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Companies that use Google’s AdWords to advertise online now have the option of displaying a banner ad on cell phones instead of simple text. Google includes a text line under each banner identifying it as an advertisement. Clicking on the ad opens a mobile Web page for the advertisement.

A number of other companies already display banner ads on mobile Web pages. Yahoo, AdMob and Third Screen, which is now owned by AOL, are among companies that display banner ads for advertisers. Microsoft displays banner ads on some of its mobile Web pages, such as MSNBC and other MSN mobile Web pages.

While many other companies are already supporting mobile banner ads, mobile Internet usage is still relatively low, so Google probably hasn’t missed an opportunity, said Greg Sterling, an analyst following mobile search and advertising as part of a joint venture between Sterling Market Research and Opus Research. “It’s not like consumer behavior is established and they’re late to the game,” he said.

In addition, advertisers are still mostly experimenting with mobile advertising, so few are wedded to any particular ad network, he said.

Google could actually have an advantage over competitors in the mobile banner-ad market because of the way the search giant charges advertisers. All mobile banner ads from Google are priced on a per-click basis. Other advertising platforms often charge based on impressions, or how many times someone views the page with the advertisement, and in mobile, those rates are often quite high, Sterling said.

With Google, advertisers can test out mobile advertising with less risk because they only pay for what users click on, he said. That could attract some advertisers who are uncertain about the effectiveness of mobile advertising.

Google and other Internet companies are increasingly interested in targeting mobile users because they believe the mobile market represents a new opportunity for earning advertising revenue. So far, no company has emerged as a clear leader in mobile advertising.

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Now I understand that a programmer may never need to know anything about design (or for that matter, a designer doesn’t ever need to program). But the truth is, every programmer has personal projects, frugal clients, or management roles that require design. Furthermore, I can say that often, a freelancer’s greatest asset in pitching potential clients is their keen understanding of the entire website building process. Here are 8 mistakes I’ve either heard or made myself.

“I Know What Looks Good (and I Have Photoshop)”
It’s one thing to be a bad designer. It’s a far worse matter to be a bad designer and think that you’re good. Every good designer has a well-calibrated “design compass” that comes from constantly looking at good designs. You need to spend time looking at great designs from sites like TheFWA, FaveUp, Design is Kinky, and my personal favorite, the Behance Network. You might also want to pick up the occasional design magazine like HOW or print. Just as good programmers enjoy looking at (and usually critiquing) other people’s code, a good designer is always scanning other people’s work, whether it be a website or billboard or menu. Without a good “design compass,” no amount of Photoshop filters will save you.

“Just Use Blue and White Again”
Most programmers scoff at the idea that a designer might spend several hours choosing exact colors for a website. However, colors will always matter more than you think and you can’t change them after a site is being built (at least, not without great effort). Like most things, looking at the color schemes of good designers will help, and the best place to look for color scheme ideas is COLOURlovers.

“I’ll Just Center Everything”
For most, it seems almost natural to center align titles, taglines, and parts of copy. But usually, centered text on a website looks amateurish, while left-aligning is a much safer and usually better looking option. Furthermore, be mathematically exact about your website sections, taking advantage of rulers and gridlines in Photoshop. This doesn’t mean your design should look grid-like, but eyes can and will notice when sections are supposed to line up, but do not (especially with text). Every pixel matters.

“Use the Free Font…It Looks Fine to Me”
There was a time in my life when (a) all serif fonts looked the same and (b) no font was worth paying for. I have since rescinded on both, and continue to learn more about the complex and beautiful world of typography. Honestly, if there was one subject I wish I could master, it would be typography. You can have a great website with only a little color and great type (and such is the basis for any great design anyways). Again, becoming better at typography requires reading and training your eye by looking at good sites. And please never categorize all fonts under either “fun” or “boring.”

“We Can Fit More Information in That Space”
Having worked on both programming and design teams, a common disagreement between the two is “utility of space.” Programmers want to get as much information above the fold as possible. Designers argue that the eye can’t take that much and would rather just have a logo and tagline above the fold. Try finding a happy median between the two, knowing that (a) busy websites can be ineffective, (b) “whitespace” is not just a fallback for lazy designers, and (c) the so-called “empty” portions of a site are necessary to set off the other elements.

“I’m Not Paying for a Picture”
Bad imagery/photography can ruin a reasonable site, while great imagery can make a simple design look really good. And with the resources on the web, there should be no excuse for using poor imagery. For non-commercial sites, check out stock.xchng or Flickr — just make sure that the license behind the photo allows its use. For commercial work, there are multiple microstock websites out there like iStockPhoto (although learn to be creative because after a while, you start seeing the same images on other sites). And lastly, don’t be scared to spend good money for the perfect image at a site like Veer.

“I Don’t Need to Ask for Opinions”
More often than not, you will be your design’s biggest fan (through your rose-colored glasses). So you need to ask designers you know for an honest critique. Unfortunately, most people I know who’ve asked me what I think of their design just wanted approval, not critique. So let your ego go and put on your learning cap. There’s a reason that these people are designers (and get paid for it) while you are not. Then after you get their feedback, respect them, trust them, and implement some changes.

