Spotback's Top Stories

Blog Search is Broken

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:33:13 GMT

Yesterday we saw the official release of Blogs.com. Blogs.com is making top ten lists of blogs in several categories “to help you discover the best sites that you never knew existed.” The site looks well-designed, but a question remains, what are we trying to solve? The inclusion of celebrity (including people like Alyssa Milano) top ten lists implies that this could be a mainstream blog directory in the same mold as Alltop. So, what is the point of Blogs.com?

Let’s ask a different question. What is the point of a blog directory? Generally speaking, a blog directory is meant to list various blogs with their general content topic. With this in mind, it is typical to see “hot” blogs in the category or even just hot topics. In the past we have seen sites like Technorati combine this idea with their notion of “Authority.” Technorati Authority is often used to determine how popular a blog may be. As useful as rankings can be, Technorati has fallen out of favor. Additional development has been limited and people really do not use it to find new blogs.

Other “blog directories” have tried adding a social component. MyBlogLog targeted tracking links that readers had clicked on, but allowed registered users to connect with other bloggers and join blog “communities.” In the past few months, they even added a lifestreaming component for each user. The tracking information is a very solid offering, but the lifestreaming has had questionable success.

Blog Catalog aimed to be the social network for bloggers. This includes a categorized directory as well as enabling users to “friend” other blog authors. For whatever reason, these sites have plenty of monthly traffic, but never really took off.

Other sites try to integrate blog posts with mainstream media news stories. Wikio is a personalized news page where blog authors can submit their blog for inclusion as an article source. As expected, the news is broken into several categories, but there are only 15 top level categories and no subcategories.

Another interesting site is BlogRunner. It is trying to be a news aggregator by mixing blogs with mainstream media sources. Not surprisingly, this is a mainstream media production from the New York times. The most interesting part of this offering is the topic index where you see a large list categorized into Companies, Countries, Organizations, People and several others. This could be useful to find information, but does not help find particular or interesting blogs.

As you can see, a lot of people think that blogs contain some useful information. Even mainstream media is starting to see the power of blogs. However, blog directories have not really done much to help bloggers or readers. “News style” sites like Blogs.com, Wikio and BlogRunner also list various blogs but are more focused on presenting information as opposed to generating exposure for specific blogs. These sites also do not have a functional differentiator that would cause people to choose one site over another.

What problem are these sites trying to solve? Even after a quick review of the sites, there is not an obvious problem except the implied “giving blogs more exposure.” Exposure is really only needed by the smaller blogs that do not get highlighted by these types of sites. Most of these sites suffer from having a solution in search of a problem. MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog do have specific focus that will keep them alive for a while, but they are very focused on the blog author not the reader. What site could provide a way for people to find new or interesting blogs without being overly technical?

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Fun Things To Do With Google Blog Search Beta
Gnoos Launches Aussie Blog Search
David Sifry Out as Technorati CEO, 8 Staff Too

Source: Mashable!

there's always a splasher

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:17:16 GMT

counterpose posted a photo:

Source: Recent Uploads tagged selfportrait

Tiffany 'New York' Pollard Racism Watch

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:05:11 GMT

We all know violent sexpot New York has no respect for herself – really, how could she? – but had you any idea how little she cares for the feelings of others?

In the newest episode of televised pockmark New York Goes to Hollywood, Pollard attempts to research Japanese culture for an upcoming commercial role. Of course, she goes about this not by heading to the library for The Book of Five Rings or scouring Wikipedia, but by asking every Asian person she sees if they can explain Japan.

CONTINUED »

Permalink | post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg
Post tags: Asians, I Hate New York, Idiocy, Japan, New York, Racism, Reality Television

Source: Jossip

Amazing Racers Ready to Roll

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:41:59 GMT

A pair of McLovin-loving frat brothers, a former NFL player and his estranged wife (awkward) and a pair of honey-making hippies are among the competitors set for a globetrotting spin around the...

Source: E! Online - Top Stories

Del.izzy Does What Del.icio.us Won’t: Search The Full Text Of Your Bookmarks

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:12:25 GMT

When you search your bookmarks on del.icio.us, all you are searching is the tags, titles, and descriptions. If you want to search the full text of the underlying bookmarked pages themselves, you have to go to Del.izzy, a site out of Melbourne, Australia that was hacked together in three days. Del.izzy takes each page that you’ve bookmarked and puts it through a Google custom search to bring back results for the search terms you enter.

It is a pretty obvious feature, and there is no reason why del.icio.us, which is owned by Yahoo, can’t do this itself. And perhaps it was simply a design decision. You could argue that searching only through tags, titles, and descriptions returns better results because all of the words in those elements are essentially explicit, higher-level categorizations of the content being bookmarked. And the nice thing about searching on del.cio.us is that you can get results for everyone’s bookmarks, not just your own.

But by searching the actual text of the pages themselves, you can catch keywords that were not captured elsewhere. And in this case, more results are better, because any one person’s set of bookmarks is going to be a relatively limited set of pages.

The problem with Del.izzy is that it doesn’t search the tags, titles, or descriptions. It only searches the text of the underlying pages. What you want is a bookmark search that does both.

