Attack of the Splogs

I have noticed a big increase in the number of splogs linking to me lately.

Technorati has done a good job off weeding out splogs, but like roaches there are so many of them, it’s impossible to keep them all out.

What really irritates me is that one group of splogs creates long links that mess up the formatting of this page. If you wonder why the right column is much wider than it should be, take a look at the splog links that show up in the recent inbound links. I don’t know of a way to remove those links from my Technorati search feed, so all I can do is wait for them to rotate off.

The problem is that many of my posts get picked up by these splogs, and as soon as one rotates off, another one appears. I want to show my appreciation to people who link here by having that list, but if I can’t solve this formatting problem, I may have to remove the list.

We’ll all suffer because of the idiocy of a few.

Very frustrating.

More on Starting Over

Earl Moore and OmegaMom have some good thoughts in response to my Lessons Learned on Blogger’s Hill post.

Taking a Stand

Mike Arrington does a good and just thing.

I’ve said before that blogs are like cars- they bring out the inner asshole in some folks. It’s nice to see an A-List blogger like Mike roll down the window and confront the finger waiver in a public forum.

Nick Carr posts his side of the story on his blog.

I have said this about Nick Carr recently on this blog:

“And then there are the pseudo-intellectuals like Andrew Keen (who is the blogosphere’s version of the party guest who can’t stop talking about how smart he is long enough to notice the PhD’s shaking their heads as they walk away). Or the Nick Carr types whose many thoughtful posts get lost in the flood of Mary, Mary posts made in the name of fame or traffic.”

And the other day I agreed with Nick’s Dell post and added my own thoughts.

So while I disagree with some of Nick’s tactics, I also appreciate much of his writing.

In sum, I think Nick is a smart and often thoughtful guy. But he’s no smarter than a lot of other bloggers who don’t have to put on the Andrew Keen act.

So here’s my advice to Nick. When you come to the crossroads of being like Andrew and being like Mike- be like Mike.

Of course Nick will never see this post because I suspect he feels I am not intellectually worthy of his time. It’s easy to act that way from the safety of a car…I mean a keyboard.

Dwight is Right

Dwight Silverman has come around to my way of thinking about Battlestar Galactica.

I just saw an extended preview of the forthcoming season while watching the first episode of Eureka, and it gave me chills. I watched the preview 3 times in a row.

Here it is for your viewing pleasure. Here’s the link for the RSS feed.

The Sci-Fi Channel has announced a spin-off prequel, which I am looking forward to.

If you haven’t seen Battlestar Galactica, you are lucky, because you have a treat in store.

Lessons Learned on Blogger’s Hill

hardclimb I’ve been enjoying Darren Rowse’s series about what people would do differently if they were starting their blog now. It’s a brilliant series for so many reasons- Darren’s blog is well named and one of my long-time reads.

Here’s some stuff I’d do differently. Some serious, some in fun. Hopefully you’ll be able to tell which is which.

1) I’d do a lot more reading blogs before I started writing one. I read a few blogs before I started blogging, but I didn’t really understand the process. I thought blogging was just an easier way to manage content on a personal home page. It’s a lot more than that. If I had known what I was doing when I started, I think I would have been accepted by the old school bloggers a lot sooner.

2) I’d start traveling up the hill with other bloggers sooner. Starting a blog is still really hard. It’s so much easier when you’re doing it with some other folks. Once I starting blogging around with Mathew Ingram, Scott Karp, Phil Sim, Richard Querin and others, it got a lot easier and a lot more fun. If you know that 5-6 other bloggers are reading and linking to your blog from the get-go, you will be way ahead in the conversation building game.

3) I’d start out using WordPress instead of Blogger, since there is no sane and easy way to move from one to the other.

4) I might be anonymous (in a Thomas Hawk sort of way). I could tell some funny stories if everybody didn’t know who I am. And as hard as it may be to believe, I am even more opinionated than I seem. Being public, somewhat high-profile within your industry and employed in a non-tech profession really limits your ability to say certain things. I’m not sure I’d do it, but I might.

5) I’d have blown my vacation money on a few conferences so the people who currently link around my detailed analysis in favor of 10 word posts by their buddies would think I was one of their buddies and ignore other detailed analysis in favor of my 10 word posts.

6) I’d get over my hang-ups about emailing other bloggers about a relevant post of mine. Like newspapers and magazines, popular blogs are always looking for content. I love it when someone emails me about a post of theirs, an application to review or a potential topic for me to write on- it’s like they’re doing some of my work for me. I used to think emailing was an imposition and a unfair shortcut. That’s not true at all.

7) I’d start out assuming a position of authority instead of typing my fingers off and waiting for people to realize that I am an authority.

8) I’d become a cheerleader for Web 2.0 instead of a skeptic. I used to get a lot more free stuff than I do now.

