Technorati State of the Blogosphere: Depends on How you Define Strong
Dave Sifry released his quarterly State of the Blogosphere data today and declared the blogosphere "strong;" which translates into 34.5 million blogs tracked by Technorati and a blogosphere doubling in size every 6 months. Further, 75,000 new blogs are created daily which he says equates to a new blog being created every second.
He also notes that 55% of those creating blogs are still posting 3 months later. So, where exactly do the 45% show up in the data…or do they? I am not suggesting that the blogosphere is not big…I am just not sure that the reporting is entirely accurate if the 45% continue to appear in the total number. It seems to be similar to the way employment data is reported….when people give up looking for a job they are removed from the unemployment data thus allowing for the conclusion that the economy is getting stronger.
Sifry goes on to say that the rate of posting to blogs, however many blogs there are, is a more robust measure of the growth of the blogosphere. He reports that there are 1.2 million posts per day, or 50,000 posts per hour. Yes, that is indeed a lot of posts. One of the next topics for Sifry to report on is the growth of tags. I am looking forward to that because somewhere in all those posts are my posts and I am still not sure what happens to my tags; sometimes they index and sometimes they don’t.
Tags: Blogs, blogosphere, Dave Sifry, Technorati
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I’ve Been Tagged
Josh Hallett tagged me this morning…but since Saturdays are a constant series of drop offs, pick ups, in and outs, scheduled and unscheduled activities, I started but didn’t finish the tag; factor in the mysteries of saving in Performancing and the mysterious shut downs in Firefox and now you have Saturday night. So, here goes again…
Four Jobs I’ve Had
Camp Counselor
Caseworker
Assistant Buyer
Full Time Mom
Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over
As Good As It Gets
Cinema Paradiso
The Conformist
Office Space
Four TV Shows I Love to Watch
House
SNL
Boston Legal
Conan O’Brien
Four Places I Have Been On Vacation
Sea Island, Georgia
Grand Canyon
Italy
Greece
Four Favorite Dishes
Calamari and Spinach Fritto Misto, Trattoria Marcella
French fries, King Louie’s
Banana Concrete, Ted Drewes
Polo e Spinac, Bar Italia
Four Websites I Visit Daily
Wall Street Journal
New York Times
Bloglines
Sitemeter
Four Places I’d Rather Be
A beach
Italy
Santa Fe
Institute of Design, Stanford
Four Bloggers I’m Tagging
George Lenard
Matt Homann
Marshall Kirkpatrick
Sean Glass
Technorati Tags: blogs, I’ve Been Tagged, social networking, tags,
Core Assets and Social Capital
In Forrester Research’s weekly update, Charlene Li writes, "Yahoo! bought social bookmarking and tagging leader del.icio.us to add bookmark
tagging to its social computing portfolio. The value of tagging is that when
individuals label something online, they call it out as valuable. If enough people tag Yahoo!-stored assets as, then the collective intelligence of the masses is captured for all to use and Yahoo!’s site becomes richer, cleaner, and more satisfying-all magic words to an ad-supported business model. Other portal, search, media and retail sites should join the ranks of Yahoo! in making tagging a core asset."
Alec Saunders
writes that Yahoo! validated the value of tagging by buying
del.icio.us. He says, "Today tags might be the ultimate sticky asset.
Your tags are a reflection of your values, your thinking, your mindset.
Shared tags reflect the collective interest of a community. Tags and
profile, together could be used as contextual triggers for advertising
driving much more precisely targeted delivery than is possible today.
If, as the Web 2.0 advocates suggest, data is the new platform, then
Yahoo! just brought a core platform asset.
Well, yes, Sugar
Plum….in keeping with the spirit of the season, those visions of
assets do dance in Yahoo!’s head, or is it portfolios of assets that
dance in their visions? Yahoo!’s tags may be "social networks" but the "it" in that beloved expression, "your it" is search….and advertising and m-o-n-e-y. In the words of Thomas Hawk,
"Google and their non human algorithm have significantly trounced
Yahoo!
at the core service that was at one time the central technology of
Yahoo’s business, search. And up for grabs in the search game going
forward are still billions and billions of dollars."
