How Not To Blog ?

An RSS-enabled chat client could allow your blog post to be sent as an IM to subscribers (feedback), and IM conversations to automatically post to blogs (feedforward).

Feedback

In feedback, your blog post is sent as an instant message (IM) to others. Others, receiving the IM, could easily respond to the message and have their response post automatically to the blog post. If you're interested in participating in the conversation, you click "Participate" and you will automatically be able to see the responses of other and participate in a flash chat session (think flash mobs, for chat rooms). If you're not interested, simply close the message window.

It could be made so that only those subscribing to a particular topic, category, or tag would see messages linked to that topic, category, or tag.

An RSS blog feedback system could have explosive consequences for blogs- as- collaborative- communities, or simply nice places to hang out.

Feedforward

In feedforward, every message you send to another would post automatically to a blog. This would be topic-driven, so that if you IM someone you first select the topic category and give the conversation a name. Your respondees' messages are automatically tied to the topic. When you want to discuss a new topic you simply 'change topic'. (This method would also serve as a constant reminder that others will see their conversations).

Anyone seeing the corresponding blog would see all conversations properly organized into the appropriate categories.

I think feedforward would benefit businesses most as more of them migrate some of their conversations to instant messaging systems.

Such a system could not just augment pointless meetings, for example, but replace them entirely if properly used. Colleagues could participate in "meetings" without actually being in them (just looking at the blog or blog feed at their convenience). Meetings could take place intermittently over days instead of crammed into 1 hour sessions. If they see something of interest or something to which they could contribute, they could easily pop into the conversation.

Really, the two systems could easily be one system. However, for ease of understanding I have illustrated them as separate concepts.

(See my previous article, RSS & the Evolution of Online Chat, for more crap.)

What's going to happen when people have a thousand feeds? Wouldn't it be nice to have these thousand feeds, but only display those that are tagged with what I'm looking for? Is there an RSS feed filter? I don't want to see everything that comes through the pipes. Alternatively, display only those that are titled with (or have included in the body) my pre-defined words.

[Update]

I'm referring to RSS aggregators here, not blogs that display RSS feeds. There are so many aggregators out there, somebody's gotta have it.

See another HNTB article, Folksonomic blog post titles? Better RSS feed filter methods? Better Search?

Now that the dude over at delicious has quit his day job and will work on the site full-time, I'm sure he and whomever else has invested some cash in the site is doing some thinking about where to take it (my money is on Google).

Google has more cash flow right now that HNTB has punctuation. It would be wise to invest in and integrate the popular site (and its concepts) into the Google gameplan. So, we must ask ourselves: How will del.icio.us make money?

What is can do, of course, is start with a community-based advertising scheme. Instead of just linking to a new used book service that I'm using that I think is wonderful, I could not only link to it, but tell the community what I really think about it in my user comments, and get paid for every click or order.

Think this isn't a good idea? Go to your favorite blogs or websites. Chances are, one or more of them will display Google Adwords (ads by goooooooooogle) somewhere on the page. These people are advertising products and services that they haven't even approved of. How much more valuable is a link recommended by someone you have some degree of trust in? A whole lot more.

Advertisers would list their products and services in the Tagwords directory. Users would pick out those products and services they're already using, add them to their bookmarks with their comments, tips, hints, recommendations, etc., for that product or service. If someone visits my links*, clicks on your product/service, and orders something, you better believe I want a premium price for the introduction. (The site operator would, of course, take a cut of that, too.)

(*Note: there's so much more that could be done with tagging and tracking sites like delicious and Technorati. I think the door has only just opened for these services. I'll try to crap it out in another post.)

Sure, there's plenty of room for abuse of the system, but a lot more room for non-abuse. Because the site is community-based, those users who abuse the system would simply not be successful at it.

Folksonomic clouds like delicious or Technorati must make changes if they're to integrate revenue concepts into their sites.

When I visit Technorati, I want to be able to look at their links, and easily add any link to my favorites. I should then be able to add my own personal tag and comment on the link for future reference. (And perhaps make the tags publicly viewable on my personal page.) "Tads" can then be implemented within this context. And how about giving me the ability to go to the next page while you're at it?

delicious should allow users to add a notes and other metadata to their bookmarks. (See del.irio.us for some reference.)

Though most users (including myself) would be annoyed at the new system for the ads, I think if the tagword ad (or tad) is 1) relevant; 2) not annoying; and 3) recommended by the bookmarker then I don't think most users would have a problem with the system. Remember, the last part is the most important part.

Of course users would display their regularly scheduled links. And you could set it up so that a user could only display one tagword ad for every x number of non-tads in my bookmarks.

Any visitor that visits my link page or searches for a tag will see my tads along with regular results. The number of ads per result set could also be limited so that a particular tag isn't littered with them.

Bloggers already link to do products and services that they love all the time. Why not make a little money in there somewhere at the same time?

Google is already trying out a new form of contextual advertising called AdLinks, where you can click on a keyword or keyphrase and be taken to a page of relevant advertising. If it does indeed partner purchase with del.icio.us, it would be taking the concept one step further.

So.. this is what advertising has come to?

Searching Yahoo personals through Google you'll get a result list of Yahoo personals profiles that match.

The format is:

site: profiles.yahoo.com KEYWORD KEYWORD KEYWORD...

A search for single teachers in Dallas gives us 25 results.

Supposedly, searching site: profiles.yahoo.com on Google brings back 631,000 results. Searching site: profiles.yahoo.com on Yahoo brings back only 175 results.

Who says Google doesn't have it's own yodel?

Thanks to Razvan Antonescu

Following up to my article, Google working out a deal with del.icio.us, Joshua Schachter of delicious writes on March 29:

After seeing my little project go from a small hobby to a large one and
then consume all my waking hours, I've decided to quit my job and work
on del.icio.us full time.

I've given a lot of thought to how to make this happen, and ultimately
decided that the best way forward is to take on some outside investment.

Although in the next line he confuses a bit, saying, "I've taken this step because it lets me continue to grow del.icio.us while keeping it independent."

My guess is that he's already sold off part of the company on the condition that he and the user community maintain full control over it. But it's anybody's guess.

We'll see what develops. It should be interesting.

Looks like Sony is rolling out hotspot-enabled wi-fi service for its new PSP (PlayStation Portable) in Korea.

(See previous post, The iPod is dead. Long live the iPod. Hello, PSP!)

In the US, they will probably use their their Sony Connect service to stream movies, music, games, and other media directly to your PSP over wi-fi (right now you connect the device to your computer, then download). This is HUGE. These aren't laptops.. these are devices you can carry around with you everywhere, just like the iPod. Live, streaming media to your portable device is the future. The PSP has a ways to go to get there, but it's obvious that is the direction Sony wants to take it.

People are already hacking these devices to play movies, music, etc., in any format, as well as ebooks, and connecting them to the internet. You can even get RSS feeds on it now. If Sony is, indeed, working out a plan with the many different wi-fi hotspot providers in the US so that PSP users can connect directly to the internet, as it is rumored, you can bet that there will be a huge surge in popularity and use of the device. Right now, however, most people are just buying the PSP for its gamesability and haven't yet discovered the PSP as the portable media device.

Is Apple paying attention?