Bad Experience With Omakase

I noticed Dave Taylor’s post the other day about Amazon’s Omakase Links Program.

Being a long time, but highly uninvolved, Amazon associate, I decided to check it out. I searched all over the place for my Amazon associates log-in information, and once I found it thanks to the wonder of X1, I logged in and went to work.

It took me about 5 minutes to add all the details and configure my Omakase links into a professional looking box that fit nicely in one of the outer columns of this page. I added the code to my blog template and, presto, there it was. I noticed no lag in page loading, and the featured items seemed to change nicely each time the page reloaded.

Then I noticed something strange. Almost all of the featured items were sex-related. There was a playboy video and a bunch of what looked and sounded like soft-core porn fiction. I clicked on a few of the links to make sure they led to Amazon, and they did.

This was the case even though when you configure your Amazon links for the first time, you have to agree not to post anything improper on the page where the links display.

Now I am no prude (far from it, actually), but I have never ordered anything even remotely similar to those items from Amazon and I have never once posted anything on this blog that might confuse some algorithm into thinking that those items are consistent with my readership.

In the interest of fairness, at least one blogger is satisfied with Omakase. Of course she gets the random welding books, while I get the ones with scantily clad women on the cover (which might be fun to read, but not to display on your blog).

After reloading the page a few times to confirm that those items were in permanent and frequent rotation in the featured items, I removed the Omakase code from the page.

Omakase is a neat idea in theory, but Amazon needs to figure out what is and what isn’t appropriate to display on a family-oriented, tech and music blog.

So long Omakase. I hardly knew you.

Google Talk On the Outside Looking In

The latest IM numbers are out and, as I mentioned the other day, the numbers for Google Talk are bad- in fact they are worse than I thought.

Almost a year after its release amid a buzzing blogosphere, Google Talk has captured a mere 1% of the IM market share. But for constant CPR at the hands of cousin Gmail, one of Google’s few successful non-search applications, Google Talk would have almost certainly faded into complete oblivion.

Mike Arrington asked the first question that popped into my head when he wondered where Skype IM falls on the list. According to Business Week, Google Talk is the 10th most (un)popular IM application, so there are at least 6 other applications ahead of it.

The problem, as I pointed out almost a year ago, is that historically the IM clients don’t talk to each other, so people have to go where the numbers are- and they aren’t at Google Talk. As the walls come down and more of these clients are allowed to communicate with each other, features will matter more and Google Talk will be in last place for a different reason- because it likely won’t be invited to the party in time to make a difference.

The Microsoft/Yahoo deal to allow their IM clients to communicate with each other was designed to knock former leader AOL down a few more notches and to nip Google Talk’s growth in the bud.

For all these reasons, Google Talk is on the outside looking in.

Web 2.0 Wars: Championship

trophy After 5 months, 200 applications reviewed, 20 winner take all rounds, and 4 rounds of playoffs, we are down to the Final Four. It’s time to crown our champion.

Here are the Final Four matchups:

Technorati vs Myspace

YouTube vs Techmeme (f/k/a Tech Memeorandum).

Semi-Final 1: Technorati vs Myspace

As I talked about the other day, the way to ensure a long and hopefully profitable Web 2.0 life is to become part of the interconnectivity infrastructure. Technorati is slowly but surely doing that, by becoming the de facto standard for link tracking and blog mindshare measurement. Google will always have a share of the blog search market, but Technorati seems to be lapping Google as far as adding other features. Toss in a great and proactive CEO and some VC money and the sky might be the limit for Technorati.

But there’s still that one problem. Technorati has nothing to sell. It’s free, which puts it on the back of the almighty ad dollar along with the most of its Web 2.0 brethren.

Still, most of the top bloggers use Technorati daily, and that’s a good position to be in.

I am no fan of Myspace personally, but almost everyone I know under 25 has a Myspace page and uses it as an online hub for cross-connectivity. It is definitely an important part of the infrastructure.

My concern is that Myspace is not doing enough (words don’t count) to prevent itself from becoming a buffet for stalkers and worse. But I can’t argue with numbers, and Myspace dominates the social networking space. Like Technorati, it has nothing to sell, but its huge traffic numbers will give it more revenue options than any other ad-supported Web 2.0 web site.

People who don’t blog use Myspace every day. Its penetration into the non-geek population makes it hard to argue against its continued dominance.

As an aside, I wonder if it pisses Yahoo off that Myspace has taken over the internet with what is, in large part, merely an updated version of Geocities- something that Yahoo had a decade ago?

Conclusion: Myspace wins convincingly.

Semi-Final 2: YouTube vs Techmeme

I have become more and more of a believer in YouTube over the last few months. It too is a crucial part of the interconnectivity infrastructure- having become the central depository of online video.