OK..so that’s the business model. Assets, value…sticky assets, core assets, valuable. That seems to upset some bloggers. But let’s not forget that tagging is about users. There is a lot of really great things being written about social networks from the benefit to users
standpoint….David Pollard writes frequently on the topic of blogs, social networks, knowledge management and other inter-related topics.
And I think there is another important element in the asset play: social capital. In the year 2000, Robert Putnam published a book called Bowling Alone with the premise that Americans were suffering from a deficit in social
capital…that we had gone from belonging to bowling leagues to bowling
alone. Social capital is defined as the collective value of all "social
networks" [who people know] and the inclinations that arise from these
networks to do things for each other ["norms of reciprocity"]….a wide
variety of quite specific benefits that flow from the trust,
reciprocity, information, and cooperation associated with social networks. Social capital creates value for the people who are connected and - at least sometimes - for bystanders as well." It sounds a lot like the hallmarks of blogging and online social networks to me.
I think that rumors of the death of social capital
were greatly exaggerated….I think it is alive and well and has just
re-defined and in fact expanded the meaning of communities. Instead of bowling alone we are tagging together ….and blogging connects us in all kinds of amazing ways from shared knowledge and information to personal and business relationships and colloboration that would be impossible if we had to wear those nasty bowling shoes to experience.
Technorati Tags:
tagging, Yahoo, Del.icio.us, social capital, social networking
Words, Buzzwords, Tags, and Buzztags
Have You Updated your Buzzwords? That is the question being asked by Kathy Sierra at Creating Passionate Users….one of the blogs I would absolutely want to have access to should I find myself on the proverbial desert Island. She says that we are on Internet time, baby and last month’s buzzwords quickly become like email, "so 5 minutes ago".
Her point about the latest (as of 5 minutes ago) Web 2.0x buzzwords (ok what’s with the "x"? Oh, yeah..we’re on internet time, baby) is that they are not user focused but technology/business model focused….she says that the buzzwords should be written in terms of users…the buzzwords should convey what the benefit of the innovation is to users not as be an explanation of the technology. As she explicitly states, "A buzz-phrase should explicitly state how it directly benefits the user." To paraphrase, it should capture, not the technology but the this rocks/I rock when I use it user experience.
OK..so that explains how Web 2.0x buzz words should explain the benefit of the "thing" that they are buzzing about. What then is the benefit of the buzzwords themselves? It occurs to me that there is a relationship between buzzwords and tagging.
Are buzzwords in fact a kind of user directed information organizational tool, like a tag? Tag being itself a Web 2.0 buzzword…as Web 2.0 is in fact a buzzword itself. Actually, Web 2.0 is a kind of enormous buzz cloud filled with all kinds if buzz words: Just take Edge Perspectives with John Hagel’s definition: “an emerging network-centric platform to support distributed, collaborative and cumulative creation by its users.†Take the "an" the "to" the "and" the "by its" out of the preceeding sentence and all that is left are buzzwords.
So, are buzzwords in fact, tags without their soft navigational link side? Or, since buzzwords came before tags…are tags buzzwords with function?
As we struggle to categorize the onslaught of information constantly hurling our way into something meaningful to us and to others like us by tagging, so do buzzwords organize a process, a procedure, a movement, an event into a word or two, that is understood and "says it all" to us and to others like us.
I know that Kathy Sierra was talking about the problem with buzzwords being tech driven, not user driven; and that it would be more meaningful if the buzzwords conveyed "how this thing helps the user kick ass" however, when users start using the buzzwords, they are then driving the usage. Collaborative creation is a just buzzword on a presentation slide until the user feels collaborative creation….then they are driving. Turnabout is fair play…especially in a game of tag.
So the #1 benefit of buzzwords is in essence, social..,we are speaking a common language; we see things the same way: we are "in the know" together, united in our conversant buzzwords. Using buzzwords in a conversation is like a secret code…I hear you use a buzzword and know that you "get it" and I let you know
that I "get it, too" and the seat belt sign is off and I am free to
move around your cabin. Our use of buzzwords says something about us…we get "it" or we don’t get "it" as evidenced by our buzzwords.
As Mark Twain wrote long back when tag was a child’s game,"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightening and the lightening bug." The difference between a buzzword and a word is the difference between an IPod and an MP3 player. You can check the Technorati, del.icio.us, and Furl tags to see.
