Introducing "Counter Opinions"

Concept: 3 out of 5
Execution: 2 out of 5
Yeah, but: Yes, the name will cause confusion.

There's already enough knee-jerk reactions and superficial information on the internet. My goal as a reviewer has always been to go beyond what's immediately obvious, and come up with insights that aren't going to be apparent to the casual observer.* Part of that comes from spending extended time using something, which typically has meant purchasing it. But there are only so many things per month that I can own, use, and have the enthusiasm to write about.

So after four years, it's time for a new category of short-form reviews. I'm calling them "Counter Opinions" – not because they're contrary, which they may sometimes be, but because they're the opinions that I can form just by spending time with something at the sales counter.

Corners will be cut. Mistakes may be made. Theories could be half-baked. Product photos will be limited. But in exchange for that I'll be able to include a more varied and eclectic subject range, and increase the number of new reviews that I can write.

Not everyone has easy access to decent stores these days, so hopefully this can still be interesting, entertaining, and maybe even useful. And of course the more comprehensive "Long Version" reviews will continue, and the remarkably enduring Thewsreviews rating scale will still apply regardless of format.

*Whether that's successful or not is another matter.

last updated 23 july 2012

Thewsreviews: Year Number Two

Concept: _ out of 5
Execution: _ out of 5
Yeah, but: It's still too early for a retrospective.

The Long Version: This website turned two yesterday. It's been a big year: we've gone to a new design, a new URL, and gained a new author. In the past twelve months, we've had another thirty-seven thousand hits, and sixty-five thousand page views. This is post number one hundred and eighty, so we're averaging about two posts per week. The word cluster at the top is generated from just the 27 reviews posted so far this calendar year.

Of course, a lot hasn't changed. Camera gear remains the most popular subject, getting the most interest from regular readers and search engine patrons alike. The Olympus 35-100mm review is a medium-size fish in a small pond, accounting for about a tenth of the site traffic. My first look at the Xootr Mg scooter, written exactly two years ago and currently the first result on google.ca for 'xootr review', remains very popular even though its traffic has been eclipsed by my 2009 writeup of the Xootr Swift folding bike. In honour of that bike, which I just brought out of winter storage, here's a photo of it that has never been published before:

If nothing else, that photo shows that there is a minimum quality standard that needs to be met before I'll use it. I do enjoy taking photos for these reviews, and I take far more than I've used. Some were ideas that never quite blossomed into prose, others were ones that didn't add anything to the review. Sometimes I'll write an entire review simply because I want to use a particular photo, but usually the idea comes before the illustration.

In the past year, I've stopped using most of my Olympus equipment, and even sold both the 35-100/2 and 7-14/4 lenses. (That still astonishes me.) I've added two entirely new camera systems, four new cameras, and ten new lenses to my collection. Some of those have been mentioned here before, and some are still on my 'to do' list. I continue to look for interesting things to review, and more importantly, keep trying to write about the things that interest me instead of trying to anticipate what will get more traffic. After all, I first thought of writing this blog as a personal creative outlet, and never imagined that anyone other than family and friends would ever read it. (For the record, absolutely nobody in my family reads it. Apparently I have a very healthy ego.) So even though I know that nobody's likely to care what I think about dishwasher detergent or a light switch, I'm going to keep writing about them and things like them. When I initially thought about the concept behind the blog - while riding the Spadina Streetcar - I thought I'd eventually review a day of the week. Tuesday's been on my shortlist for a while, but it hasn't happened yet.

So, for everyone who reads this, thank you. You've taken the effort to include my thoughts in your day, which just completely blows my mind. Thanks also to Keith and Bill, my co-authors who add so much to this site and keep it from being completely self-indulgent. This is far more fun than I had any right to expect.

New URL - thewsreviews dot com

Concept: 2 out of 5
Execution: 3 out of 5
Yeah, but: No further action required.