I link to YouTube videos all the time, as do many, many other bloggers. That fact in and of itself is impressive, but there’s more. We have only scratched the surface as far as the archival possibilities go- from old cartoons, to old music videos. As long as the content owners don’t get stupid, YouTube may become what Google wanted to become- the archive of everything.

Like everybody else in the Web 2.0 space, YouTube has nothing to sell. But its dominant mindshare and its reliable technology make it a juggernaut in the new cyberspace.

Techmeme (formerly known as Tech Memeorandum) is the first web site I visit every morning when reading my news. I use it several times a day. To say that it is indispensable to my internet experience would not be an overstatement.

It closely follows one of my primary rules of business: to be excellent at one thing is far better than to be mediocre at many things. But as far as the larger world goes, Techmeme’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness- it is part of the interconnectivity infrastructure for those of us who read and write on tech topics, but it is largely unknown to the rest of the world.

So while it is, by leaps and bounds, the most useful and beloved of all of these applications to me, its penetration into the larger population is far less than the Myspaces and YouTubes of the world.

Conclusion: YouTube wins convincingly.

Championship: Myspace vs YouTube

This is truly a battle of the titans. Myspace has the numbers edge at the moment, but I think YouTube will show more staying power in the long run.

As soon as the parents of the world (and the legislators they vote for) come to understand the risk their kids are taking by putting their lives online, Myspace will come under increasing pressure to become safer. Will that result in a kid-migration to some new, offshore networking service that we haven’t heard of yet? I don’t know, but it might.

More likely, Myspace will become the new AOL, where newbys learn how to interconnect and quasi-blog. As they become better at it, they will move to more robust blogging platforms. Myspace has a good, long ride ahead of it, but I don’t believe it is the final destination for all the eyeballs that currently reside there.

YouTube, on the other hand, allows videos to be served anywhere. If you move from one platform to another, you can take your YouTube content with you. Look for YouTube to cater to the fast growing blog market by developing more and more tools to enable video blogging and other content interfaces.

The Champion of the Newsome.Org Web 2.0 Wars is…

YouTube, in a nail biter.

Dell's Dilemma

I can’t argue too much with Nick Carr’s take on Dell’s problems. I think Nick is correct that the support side of the business is dragging Dell, and its profits, down.

But I think there’s even more to it. Part of it isn’t Dell’s fault and part of it is.

The part that isn’t Dell’s fault is the fact that Intel and Microsoft aren’t doing their part to get new technology out the door that will spur lots of users into computer buying action.

The part that is Dell’s fault is the fact that Dell has become one of the giant companies it was created to slay and its regrettable decision to try to go cheap and off-shore where support is concerned. Most of the people who buy Dells are not computer geeks- at most they have read in the trades that Dells have traditionally been reliable and well-supported. These people have trusted the Dell brand, not so much for the cutting edge technology as for the reputation for reliability and good support. For Dell to take the cheap route where support is concerned is, to put it mildly, not taking care of the goose.

Adding to the problem is that Dell’s notebook line is faltering at a time when more and more businesses are moving to laptops. My firm just replaced our Dell desktops with HP laptops. From what I hear and read, I suspect some other large companies have done so as well.

Back in the day, buying a Dell and not a Compaq or an IBM was a little bit of a rebel move- and Lord knows the establishment-hating computerites of the world are always willing to take a shot at the man. Unfortunately for Dell, it has moved from the right side of the table to the wrong side. Now, along with Microsoft and Intel, Dell is the man. Its former place is now occupied by a new generation of small shops, who take their own shots at the man by building generic (but, generally speaking, quality) machines with AMD chips and Linux operating systems.

Making matters worse is that all of this is happening at the same time the desktop computer market matures, making computers less about tech and more about commodity.

Given that, Dell has to figure out how to make the transition from tech company to commodity company. In 2006, Dell has more in common with Ford or GM than it does with a tech company.

Making money in commodities is almost entirely a contracts and cost business. I think that explains, but does not excuse, the failed attempt to cut support costs.

It’s going to be a tough ride for Dell, but Dell is not without some advantages.

The advantages in the direct sale approach are still there. It costs money to operate and maintain retail distribution channels. Plus, Dell is expanding its services into storage and IT services. Its experience in building quality equipment cheaply will serve it well in those areas too. And there is still growth to be had overseas.

I still recommend Dells to my friends who ask. But I have to admit that, other than one trusty Latitude I keep around for guests, none of my current computers are Dells.

DISCLAIMER: I am a long-time Dell shareholder.

Blogging Terror

Melly over at All Kinds of Writing is visiting her parents in northern Israel. While there, she has been blogging about the sirens, rocket attacks and the general state of terror that exists there.

She is a great writer and her blog is a must read for those who want to get behind the headlines and see how people’s daily lives are affected by war.

Thanks to Mike Miller for telling me about Melly’s blog.