In every single case, ads went from 0-10% of the space to usually around 40-60%. In most cases, the best above-the-fold space was re-purposed for ads.
Hah, that's exactly what I noticed and came back to comment on. I don't think it's specific just to successful blogs though -- it's amazing how different online advertising has become even in the last 3 years.
"Initially it was a zine started in 1988 by Mark Frauenfelder and Carla Sinclair, then in 1995 it became a website, and in 2000 it became a blog."
heh I wonder if the site ever changed or just the buzzwords
Wow, TechCrunch used to look good.
Precisely my first thought on glancing over this article. What happened w/ the redesign?
Same with Gizmodo and Engadget. So much cleaner.
EDIT: And Huffington Post and SmashingMag to some degree.