The Long Version: Almost 24 hours ago, thewsreviews dot blogspot dot com became thewsreviews dot com. The transition seemed to go well, with just a short amount of downtime for people who avoid the 'www' prefix. (It's lame, I know.) All previous links from google searches and bookmarks redirect seamlessly to the new address, and if you see this through a feed, then that's working too.

Ultimately, though, nothing else has changed. The site is still hosted by the Blogger branch of Global Internet Domination, Inc., the same people who drive most of the traffic to this site and provide the advertising that's not expected to actually pay anything until mid-2012. But everyone needs a retirement plan, and I'm going to be starting the slow process of copying the HTML of each review into my own archives just in case there's a need to move. While Strobist redirects their dot com to their blogspot address, I'm still haunted by The Online Photographer's need to shift services mid-stream, giving it both blogspot and typepad incarnations.

The biggest real changes are the new header, a new contact e-mail, and a shorter web address to type and remember. Well worth it, as long as I didn't break the feed links.

Thewsreviews New Look

Concept: 2 out of 5
Execution: 3 out of 5
Yeah, but: I'm biased.

The Long Version: When I first decided to go back to writing for a hobby, I never really expected anyone but me to see it. As a result, I chose a template design that I like for my own reason, and not the one that's the simplest, most legible, or most appealing. Making matters worse, over the past eighteen months I've increasingly gravitated to simple monochrome layouts, and shot-on-white photography. The look of the blog was not working the way I wanted it to.

The new layout is a better match to my other websites, looks more like my photography, works better with my Blackberry, and uses Verdana throughout, which is a more legible humanist sans-serif and a better match for my usual Myriad. I like it, and hopefully it makes the site easier and more pleasant to read.

And a bit of thewsreviews trivia: I picked the old template as a tribute to the original blogger site for The Online Photographer. I've been playing with a new layout on my test site for a little while now, and finally made the switch in honour of TOP's fourth birthday. I've previously mentioned that the Luminous Landscape is one of my top three influences on this blog; TOP and Mike Johnson is one of the others.

Thewsreviews: The First Year In Review

Concept: _ out of 5
Execution: _ out of 5
Yeah, but: It's a little early for a retrospective.

The Long Version: Thewsreviews is slightly over a year old. In a move that will surprise no-one who knows me, I missed its birthday.

`Thew's Reviews started because I needed a hobby. My life as a photographer began when I needed something to get me away from work, both literally and figuratively. It kept me sane and with my former employer beyond all expectations, but eventually it backfired and I accidentally got a job at a camera store. My creative outlet and frivolous forum-surfing turned into something that I had no relief from.

Writing is something that I've always enjoyed, but gave it up when it became clear that I suffer a crippling lack of anything to say. Writing reviews seemed like a good solution to that problem, and unlike every other hobby that has ever appealed to me, it's free. So this is my escape, and I just end up writing a lot about photography.

As a further irony, the photography for this site is one of the things that I really enjoy. I'm a product photographer at heart, and enjoy solving problems about how to present something. But for many of the reviews I'll go the opposite way, and post images that I'd never even put on a MySpace account. (It's not that I can't take good photos, it's that I don't want to.) Other times there are little jokes included in the photo, like the iPod peeking into the corner of a book on photo composition, or the way I left the word "Toshiba" in the photo for Helvetica. I used my TV as a black background for a DVD review. I think I'm funny even when nobody else does.

In one year, this site has had 12,000 visitors and 19,000 page views. It had a very small beginning, with only a handful of hits during the first two months, but in June `08 Keith joined the effort and it took off from there. This is the 89th post, and only the fourth non-review.

The most popular reviews vary over time, with the two scooter reviews being popular during the summer but losing prominence once the cold weather came. The Olympus 35-100 lens review is typically one of the most popular pages, with the Sigma 150 Macro also being a favourite, but the Oly 7-14 barely attracts anyone. Camera bags happen to be really popular right now. But even though they account for a lot of traffic, photography-related reviews are less than a third of the site's content. Keith's Maglite Upgrade is rarely out of the top five pages, and the Omega Seamaster page has turned out to be a surprise hit. I reviewed those two watches together because I didn't think it was worth looking at either one alone.

