Recently talking with a good friend and consistent reader of this blog, he told me one of the reasons he likes reading louisgray.com is that he believes I'm not trying to follow somebody else's lead, that I'm not an echo chamber, and instead, I'm actually trying to promote things I believe in. I hope he's right. For while I might occasionally make comments on the news of the day, we're, in this political climate, the blogging candidate for change.

Here are a few examples of how we've tried to push change on the Web and make it a better place to take in new information, find new sources for news, accurately report statistics and influence, as well as ways we're trying to help popular services improve and help people find new tools:

1) The Internal Links vs. External Links Debate

We tried to squash the practice of using Internal Links when External Links would be better ways to bring visitors to the companies making the news. In the ensuing discussions, some major blogs said they would make changes, while others said I had it all wrong. Even if most did nothing, the issue was certainly made more visible.

Internal Linking On Some Tech Blogs Is Out of Control
More Comments On Inwardly Linking
Backlink Backlash Could Bring Forth Change
Link In. Link Out. Shake it All About.

2) The Elimination of Spam-Like Viral Link Tags for Statistics Manipulation

As it's well recognized Google and Technorati will give your site more perceived value based on the amount of unique links to your Web site, many have made a move to artificially inflate their numbers, incorrectly leading to high PageRanks and Technorati Authority, despite the fact Google can punish those found cheating.

Technorati Needs to Stamp Out Viral Tag Spam Now
Kent Newsome Calls My Comments "Fear and Loathing"
Is There an Antidote to the Link Tags Virus?

3) Correctly Learning What Is Original Reporting, and Who's Just Following Along

News aggregators can be both a blessing and a curse. Sites like TechMeme are outstanding for seeing the day's blog activity, but as they also drive traffic, it can encourage bad behavior, without question. We're still looking to see if TechMeme will continue tweaking its algorithm to report those who break a story first and add original reporting, rather than those who have big brand names or the most external links.

What Should Drive TechMeme's Content?
Algorithms Cause Fight Between Linking and Original Reporting
Robot-Generated Sites Show Occasional Flaws

4) Asking Web Companies to Take Downtime Seriously, and Increase Reliability

If we're really going to move all our data to the Web, we have to trust it will always be there, easily and quickly. But far too many Web 2.0 companies have shown flaky uptime, and later, mocked us with humorous error messages, thinking their downtime is a joke. Guess what? It's not.

Web 2.0 Companies Play With Error Messages
Silly YouTube - Where's The Redundancy?
LinkedIn Provides Another Silly Web 2.0 "Error" Page
Ack! Google Reader Update Wipes Out History
Scoble's Right: Technorati Isn't Scaling to Beat Google

5) Looking to Eliminate Spam, Both on E-mail and in Blogs

There's nothing more annoying than finding a good communication medium foiled by those who want to misuse it for their own ill-begotten needs. That's why I refuse to ever join Plaxo, get annoyed by Facebook application spam, and the rapid growth of spam blogs or "Splogs".

Is Technorati Going After Spam Blogs?
Technorati Confirms Attack on Splogs, Provides Update
Sending Me Spam Makes Us Friends, Right?

6) Communicating With Companies and Offering Suggestions to Improve

One of the best things I've found with the blog is being able to talk to Web companies and help build their products to be more successful through testing, and offering specific comments. In almost every case, I've gained direct feedback from the developer, and in many cases, they've updated very quickly.

10 Suggestions for FriendFeed
10 Suggestions to Improve Google Reader
10 More Suggestions for LinkedIn
Eight Reasons the Apple TV is Failing, and How It Can be Saved
Why Can't Del.icio.us Show Most Popular Bookmarks by URL?
What Is the Future Of MyBlogLog?
Use Your Blog To Talk To Companies

7) Looking at Mega-Trends for Insight Into Momentum

We don't blog and live in a vacuum. Instead, as technology and business evolve, change naturally occurs. When I see something I think is taking place which impacts us, I want to talk about it and see if you're seeing what I am. Often you see it too, and sometimes, you tell me I'm wrong, which is okay too.

