Matt Mullenweg just posted the news that About.com is switching all of its sites from Movable Type to WordPress. About.com is owned by The New York Times and has the largest public-facing blog installation of any company I know. Pretty big news for WordPress as they add another big name media site to their list.
Submit site feeds to Yahoo! Search
Yahoo! Search allows any user to submit a list of pages for submission in Yahoo!’s search index. You may submit site feeds to Yahoo! formatted as RSS 0.9, 1.0, or 2.0, Atom 0.3, or a text file with one URL per line.
You can automate the process if you would like with just a few simple steps.
- Start with the base URL of http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request?pass=1&class=1. Parameters
passandclassare required. - Add a
urlparameter, setting the value to the URL-encoded location of your feed. Example: http%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Ffeed.xml - Submit via HTTP post.
Sending a ping to blo.gs might eventually accomplish the same thing but until then you can be sure your content is available in Yahoo! Search results as soon as possible by sending a ping with each content change.
Cingular HSDPA 3G data network
Cingular just announced 3G data access throughout the entire San Francisco Bay Area and 14 other metropolitan areas across the country. The new network uses HSDPA technology that currently supports average connection speed of 400-700Kbps but can technically support up to 10Mbps.
Cellular data networks allow you to be online in more places than you can find a public WiFi hotspot. You can even use it in your car or on the train to get some work done while commuting. These new cards support seamless handoff between cell towers and downgraded non-3G data connections. It’s nice to know that no matter where you are you can easily get connected to the Internet even if it’s not at the broadband speeds you are used to.
The data plans are a bit expensive at $60 for unlimited access but everyone I know that has a high speed card raves about it. It’s the new geek bling.
Kanoodle cookie bounty
Advertising network Kanoodle will now pay webmasters for planting a cookie on a visitor’s computer without ever showing an advertisement. Sites placing a cookie classifying a user’s browsing habits into one of 7,500 contextual ad categories. Publishers in the program will be paid 5% of the revenue earned when an advertisement served on the Kanoodle network is triggered by a cookie generated on the publisher’s site.
Kanoodle advertisements are an integrated option for TypePad Pro users. Bloggers could profit from distributing cookies on their own personal weblogs for later monetization on a TypePad Pro site with advertising or other blogs using Kanoodle’s advertisements.
I am not a fan of third party cookies and block all cookies that are not served from the site I am currently browsing. Most users won’t even know the extra cookie has been added to their system and with no screen real estate lost I expect many publishers may experiment with this new cookie bounty.
Tags: kanoodle, advertising
Rich RSS beyond text
I just posted the latest episode of Om and Niall PodSesssions to our podcast site. This week Om and I talk about the possibilities of RSS beyond text and blogs as content such as photos, music, movies, and more are delivered using RSS and other syndication formats.
I have been playing around with some of the new broadband RSS services on my TiVo and thinking about new methods of content delivery to the home. Broadband access has been sold as an instant-on service available anytime you wish to interact and retrieve information. I believe the next wave of services will deliver information directly to you on a variety of devices throughout your life including your mobile devices and home entertainment center. Media and information will be waiting instantly consumable in a variety of formats. I think syndication technologies such as RSS can deliver this new content on a regular subscription basis.
The RSS beyond text podcast is 21 minutes and 23 seconds in length, a 9.9 MB download.
Syndicate Conference San Francisco
I am a panelist for Searching the Syndisphere at next week’s Syndicate conference in San Francisco. The panel will discuss different approaches to indexing and surfacing syndicated content, business models, emerging trends, and other topics chosen by the moderator.
If you would like to attend the two day conference you can save 30% using a discount priority code of SPKDEC. A two day pass is $836.50 and a one day pass is $437.50 with the discount code applied.
Tags: atom, rss, syndicatesf, syndication
Eric Schmidt’s rules of management
Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Berkeley professor Hal Varian wrote an article in the latest issue of Newsweek about Google’s approach to managing the knowledge worker. Google’s extensive perks program is their way of removing things that may get in the way of their employees.
Schmidt admits Google’s problems of “techno-arrogance” and “the not invented here syndrome.” The company also needs to adjust to a workforce of varying ages and motivations as it looks towards long-term growth.
One of our not-so-secret weapons is our ideas mailing list: a companywide suggestion box where people can post ideas ranging from parking procedures to the next killer app.