Some of the reviews are local to Toronto, and 17% of visitors are Canadian. That's also the same percentage of people who do not have English as their default language. 24% of visitors use Macintosh computers; Firefox accounts for about 40% of the browser share. Google accounts for nearly all visits, either through keywords or images, but I can see that there are a couple of people who keep track of the new content here. I hear that the weather in Florida is beautiful.

So thanks to everyone who's visited, and especially those who have left comments that aren't trying to sell me peni senhancers. Thanks also to Keith, who adds an important note to the site that keeps it from being completely self-indulgent. I realize that this site is just a tiny speck in the blog world, with fewer hits in a year than many 'small' sites get in a day, but I'm still amazed at the reach that it has. There are google search results that put this humble little blog above Amazon.com - and that's just absurd.

I'm going to leave the ratings blank on this one, so if anyone wants to leave a comment that suggests some, feel free. Just remember that something serviceable, decent, and reliable gets a ranking of "2", so mark low.

Google AdSense & "Interest-Based Advertising"

Concept: 2 out of 5
Execution: 2 out of 5
Yeah, but: Internet tracking has gone from a Doubleclick to no clicks.

The Long Version: I got an e-mail from Google last night, and it's worth quoting here.

We're writing to let you know about the upcoming launch of interest-based advertising, which will require you to review and make any necessary changes to your site's privacy policies. ... Interest-based advertising will allow advertisers to show ads based on a user's previous interactions with them, such as visits to advertiser website and also to reach users based on their interests (e.g. "sports enthusiast"). To develop interest categories, we will recognize the types of web pages users visit throughout the Google content network.

What this means for you, gentle reader, is that every time you click an AdSense advertising link, Google will use its massive powers to build a profile of what you like. Should you choose to not click any links, Google will still use its massive powers to build a profile of what sort of websites you visit. I have disabled this in the AdSense settings for these pages, so it will not track your activity here, but as an internet user you should assume that this opt-out hasn't been done by any of the sites that you visit. There apparently is an opt-out choice for individuals, but I can't endorse its effectiveness - this is still Doubleclick that we're dealing with. You can visit that page here: google.com/privacy_ads.html

Incidentally, there's no direct benefit to the web sites hosting the ads - they don't get paid more or anything like that. There's a vague promise that the ads will be more tempting to visitors, and lead to more click-through, but that's all the carrot they can offer.

It's also worth mentioning that as far as a money-making device for website hosts and authors like myself, it's pretty much a bust. I started showing ads here in September 2008, and since then I have "earned" a mighty $17.71 with 61 clicks on 13,500 page views. Google doesn't issue cheques (checks, I suppose, since it's US dollars) until they break three digits. Assuming some moderate growth, that means I should be seeing some actual money by Christmas 2010. It's better than nothing, and I'd be writing ThewsReviews anyway, but there's really very little incentive for me to continue with AdSense except for how amusing I think it is watching Google try to find relevant ads for the eclectic mix of content on this site.

(As I'm editing this review, the ever-changing ads are for a Toronto IT service, digital camera batteries, a coin counting machine, and a photography school. Apparently Google has seen my photoblog.)

So websites aren't paid more for letting Google track their readers, and 99.995% of visitors (based on my numbers) will be profiled even though they aren't using the 'service'. That sounds like a perfect reason to e-mail web site owners with AdSense ads to ask them to turn this 'feature' off. Tell them it's under the "My Account" tab.

If you can't unjoin them, confuse them?

If I recall correctly, the AdSense terms of service specifically prohibit me from encouraging people to click on ads on pages I control. So remember that I've turned this tracking feature off, meaning that this advice doesn't apply here, and it is only offered as a personal anecdote. When I'm faced with data collection and profiling that I can't avoid, my preference has always been to feed it junk. I'm going to start visiting sites that wouldn't normally appeal to me and clicking on ads for products that don't interest me. Doubleclick dropped its profiling efforts because the data wasn't worth the effort, but with Google's resources and Moore's Law to help out, that might not be the case this time. My hope is that garbage in really does lead to garbage out, but even if it doesn't make any difference in the long run, it might be amusing and lead to some quirky personal results.