So, we now turn words into tags and if we are joined by others tagging the same word, the word becomes a buzzword? And if lots of other like tagging people, tag the same buzzword then the buzzword becomes a buzztag? In the mad, mad, mad world of Web 2.0 that is what it’s all about! And you thought it was the Hokey Pokey?
And of course there is a site dedicated to improving our Buzzword intelligence, BQ. I am not certain there is one yet for improving our Tag Intelligence, TI.
Technorati Tags:
tags, tagging, buzzwords, Technorati, buzztags
Closet Geek Tools of the Week
The ongoing Technorati tag mystery continued this week until a post on Allan Jenkin’s Desirable Roasted Coffee revealed the EGM Strategy Tag Generator. So far, it is working. Unfortunately, it is not working so well for Toby Bloomberg at Diva Marketing.…we might just have to write the last few verses of Twas NOT the Night Before Technorati Tags. In this tag game, it seems as if someone is always "not it."
From The eStrategyOne Buzz came SNARF, the "social network and relationship finder" from Microsoft. It is an Outlook add-on is supposed to organize your email by your own social network. I’ve installed it and think it has potental.
Digg is the third weekly addtion to my blog. According to their own definition, "Digg is a technology news website that combines social bookmarking,
blogging, RSS, and non-hierarchical editorial control. With digg, users
submit stories for review, but rather than allow an editor to decide
which stories go on the homepage, the users do." Depending how many people dig a Digg, the higher the rank on the Digg home page…another great user driven Web 2.0 application. You can post the stories to your blog (which I did in the left sidebar) or you can blog about the stories by clicking "Blog This"…or you can participate more passively and just read them.
Technorati Tags:
Technorati tag, Microsoft, SNARF, Digg
Twas NOT the Night For Technorati Tags
T’was the Night for Technorati (Or was it?)
T’was the night for tag testing
And all through the house
Would Technorati be stirring
After I clicked my mouse
The tags were entered as everyone said
as visions of better rankings danced in my head
And even though it seemed so much crap
And my brain definitely needed a nap
Away to the keyboard, I flew like a flash
Praying that Typepad would not crash
The code in the bookmarklet began to show
I pasted it hopefully in the post below
When what to my skeptical eye should appear
But an actual tag, it is very clear
And though we can’t be sure it will stick
and my fascination does seem kind of sick
All of the time wasted seems like a shame
But for that I only have myself to blame
And really finishing this only adds to the mix
Of not focusing on what might create more clicks
So one more check, just a short post
To see if my blog can be like most
But it is not meant to be true
Even new codes don’t seem to break though
Now Typepad! Now Technorati!
Tech support does not answer
Not emails! Not posts!
It just doesn’t matter
Just a little attention
Might make such a difference
An explanation! A solution!
Anything but confusion
That’s all! That’s all!
Technorati Tags: Technorati_tags, tags, Typepad
Typepad
Typepad has become the source of dissatisfaction for many bloggers lately…and the subject of many blog posts that express the dissatisfaction. Business Blog Consulting has three such posts which highlight the problems and offer positive suggestions including a "business class" of service and limiting new subscribers until the infrastructure can support it. I believe they are promoting with a buy one give one offer…why promote a flawed product? I think they should consider ending promotional offers and closing subscriptions and fix the issues.
This should become standard company policy and is good business sense. We all know what happens when we over commit…..things don’t get done right and no one is happy. Further, we lose the trust and confidence that our clients and customers had in us. The equity that we worked long and hard to earn is diminished…and value decreases much more quickly than it increases. Mostly no one is bashing or trashing Typepad….bloggers are asking that the issues be acknowledged, addressed and fixed. There are exceptions.
On top of the infrasctructure problems summed up by Raving Lunacy, "When it takes longer to post than it does to type"…and the lack of crisis control communication from Six Apart, there is the problem in the trenches of customer support. You state your problem and everything you know about it in an email. They respond with a request for more specifics. You give them the information that they say they need thinking that they intend to provide a solution, they then reply with a request for more information…sometimes they then refer you to the "how to" section of the instruction manual which you have all ready tried, you wonder why they asked for the additional information…you try and point this out…they then ask different questions. It is an endless loop, seemingly designed to avoid providing a solution with the illusion of support in the form of questions.