The Biggest Blogs Aren't Really Blogs Any More
The Web Advertising Bubble Has Got to Pop
Did Trackbacks Die, and Who Killed Them?
Alexa Web Statistics Show Old Media Influence Nosedive
10 Predictions for 2008 In the World of Tech

8) Reinforcing the Idea that Blogging Can Be Personal, Yet Influential

I want to blog with passion about those things I cover and discover. I want to have communications with people I couldn't reach otherwise, and while I may enjoy seeing traffic spikes or external links, it's not what's driving me. I believe I should gain additional traffic if I offer good content, not because I am following the latest trend or using link schemes. So often, I talk about why I blog, and what I'm trying to do. After all, I am adamant that your blog can be your personal brand, and you should take care of it.

New Reality: Your Blog Is Your Brand
Why Do I Blog? An Introspective Look
A Big Part of Blogging is Writing to Your Readers
Blogging: Set Goals Or Let Fly?
If It's Not About Breaking News or Traffic...

9) Highlighting New Companies and Services I Enjoy

What's the fun in finding new Web tools if I can't tell you about them? You can believe that if I start begging you to try out a new service, it's because I really believe in what they stand for, and I see their potential. I have a tendency to root for the little guy and am all too eager to promote those that offer unique service differentiation. I don't always have to be first to report something, but I will be clear about why I think it's pretty darn cool.

I Have Seen the Future of Social RSS Feed Readers
Hype It Up: Ballhype Is Here to Change the Game
Friendfeed Follows Friends' Web Activity
PlugandPlay Expo Highlight: Spokeo
AideRSS Judges Feed Posts as Good, Great, Best

10) Thinking Philosophically, Out Loud, to Those Who Will Listen

If I'm not reacting to news, or letting you know about something I like, it's likely I'm thinking about where we're headed. Often, this will be impacted by work I've done over the last decade, or books I've read. Sometimes thinking out loud while writing is the best way to get my points across. After all, I can't exactly have a conference call with hundreds of people, but I can reach hundreds of people this way. Maybe my thoughts have value to a smaller subset.

I Still Get Excited About Silicon Valley
The Big Debate: Online vs. Offline, and Web Influence
Maintaining Integrity of Web Archives Is Essential
Is Timing an Important Element for Blog Posts?

While I don't expect every post I do to be absolutely high-minded, I do want to make a difference here on the Web. I want to help, from my small corner in the blogosphere, to help guide the next generation of blogging. I want to help companies understand their customers, and to help customers find great companies. I do this because I enjoy it and because it's for the betterment of our global community. If you think these are things you find useful, then be sure you are on our RSS feed, and keep following along. It's a never-ending journey.

Yesterday, I pulled off a daring two-fer, as a friend and I went to the Palo Alto Fry's, and later to the Apple Store, and I managed not to buy a thing. Despite being surrounded by flat-screen televisions, DVDs, video games and widgets of every kind to support my iPod and Mac habit, we were thrifty, and didn't get our credit cards out once. Tough job.

But that didn't mean I resisted letting my geek flag fly.

At Fry's, I wore a tie-dyed Apple logoed t-shirt throughout the store. While everyone else was bundled up from the storm-like weather outside, I donned the t-shirt, sensing a marketing/advertising community, helping to push the unwashed, white box PC builders at Fry's to consider a healthier alternative.

When at the Apple Store, we outgeeked the sales reps themselves. As we messed around with a 30-inch Cinema Display, we ended up showing the employee some of our favorite Web tools, from Assetbar to FriendFeed. We showed off high-quality videos playing on our iPod Touch. We even introduced him to products we knew the company sold on the online Apple Store but not in their retail store. After a while, the guy was asking us if we were "visiting from corporate", i.e. from the mother ship in Cupertino.