I like the idea of having somewhere to throw out ideas and know everyone on the list wants to hear your new ideas.
{N]obody throws chairs at Google, unlike management practices used at some other well-known technology companies. We foster to create an atmosphere of tolerance and respect, not a company full of yes men.
Obvious poke at Microsoft and Ballmer supposedly throwing a chair across his office when researcher Kai-Fu Lee left Microsoft to work for Google.
Google has remarkably broad dissemination of information within the organization and remarkably few serious leaks. Contrary to what some might think, we believe it is the first fact that causes the second: a trusted work force is a loyal work force.
Good to hear! Google should encourage more employees to blog and make intelligent decisions about information that could be proprietary to the company.
Google total information awareness potential
Google is gathering as much information as possible about our online activities in the interest of serving up more targeted ads across more and more locations. Google continues to introduce new services limited only by what can have an advertisement placed alongside the content. Future products might include data gathering and targeting as a primary business goal with the intent of collecting higher advertising revenues elsewhere on the network on a future visit. Yahoo! just announced they will serve advertisements based on surfing behavior. Where does Google stand in its behavioral targeting?
Google is already well on its way to building an information awareness network on its own sites as well as the sites of hundreds of thousands of willing webmasters and millions of desktop clients. What is the current state of Google’s information network?
- Google has the ability to track and analyze every web search query, news request, and television or video browsing.
- Google Alerts send strong signals about your interests and help focus advertising relevance.
- Every e-mail sent, received, or drafted in Gmail or every instant message or voice conversation delivered through Google Talk increases the intelligence of the advertising machine as it learns more about your casual interests.
- Social networking services such as Orkut analyze your friends and their interest to better understand your potential influences.
- Google Analytics and AdSense tracks your movement on every site with the service enabled, creating a behavioral profile.
- Webmasters can verify their domains of control using Google Sitemaps. Reviews and other Google site content can easily be associated with a Google account.
- Google Toolbar picks up every site you visit, regardless of the site’s participation in a Google supported tracking program.
- As an Internet service provider blanketing entire cities with free wireless access, Google will have access to the full online activities of entire populations including their frequented locations. Trail programs are planned for Mountain View and San Francisco.
- Not on a Google network? That’s OK, just route all your traffic through Google Secure Access.
- Not online? Google Desktop will index all of your files and connect to the central database once you connect to the grid to update your advertising profile.
All that is missing right now is all these different data collection tools talking to each other to create one large profile per user. Microsoft could compete in the space by recording every web action on a computer running Windows but such actions would most likely be seen as abusing a monopoly. Google has the ability to silently deploy cross pollination of its advertising platforms across a multitude of services whenever it would like to flip the switch.
Scientia est potentia. Knowledge is power.
Tags: advertising, adwords
Odeo Studio released
Odeo just released their online audio recording software called Odeo Studio. Odeo Studio was previously available to a limited group of users. The new version 0.14 is the first public release of the software.
Giving people the ability to record content via a web page or telephone takes away a lot of the complexity of podcasting or casual voice message creation. No worries about getting the proper recording software, encoding the audio, uploading to a server. Now all you have to do is hit record on a web page and everything is done for you.
Recordings are limited to only 3 minutes so Odeo is not yet a realistic tool for full podcasts. It’s just the right amount of time for podcasts listeners to leave comments on shows. Yep, I’m requesting features already!
Skype thoughts
Skype updated its Mac client today with some new user interface features, improved call quality, and some additional member information. I like the small touches such as the new blue dock icon and the ability to automatically pause iTunes when you receive a new incoming call.
I just realized today that Skype works over local Bonjour networks. The feature has been around for a few months, but none of my coworkers knew about it either.
Om points out that many of the Skype 2.0 features were previously available as plugins from third party developers. I have not used any of the plugins, but I think the features demanded by users should be rolled into the core service offering and hopefully it is possible to hire some people from small plugin development shops who are already passionate about the technology. I think video was a question of when, not if, and any developer of a video plugin would have opportunistically entered the market to gain some revenue and experience before making its move.
I’ve been thinking about using SkypeIn combined with Skype voicemail for podcast listener questions and comments. I am just deciding on a call-in number, but I think it’s a good idea. Area code 763 spells “pod” is available for call-in numbers. I’ve been waiting for Skype to add numbers in Ireland but I might crack and add a U.S. number for the show.
Tags: skype