Category Archives: Search

Technorati API first long look

I spent some time today looking at the Technorati API and coding part of a personal tracking application. The API server was spotty throughout the day, making testing difficult. I cleaned up some of the wiki documentation, stored my own copies of API responses, and used my own servers to pull the data. I put together a demo application using JavaScript. Some things I noticed: Cosmos query never returns rssurl or atomurl elements even though the data is stored. Use the weblog url as a parameter in a bloginfo query to pull this data. The lang element in bloginfo is…

Forrester Research on search loyalty

Charlene Li authored a new paper on search engine user loyalty and posted a summary on her weblog. The $50 six-page paper cites extensive customer survey data. Some interesting findings: MSN gained substantial share as the default browser home page. (Internet Explorer no doubt) MSN has a slight lead in toolbar users. (related to Messenger installs?) Almost half of all toolbar users also use another toolbar. Charlene concludes that customers are becoming more sophisticated and specialized search companies will take away market share from Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. Feedster is mentioned as a player in the RSS specialty….

Omidyar Network invests in Feedster

Feedster announced funding from Pierre Omidyar’s Omidyar Network, Scott Rafer told me on Monday that the Omidyar Network had a good understanding of his approach to life and business from reading his weblog. A good business case for blogging about more than just your startup. Omidyar Network is interested in enabling the public. Feedster seeks validation as it continues to pursue venture capital funding, but the Omidyar Network is known for investing in social ideas and non-profits (Creative Commons, voting intiatives). Feedster is currently the only live search player without venture capital funding. I know little about the world of…

Live search traffic comparison

Which company is the number one player in live search in terms of total traffic and user share? The above chart plots total market share Feedster, Technorati, and PubSub over the past month compared to all sites as calculated by Hitwise. Feedster and Technorati jostle for the top position while PubSub is way below. I expected to see a clear winner and was surprised at the results….

WSJ on weblog marketing intelligence

Vauhini Vara of the Wall Street Journal writes about how marketers increasingly turn to weblogs for marketing data. The article mentions Volkswagen utilizing reporting tools from Techdirt to keep informed of “items that appear on blogs and message boards, as well as in mainstream news outlets.” Sony hired Intelliseek to find out how its customers compared its new digital Walkman to Apple’s iPod. Karen Rizzo, director of marketing for Kryptonite, mentions how rapidly their product’s reputation fell apart online when a message in an online bicycle forum spread across the online world. I expect to see more automated reporting tools…

David Sifry Red Herring interview

Red Herring published an interview with David Sifry of Technorati. The questions are pretty hard hitting and you get more background on Dave than the typical Technorati mention, like what he remembers about his high school prom. Secret to success? Work your ass off. Q. As much as Technorati is popular today, the company’s position in the industry can be considered tenuous. Do you have an exit strategy? A. Watch this space. Q. Are you profitable? A. Not yet….

Technorati two years later

Two years ago Dave Sifry announced Technorati: a new site with a set of web services he always wanted and spent three weekends hacking. Take a look at the Technorati of two years ago. Unofficial history of Technorati November 20, 2002Official first use date. November 27, 2002Technorati officially unveiled. 12,000 weblogs indexed. December 4, 2002RSS watchlists. December 15, 2002First Technorati dinner. December 18, 2002Technorati sidebar. February 7, 2003Site contents released under Creative Commons license. February 26, 2003First major downtime: 4 hours. March 5, 2003100,000 weblogs indexed. March 9, 2003Revenues of $2,000 over three months from charging a yearly subscription…

Live search comparison

Tonight I was thinking about the importance of the number of indexed weblogs when choosing a search service. PubSub claims to track 6.6 million sources, Technorati claims to track 4.7 million weblogs, and Feedster claims to track 1.1 million feeds. What can the target audience of these services do with this information? I decided to do some comparative research from the point of view of a marketing department tracking the buzz around their new advertising campaign. Kevin Kringle is a digital word-of-mouth marketing campaign created by Best Buy and SMG Reverb. The marketing campaign is officially under a month old…

Bill Joy on the future of search

I just finished watching The Charlie Rose Show from Wednesday, November 16. John Doerr, Bill Joy, and Jeff Taylor participated in a panel discussion at a TechNet summit at Google HQ. Below is my attempt to transcribe the first question by Charlie Rose and the second part of Bill Joy’s response. Charlie Rose: What’s going to transform the Internet the most in the next 10 years? Bill Joy: We go out to this sea of information and in some sense we go fishing. Google is the best fishing rod. But in fact our lives are overwhelmed with information that’s coming…