March 20, 2006
DIY Tripod Top of Technorati
In July 2004 Gizmodo and Engadget featured a tripod mount for single serving soda bottles (aka the 20oz and 24oz bottles here in the U.S.). I saw it and decided to make my own. Almost two years later its in the April 2006 issue of Popular Science and hit #1 on Technorati's Top Searches (see image below). I guessing this is in part because Popular Science misspelled my domain name as jakeluDDington.com instead of the proper spelling with a single 'D'. Not to mention they linked to the main page of the site instead of linking to the actual Bottle Cap Tripod article. At the end of the day, I think it's cool that I made it in to PopSci, but I really need to work on that whole spelling thing. 219 entries in Google, mostly made by people that know me, all spell my name wrong.
Posted by Jake at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)
March 08, 2006
Mike Furir Sucks
I don't know who Mike Furir is, but I'd love it if his commment spam crew would stop bombarding my server with links to his site. 1) the comments are moderated so I'm deleting them and 2) your methods are pointless because the only thing ranking for your name in Google is all the comment spam. If the spamming was working, your site would be #1 for your name not the blogs where you're comment spamming. Get a clue.
Posted by Jake at 10:26 PM | Comments (0)
March 06, 2006
Memeorandum and Fake Relevance
I screwed up. As Gabe points out in the comments, Memeorandum did feature the Scoble post about his quitting Memeorandum on Sunday. I searched for it on their site and didn't see it, which is probably in part because there's no real search feature. Still I should have done a better job of tracking the link down before I complained.
As a result, I'm changing the title of this post from Memeorandum and Fake Transparency and rethinking some of what I said, because Fake Relevance hits closer to my point. Scoble speaks fairly highly of Memeorandum's ability to dirve traffic, so I'll assume that it does. The Alexa ranking (for all the flaws in that benchmark) certainly suggests Memeorandum gets tons of traffic. Where that traffic goes is anyone's guess.
I say fake relevance for the same reasons I made my original post. At the time of the first writing, the top story on TailRank.com was the post made by Robert Scoble about taking a break from Memorandum.
At the time I mistakenly thought it wasn't on Memeorandum. Gabe pointed me in the right direction, but I'm failing to see how Memeorandum accurately tracks the discussion because there are only 4 posts discussing the story. As of the current date stamp on this post, TailRank now shows 32 different sites linking to the Scoble post, which doesn't even include this post. Further analysis might reveal more links. Heck, even del.icio.us finds 5 people who found it bookmark worthy.
Curiously, the topic shows up nowhere on tech.memeorandum.com even though similar topics frequently bubble to the top on both services. While I'm sure Memeorandum is currently reeling from losing their biggest cheerleader for a week, I don't think filtering the conversation to avoid negative comments is the way to deal with it. The top story on Memeorandum as I write this is certainly more interesting, with coverage of the proposed merger between BellSouth and ATT, however, I find it hard to believe Scoble doesn't rank anywhere in the list considering he frequently finds himself in the top 10 stories.
As Gabe states in the comments, he makes no claims of transparency in relation to Memeorandum, so my accusation in that regard is certainly unfair. At the same time, it would be interesting to know what metrics are used in determining what gets included in Memeorandum's listings because updating quickly is not the best determinant of useful information.
I personally find the stories on TailRank consistently more suited to my own reading tastes than what appears on Memeorandum, particularly because Memeorandum skews toward featuring the same bloggers over-and-over. At the same time, I think Robert may be taking this to the extreme. TailRank is my litmus test for what's going on in the blogs, my feed list serves the purpose of discovering things I won't see everywhere else. Memeorandum could easily serve the same purpose, assuming they aren't filtering their echo chamber of any potential negative reference to Memeorandum. Like most of Web 2.0, the transparency seems to getting a little opaque. although it's hard to find breaking news when there's only a few channels for getting it to the front page.
Posted by Jake at 02:03 PM | Comments (0)
Passing 8th Grade Math
I caught the 8th grade math quiz on the Bruner Blog. Almost 20 years later, I can still pass:
| You Passed 8th Grade Math |
 |
Posted by Jake at 09:34 AM | Comments (0)
March 02, 2006
IT Gigolo Meets Madge
Adam Curry just linked to an interview on Sync about some guy who supposedly fixes computers for sexual favors. Now I'm not typically a Yeast Radio fan because the schtick just doesn't work for me, but I'm thinking Madge should call his bluff with the podcast equivalent of a phone scam and see if this is for real.
