It looks like logging in to textamerica last night to edit an entry updated my template to include google ads. It also changed the template to one of the new default ones. I guess I’m complaining about a free service which rocks, but I am a little annoyed at the sudden appearance of google ads on my moblog. I’ve always had the few required linkbacks in my template, and recently each entry in my RSS feed adds some links to textamerica.
I went poking around the footer template, and the div containing the Google ads is required. I can’t remove them or alter them or else I am A Bad Man (and probably violating ToS).
It is understandable that textamerica needs some way to fund their site whcih has gone from a few hundred users to probably thousands and thousands in the past few months. It has always been a free service, and I’ve never quite been sure how they’ve been paying for it. They sell ringtones, but it obviously is not making them enough money.
My suggestion to textamerica: offer a for-pay ad-free account option. Maybe a couple of bucks a month ($2.95-$4.95) would cover it. I would definitely consider the option. Right now I’ve got a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, so I’m thinking about moving on to self-hosted moblogging. Textamerica has definitely got a lot going for it: When I first signed up with them, I went from zero to moblog in just a few minutes.