ThewsReviews Has No Privacy Policy

Google's e-mail also suggests that I change my privacy policy to reflect their newest endeavor. Apparently I should note the following points:

Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on your site.
Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to your users based on their visit to your sites and other sites on the Internet.
Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy. (http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html)
(emphasis added. Interestingly they don't call it Doubleclick DART like they do elsewhere in their site.)

Even though I've opted out of this AdSense tracking and profiling for all of ThewsReviews, and don't have a privacy policy for this site, I should also point out that any time you visit a web site with a hit counter (and that's essentially all of them, even if you don't see one) your information is being tracked and aggregated by machines and stored electronically. I've left mine 'open', so you can click on it to see exactly what I know about my visitors. The main stats that interest me are your location (usually identified as city and country), the link or search terms you followed to get here (almost always a google search), and how many pages you looked at (so that I know if what I write is interesting or not), and what the most popular pages are. Tracking my own visits is nothing but pointless astroturfing, so they aren't included, but in the interest of fairness: I usually visit from Rogers.com, am in Toronto, Canada, and get here by a direct link which would show as "unknown" in the stats. There are also some interesting graphs and charts that show hits and page views over time, browser and OS share, and language.

Remember as you browse the internet that any website can collect this information, and probably more. The stats that I see with my free host don't come anywhere close to what I can get from my site that's hosted by godaddy.com, and they're not exactly high-end either. So if people knowing these things is an issue to you, take a look at some of the anonymizing software and services that are out there. Sure, there's the old "if you're innocent, you have nothing to hide" argument, but that's usually used by those with power to get others to surrender theirs, and is more appropriate for a police state than modern datamining and marketing. The new AdSense is showing that's there's value in knowing everything, so make your personal choices accordingly.

We're growing!

I'm pleased to announce that KeithAlanK, a friend and fellow photographer from San Antonio, Texas, will be joining `thewsreviews. His is an opinion that I've sought out and trusted for many years, so I'm looking forward to seeing the wit and insight that he brings to his observations of the world.

Keith also has the distinction of being the first to point a link at `thewsreviews from his own website, something that I still haven't done even as we approach our second birthday. More of Keith's view on the world can be found on his photo blog, Views of Texas.


Good times!

Ratings Explained

This isn't your father's review site – but maybe it should be. The rating system here is a little more involved than the old pro/con and 3-is-a-negative-score rating system. The quick and arbitrary numerical summary breaks down like this:

5 - Perfection, there is no real way it could be improved.
4 - Nearly perfect, as good as it can be expected.
3 - Pretty good, nothing to be ashamed of, but it doesn't rate a "4".
2 - Not great, please try again.
1 - This item exists.
0 - This item should not exist.

I rate my own photos using this same system. Most of my photos never climb above "1," but you'll never see them. Likewise most of what I review will be pretty good to excellent, and some will be really bad. The things that I review are ranked in two categories with an aside:

Concept: X out of 5, this is how I rank the idea itself. Originality counts.
Execution: X out of 5, this is for how well it's been done. Even bad ideas can be implemented perfectly.
Yeah, but: This is the counterpoint, if there is one, or some other aside.

The Long Version: is where I write the bulk of the review. Hopefully it will be entertaining and factually correct, but I don't guarantee either. I do guarantee that it will be a personal and subjective, based on my own experience and with my own perspective and limitations noted. I don't ever want to give the impression of objective detachment or omniscience. Occasionally I'll revisit and revise earlier reviews, or may write a review that corrects or contradicts an earlier opinion.

I hope you enjoy what I write, and have a great day.

Welcome - The End.

This is the first post for `thewsreviews, which makes it the last post to read. From here you can:

Return to the `thewsreviews home page.

Continue on to my long-running but completely unrelated photo blog.

Try your luck at a random website.

Enjoy and thanks!