In a perfect world, Just Solitaire would show no ads. I would just be some wealthily guy with no need of money and I could just display the cards across the entire browser window. There would be nothing else on the page except cards and the game buttons.
But I'm a regular person, just like you (I assume). I've got bills to pay, just like you. So the idea is that I've got to see some return from Just Solitaire. Thus, the ads. Plus, there are server costs. That's right, if there were no ads at all on Just Solitaire, it would actually cost me money for you to play the game.
So a few years ago the game almost displayed across the whole screen. There were just some ads on the left. But the company that delivers these ads then changed the rules. They said that there needs to be a gap between ads and games. A 150 pixel gap. So many of you noticed that there then appeared a large gap of nothing between the ads on the left and the game. It made the pages look ugly. It made the cards smaller since there was less space. But I had no choice. If I wanted to keep Just Solitaire up and going, I would need to include that gap.
Then over the last few years the ad revenue fell. The ad on the left wasn't going to pay the bills anymore. So I had to do something. I decided to ad a second ad to the top. That also needs to have a 150 pixel gap. So now there are two ads, still much less than most ad-based sites. And the active area of the game needs to be 150 pixels from both of these ads.
I decided to take action because the page looked so bad now. So I came up with a new design. This design actually has the SAME amount of space for the cards. But it restricts the background to only the active playing area, not the area behind the ads. And I moved the instructions from the bottom left to the gap between the left ad and the game. I moved the buttons from the top to the bottom of the game and made a large inactive area at the top with the logo, game name, score and time. This uses up those 150 pixels instead of just doing nothing with the gap. The buttons need to be at the bottom to be further away from the ads or that gap would have to be even larger.
So the page looks different, but the game area is the same. It just now doesn't look like a "broken" page with those huge 150 pixel gaps.
I know people don't like change. And if you have been playing the game for a long time you may be used to the old look. But to move forward I needed to make these changes. I will probably continue to adjust the layout over time to both improve the experience and also increase revenue so Just Solitaire can stick around for a long time.
Update (1/23/16): I'm trying moving the buttons back to the top. Unfortunately this means an even larger gap between the top of the screen and the first cards. But since so many people seem to want to see the buttons back at the top, I'll give it a try.
