Amid the almost indistinguishable array of copycat pixel websites, including the original, www.milliondollarhomepage.com, comes the first of the next generation of micro-branding sites. Says www.pumpupthedots.com co-founder Simon Wadsworth, "We didnt want to get into the scene if we couldnt add anything to it".

PumpUpTheDots is the first pixel web page to measure and utilize individual buyers ads click-thrus through the size of their respective banners. As a banner, or dot as the internet page calls it, is clicked on more and more, so it expands - pumping up the dots, so to speak. It lets both buyers and surfers see at a glance what the most popular adverts are, highlighting their success further. It adds incentive to surfers to click because the process becomes an interactive one. As a result, our buyers are seeing greater traffic, and hopefully greater turnover, while everyone else has a more enjoyable experience.

Simon has just graduated from Leeds University, reading geography, and like the majority of ex-students today, is left with a huge wad of debt. About to spend some time travelling before settling down to full-measure employment, he has establish the site from Devon, with the help of his friend and colleague for the past 12 many years, John-Paul, who is currently at Kings College London, amassing a similar level of debt, all thanks to our wonderful Labour Government in the UK.

"Its a win-win situation, surfers click on the big ads to see what made them popular and on the smaller ones out of a desire to find something new" says Simon. The interactive element empowers the surfer without complicating the knowledge, leaving the pixel-selling concept pure and suffixing a new layer of curiosity over it.

J-P Treen, co-founder, increases; "Advertisers are looking for an edge, and its becoming obvious that being just another pixel site is no longer enough to guarantee either buyers or surfers. We didnt just want a new selling point, we wanted to refresh the whole concept