Posted by Jake at 10:17 PM | Comments (0)
WebMetricsGuru Interview
The funny thing about being at Search Engine Strategies is I'm overwhelmed to the point of not keeping track of where new site visitors are coming from. During lunch on Tuesday I had a great conversation with Marshall Sponder of WebMetricsGuru, which turned into this interview. I don't typically toot my own horn about blogging so I think that's probably the first place I've ever been officially outed as a six-figure blogger. The one minor correction I'd make is that I only gave away one Xbox 360, although if I get enough referrals from TextPayMe, I will likely give another one away. What isn't mentioned in the interview is how much work is required to get there. Or to put it another way, an 80 hour work week isn't for everyone. For me the most fun at lunch was listening to Marshall explain strategies for gathering and interpreting data for some of his clients to identify opportunities to improve Web performance for a couple of his clients. I learned enough at lunch to make me a WebMetricsGuru subsciber.
Posted by Jake at 07:05 AM | Comments (0)
February 14, 2006
Cracking the A-List Code
I wasn't intending to join in the brrreeeport silliness initiated by Scoble's little game, but I found the comments from Dan at Technology and Otherwise on the subject of blogs breaking news worth commenting on. Dan's position seems to be summed up in these two sentences:
To stay relevant, you need high traffic or RSS subscription rates. It doesn’t seem like you’ll make it happen just because you’re the first to know...
I disagree. To stay relevant (or to be relevant in the first place) you have to do two things. First, you need to break the story or say something interesting. Second, you need to be willing to work hard to connect the right people to your story. Jump up and down, scream real loud, and generally let the right people know you posted something they might care about. The right people changes depending on the story. And the methods for jumping and screaming might be as simple as a polite email that gets to the point real quick and follows up with a link to your story.
The people at the top might get a boost here and there to help them up the ladder, but in general, getting to the top or staying at the top means working hard whether you're blogging or doing anything else in life.
Posted by Jake at 05:53 PM | Comments (0)
February 13, 2006
Knitting and Skiing
Chris apparently missed the last session of this year's Northern Voice. Knitting is one of the hottest niches in blogging, or at least that's what panelist Mandy Moore (not to be confused with the singer) seemed to suggest. Themes include groups of bloggers working on the same pattern, yarn dying and the typical bragging rights associated with the completion of a new project. Skiing blogs, of the Dog Lotion variety are another hot niche, with ski bums sharing their passion online about the hottest slopes with the best powder. Is that any more inane than chasing the next cell phone from Nokia or commenting on the left vs. right political war?
Posted by Jake at 06:20 PM | Comments (0)
January 15, 2006
Google Tracking
Tara Calishain remains the queen of Google Hacks with a friendly reminder that you can keep track of things like how many pages in your domain are indexed by Google or how many people link to your site according to Google using the handy Google Alerts tool. In the search terms box on Google Alerts just use link:yourdomain.com for a link list or site:yourdomain.com for a list of total pages indexed by Google.
Posted by Jake at 06:01 PM | Comments (0)
January 12, 2006
Dangerously Close
I'm combing through the The Chris Pirillo Show CES footage, editing the audio from our live broadcast from the plant stand in Microsoft's booth. Major Nelson is leaving and Patrick from OSNN is just about to go on air. I'm just not prepared for the commentary:
Download the file to scare your friends.
Posted by Jake at 06:05 PM | Comments (0)
January 09, 2006
Anonymous Annoyance Illegal
Mitch Ratcliffe is posting via Declan McCollagh that it is offically illegal to post annoying anonymous comments. It appears to be an update to old laws pertaining to making harassing phone calls. Mitch proclaims this a chink in the armor of free speech. I say it's about f'ing time. I have no problem with people making snarky comments or being down right rude (okay, I do think you shouldn't comment or blog anything you wouldn't say to someone in person), but for god sake take credit for it. It's easy to criticize when you can hide behind a veil of anonymity. It's much harder to take a position and own your position. If we could truly eliminate anonymous comments from the Web, we might end up with a slightly more civil discourse as a result. Feel free to disagree with me, but by all means have the balls to stand up for your own opinion (after all, it's the law ;).
