Cleaning House
I’ve decided to take off many, if not most, of the widgets on the left and right rails of this blog. I’ll probably keep the banner ad and one music player for sure. Everything else is up for deletion.
I’d like to know if there are any of them that provide real and frequent value to you all.
So let me know in the comments if there is anything on the left or right sidebar of this blog that I should absolutely keep.
Comments (Archived):
Yeah! Jenny Craig it down. Less is more. And more easily loadable for those of us who access from multiple mobile devices.
If you load from a mobile browser, the page should detect that and load only the middle columnIs that not happening for you? If so, what mobile device/browser do you use?Fred
Hey Fred,I was commenting generically, that the more stuff and variety of server calls from a page, the more likely that folks w/ weaker machines and slower connections will have a tough time using a page. I’ve used your site to test connections at Net cafes in the 3rd world when I want to test w/ a bloated page 🙂 (It often won’t load).Re your Q, I am now hitting up the blog from a WinMo AT&T Tilt running 3G, freshly booted and running the native browser, and though only the middle page does load, the site is tough to view or navigate, doesn’t left justify, regardless of the view I choose. For many mobile browsers, even just AVC’s middle column is still too much content for the device resource-wise, and not really a usable design direction.Check out cnn.com from any popular device for a good example– while their desktop web page is very dense, when I go there on the Tilt it loads a very condensed (more link-heavy) version, almost instantly.Of course, I don’t know if any of your readers are really expecting you to really put much time into mobile dev here. Maybe m.avc.com should raise a round!Happy to help debug further.
iiii eeeee phoneeeee – loads everything – as in everything – not that we can see it – but it tries. we’ve grown to judging when the ‘meat’ of the site has loaded, and then we abort loading…M 🙂
Widgets definitely put a drag on your site. But if you want to continue to support them, why not create a static page and place all your widgets on it? This way their are there, but out of the way.
Hi Fred, Enjoy Jazz Fest… And make sure you keep the music player on the top right of the your blog.. Gabe
Actually I’m not at jazz fest. Just participating vicariously via twitter.com/nojf
you should follow some of the nolabloggers too if you’re curious. the boyfriend and I are not going until next weekend, though… @yatpundit, @wetbankguy were there today in the rain, @liprap, and there are a bunch more.
“I’ve decided to take off many, if not most, of the widgets on the left and right rails of this blog”Fred, I think you’re again just showing how canny and prescient you are. I expect the rest of the internet to to make this same statement within the next 6-12 months.
Forget 6 months, The revolution has been sparked:Fred Wilson Is Cleaning Up His Blog And You Should Too:http://onstartups.com/home/…
I’d vote for MyBlogLog, a site search box, one music widget, and possibly Flickr. Actually, the music widget could probably be replaced by a static link to another page with your music on it like this…http://yungsang.com/tumtape…The widget itself doesn’t provide much more for me than just easy access to your tunes. A prominent button might even be better than a widget in that case. Along those lines, maybe you could include a “Me Elsewhere” section with links to your profile on all the other sites that you currently include as widgets (your Etsy profile, Last.fm, Covestor, etc).
I’d keep MBL, twitter and flickr. that’s what i did on my site.
I like seeing myself and others on the MyBlogLog widget… vanity I guess… 🙂 No, it really works as a “meeting” place where the “regulars” of the blog can see each other.
When I use my iPhone on your site its slow but from my pc I enjoy using the Eco print to send PDFs to friends or save on my mac. At least save these types of things because they are functional and help me use/spread your words of wisdom. -Adnan
so much for my new widget company… i mean, i knew they were just useless clutter and time-wasters, but i was hoping my customers wouldn’t……..
Thank you!I had stopped visiting the site (relying only on the RSS feed–which doesn’t have comments) because it took so effing long to load the page.Now I can read the comments again!
Clean away. As a regular reader, I find most of the stuff distracting. (I understand why you do it — because it helps you try stuff out, but it gets in the way).
Leave the twitter updater. I am not a fan of the EcoSafe, lijit search tool, feedblitz subscriber, or hype machine. I don’t like advertising but that is, of course, your prerogative.
Get rid of everything on the sidebars for a few days to see what you miss. I’d remove all flash or animated widgets/ads. What you can do instead is use RSS widgets to pull in your Tweets and whatever else you want. I use Yahoo Pipes to combine Google Reader shared items and del.icio.us items in my sidebar. This will help you limit the number of HTTP requests (fewer images and flash embeds) and speed up page rendering.I’m not sure how typepad hosted blogs work, but try to find a new theme with a print stylesheet. Your readers will love you.Also, you may be getting a Google SEO penalty because avc.blogs.com and avcblog.com resolve to the same content. Pick a URL (preferably avcblog.com because blogs.com belongs to 6Apart) and redirect traffic from the other domain to it. I’d also auto-redirect www from your domain. You want to keep your URLs canonical.Looking forward to a lean and mean AVC!
i didn’t set up avcblog.com so it may belong to 6A toomy domain issue is a serious problem that i don’t want to tackle right nowbut i appreciate your suggestionsfred
Fred, I tried to send an article from avcblog.com to someone, but it just linked to the avcblog.com root. On closer inspection, avcblog.com is FRAMING your entire site at avc.blogs.com and diluting your search mojo. If you didn’t set up and don’t own avcblog.com (it’s registered at Godaddy not 6A), then you should contact Google and request that avcblog.com be delisted.The whois info for avcblog.com is here: http://www.whois.net/whois_…
That’s explains a lot. ThanksFred
I never notice to any of them. They have not been distracting either as long as nothing is flashy. I think the best of them is MyBlogLog.
Apart from content and the rss-feed, none that I really use.
Widgets and ads dilute your message. Good decision
As someone who reads your blog via RSS, I’ve essentially already self-selected against viewing widgets. I choose not to be aware of them and they don’t bother me
i think it qould be cool to hide your posts IN the widgets for a time.I am therefore for MORE widgets so its not so easy to find your posts.screw your readers
Two thumbs up on the decision.One feature that would be useful to have on your rails is a “Top Posts” list like you see on Marc Andreessen’s blog. I’m a relatively new reader to your blog, and while I can browse through your archives, it’s tough for me to know which of your past posts are your classic posts that contain your most important original insights (e.g. A New Path to Liquidity).
MyBlogLog should stay… I like seeing who else has been here, familar faces, etc.
Hi I agree with less is a lot more appealing and not so fussy!Lucy x
plaese help me with my house . i would like some help . i fell bad when my childeren tell me they would like a better house . but i really dont know were to start . and dont have the money too do plaese help me.
Your sight is slowwwwww on my iphone so good choice in cutting the fat.