Alexa thumbnails not working

Today I visited a loot of directories and Alexa thumbnails are not working did they changed for the paid service already?
I don’t have a problem in my own sites because I use local cache of thumbnails

 

yeah not working here
its been on and off for over a month
and the update thumbnail doesnt work last time i checked

alexa is switching to paid service?

 

thumbs dont seem to be working on alexas site also..

 

Guys, I've given mention that Amazon *bought* the alexa Thumbs services back on July 27th 2006, and that they are switching to a 'paid' model.

I of course being the good guy that I am (hehe) notified several of my clients immediately(because the switch could be turned OFF at anytime)
So several of them decided to go with the model they have set up.

I am not very fond of the whole way things are currently working though.
They only offer two sizes. 201x147 and 82x111 e.g. Large & Small (it's called in code that way)

So basically the charges are .002 per viewed thumbnail. (granted, if no thumbnail exists, you will not be charged, but it will alert them and they will then automatically update the website's thumbnail)

Anywho, it amounts to only .20cents per 1,000 thumbnail views.

Now that I think about it, I shouldn't have typed all that hahaha I should have just linked you guys.

Sorry for making you read my babble http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=236156011

 

20 cents for every 1,000 thumbnails returned... meaning that everytime someone loads a thumnail on your website from alexa you're charged? ugh that could add up quickly!!!

Time to start using thumbshots.com

 

While I can't confirm it 100% ... I know they are going to eventually distrupt the free service we used to once have to make some extra money money money!

 

Too late, already switched over to thumbshots!

 

Is there any other thumbshots.com alternative.

 

yes.

you can use MSN's thumbnails

This is for phpLD code. (all others just need to modify it to use their LINK system)

<img src="http://msnsearch.srv.girafa.com/srv/i?s=MSNSEARCH&amp;r={$link.URL|escape|trim}" align="middle" border="1" width="101" height="74" alt="{$link.TITLE}" />

Code (markup):

Hope this helps everyone.

edit:

I edited the string to be 100% transitional and w3c compliant.
(yea, i'm a freak like that)

 

I won't miss Alexa's thumbnails. I had already removed them from my sites due to those days when they wouldn't load or would load sloooowww. Although, I did have them on my details pages. Might put up the MSN thumbnails for that. Thanks for that code, Rob.

 

I'm curious to know if that is a service offered by MSN or is it really a Girafa service? I visited the Girafa site and they mention MSN as one of their customers.

 

Don't know. it's just a temporary solution for all those directories out there that are using thumb services from Alexa.

I *am* working on something though. I just haven't had the time to get back to it. toooooo much work lately.

Rob

 

i thought Girafa thumbnail service is a paid service.

 

Girafa is a paid service. That's why I was asking if this is a MSN service or Girafa. To me it seems like a Girafa service and MSN is paying for it.

 

I often wondered how so many directories could offer thumbshots, considering the bandwidth it must use, which someone has to pay for eventually. I suppose the free lunch will soon be over.

 

thanks for the code. it works, but looks like they don't have thumbnails for many sites out there.

 

this is actually useful for visitors. they can skip spammy looking sites without having to click them. i hope google search will soon provide such service...

 

Good point, although I've never looked at a thumbnail closely enough to determine whether or not a site is spammy. You can certainly tell at a glance which sites were designed by colourblind newbies.

 

yea now there is no update to thumbnail,and i don't think alexa was afraid of bandwidth it uses,

 

Down for me too.