One of the most frustrating issues using the Google toolbar spell checker in Explorer (yes, I know, I should use FireFox and I do, but I also use Explorer from time to time to make sure my websites are coming up correctly in that browser) is that if you are spell checking quickly, the checker will add a highlighted misspelled word to your OK list. If you’re like me and your spelling sucks (and you often misspell the same words when tying quickly), adding the misspelled words to the OK list is quite problematic.

Unfortunately, there is no way to edit the list from the Google toolbar itself and every time I need to deleted the words accidentally added, I have a terrible time finding how to do it. So, for everyone who has the same problem, and especially for me so I can find out how to do it quickly the next time, here is how you edit your spellcheck list:

(There currently isn’t) a way to edit your SpellCheck dictionary from the Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer. However, you can edit entries with a text editor. To do this, click the “Start” button on your Windows taskbar, select “Run” and then enter the following into the text box:

notepad “%HOMEPATH%\Application Data\Google\User Dictionary.txt”

If you’ve added words to your SpellCheck dictionary, a text file showing the words you’ve added will open. You can then edit, remove or add any words in this file. Once you’ve made the changes, please save the file.

Now maybe next time I won’t have to waste 30 minutes trying to remember how to do this…

I just received an email from Google informing me that I have been invited to participate in their new video sponsorship pilot ads:

Thank you for your continued participation in the Google AdSense program.

We are always working to improve AdSense and seeking out opportunities for publishers to help us test and provide feedback on new offerings. Soon, we’ll be launching an AdSense video distribution and sponsorship pilot and would like to invite you to participate. This is an exciting opportunity for you to test out new forms of high-quality, engaging, and relevant video content on your site and help us to shape this new offering while it’s still in the early stages. Additionally, the video content is ad-supported which provides a new incremental revenue opportunity for you.

In the coming days, we’ll be enabling your AdSense accounts with the option to select video content and display them on your AdSense sites. We’ve assembled premium video content providers including The Wall Street Journal Online, CondeNet’s Epicurious and Style.com, and LX.TV to create a compelling mix of editorial, fashion, travel, wine, and culinary-themed video channels. We feel that these video channels will complement your content and cater to your audience, which is why we have invited you to participate.

How it works:

A content provider, for example Warner Music Group, defines multiple video channels such as “Rock Videos,” or videos featuring the “Divas of Pop Music.” A publisher can select one of these video channels and embed it on their AdSense site. Visitors to the site can then browse and watch ad-supported video playlists within that video channel. In addition, Warner Music Group can update the channel with new video content to provide websites with a steady stream of content that will engage and excite visitors over the course of the pilot.

A few important notes:

• The pilot will run for 4 weeks over which time content providers will be creating new playlists with fresh, diverse, and relevant content for your site’s audience. The content within a video playlist will be updated regularly, ensuring freshness of content and improved response from your users.
• The video playlists are sized at 300 x 250 and are user-initiated. Nothing will play until a user interacts with the video and users will be able to skip over any video content and ads within a playlist.
• You may display a video playlist in addition to the maximum 3 ad units per page. We recommend creating new content space for the video playlist rather than making any changes to your current AdSense ad implementation.
• Content providers may choose to refresh or remove available video content at any time and for any reason. In the event video content is not available, the video player space on your pages will display standard text ads which you will be paid for as normal. You are also free to remove the video player from your pages at any time during this pilot.

In order to participate, no action is required on your part at this time. We’ll send you a note in the coming week once we have enabled your account to select video content, along with instructions on how to get started. In the meantime, we recommend looking through your site and think about where it makes sense to insert the video player and what your users will be most responsive to…

This is the first time we have been invited to participate in an adsense pilot program so it should be fun to see how the entire process works and hopefully it will be an area where we can generate some profit.

This is something that is typically Japanese. I came across this magazine at a Japanese bookstore the other day. Basically, it is a magazine that teaches you how to use Google in ways that aren’t necessarily accepted as proper or with the best intentions…kind of like illicit Google. Across the top is “how to meet young girls” and though all the references don’t state it outright that this magazine teaches you how to do bad things on Google, all the feature stories reference it subtlety and anyone looking at it would get the hint - not exactly what Google had in mind with their “do no evil” policy:

Notice how it is tied up - this is often done in Japan to keep people from reading the inside of popular magazines in the store and to force customers to buy them