What a waste of everyone’s time. And I am not blaming the customer support staff….this too is an infrastructure problem; get more support staff, train them to own and solve issues and reward them for solving issues not writing emails. Customer satisfaction is directly related to employee satisfaction….something is not working here.
As Toby Bloomberg posted on Diva Marketing , " Growth without a plan that includes customer communications can cost you significantly in terms of good will and lost customers." Typepad needs to align people, strategy, and technology….Mihaly Csilszentmihaly, the father of Flow, wrote in Good Business that, a valuable product or service is one that customers perceive, rightly or wrongly, make them happy. No one is very happy with Typepad right now…the product or the service.
Technorati Tags: Type_Pad
The Tag Not Taken
It has been one of those two steps forwards one step backwards weeks….and one of the two-steps has been my adventures in tagging. To make a long post short, I had been feeling under-tagged for quite some time..I got the idea, just not the execution. Like many similar things that require that missing part of my brain to implement, I just kept putting off the OK, I’ll read the instruction manual part hoping that one of those little tag clouds would just float on over and the tagging elves would make it happen. So, while that wasn’t happening, a post by Toby Bloomberg at Diva Marketing on the very issue of being tag challenged actually started a series of steps that ultimately solved the problem for both of us (well it’s solved for Toby…this post will let me know if it’s solved for me) thanks to Marshall Kirkpatrick, whose bookmarklett reduced it all to one little web 2.0 version of fill in the blank!
So…all the great back and forth conversation and support from Marshall and Beth and Toby, started by tagging, the topic, really is what blogging and tagging and all the awesome new tools, in reality, are all about, right? And since this post is also a test to see if my tags, powered by Pingshot, will actually launch me into Technorati heaven and it has been such a two- step week, I will close with the wish that,
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two tags diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Technorati Tags: Web, 2.0, Tags
Technorati Bookmarklet
Thanks to Marshall Kirkpatrick whose tagline "Always on the lookout for the best web tools" is so true, I will now be including Technorati tags in my posts. Marshall, who has written an explanation of tagging and podcasted about it in language that is easy to understand even for those of us who do not speak Geek fluently PLUS, has made it easy to do with his Blog Tag Bookmarklet….and there’s more (better than a Ginzu knife!): Beth Kantor has created a screencast which is available on Marshall’s Blog or on her own.
Technorati Tags: tag, bookmarklet, tags, podcasting, screencasting
Marketing Person Not a Geek
Toby Bloomberg at Diva Marketing conveyed a discussion she had regarding Blog Tags with Stowe Boyd from Corante. Toby’s point was that as a marketing person not a geek, tagging was a challenge. Boyd’s point was that she should get over it and that not knowing how to do something was not "a badge of honor".
Well tagging is way up there on my list of things I know I need to understand but in spite of an ongoing search for a simple enough explanation, still don’t understand. Also on list, HTML. I too would say that I am a marketing person, not a geek. But, in my defense (and Toby’s also, should she chose to accept the defense) I don’t believe that my non-understanding of modern Geek is worn as a badge of honor. I wish I could just look at some of the this and just get it and get over it….I just don’t. It’s a brain thing.
Conversely, over at Creating Passionate Users a recent post with the title, You are a marketer, Deal with it directed engineers and product designers to "get over it"….no more it’s Geek to us badges regarding marketing. In another post, they direct the spotlight on all of us and ask, Who’s in charge you- or your brain? They then go on to say, "Everyone should know how their brain really works, because it–not you–is running the show!" Much of what they write about is about dealing with that. Ok, maybe my "it’s a brain thing" sounds a little lame when viewed in this light. Can I just whine a little and say there are just certain things that are really hard for me to understand?
OK then…so back to tagging and wouldn’t you know it but Rashmi Sinha wrote a cognitive analysis of tagging and explains it as a 2 stage process: The first stage is the "computation of similarity" between the concept and the"candidates" for related semantic concepts. The second stage is the decision regarding which category is the right one which involves various cognitive processes and much angst. However, Sinha’s theory of tagging is that the really great thing about tagging is that it eliminates step 2. You simply take your concept, subject, or object…and then do a kind of Freudian free association list of concepts, subjects or objects that come to mind, write them down and call them tags.
I get it…but I still don’t get de-licio-us.
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