As much as I’d like to condemn workplace-surfing, I simply cannot.

Let he who is without sin to cast the first stone. Paraphrased from John 8:7.

Let’s face it. Internet surfing at work will happen, whether it be blogs, checking the news, or other legitimate uses. However, it is rather embarrassing when a co-worker (or supervisor) comes and visits your cubicle unexpectedly and sees something rather disturbing on your monitor.

Here are some tips to keep your blog work safe.

Manage Your Ads Properly

Bloggers need to make money. I understand this. However, what is with the half-naked woman in your ad? It doesn’t matter how work-friendly the content is if that small advertisement is the one that catches the eyes of others.

“What are you looking at Ron? An article about global warming?”

Warn Us About the Videos

Many workplaces have banned YouTube, MySpace, and other video-sharing services. However, if a video contains material that you consider not work safe, please warn us. The last thing a workplace employee wants to happen is to hear suggestive moans coming out of the speakers or inappropriate images that others can potentially glance at.

Warn Us About Links

If you are linking to a site that is not work safe, please warn the readers. The best thing that could happen is the site is flagged as inappropriate by the workplace filters. The worst thing would be the employee’s supervisor is alerted to the employee’s browsing behavior.

Avoid Hosting Images on External Sites

Please avoid hosting images on external photo-sharing sites. An exception perhaps would be Flickr. Sometimes these images show up with security warnings, or don’t show up in Feed Readers at all.

Hold the Music

Imagine this scenario: You are at work with your speakers full blast. You don’t know it. You go to a site and music starts blaring. Depending on the music, it’ll take a while for you to live that one down.

Please make music optional. Do not ever allow music to play automatically no matter how cool or cute it is.

Don’t be Malicious

This should be a given regarding work content, but some bloggers forget that people do still browse at work. Avoid trying to set unnecessary cookies, using “questionable” JavaScript techniques, and trying to download files to a user’s computer.

Avoid the Pop-Up Ads

You would think with pop-up blockers that pop-up ads wouldn’t be that big of a deal, right? Unfortunately, a lot of pop-up blocking software is disabled since a lot of Intranet and other web applications need pop-ups to function. IT would rather have the headache of pop-up ads rather than people calling them constantly regarding inoperable web applications.

Please avoid pop-up ads like the plague, especially if they contain questionable content.

No Suggestive or Inappropriate Avatars, Please

This tip was suggested by Inspiration Bit.
With MyBlogLog getting so popular and blogs that display gravatars of their commenters, I can imagine that everyone tries to be “different” and catch people’s attention to their gravatar. However I’d rather see someone’s face than a bellybutton and bikini.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading my tips regarding creating a work safe blog. If you have your own tips to share, please do so in the comments.

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