimited voice calling. (See How to buy a prepaid phone.)

Truphone Turns Your iPod Touch into a Phone

Described by Apple itself as the ‘funnest’ iPod ever, the iPod touch may now be the ‘useful-est’ too thanks to FREE software - Truphone for iPod touch - that effectively turns one into a mobile phone.

 
Not only is the software free, but calls made using Truphone’s application for the iPod touch are also FREE - just in time to save precious cash when making those Christmas calls to friends and family.
Once installed, and with the addition of microphone adaptor (Truphone microphone adaptor available soon)*, an iPod touch owner can make free calls - no matter where any are in the world - to other iPod touch owners, to customers of Truphone’s Internet telephony service, and to users of the Google Talk instant messaging service.
Truphone for iPod touch will become a one-stop-shop social hub with the following features coming soon:

• Making and receiving calls to and from landlines (PSTN) at low cost (simply set yourself up with a Truphone account)
• Instant messaging to Skype and MSN (free)
• Calling to Skype users (free)
• Calling to MSN users (free)
• Check and set facilities for Twitter (free)
• Check and set facilities for Facebook (free)

Truphone for iPod touch is easily downloaded from Apple’s App Store in exactly the same way as any other iPod touch application.
The software uses the iPod touch’s Wi-Fi connection to carry calls over the Internet to its destination. There is no monthly line rental, no subscription or other hidden charges.
* Microphone adaptor accessory currently available at the Apple Store.
Important information
Truphone is not a replacement for an ordinary telephone service and emergency calls cannot be made using Truphone. Truphone cannot advise on the legality of VoIP services in specific territories or jurisdictions. It is the user’s responsibility to confirm that use of the Truphone VoIP software and service is permitted in the location in which they use it.
Types of FREE call that can be made:

• iPod touch to iPod touch
• iPod touch to Truphone (some Nokia handsets)
• Truphone (same Nokia handsets plus iPhone) to iPod touch
• iPod touch to Google Talk PC user

Requirements

• A second generation iPod touch (i.e. current model)
• A free download of Truphone for iPod touch
• A headset and microphone like those for the iPhone. These may be bought at high street electronics retailers or from an Apple Store
• Friends also using Truphone!

Making a Truphone call on an iPod touch
This couldn’t be simpler: the Truphone application provides you with a virtual keypad that enables you to make the call.
How it works
Truphone works by routing calls over the Internet through Wi-Fi.

How to dry a cell phone that has been immersed in water

If you’ve dropped your cell phone in water, or just gotten it wet, then you’ll want to make sure you follow a series of steps to ensure it will continue to operate.

Remove the phone from the water source

If you are able to quickly remove the phone from the water, then you’re likely to be able to restore it. Most phones have a tight, sealed outside layer that will help keep out water for a short period of time. The key is avoiding contact between the water and the phones electronic components while they are powered by the cell phones battery.

Begin to dry the phone and remove accessories

You should quickly work to get rid of the excess water by draining the phone and then using a towel to clean off external moisture. Resist the temptation to use a hair dryer on the internal components, as this may cause damage to the circuitry, even at a low temperature. Instead, you need to use a suction source such as a vacuum, but be careful to keep it out of direct contact, otherwise static electricity might come into play. Once you have removed the water that you can directly, you should use a dessicate to absorb water on the phone.

Allow the Phone to Dry and Test It

After you have following the aforementioned steps, allow the phone to dry naturally dry. After 24 hours you should test its operation. If it’s still not working, you should visit your cellular carrier store to see if they can help replace or restore the phone.

Skype 4 Beta 3 Adds Outlook Support, Bandwidth Manager

Skype has released a third beta of Skype 4 for Windows, which keeps the focus on large-screen video chat and adds a few new (and returning) tools.

Namely, support for Outlook contact importing, abuse reporting, and a "bandwidth manager" that aims to improve call quality are present in the Windows-only beta. The missing button to report call quality to Skype also makes a comeback.

Pastebud Brings Bookmark-Powered Copy and Paste to the iPhone

Pastebud, a bookmarklet/webapp combo that works around the lack of a copy or paste function in the iPhone and iPod touch, has just gone live. And it's surprisingly elegant and painless, with a few small hitches.

Update: Pastebud's servers seem to be getting a solid traffic hit this morning, so the page, and service, might be hit-and-miss for a while after this post. Also, a note about copying email text is added below.