A search for “video advertising,” for instance, turned up the same top result, but the rest were all different (see screen shots below). Are the Del.izzy results better? Not really. But they show you what you is missing from a standard del.icio.us search.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch

What is the best free email account? - Google’s Gmail

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:34:12 GMT

Written by Jacob Cass

Do you still use Microsoft Outlook or Eudora for your emails, or maybe something else? If you do, you probably are not having the most productive and user friendly experience that you could be having.

Up until about a month ago I had been using Outlook entirely for my emails, then I trialled Gmail (Google’s Free Email service) for 2 weeks and since getting to know Gmail, I have not turned back… there are just so many more features that make Outlook (and other similar email programs) seem just unworthy. Even Darren Rowse from Problogger has made the switch.

Although it may take a week or two to get used to gmail, over the many years to come, it will literally save you weeks of your time. I highly recommend to switch to Gmail and below I give 10 reasons why.

10 Reasons To Switch To Gmail

Gmail spam filters block 99% of the spam that usually makes it to your inbox. Although Outlook 2007 had a good spam filter, I still usually got around 2 or 3 emails a week sneaking into my inbox… not with Gmail.
With Gmail you get to keep your old email account, and all incoming emails will be forwarded to your new Gmail account . Also, emails that you send from your new account will have your old email account in the from area.
You can create Word docs, PDF’s and spread sheets with Gmail via the use of GoogleDocs.
Gmail allows you to schedule events with the Google Calendar that will notify you by email to remind you of an appointment or meeting. It can also send a reminder to the person or persons that you will be meeting with.
Gmail has something called ‘Stars’ and which allows you to tag emails you find important. You can actually do a search for ‘Starred‘ emails and they all pop up, and as quick as a normal google search!
Your emails are tabbed into a thread, which means you no longer have to look for old emails… it is more like a conversation window.
You can archive old emails or whole conversations so that you can keep your Inbox clear.
You can set up filters and labels to keep your Inbox organised and clutter free.
It has a fast, easy search function which means you will never lose an email again. The search is as fast a normal google search which is ace.
All your emails are online which means that you access your emails from anywhere, not just one computer.
Update: Forgot to mention how much space there is with Gmail… you will never have to delete an email again.

Learn About Gmail

Below are some great videos to get you started with Gmail. If you have a website and an email related with your website you should be using Google Apps to set up your Gmail Account… the videos below will explain.

Using Gmail - Part 1 (5m 38s)- Learn about the basic features of gmail in this video.

Using Gmail - Part 2 (7m 50s)- Learn about how to retrieve other (ie. your old email address) email into Gmail, setup labels and filters, explain the Archive function and Gmail conversation.

Using Gmail - Part 3 (4m 39s)- Explore the more advanced settings options and some of the features coming out of Google Labs

Further Email Tips

Want a rich text signature in your gmail account? Now you can.
Are you getting too much email? Learn how to get a grip on email.
Not getting enough email from clients? Learn how to get more email.
10 Tips to writing effective emails.

Anyway I hope you give Gmail a try… it really is worth it. What other email programs / sites do people use and why?

Source: The Best Article Every day

Solange Reigns Supreme Over Her Elephant-Filled World [Videodrone]

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:29:59 GMT

The clip for Solange's "Sandcastle Disco" premiered on FNMTV Friday night, and while I take issue with the idea that "no one else" out there is making music like this right now, which one of the show's panelists espoused—the fact that Amerie's Because I Love It never came out over here doesn't mean it doesn't exist!—the track, with its lighter-than-air girl-group harmonies and organ filigrees, is pretty irresistible in a hooks-all-over kind of way. [YouTube]

Source: Idolator

NBA wants to stream local games live

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:50:17 GMT

That’s right, the NBA is working on a plan that would allow Celtics fans in Boston, for example, to watch live streams of their team in action. Celtics fans outside of the Boston DMA would be blocked. “We hope to have a model in place this season,” said the NBA’s Bill Koenig. “We believe that if we can draw more people to the interactive features, it will help bring in new [fans] and keep [fans] for a longer period of time.” Of course, that doesn’t play well with cable and satellite operators, not to mention the regional sports networks. So stay tuned…

Source: Lost Remote » Blog

Meet the new teams on 'The Amazing Race' (AP)

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 02:28:32 GMT

AP - An ex-NFL player and his estranged wife, a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader and her actor brother, recent divorcees, a pair of Southern belles and fraternity brothers are among the 11 two-person teams hurrying for the finish line and the $1 million grand prize on the upcoming 13th edition of CBS' "The Amazing Race."
Source: Yahoo! News: Television News

Kelly Rowland plans to relocate to London

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:24:43 GMT

Kelly Rowland plans to relocate to London, NOW reports

Kelly Rowland plans to relocate to London.

‘I’m very comfortable here, and that says a lot. I feel like I’m at home,' she says.

'My British fans are the best in the world.'

Kelly was going to buy a luxury apartment in Battersea, south London, but pulled out.

‘I really like north London,’ she tells Celebs On Sunday.

‘I’m going to check out lots of places there as soon as possible.’

Image WENN

Source: The Bosh