I uploaded the latest edition of our RanchoCast podcast yesterday.
No theme , just some good alternative country and Americana songs by Ray Wylie Hubbard, Gary P. Nunn, Jonathan Edwards and others.
Cassidy was at a friend’s house so I was once again solo in the studio.
This is part sixteen of my A-Z review of Scoble‘s feeds. The rules and criteria are here.
Lots of good P’s, and here are the best ones:
Portals and KM (RSS Feed)
ProgrammableWeb (RSS Feed)
Portals and KM is a broadly focused blog on topics ranging from portals to blogs to good restaurants.
ProgrammableWeb is a web-as-platform reference site and blog delivering news, information and resources for developing applications using the Web 2.0 APIs. The description sounds really boring, but the blog is very interesting.
Honorable Mention:
Performancing (RSS Feed) (ineligible because I already read it)
PVR Blog (RSS Feed) (ineligible for the same reason)
Paul’s Down-Home Page (RSS Feed) (would be the winner if there were more recent posts)
Podcasting News (RSS Feed)
It seems that Microsoft’s AntiSpyware program is identifying Norton Antivirus as spyware and disabling it. Everybody is all up in arms saying that this is a terrible bug that must be immediately fixed.
Are we certain it’s not a feature? For all the reasons I mentioned the other day, Norton Antivirus has crossed the line from important safeguard to some combination of bloatware and adware. Much of my hatorade for Norton Antivirus is a result of the inclusion of the Norton Protection Center in the new version, but Norton Antivirus has long been known for creating conflicts with other programs and causing shutdown problems in Windows.
Plus, a lot of the current Norton stuff seems more interested in selling you new products than protecting you from harm.
Obviously, I am (mostly) kidding when I describe this as a feature. But of all the programs on all the computers in all the world, none has less standing to complain about conflicts caused by another program than Norton Antivirus.
Norton Antivirus complaining of a conflict creating program? As my daughters would say “I know you are, but what am I?”
Mike Arrington previews 3Bubbles, an Ajax based application that will let bloggers add chatrooms to each of their posts.
While I’m impressed with the technology, I tend to agree with Kai Turner, who had this to say in a comment:
I wonder how many sites (aside from your top 100 blogs) can sustain a chatroom for a single post, let alone an entire site?
The answer is exactly none of them. In fact, other than Mike’s site and maybe Boing Boing, I’m not sure how many of the top 100 blogs could sustain one. I can tell you from experience with ACCBoards.Com and other very popular sites I have developed that it takes a boatload of traffic to sustain a chat room. More than a truckload. And all that traffic has to arrive at roughly the same time.
Kai correctly points out that to have traction in a chat room you have to schedule chats. And there are other services that do that now. Why do we need a chat room for every post (sing that to the tune of a Beach Boys song).
The other problem with a chat room for every post (again, sing it like a Beach Boy) is that it will almost certainly reduce the number of comments and other forms of interaction at the blog. Plus, unless there’s some sort of logging feature, chat content isn’t archived the way comments are. And even if it is the noise to content ratio in a chat room is about the same as my links to Mike are to Mike’s link to me (much of the former; little of the latter).
Mike mentions in a responsive comment that it would be cool to have him and some of the developers hang out backstage in a chat room after a big TechCrunch review and answer questions from the unwashed masses. Actually, I agree that it would be nice to have a chat like that, but unless we’re going to hang out by the backstage door those chats would need to be scheduled. Plus some smart company will have to invent cyber-autographs we can get once we get inside.
Again, I think this is neat technology. But sometimes people confuse a blue ribbon science project with a business. And like all the stuff I ranted about the other day, the cash in this deal is based largely on advertising.
Blue ribbon, yes. Business, no.
I don’t know much about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), other than what I read at Wikipedia. But I was thinking about it some earlier today when visiting Ziggs in connection with my current Web 2.0 Wars series (I have written through Round 9, but only published through Round 4).
Mostly I know that I get spam pretty regularly from companies who tell me that for money they can move my page to the top of the search engine rankings. I always wonder for what keyword(s)? Could I pay some money and be the top site for break dancing? What about mockingbirds, or maybe break dancing mockingbirds? If so, should I or is using SEO sort of like those jackasses who go to the front of the line at lane merges- an unfair shortcut that clogs progess for the rest of us?
Honestly, I don’t know. Maybe someone can educate me on this. Without thinking much about it, I have generally felt that it was an unfair shortcut, but maybe I’m missing the boat on this. I have also felt that SEO may be yet another situation where the prospect of a dollar gets in the way of fairness and good sense.
Anyway, a while ago, I came across this post from Matt Cutts, who seems to be someone of importance at Google. It’s hard to tell since his blog has nothing even remotely resembling an “About” link. But I digress. Matt is confirming that Google has put some outfit called Traffic Power in the penalty box by removing it and certain domains promoted by it from Google’s index. Matt says some of its SEO techniques violated Google’s guidelines.
Again, I know virtually nothing about this entire business, but it seems to me that there is great potential for abuse when it comes to selling higher search engine rankings. It also seems to me that if the goal is to be at the top of the search engine rankings, you’re approaching the issue backwards. It should be important that the search engines find the most relevant information, not the other way around.
I can understand how improved design, css and meta descriptions could result in a better search engine ranking, but isn’t that really about web design as opposed to the “better credit in 30 days” vibe that I get when I read about SEO?
Someone please explain to me what legitimate SEO is and why it’s not an unfair shortcut.
It’s time for Round 4 in Newsome.Org’s Web 2.0 Wars. The contestants and rules are here.
