Fifteenth Edition Of a Monthly Series

One of the more fun things I get to do on this blog is highlight other voices from around the world who crave tech or have insight into the Web we're all weaving. I recognize others made sure to give me airtime on their own sites, and the right thing to do is to return the favor. For the last year-plus, we have hand-selected five new blogs for you to review and, hopefully, subscribe. By following these new voices, you can get additional viewpoints outside the common echo chamber. And who knows, maybe some of these people will eventually become household names?

To get on this list, bloggers need to post regularly, cover something resembling technology, and have less than 1,000 subscribers or so. We are more than happy to take nominations as well, either here, by e-mail, FriendFeed or Twitter.

The May 2009 blogs are:

1) Almighty Link (almightylink.ksablan.com)

Focus: Social networks, hyperlinking, media, search
Three Recent Posts:

• Topsy finds Twitter users who share links related to your beat
• When a quake shakes a Sunday night newsroom
• Your content is social, even if you aren’t

RSS Feed: Subscribe Now

2) Advocate's Studio (advocatesstudio.wordpress.com)

Focus: Legal, Blogging, Technology
Three Recent Posts:

• Honor Among Bloggers
• Find a Search Engine to Match Your Visual Learning Style
• Focus on Outcome, Not Income

RSS Feed: Subscribe Now

3) Blind Five Year Old (blindfiveyearold.com)

Focus: Google, RSS, Technology
Three Recent Posts:

• Google Synonyms
• How To Deal With Email Mistakes
• Five Reasons Why Paid Search Is Down

RSS Feed: Subscribe Now

4) Techgeist (techgeist.net)

Focus: Google, Web Browsers, Search
Three Recent Posts:

• Friendfeed Has Spoiled Me - I Demand Real Time Now
• Something Has To Give
• Chrome On Linux - Displays Google.com, Does Little Else

RSS Feed: Subscribe Now

5) Deliberate Ambiguity (deliberateambiguity.typepad.com)

Focus: Search, Microsoft, Technology
Three Recent Posts:

• Bing: An Insider's Perspective
• Wolfram Alpha: A Marketer's 2 Cents
• How *not* to rate a search engine

RSS Feed: Subscribe Now

It's amazing how more than a year after starting this process, I am still impressed by the high quality writing by some of these lesser-known blogs. Some of those highlighted this month are among the best I've seen in a long time. Want to be on this list? You can catch my eye by posting great information in the field of technology, social media, blogging and the Web. I'll be more likely to highlight you if you blog almost every day, and bring new stories to the table that don't repeat discussions launched elsewhere. And if you have more than 1,000 subscribers, you're probably too big for this.

To see even more new blogs I'm adding to my reader, or get a sneak peek for next month's highlighted blogs, follow my activity on Toluu. If you don't have a login to Toluu, send me an e-mail to [email protected] and I'll get that set up right away.

Following Twitter's mid-day downtime and "fatal software error" they reported on their blog Saturday, it looks like the site is no longer displaying what applications its users are leveraging to post updates. Regardless of whether you are using TweetDeck, Tweetie, PeopleBrowsr, Seesmic Desktop, or simply redirecting updates from FriendFeed, Twitter is reporting all updates are from their Web interface.

While a minor issue, tweets from third party clients help to advertise their use. For example, it's a bit disconcerting to check the official TweetDeck account, and see they are updating "from Web", ostensibly not using their own product.



Users Clamoring About Twitter's Missing Info
I first noticed the bug on my own feed, as it said that items I had redirected from FriendFeed, using the FriendFeed URL shortener, ff.im, had originated from the Web. I also couldn't see any use of the desktop application Tweetie, when I know I have been using it. Surprisingly, Twitter showed "from Web" as the only service I had used at all.


This Tweet Originated on FriendFeed, not on Twitter's Web site

TweetDeck Users On Twitter Asking About the Bug
And yes, in a world of 140 characters, even the little things get noticed. Though not the bonfire of recent missteps, this issue has seen many asking over the last five hours why their clients aren't accurately being displayed. (See: Twitter Search "from TweetDeck" for example)

I don't see this being a longtime bug. Twitter will likely figure out the issue, which might have been introduced as a result of their recovering from unplanned downtime on Saturday. But for diehard Twitter client fans, and believe me, they're out there, the disconnect is yet another head-scratcher from a service that's playing a bigger role for an increasing number of people.

As the blog has gained in visibility, so to have the inbound pitches. Sometimes they're good, sometimes they are horrible - and some are just downright off-topic, and get deleted. But one the more recent trends I've seen is a promise by the PR rep to push the story to Digg "if the review is great". Twice this month, I have received near-identical pitches, ostensibly from two different people at two different PR agencies, ending with the following two lines, after having introduced their new iPhone apps:

"Let me know - I can send promo code right away. If the review is great we will digg it as hell."

Never mind the cookie cutter wrap-up and the substandard English, or even that the pitches have been for less than interesting iPhone applications. Call me snooty or idealistic, but I have a very real problem with the idea that if my review is deemed "great", that the PR team will try and reward me with traffic by manipulating Digg - even if I think they don't have the Digg juice to do it.


An excerpt from one such pitch in early May
I'm not going to stand on a pedestal and make a rant about paid posts, or how bloggers are allowed to curry favor or get bias, but this is a stupid practice I could really live without. Because I'm a nice guy, I won't be outing which agencies, individuals or which products are pitched this way, but I bet some of you reading this have gotten the same template garbage.

Do you really think you're earning bonus points with me because you're Web 2.0 savvy enough to know what Digg is?

If you want to entice me into writing about your product, don't do it with a promise of Diggs. Show me that you know what I usually cover, and that your offer is something my audience wants to know. And please don't send me a link from a top tech blog as evidence that your stuff is awesome, because if somebody else already debuted your story, it's already old. Digg it?

Combine the elements of your short attention span with the world's hottest little network, in Twitter, and the viral aspects of YouTube, and you've got a fun little site called Veetweet, which as my friend Drew Olanoff wrote me is like "giving a 3 year old a quadruple latte and the TV remote."


Veetweet Randomly Selects the Latest YouTube Videos Shared in Twitter
The premise seems simple. Veetweet finds the latest YouTube videos posted to Twitter, lays them out in a grid on your browser window, and plays them out in an endless stream of 10 second video clips. Should you find any of them interesting, you can click on the history playlist and see where they came from, or open the current video on YouTube.

It's a lot of like channel surfing an infinite number of channels, selected by somebody else. Find something you like? Open a new window. Not finding anything? Keep watching, and maybe something will come along. In my viewing of Veetweet, I went from guitar solos to Mexican stand-up comedy, to an excerpt of Fox News denouncing Mr. Rogers.


My Veetweet History Is Saved If I Want To Find a Video
Your Web browser is all set to play 20 channels at once, but you don't know in which order. As one ends, another expands and starts playing, as the one just watched is replaced by something new, constantly filled by the latest tweets that link out to YouTube.

The project is a showcase for 9astronauts.com, a team of developers marketing their Javascript, Ruby on Rails and iPhone coding skills. (See their other projects here)