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as promised, the netscape social news site has made the switch to its new branding and is live at propeller.com (netscape itself is redirecting to the portal as previously announced). while the rest of the blogosphere is chewing on their hats, the propeller community is ready to get social. but that’s not all, the director of netscape (now propeller) had this to say,

also, we are not happy to simply stand pat with our existing features. in the near future, we will be able to share information about our new social news platform, which we are extremely excited about. It will bring together the best of all worlds: a world class design team, an advanced website platform, and a host of new and interesting ways to enjoy social news.

(emphasis added)

as always, the entire propeller team (including myself) is here to serve you so if you have any comments, questions, concerns, please feel free to share them with us and we will try to resolve them as best we can.

Technorati Tags: netscape, social news, propeller

a survey conducted by emedia finds that almost two thirds (62%) of all users of social networking sites are worried about the safety of their personal information on these sites and to protect themselves, about one third of these users (31%) enter false information.

original image: tall chris

findings of this survey echo the results from an earlier study by pew internet & american life project, and the most important implication of both studies is the underlying mistrust that users have for social networking sites. as more people sign up for these sites and enter their demographic information as well as their likes and dislikes, these sites become highly valuable resources for data-miners who can ultimately sell this information to the highest bidder.

andrea simmons, consultant security forum manager at british computer society comments, “as we become citizens of cyberspace and with social networking sites making details of members visible through public search engines, we need to learn how to use privacy settings in better ways and use computers safely.”

social networking sites certainly make it easy to stay in touch with co-workers, friends, and family, but the fact that they can be abused by employers, marketers (pdf), and even by the government, is limiting many from enjoying the benefits. at the same time, i’ve always implicitly trusted some networks more than others - for example, i trust linkedin the most, then facebook, and don’t trust myspace at all.

how safe do you feel, how honest are you, and how much do you reveal online?

Technorati Tags: social networking, linkedin, facebook, myspace, online, privacy, data-mining

there has been considerable debate as to which one you should use on your site, a full-text rss feed or a partial-text rss feed. while many people fail to understand the reasoning for why you should use full-text feeds (i.e. there is no loss in page views, and in fact by some measures full text feeds result in higher page views, more comments, and better discussions) many probloggers have embraced full feeds.

the list includes but is not limited to all weblogs inc. blogs (engadget, downloadsquad, tuaw, and so on), all gawker media blogs (gizmodo, kotaku, lifehacker, and so on), and all wired blogs (wired news, compiler, epicenter, and so on). without regurgitating the merits of using full feeds or going into details of how you can offer full feeds while ensuring all the benefits you think you get from offering partial feeds, here’s one thing you absolutely should do if you offer full feeds: advertise them!

you are already going the extra step for the sake of your readers’ convenience so why not let non-subscribers know that you offer the convenience? in fact, most readers prefer full feeds and i wouldn’t be surprised if just advertising full feeds would convert an occasional reader into a subscriber. i know from experience that though subscribers don’t always read your content, they obviously read it more regularly than non-subscribers, and once readers subscribe to your feed, they rarely unsubscribe.

with that in mind, go and advertise the face that you love your readers and offer full-text feeds.

p.s. i offer a full-text feed.

Technorati Tags: rss, full feed, partial feed, blogging

you know what i hate about weekends? after a day of spending time with friends and family i want some down time with my rss reader, and all my favorite bloggers have decided to take the day off. the problem isn’t so bad on friday but it gets much worse as we approach sunday. i can’t blame them for taking the day off, but what i can do is provide a few good reasons to blog on the weekend and the three kinds of posts that can be written.

original photo: zappowbang

blogging on a weekend immediately increases your visibility because not many others are blogging. by standing out in the crowd, you have the following 4 advantages:

1. developing loyal readers: by writing consistently, your readers are both better engaged and taken care of. consistently engaged readers are more loyal readers.

2. getting on techmeme: since you are one of the few people writing and getting linked to, content aggregators like techmeme and megite are more likely to pick up your articles.

3. getting on digg: what many bloggers don’t consider is that socially driven sites don’t take days off. diggers are always looking for content to submit, digg, and promote. writing on a slow news day might just be your first entry point onto the digg front page.

4. getting links: linking is an outcome resulting from combinations of the above. let me explain (and this will become clear in the next section too): by getting on techmeme and digg you grab the attention of weekend readers and if they happen to be bloggers, they might just send you some link love.

these are some of the reasons to write on the weekend. after all, what could be better than more loyal readers, more exposure on aggregators and social news sites, and ultimately more links? if i’ve convinced you, here are a few posts you can write:

1. write about writing on the weekend: if you’re going to be writing on the weekend, you might as well take the extra step of letting your readers (and other bloggers) know that you will be writing on the weekend. take an extra step and explain to them why writing on the weekend is a good idea.