At its heart, Pastebud is two bookmarklets—COPY and PASTE, naturally—that you install in your mobile Safari browser. If you sync your iPhone/touch to grab bookmarks from a desktop browser like Safari or Internet Explorer, it's easier to just head to Pastebud's site, drag the bookmarklets to your browser toolbar, and sync your device. If not, you can still head to Pastebud's site in mobile Safari and add the bookmarks, but you'll have to manually edit them to remove all the formatting before the javascript: code—something users of the Instapaper bookmarking app are all too familiar with.

Once you've installed the bookmarks (and probably re-arranged them higher in your list), you can head to any web page containing text you want to copy to a web form or email. Hit the "COPY" bookmark, and all the page text gets sent to Pastebud and put into a JavaScript-powered applet, where you select the particular text to copy by tapping and dragging to select.

 

The two buttons at the top, an e-mail style "compose" on the left and "copy" on the right, send you to your email client and back to the web, respectively. As you can see, the text selected in the pic above arrives just fine in the Mail client—including links!

One small issue, though, at least for those who don't pay $5 to Pastebud—it inserts a little "Pasted from my iPhone!" and promotion link in every paste. You can delete it, of course, but it's there every time:

The Pastebud web site also notes that you can forward emails you want to copy/quote from to "your secret Pastebud address," which you should then add to your email contacts. I didn't get to try this out this morning before Pastebud's server(s) got slammed, so if you have, let us know in the comments.

Pasting that copied text to any box on the web is just as easy, but comes with its own little nag. After selecting the text and hitting "Copy," simply browse to any site you want to paste to and hit the "PASTE" bookmarklet. Pastebud loads the page in its webapp again, and you click the "PASTE HERE" box to, well, paste there.

And once your text arrives, you get a little pop-up box, asking you to upgrade for $5 to "make it even more convenient":

For what it's worth, I've got nothing against the developer of a seriously inventive app system asking for a small fee inside their free-for-all version—just letting you know it's there before you dive in.

Pastebud's creator has a step-by-step walkthrough on installing the bookmarklets and using the system at his page (which changes depending on if you visit from mobile Safari or another browser). As for the privacy of your copied text, this is what's posted:

It's certainly safe enough for most uses. All clipboards are anonymous, and destroyed withing five minutes of copy. Email addresses are not saved on the server; we only use them to reply for copying.

However, since your clipboard is being passed over the network in most cases, you should take care not to send anything sensitive.

There's also SSL connections, destroy-on-paste, and other security measures on the way for paying users, according to the developer's page.

AT&T Allows Online Purchase and Home Activation of iPhone 3G

Following months of of speculation, AT&T and Apple have begun offering the iPhone 3G online with home activation options, albeit with the caveats that the phone must be activated within three days of receipt in order to avoid being charged for the full cost of the device, and the service only applies to new accounts at this time with those looking to upgrade being forced to do so at an AT&T store.

Device activation is the same as was the case for the first-generation iPhone: Order the device from AT&T, wait for the package to arrive, then activate over iTunes.  AT&T is also offering free shipping with new iPhone orders placed before December 19th in time for Christmas delivery.

Fonolo Cuts Through Corporate Voicemail Trees

Fonolo, an online phone tool for getting past all the "Press X for ..." prompts on customer service numbers, is now open for public beta. Our sister site Consumerist took a screenshot tour when Fonolo was privately tested, and it looks much the same—in other words, just as cool. Pick a company, browse their phone directory tree by title and automated dialog, choose where you want to jump in, and Fonolo calls you with a direct connection there. We gave Fonolo a quick spin this morning, so read on for screenshots and a quick tutorial on working some auto-dial jujitsu.

Fonolo has limited their directory of businesses covered during their beta phase, but there's still a good range of companies covered—credit card issuers, cell carriers, retailers, even AARP and EZ-Pass (the New-England-area auto-toll taker). Once you've signed up with a username, password, email, and your phone numbers, you'll validate your email and be on your way.

After searching or browsing through their directory for the firm you want to get into, hit the "View Menu" button to see Fonolo's trace of their automated phone tree. You can click "Call here" to get to any area, and where you see little human icons, that's a direct connection to a customer service representative—the person you usually try to get to by jamming "0."

The one drawback I see at a glance is that Fonolo can't auto-store account numbers and get you past the prompts asking for them. That's obviously a whole bushel of privacy and security issues to deal with, but if I'm looking to get deep into a company to deal with a thorny issue, I definitely want to skip past carefully entering 16 digits over touch-tone.