This is the final heat of the first Round. The playoffs will be next.
Other Rounds:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20
Here are the contestants for Round 4:
Zazzle
Tailrank
TagWorld
Nuvvo
Dogear
Yakalike
Grouper
Oddpost
Qoop
Zazzle lets you create and purchase customized products such as t-shirts, posters and stamps and then sell them to others. Neat idea, but please build an FAQ and put it where I can find it.
Tailrank is a meme tracker. I talked about it here and called it “part of the Big Three princes in Memeorandum’s kingdom, along with Megite and Chuquet.” Kevin Burton, the founder, told me that before too long, I’d be writing a post called “Reviewing the Tailrank chasers,” and he may be right. I like the site, and the screen grabs of the blogs on the list is a cool touch. I need to see a little more Newsome.Org up there, though.
Tagworld is a blogging, bookmarking, photo sharing, Web 2.0 rich social networking site, similar to MySpace, with a nice music angle.
Nuvvo is an online teaching platform for teachers. As an adjunct professor, I can appreciate anything that makes course planning easier. Nuvvo collects an 8% commission on the fees paid by students to take the course. I saw a course called “Hypnotic Mindcontrol Workshop.” Maybe I’ll take it so I can hypnotize Scoble and make him turn his blog into a Newsome.Org fansite.
Dogear is a bookmarking service. There is no information whatsoever on the main page, so that’s about all I can say about it other than it has a cool name.
Yakalike is a Firefox extension that lets you chat with other users visiting the same site you’re visiting. It adds a little chat box at the bottom of the browser window where all the Yakalike users reading the page at the same time can chat. That way you can chat with Om and Mike while you’re reading Newsome.Org.
Grouper is a video hosting, sharing and search site, similar to YouTube. It’s free but the FAQ says an upgraded, premium version may be offered at some point. Nicely designed site. The BrokeBack to the Future video (very, very funny and clever) was on the front page when I visited.
Oddpost is a web based email application which is owned by Yahoo. I suspect much of the Oddpost technology is evident in the beta version of Yahoo Mail which I talked about here.
Qoop is a site that I used to make wonderful and affordable photo books for Raina for Christmas, via Flickr. I have also ordered posters from Qoop. Great products all. Qoop also has partnerships with other companies, such as Buzznet.
Before Today I’d Heard of:
4 out of 9
And the Winner of Round 4 is:
This was the toughest field yet. I use Tailrank several times a day and I love Qoop. But once again, I have to go with one I likely won’t use- Tagworld. I’m too old to be into social networking of the online variety, but I think Tagworld has serious potential to win the social networking, music storage, hip site to call home race.
Technorati Tags:
newsome.org web wars, web 2.0
Dave Winer posted some thoughts about the gatekeeper thing. Primarily that those of us talking about it are whiners. As I said the other day, this is why I read Dave’s blog- he isn’t afraid to challenge people about their conclusions.
So now that I’m allowed to be heard (or read) at Dave’s blog, I decided to take up the debate.
I won’t post my entire comment, you can read it at Dave’s blog. But the gist of it is:
1) While I recognize and even said in my posts that my gatekeeper discussion might be viewed as whining, I don’t have much of a reason to whine at this point, since I get meme tracked and linked to fairly regularly. My point is merely to promote inclusion for everyone based on merit and not affinity or greed.
2) Blogging done primarily as a way to make money perverts the pure conversational purpose that I and others believe (or at least wish) blogs should serve by injecting an element of competition. Whining, maybe. Accurate, absolutely. See JKOnTheRun’s post today about blog networks changing links.
3) The formal or informal establishment of a blogging elite (be I a part of said elite or not) creates a de facto gatekeeper between the content providers and the content readers that is not unlike the old media system where the media companies control who sees and hears what. Inevitable, perhaps. Inconsistent with the move to the edge engendered by citizen media movement, I think so.
I don’t know if we’ll change each others’ minds, but at least there’s now a platform to talk about it.
I read an article this morning that Jeeves, the valet that has been the logo for Ask Jeeves since it was founded in 1996, is getting the ax. I remember the brouhaha when Ask Jeeves debuted. The hook was that you could ask a question in plain English. I tried it once and I don’t believe I’ve ever been back.
So I thought I’d go and Ask Jeeves a couple of final questions:
1) Does anybody actually use Ask Jeeves to search the internet?
He responded with three adds at the top of the list for videoprofessor (must be a poker buddy) and two people finder sites (maybe so I can catch up with him at his next gig), and a bunch of stories about his sacking.
So I thought I’d try again.
2) Why would anyone with two brain cells to dangle buy Ask Jeeves in March 2005 for $1.85B?
He responded with three more adds at the top of the list for a market research site, eBay (perhaps that’s where the sale occurred) and some psychology site, and nothing else. Sounds like Jeeves doesn’t want to talk about it.
So Jeeves is toast. The only real question is does anybody care?
Sort of. Dave has added comment functionality at Scripting.Com.
He provides one centralized comment post for every day. He says it’s an experiment and it sounds like the longevity of comments at Scripting.Com will depend on how effectively WordPress’s comment moderation tools work.
I’m glad Dave is giving this a try, for all the reasons I have talked about the last few days.
Now I’m going to go read his posts. Maybe I’ll have something to add and maybe not. But comments are sort of like your car. It’s nice to know they are available even if you don’t need them at the moment.
Here are a couple of trailers for some new movies you may want to see.
A slightly different interpretation of Sleepless In Seattle.
Good stuff.
Newsome.Org 