Posted by Jake at 08:41 PM | Comments (0)
December 31, 2005
Favorite J
Kent Newsome is going through Scoble's feed list and picking his favorites for each letter of the alphabet. Jake Ludington's MediaBlab tied for a favorite in the letter J category. Thank's for the nod Kent, I'm subscribed to your feed too. ;)
Posted by Jake at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)
November 05, 2005
Addicted to Porn Blog
In the just plain stupid department, SpamAssassin thinks Sean Alexander is running a porn site. I was about to send my recent newsletter, which contained a link to Sean Alexander's Addicted to Digital Media blog. Sean pointed to a cool new add-in for Windows XP Media Center Edition called MyTV ToGo and I was attempting to credit him as my source. When you run Sean's name together to create a URL: seANALexander.com you create a word associated with the human exit orifice, which SpamAssassin assumes means porn and adds 1.4 spam points to the default configuration. Anybody else have a subversively explicit domain name? I got nothin' with my name.
Posted by Jake at 03:33 PM | Comments (0)
October 29, 2005
When you advertise on blogs
You need to know How to write killer BlogsAds. Brian Clark wrote BlogAds campaigns for Audi, Levis and Sharp TV. I know I clicked through on all three. I haven't purchased anything from the three companies, but they did get my attention, which is a solid start.
Posted by Jake at 07:27 PM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2005
Be Consistent
It won't matter how many times it's said or who does the saying, if you want people to read what you write you need to write consistently. By consistent, I mean keep a regular schedule.
This is what made the morning paper successful in its day. This is what made the nightly news successful in its day. This is what makes every blogging company worth an AOL buyout successful.
From a profile on Gawker founder, Nick Denton:
"You know The New York Times is going to be on your newsstand every morning," Mr. Steele said. Gawker Media operates on the same principle, replacing amateur bloggers' intermittent, as-the-mood-strikes postings with a steady, predictable feed.
Of course, you also need to write something people want to read, but be there like clockwork and they come back for more. This is something I wrestle with everyday working from home; life gets in the way of work, but if you want to succeed, you have to show up on time no matter where "the office" is.
Posted by Jake at 10:17 PM | Comments (0)
October 16, 2005
Blogspot Splogs Make Money
Chris wants Google to clean up Blogspot. Rightfully so; the Blogspot universe is at least 99% junk from autogenerated link farms on vioxx to autoposts using keywords other people care about tracking. There's a reason Google won't clean up Blogspot - it makes too much money. The Adsense revenue publishers like Chris and I rely on to pay for our legitimate content results in more adviews from these spam blogs (splogs) too. Google doesn't have a problem with it because they sandbox the results from Blogspot from the rest of Google search. The problem comes in when other search services try to add value with things like feed search, which results in garbage piling on top of real results. The Blogspot splogs are valuable ad real estate for Google's investors, just like the ad views found on domain speculation sites. Google has no motivation to fix the problem because they want people to use their search engine.
Posted by Jake at 02:21 PM | Comments (0)
September 24, 2005
Blogs Get Local
My mom is a local journalist in the small Iowa community I grew up in, writing for the local weekly newspaper. She doesn't cover sexy stories about violent crimes, corporate corruption and political backstabbing with the same frequency as big market papers, which is a good thing in my mind. Her stories and editorials deal with issues directly impacting the local community, retaining the small community feel as the town continues its rapid expansion due to proximity to Des Moines and a recent highway bypass project. So far, the community paper is retaining its voice in spite of an acquisition by Gannet a few years ago.
Many large markets lost the people's voice ages ago, buried by newspaper mergers and politics that rendered them places where a handful of people dictate the stories everyone will read on a weekly basis. Alternative papers make a small attempt to fill the void, with too much of a niche bias to draw in massive readerships. A more recent trend in blogging is helping to fill the gap with community voices, local news coverage and a real attempt to reengage the people of smaller neighborhoods through narrowly targeted topical blogs.
At Webzine 2005, I met one of the people passionately bringing community news back to life. Andy Bowser publishes Daily Heights, a blog dedicated to things important to the Brooklyn Prospect Heights neighborhood. It's people like Andy who are using the Web to make the world feel more like a collection of neighborhoods again instead of a bunch of individuals all linked up through impersonal wires and data.
Posted by Jake at 10:42 PM | Comments (0)