The two most recent tweaks were both inspired by Google. Both are risky, and risky changes sometimes break things. Please let me know about bugs I’ve missed.
New Author Page URLs
XWord Info is about NYT crosswords, of course, but more importantly, it’s about the people who make them. Each constructor has an “Author Page” with thumbnails of all their puzzles that link to full views and, if I have them, photos and biographies.
Search sites like Google think pages with unique URLs, not just ones with different query strings (the part of the URL after the question mark), are more important. More worthy of indexing.
Old URLs looked like this:
www.xwordinfo.com/Thumbs?author=Christina+Iverson
And new ones look like this:
www.xwordinfo.com/Author/Christina_Iverson
The old URLs still work, but the new ones are now preferred and may now show up more prominently when you search for a constructor.
New ad provider
Google got rich by helping the so-called “long tail” of websites, the lower traffic ones like mine, make money by showing ads. Recently, Google has been serving some yucky ones, and I’ve decided to start moving some of the ads to a new provider.
Yes, everyone hates ads, but on sites like mine, they can make the difference between losing money and covering costs. Clicking an ad on a website you like is a way to support it at no cost to you.
As I experiment with the new system, there might be some awkward display bugs. I’ll find the balance that helps me and doesn’t annoy you too much.
There are, of course, ways to avoid even seeing ads on websites. I don’t check for an ad blocker and force you to turn it off, but I hope you don’t block.
Actually, if you want to support XWord Info and completely avoid ads, sign up at the Angel level. Angels never see ads, their pages load faster, and as a bonus, that level comes with my sincere gratitude.