“No Need to Get Too Detailed”
Just like you can have mediocre code that needs improvement (but still “works”), you can have a design that is passable, but far from great. It’s easy to look at great designs and think, “That doesn’t look like much.” But in reality, a great design takes a good deal of time (especially for new designers). But with these great designs, you only get to see the end product, and not the amount of editing and revisions that the designer went through. Furthermore, you’d be surprised how a detail as simple as a stroke line makes a world of difference. Don’t ever consider a design “done” the first time you put the elements together.

All in all, great design (like great code) takes time, patience, and skill — and thus, should be duly respected. Although as a programmer or content writer or other web worker, you may never need to design a website, I have a feeling that at one point or another, you’ll have to anyways. Hopefully, you won’t make the above mistakes…

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Yet one social networking metric is distinctly underwhelming: the one with a dollar sign. Lookery, an ad network specializing in social media, offers display ads on MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo for only 13 cents per thousand times the ad is served (CPM); Yahoo’s average CPM is estimated at $13. Video ads on MySpace reportedly fetch just $25 per thousand showings; CBS charges $50 on affiliated sites, NBC as much as $75.

Social networking was supposed to be the Net’s next rocket to riches. But many social sites are having trouble capitalizing on their audiences, and it’s looking like the convivial atmosphere that promised to boost the value of commercial messages may actually diminish it. Even the big brains at Google are stumped. The search king, which pays a special rate to place ads on MySpace, has suggested that it may be paying too much. “I don’t think we have the killer best way to advertise and monetize the social networks yet,” Sergey Brin admitted during a January conference call with analysts.

Some smaller competitors are doing better. LinkedIn, for example, has a CPM as high as $75. The difference: The site caters to professionals, making it easier to target ads. (It helps that the company also charges for premium features and job listings.)

For sites with broader audiences, the key may be to give advertising a social dimension. Facebook tried to do just that with Beacon and Social Ads. These formats send users an alert or display ad when one of their pals patronizes an advertiser. But Facebook has yet to gauge the effectiveness of these programs because online privacy watchdogs pounced, and the site moved quickly to let members opt out.

Still, the idea that ads can be a social experience is the industry’s best hope. Social Vibe encourages members to choose brands to endorse on their pages. AdRoll shares ads across related niche sites, turning a blogroll into an ad network. But it may take time to work out the business ramifications of online friendship. The first site to meld commercial messaging gracefully into these new group dynamics will have advertisers poking them to be friends.

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When you watch Fight Club, do you think muscles or musicals, testosterone or theater, six packs or stage sets? Fear not, dear reader, because you no longer need to file David Fincher’s 1999 classic solely in each of those former designations.

This is because Fight Club is slated to become a Broadway musical. In a recent interview with MTV.com, Fincher expressed interest in a truly theatrical interpretation of the film, which would hit the Great White Way in 2009, ten years after the film’s original release. There isn’t much else going on with the project, aside from the fact that Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk has agreed to it and Trent Reznor has expressed interest in developing the music. Of course, we’ll keep you posted as things develop.

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2. He’s a FrontPage Expert
Any developer / designer with a degree knows that Microsoft FrontPage most definitely isn’t a professional tool. FrontPage will pass for Mom and Dad who want to create a website dedicated to their dogs, not someone who’s trying to do business. I’d argue that a solid Web Developer should work at code level.

3. He’ll Submit Your Website to [Inflated Number Here] Search Engines
Submitting your website to hundreds of search engines would be great…10 years ago. Websites are indexed by relevant search engines by how rich their content and keywords are. Search engine optimization is big business and submitting sites to search engines simply isn’t the way to get to the top of Google.

4. He Wants a “Designed By ….” Plug on the Bottom of Every Page
You’ve paid this person to create a marketing tool for you - not a billboard for him. Your website is a launch pad for your business and Poindexter McScooner is simply the man behind the curtain - keep him there.

5. He Created a Cool Website for [Insert Family Member / Friend Here]
Your business needs someone who’s been there before. The most common answer to my “Who was he and what business did they work for?” question is “Oh, he did a website for the CEO’s daughter’s [insert lame organization here].” I honestly hear that friend-of-a-friend story all the time. Choose someone with a sizable portfolio that can provide references.

6. He Can Make You a Great Splash Page Flash Animation
Translation: “I can spend dozens of hours wasting your money to create something that will take too long to load and will be skipped more times than dessert at a bad restaurant.” Consistency and website flow are important to web design - not meaningless animations that waste visitors’ time and your money.

7. He Mentions He’s a HTML Expert
Who the hell isn’t? I would argue that dropping any language acronym on a customer (PHP, Ruby on Rails, ColdFusion, etc.) unless they ask is meaningless fluff. A mechanic could use a banana on my car if it would fix it. Keep your tools, especially HTML, to yourself - the customer doesn’t care.

8. He’ll Fit a Cool Counter on Your Site
You’ll add an ugly relic of the early internet on my site so that my competitors have an idea of my web stats? Sweet!
Counters make a website look as unprofessional as possible - don’t use them.

9. He’ll Place a “Best If View in…” Message on Your Website
Any real Web Developer knows that he doesn’t make the rules. Follow standards in the initial build and then fix it in Internet Explorer — that’s the flow. No responsible programmer would place a “best if view in…” message on the front-end of a website.

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