TheInvisibleAd.com - Million Dollar Homepage Meets AJAX

(PRWEB) November 27, 2005

Here comes the latest in the “pixel advertising” http://www.TheInvisibleAd.com. Unlike most advertising spaces, the site has a pale, unobtrusive look and yet very catchy Web2.0. feel, employing the set of web technologies, known as AJAX (the same that powers the successful “web apps from the future” – Google Maps and Gmail) to deliver much more value than a regular pixel ad.

What’s pixel advertising?

It all started just a few months ago when the 21-year-old student Alex Tew had this crazy idea to create a web page consisting of one million pixels and sell the pixels $ 1 dollar each on batches of 10 x 10. The idea was crazy, so crazy that in fact it succeeded. Today Alex has sold more than 600K of his little dots and continues to receive new orders. The idea is so simple that everyone slapped their forehead “Why I haven’t I thought of that before?”. Now hundreds of copycats are trying to repeat the success of the original…

Pixel advertising just can’t be

“Pixels are so small. And who wants to go to a page to look at ads anyway? This whole thing is a fad.” True? Maybe, but yet it works, works here and now. A quick visit to http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com can prove it. Some experts say that pixel advertising has a future; some disagree. But one thing is for sure it has present.

Why TheInvisibleAd.com?

http://www.TheInvisibleAd.com aims at resolving the issues around the pixel ads. What are the issues with the pixels? Well, too little space to convey any meaningful message; too much happening on not enough real estate; scrolling pages; blinding the visitor with too many colors. So technology comes to the rescue. TheInvisibleAd.com admits that the space of 10×10 pixels is nothing (calls it “invisible”) and uses it only as a hook. When visitors rest their mouse on a pixel, then the actual full-featured ad appears with all the flash and glory, providing much more space for the advertisers to communicate their messages. The ads are all HTML capable and can be used to deliver virtually anything that can be displayed in a browser.

Who’s behind the project?

Stoyan Stefanov, a web developer from Montreal, Canada. A ZCE PHP engineer, book author, blogger (http://www.phpied.com) and contributor to the web development community with articles on hot topics and interesting code pieces. Father of two adorable daughters and, last but not least, a hasbeen/wannabe guitar player.

Was this project done for profit?

Stoyan explains on his blog: ” I wasn’t motivated by the money. I saw the M$ HP idea, thought of its improvements, spend some time coding, enriched my JavaScript knowledge and I liked the end result. Well, if someone wants to stream their advertising dollars in my direction, I won’t be the one to let them down . But that was not the main point. The main point was using a new and hyped web dev approach to enhance a new and hyped advertising idea”

Will the invisible ad succeed?

Who knows? The web is a crazy (as in beautiful) place.

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TheInvisibleAd.com - Million Dollar Homepage Meets AJAX