Interestingly enough, the Apple Store in Palo Alto continues to be a major hub for Silicon Valley digerati. Years after seeing Apple CEO Steve Jobs there, in the store's early days, last night I recognized and talked with Michael Arrington from TechCrunch. He reported he's not going to CES, and said Om Malik is still in the ICU, but has been well-protected by his team, so updates have been slim. Arrington said it was good to meet fellow bloggers, and it's likely not too often he's recognized in the real world.

So, that was fun. Why didn't I buy anything? Because we're still recuperating from the holiday purchases. I didn't tell you we bought a 50-inch Samsung plasma screen from Fry's on Christmas Eve for our living room, and got a guy to take our old, bulky, entertainment center. So that means our overhaul is further along, but not complete. We still need to get both TVs on the wall, and get a smaller half-height entertainment center. Then, maybe... I can start buying again.

With FriendFeed rapidly gaining momentum, there's no question the service is accruing its share of fans, myself included. With that in mind, I created a new group on Facebook to provide a platform for FriendFeed Fans to get together, share links, suggestions and help promote this next generation distributed broadcast medium.

You can find the new group here: Facebook: FriendFeed Fans

In case you thought I was just about the only one enamored with FriendFeed, check out the following links:

Alex Gawley:
I Love FriendFeed
Charles Hudson:
FriendFeed and Plaxo Pulse - FriendFeed Is My Preference and it Reminds Me of Twitter
ParisLemon:
You Should Probably Be Using FriendFeed

If you're not on FriendFeed yet, you should be. See my feed and sign up.
If you're not on Facebook, more power to you. But if you are, then join FriendFeed Fans today.

I'm something of a late or reluctant adopter of del.icio.us, the social bookmarking tool absorbed into Yahoo! at the end of 2005. While I've had an account for years, I didn't really find any use for the service, keeping my bookmarks to myself.

But now, with the ability to post items into my FriendFeed by adding a bookmark to del.icio.us, combined with the ability to track the number of times my own posts have been bookmarked, thanks to FeedBurner, I've been using the service a bit more. By adding items to del.icio.us, I'm not just saving a bookmark for me, but for all those who follow me on FriendFeed.

Also, I occasionally add some of my more popular posts to del.icio.us, not out of narcissism, but out of curiosity, to learn who else has done the same. After all, for some reason, I can't do a search by URL within del.icio.us, but can only find this data by self-bookmarking, and clicking the "saved by 1 other person" link, revealing the fan and how they tagged the item.

And this... is broken.

Del.icio.us is very much a repository based on tagging. It's easy to search the entire site for specific tags, like friendfeed, facebook, or techcrunch, but it's evasively difficult to search on a specific URL and find out the most popular posts from a specific blog or Web site.


A screen capture of some bookmarked posts from louisgray.com
When I search for the phrase "louisgray.com" in del.icio.us, I get some clues, but that's only if the person who bookmarked included the URL in the title of the bookmark itself. For example, I can see 19 saved the story 10 Suggestions to Improve Google Reader, while 12 saved Facebook Google Reader App Rebrands As Feedheads, and 16 bookmarked Internal Linking On Some Tech Blogs Is Out of Control. And five people have bookmarked louisgray.com itself. But if I referred to the posts by their headlines without louisgray.com, my search results would be useless.

I'm curious to see what Del.icio.us has planned for site improvements in 2008, as the service hasn't changed much of late. Back on September 6th, the company said:

"Fresh news from deep within Tag Mountain: we just launched an early, limited Preview of the Delicious redesign we’ve been working on for the past few months. We’ve refreshed the UI, built an entirely new (and faster) search engine, and added numerous improvements based on your feedback."

Since then, the silence has been deafening. The company's blog hasn't been updated in more than three months, and at the turn of the calendar year, one del.icio.us representative wrote in the comments, "Probably a couple months or so, give or take a few weeks…ish. There’s still a lot of work to do, but we’re working hard."

So... who knows. Maybe it'll be Spring. Maybe not. And it's not clear if the updated search engine will solve this issue of finding bookmarks by URL, or offering the ability to rank by most popular, most recent, or finding out which users most often like your posts. All of these would be useful tools for bloggers out there who want to see where their content fits in the social scheme of things.