If you've found the prompt, or human, you want to connect to, simply hit the button and Fonolo asks which of your phones you want to be called on when it gets through. It's not instant, because Fonolo is actually doing the drudgery of dialing, pressing "1" for English, hitting "3" for customer service on existing accounts, etc. And you can watch it happen—or, actually, just walk away and wait for your cell to ring:

Fonolo's service worked for me on the three services I tried out—Chase credit cards, HSBC, and EZ-Pass—but, as noted above, I usually couldn't get past any point where the company wanted an account number to continue. Once you're done calling, you can take note of what happened or what needs to be done on the next call, and leave Fonolo some feedback if you had problems:

That's about it for this beta of Fonolo. Sign-ups are free at the moment, so if you give it a try, let us know how it works for you. Looking for a less automated end-run around customer service prompts? Try the Dial A Human! directory, or the previously mentioned 99-cent iPhone app Direct Line.

FBI issues warning over VoIP scammers hijacking Asterisk

The FBI is advising users of the open source VoIP package Asterisk to upgrade to the latest version, but has so far provided very little evidence on what vulnerability it has detected.

The FBI's warning as published at the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is vague at best. The warning states: "The recent attacks were conducted by hackers exploiting a security vulnerability in Asterisk software. Asterisk is free and widely used software developed to integrate PBXii systems with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), digital Internet voice calling services; however, early versions of the Asterisk software are known to have a vulnerability."

These so-called "vishing" attacks are phishing attacks turned vocal. Normally, a visher would send out a wave of phishing e-mail with a telephone number enclosed. Those who call are greeted by workers in a "legitimate" call center, and are prodded to give out private information. Hackers can supposedly use this new vulnerability to take over to call Asterisk users directly.

The vagueness of the FBI's warning undermines most of the good it might do; the government recommends updating to the latest version of Asterisk, but there are two versions currently offered for download: 1.6.03-rc1 (beta) and 1.4.22. Without more information on which "early" version of the program the FBI is referring to, its impossible for users of a not-quite-new-but-recent version of the software to know if they're in the clear or not.

As of December 6, the FBI had not yet contacted Asterisk's developers or anyone at Digium. According to Asterisk's blog, "[Neither] Digium nor anyone else involved with OSS Asterisk to my knowledge has not been contacted by the FBI or the IC3 (a division of the FBI) on this topic, so much of what we know is speculation at this point. Digium believes at this point that this warning was as a result of security issues that probably have nothing to do with Asterisk in specific, but are more general, such as some sites using poor password choices on VoIP accounts. It is possible that this is a re-hash of an earlier security issue that was resolved in March, or perhaps of a totally separate set of security issues which are unknown to us."

Digium is a bit peeved that the FBI would issue such a warning without even attempting to consult the company in any way; as of that writing, all of Digium's attempts to reach the FBI have gone unanswered. The warning may reference a specific bug (AST-2008-03), but that issue was repaired last March.

We'll update on the situation once it's clear if there's actually a problem and what versions of Asterisk are (and aren't) affected.

iPod Touch Can Support VoIP Calls

Cult of Mac has confirmed the newest version of Apple’s iPod Touch contains the hardware necessary to enable free or low-cost phone calls over wi-fi.

With 5 wires connected to the Touch headphone jack (instead of 4 on the previous model), the device now supports the external microphone included with some headsets, according to Kyle Wiens of iFixit, who fully dismantled an iPod Touch on Wednesday.

Speculation about the possibility of VoIP (voice over internet protocol - a method for making and receiving voice communication over a connection to the internet, as opposed to the cellular telephone network) on the iPod Touch arose yesterday when the specifications of new Apple headsets with external mics appeared to include support for the iPod Touch in addition to the new iPod Nano and the 120GB iPod Classic.

“”I’m very excited about the possibility of VOIP on [the Touch],”said Wiens. “Now we just need the software.”

The software may already be here, in fact. TruPhone, a venerable innovator in the VoIP field, already has an iPhone application in the AppStore. Apple has said it would not permit applications that run VoIP using cellular networks, but a purely wi-fi-based calling method could pass muster, making the iPod Touch a little less distinguishable from its iPhone sibling.

Advantages of Using VOIP Systems over Traditional Phone Systems for Your Business

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is the latest phone system technology. VoIP phone systems convert regular telephone calls into digital data delivering the voice communications over the Internet, or a packet-switched network. Essentially, when using a VoIP system, you are using the Internet to make telephone calls as opposed to a traditional phone line.

VoIP phone services continue to advance and are becoming highly reliable and popular. The key advantage to use a VoIP phone service over a traditional phone system is that it is cheaper. Other advantages include the convenience and portability of VoIP service and the advanced communication features that are available at no extra charge.

If you are a small business and need this service, visit Resource Nation’s VoIP phone service center.

