Goodbye Google Analytics, and hello AdCenter

As of today I am finally done with Google Analytics and am instead starting to use Microsoft AdCenter Analytics Beta to track my blog traffic.

Even though I just started using adCenter Analytics I am already liking it. AdCenter seems like a complete package and the design of the sign-up process is very clean and simple.

As always I want to say thank you to Google Analytics team for providing me a great service that worked without issue. I really have nothing against the product but simply eat my own dogfood. For my purposes both products are way more advanced then I need them to be anyway, but I am glad that we as consumers have choices and the competition will be healthy for both sides.

I will probably post more details about AdCenter later as I start using it more often and experience the full breath of reports available.

Want AdCenter for your site?

Currently the Beta is invite for non-Microsoft employees and additional people are allowed in as capacity becomes available. I highly recommend everyone interested though sign-up on the site to get into the queue: http://advertising.microsoft.com/advertising/adcenter-analytics

Dmitry 2.0... now on Twitter

One of the things I have been avoiding for a long time is Twitter. Who needs another social communication tool I thought? Well I guess I do.

To be honest I have had the account for a while now but starting today I am going to start actively using it. Here is my profile: http://www.twitter.com/LyalinDotCom

Friends and colleagues, are you on Twitter?

At this point I am not even sure who that I know is on Twitter, but it seems many people whom I ask are. If I know you and your on twitter shoot me an email and let me know your profile name to link up.

Blog Feature: Dmitry's Live Video (Qik.com)

As a big experiment I have added a live video feed into this blog on the right-hand side (see box titled: Dmitry's Live Video (Qik.com))

This feed will be the latest stream/recording from my Motorola Q phone over 3G using Qik's alpha streaming software for Windows Mobile 6.x.

So what can you expect to see? Who knows, I really have no clue on what I plan to do with this nor how good anything will look or sound, but please feel free to help me test it and provide feedback.

Changes to my blog

Today I finally found a few free minutes to makes some changes to this blog, here is a quick summary of them:

New Layout

I decided to switch the layout to a different theme. I don’t have a practical reason for this change but I just wanted a change. I look forward to feedback on how you like this alternative design.

New Slogan

Ever since joining Microsoft I have really been irritated by this notion of “Microsoft being evil”. Its really an amazing place to work with caring, dedicated, and moral people. Its time I took a stand on this and tonight changing my blog slogan to reflect this seemed like a good start.

Search Now Powered by Live.com

For a long time my blog search has been powered by Google, but finally I have made the switch to Live.com search. I have nothing against Google Search but I am going to eat my own dogfood, and I must say the Live.com site search is working very well.

Last 10 Posts

My blog was configured to display a large number of posts and I think this really hurt the page load time, especially for anyone with a slightly slower connection.

To help the situation I have configured the blog to display the last 10 posts only. I think that is more then enough as most people find the blog through search anyway.

Your Feedback

As always I look forward on hearing your feedback on any changes. I write this blog for you my friends, so keep the comments coming.

Dmitry @ Microsoft

Well friends its official, starting today I am on the payroll of Microsoft Corporation. I will be working with consulting services to provide support for NYC based customers with some expected travel.

This is something I always wanted and am proud to join a company I believe in. In my opinion Microsoft has the best development platform on the market and its suite of supporting frameworks is extremely impressive (and growing). Anything I can do to help spread and make this technology work for our clients will be my pleasure.

The sense that I get by talking to existing staff is that this position will challenge me and at the same time provide a powerful learning experience. I believe I am up for the challenge and definitely have the enthusiasm to face it.

Automatic Properties Screencast on BetterKnowaFramework.com

For the last few months I have been working on another Website called Better Know a Framework. This site will be hosting various Screencasts created by me and others I am collaborating with. The idea is to provide short 5 to 15 minute long presentations on various .NET related topics.

Today is a big occasion for this Website as we just published our first Screencast on Automatic Properties in C# 3.0, featuring Jon Skeet as the host.

I look forward to your feedback as we learn how to create the best possible Screencasts in both content and recording quality. Our first one is not perfect, but its a big step forward.

Special thanks to everyone who provided me with feedback and advice as I was working towards our first recording, you know who you are!

View it: Automatic Properties in C# 3.0

(Also visit Jon's blog at: Jon Skeet: Coding Blog)