Category Archives: Personal

Leaving Microsoft

I am leaving Microsoft to start my own company. My last day at Microsoft is next Friday, August 18. It’s uncertain whether Microsoft will continue the feed platform work I started, but it’s some good stuff so I hope they do. RSS is the internet’s answer to the notification scenarios we’ve discussed and worked on for some time, and is filling a role as “the UNIX pipe of the internet” as people use it to connect data and systems in unanticipated ways. I joined Microsoft in April excited to change the world and build an Internet-scale feed platform to power…

Speaking at SES San Jose next Wednesday

I’ll be at the Search Engines Strategy conference next week including speaking on a blogger panel on Wednesday from 11 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Google CEO Eric Schmidt kindly agreed to be our opening act, warming up the crowd for 45 minutes as they recover from a night of drinking (but not much dancing) at the Googleplex. If you’re at the conference or one of the evening parties say hello and let’s talk about search. I’m still hoping Yahoo! will rent out Great America on Thursday night so I can ride Top Gun over and over again….

Back from vacation

I spent the last week in Maui visiting a friend and having some rest and relaxation before I start at Microsoft on Monday. I spent my time scuba diving, hiking, eating BBQ, climbing volcanos, and watching movies and a few European soccer matches. It was a relaxing trip and a fun adventure but it’s good to be back in the Bay area and around familiar people and places. I was impressed my the number of enterprising small businesses in Maui made possible by tourism. Individuals would set up a photo area with a few tropical birds and charge for postcards…

Creating a feed syndication platform at Microsoft

Starting next week I will join Microsoft’s Windows Live division to create a new product team around syndication technologies such as RSS and Atom. I will help build a feed syndication platform leveraged by Microsoft products and developers all around the world. I am excited to construct a team and product from scratch focused on scalability and connecting syndication clients and their users wherever they may exist: desktop, mobile, media center, gaming console, widget, gadget, and more. Live.com is the new default home page for users of the Internet Explorer 7 and the Windows Vista operating system. Live.com will be…

Continued interests

I’ve been digging into a few new areas of interest over the past few months I feel still need improvement in search, discovery and tracking. I’ve spoken about most of these topics in my podcast series with Om, but it’s worth mentioning again in text. I’m interested in continuing my work in these areas and perhaps helping to solve some existing problems. Feeds We have RSS 2.0, and Atom 1.0, the world is starting to understand how syndicated content makes sense, but I don’t see a lot of future thinking for handling multiple locations, personas, and personalized content. Advertising is…

Seeking new horizons

I am leaving Technorati to pursue new opportunities. I submitted my resignation letter this morning and I will be a free agent on March 1. I joined Technorati in February 2005 excited about changing the world of weblogs and introducing people to a new kind of search. Almost a year later my passions at work have eroded and it’s time to find new horizons. Valentines Day is the perfect time to rekindle lost flames. The company has accomplished a lot in the past year, emerging from what many people viewed as a commodity space into a market leader. The Alexa…

Site redesign complete!

I’ve been a bit quiet over the past week while making some changes under the hood of this website. This morning I unveiled a new site design I hope will convey a more professional look and experience for everyone viewing my pages in a web browser. I wanted to add more visual structure to each post to match what I try to accomplish in my markup. I wanted to help visitors discover new sections of the site and click around a bit to learn more. I also wanted to improve the friendliness of search and commenting. I worked with…

My first house, other big news

Today was a huge day for me. It’s my birthday. I just bought my first house, a one-bedroom condo in San Francisco’s south of Market district near 9th and Howard. I just found out my younger brother is being deployed to Tikrit, Iraq in about six weeks with his Army unit. Posting might be light while I fill out forms and move physical locations. Tags: sanfrancisco…