Utilizing VoIP phone services rather than traditional phone systems can result in lower costs to individuals and businesses. For example, individuals or businesses with a broadband Internet connection (DSL or cable) can make PC-to-PC phone calls anywhere in the world at no charge. Or, if wanting to make a PC-to-phone connection, there is usually a minimal charge that is typically less than traditional phone service. In regards to business owners with multiple locations, if the business locations are connected to a Local Area Network (LAN) or Wide Area Network (WAN), they can share all features of the VoIP system without needing to set up separate phone systems in each location. Additionally, calls between long-distance business locations does not cost extra as it does with traditional phone service. This is particularly attractive for businesses with hefty monthly long distance charges due to calls between various company locations, or with international customers.

Another cost-saving benefit of using VoIP phone service relates to setting up new service. For example, when setting up a new office, whether it is a home office or a commercial office, VoIP can be less expensive than traditional phone installation. With VoIP, you will not have to run separate cabling for your phone system. This results in cheaper set-up and cabling fees.

In addition to saving money, VoIP phone systems are convenient and provide portability. For example, you can take your VoIP phone service with you wherever you go and make and receive phone calls anywhere there is a broadband connection. This is particularly attractive to frequent travelers and employees on the go.

Typically, VoIP phone services allow you to use technologically advanced communication features for free. Call forwarding, call waiting, voicemail, caller ID, simultaneous ringing across multiple phones, seamless call transfers, and three-way calling are some of the features generally available. Data such as pictures and documents are easy to use with VoIP and it also works with various Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) applications, such as call center management. These popular, and often times necessary, applications can prioritize incoming calls based on the caller’s identity. The application automatically brings up callers’ account information as the call is answered so the recipient of the call can easily and conveniently see who is calling.

With its low costs when compared to traditional phone services, the convenience and portability, and advanced communication features, VoIP phones benefit everyone from individuals to small offices to large enterprises.

MySpace delivers video to mobile phones

By Robert MacMillan (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - MySpace users with mobile phones are about to find out if they can walk and watch TV at the same time.

On Wednesday, News Corp's online social network will make video clips from its members' pages available for viewing on mobile devices including the BlackBerry Bold, Palm Centro, Motorola Q9, LG Voyager, Nokia N95 and Samsung Instinct.

Members will be able to look at video on their own homepages as well as friends' pages. They also will be able to view professionally produced video from TMZ, the celebrity news and gossip website owned by Time Warner Inc; the National Hockey League; National Geographic magazine; satirical newspaper The Onion and others.

The free service will be supported by advertising. MySpace and many other companies are trying to exploit the small but growing mobile advertising market.

MySpace declined to comment on the cost of the project or how much money it would make them.

"These are the big guys doing it, and they're going to make some noise about it," said David Card, a media analyst at Forrester Research who called it a medium-sized deal in terms of significance. "Mobile is one of those things where people keep saying, 'Is next year going to be the year of mobile'?"

MySpace video will be sent, or "streamed," from the social network's pages rather than downloaded onto mobile phones. For this reason, the clips will not be available on Apple Inc's iPhone, which runs downloaded video.

MySpace, one of the world's largest online social networks, plans to support mobile video downloads in the future, a spokeswoman said.

MySpace's growth strategy includes developing mobile phone applications, as well as international markets and building up its music service. Acquisitions are central to this strategy, Chief Executive Chris DeWolfe told the Reuters Media Summit on Monday.

The company will work with technology from a company called RipCode to make video available on mobile handsets that have different technical specifications for how they handle video.

RipCode also will allow MySpace users to stop having to save their video clips in different formats, something that it said would save hardware, energy and storage resources.

(Reporting by Robert MacMillan)

Google Launches Android Dev Phone 1 for Developers

Google has launched a version of the HTC Dream specifically for developers that wish to field test applications on actual hardware without relying on the SDK emulator or access to T-Mobile service.



The Android Dev Phone is notable for featuring completely unlocked GSM/UMTS hardware and an unlocked bootloader with Android 1.0 for development access to desired hardware on the device while featuring the same specifications as the consumer version without the carrier lock or restricted bootloader as found on the T-Mobile G1.

While Google touts that the T-Mobile G1 can be used for development in its retail form, it should be noted that this device is not recommended for consumers without some knowledge of firmware programming and image creation as the device ships with support for unsigned application execution and open firmware writing capability for loading different Android builds.



All that is required in order to purchase the device is a $25 application fee for the Android Marketplace along with registration information, and the device can be purchased directly from Google for $399.99 with a strict limit of one per individual or organization.

A total of 18 countries including the US, UK, Germany, Japan, India, Canada, France, Taiwan, Spain, Australia, Singapore, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Poland, and Hungary will receive access to the hardware with future expansion planned to other countries down the line.

Optimum AdSense Ad Sizing

Last month, a retiring SEO friend of mine gave me the gift that keeps on giving - a database of AdSense statistics for about a thousand websites he managed. These sites are composed of about one-third “make money online” sites, one-third general blogs, and about one-third celebrity-gossip sites. Most of these sites had PageRanks ranging from 1 to 6, so they represent low to medium volume sites. While the sample set was not from a totally random selection of sites, I thought I’d scrub the data anyway to determine what display properties (size, color, etc) provided the greatest revenue. For this article, I show the relative significance of ad size relative to clicks.

The first table ranks ad sizes based on relative number of ad clicks for text and image ads. A rank of 1 represents the most number of clicks, and 12 represents the least. The results tend to validate the results I’ve seen elsewhere, with larger rectangles and leaderboards producing the best results.

Popularity versus Size for Text/Image Ads

Ranking	Ad Size
1	Medium Rectangle (300×250)
2	Large Rectangle (336×280)
3	Leaderboard (728×90)
4	Banner (468×60)
5	Half Banner (234×60)
6	Skyscraper (120×600)
7	Vertical Banner (120×240)
8	Button (125×125)
9	Wide Skyscraper (160×600)
10	Small Rectangle (180×150)
11	Small Square (200×200)
12	Square (250×250)

The next table ranks ad sizes based on relative number of ad clicks for link units. I haven’t seen many articles on link unit sizing, so I can’t compare my results with others.

Popularity versus Size for Link Units

Ranking	Ad Size
1	200×90
2	180×90
3	120×90
4	160×90
5	468×15
6	728×15

Reverse Cell Phone Directories

Having the ability to look up who owns a cell phone by entering their number into a search field on online and being fed back the information you seek is very useful at times.

There are however many sites out there that claim to do this free ... they would however be lying!

I road tested three of the more reputable sites to give a comparison on quality and cost.

Contents

• Reverse Phone Detective
• Phone Number Scan
• Reverse Mobile
• Information

Reverse Phone Detective

3 out of 3

Reverse Phone Detective has a huge database that contains more than 250 million cell phone numbers, unlisted numbers, business and private numbers from the United States & Canada

With hardly any faults this service is definitely the stand out from the crop and delivers results every time.

Features

• Cell Phone Search
  
• Unlisted Number search
  
• Residential Number Search
  
• Business Number Search
  
• Pager Search
  
• Toll Free Number Search
  

Prices

• 1 search: $14.95
  
• 1 year $39.95
  
• Additional Privacy Control: $4.95
  

Click here to visit The Reverse Phone Detective site

Phone Number Scan

2 out of 3

Phone Number Scan delivers quite a good look-up service. It has a large, up to date database and reliable customer support along with low prices.

Features

• Residential search
  
• Business number search
  
• Cell number search
  
• Pager number search
  
• Pay phones search
  
• Unlisted numbers search

Prices

• 1 Year: $19.95
  
• 2 Years: $29.95
  
• Unlimited: $39.95
  
• Additional Privacy Control: $5.95

Click here to visit the Phone Number Scan site

Reverse Mobile

1 out of 3

While not as big as the previous two sites Reverse Mobile still has one of the largest databases around though it is a bit less accurate than the other two as well. It does however offer public records of the people you search for.

Features

• Cell Phone search
  
• Unlisted Phones search
  
• Business numbers search
  
• Residential numbers search
  
• Unlisted numbers search
  
• People Search (optional)
  
• Public Records (optional)

Price

• 3 Months: $29.95
  
• 6 Months: $34.95
  
• Unlimited: $39.95
  
• PublicRecords: $10

Click here to visit the Reverse Mobile site

Information

Q & A

What Is a Reverse Cell Phone Directory

A reverse phone directory is like a regular phone directory except instead of looking up someones name to find their number the reverse happens and you look up a number to find a persons name. With these websites reviewed you can do with fro cell phone, unlisted numbers and more also.

How do Reverse Cell Directories Get Their Information

The people who maintain and run reverse cell number directories gather their information from a number of sources because there is no central database of cell numbers and their owners in the US and Canada unlike regular land lines.

Marketing companies, the internet and many more sell this information to reverse look-up directories to compile into their databases.

Is a Reverse Cell Phone Directory Legal?

Yes, while cell phone numbers are not freely available like land lines which are a part of the public domain there is nothing stopping enterprising businessmen to gather the numbers from their own sources to publish online.

The Top 10 Alternatives to Google Adsense

Nice article about 10 alternatives to Google Adsense at

http://www.rosswalker.co.uk/adsense_top10/