2. the link-dump post: the link-dump post is better than not writing at all but is not as good as writing an actual post. by posting relevant and interesting links on your blog you accomplish several things: first, you acknowledge that you’re taking the day off but at the same time you give your readers some other quality content to read. second, it is a great way of letting other bloggers in your niche know that you are reading their content and appreciate it (in fact this may land you some appreciation from them too).

3. the semi-relevant post: the main reason why many bloggers decide to take the weekend off is because they are low-traffic days (they aren’t no-traffic days!). one way to take the day off without actually taking the day off is by targeting anticipated traffic. an example of this (which i have done quite a few times) is writing a post called “5 advertisements that work” (this is for pronet advertising, a marketing blog) and making it just 5 pictures with a paragraph to tie it up. sure it’s a lazy post but its better than nothing and often better than a link-dump post.

4. writing an actual post: maybe you don’t care about who’s not reading, rather you care about who is reading and write an actual post for those readers? or how about I convinced you in the above and you want a good post to receive techmeme or digg attention?

with that said, i hope to enjoy a lot of great content around this time next week!

Technorati Tags: weekend, blogging, social media, techmeme, digg, links

reddit, one of the smaller digg competitors, is looking to hire a programmer.

most of our work is done in python, and unix/linux skills are a must. really, we just need a fourth for our post-lunch video games.

an engineering degree is preferred, and experience with databases, web development, and scaling issues are all desirable.

the job is in san francisco, ca.

if you’d like to apply, send them an email to [email protected].

Technorati Tags: reddit, digg, jobs

it’s no secret that as part of its social media strategy, yahoo! has been wanting to acquire facebook. it’s also no secret that yahoo! thought mark zuckerberg was too greedy with his asking price (because the truly believes that he has the next google on his hands) and the talks went awry. and after an announcement last night, yahoo’s alternative to facebook is no longer a secret either.

with all the not-secrets out of the way, here’s a peek at yahoo’s announcement,

Mash: a new approach to online profiles. If you’ve used other online profiles before you’ll feel at home in Mash. But there are some new twists that make things a little interesting and, we think, a lot of fun.

1. You can make starter profiles for your friends. Think: “first round’s on me.”
2. You can leave your profile open to contributions by trusted friends.
3. You can customize your — or your friend’s — profile with modules from a growing gallery of apps.

Of course, there are extensive privacy controls in Mash and you set the boundaries that you’re comfortable with.

more than anything else, mash is a mashup (go figure) of a lot of existing yahoo! services, presented as a cohesive, easy-to-use, and socially connected package. these services, including yahoo! 360 (yahoo’s other social network, probably soon to be past-tense’d), flickr, and mybloglog, are integrated through the use of mash modules which you can grab, insert, and move around in your profile.

there are already dozens of modules that the mash team has created. these modules don’t just let you mashup other yahoo! services with mash but also add new functionality and even let you grab information from other sites that you are a part of (for example the facebook photos module). but that’s not all, in addition to the modules the mash team has made, they have announced plans to open module development to third-parties (like facebook did with f8).

in the coming months we’re going to open up our module development platform to 3rd party developers. drop us a line at modules [at] yahoo-inc.com if you want to learn more. we’d love to hear from you!

at first glance, yahoo’s mash is a very basic social networking, but it doesn’t have to be. along with all the standard features that other sites have, it is also highly customizable (like facebook) and let’s you decide how minimalist or extensive your profile with be. i’m happy with what i’m seeing so far. mash is off to a good start and has the added benefit of being able to rely on both yahoo! resources and other yahoo! services.

i would love to see you mash it up with me. please drop me a comment and i’ll get you in!

Technorati Tags: social networking, yahoo!, mash, yahoo! 360, mybloglog, flickr, facebook, f8, modules

if you’ve been following all the hoopla over ad-block plus, the firefox plugin that let’s you strip advertising from websites and improve your online experience by letting you view content without any distractions (and loading sites faster), you already know of the impending battle between consumers and ad-supported content producers/publishers.

while consumers argue that ads are irrelevant and slow down access to the content, the anti-ad-block camp argues that they rely on advertising as their main source of revenue and the plugin is killing their business model. the latter argument makes sense at first, but when you think about the users who are actually installing the extension, the argument doesn’t hold anymore. these users are already largely banner-blind (i.e. they are practically blind to advertisements on sites) and are extremely unlikely to ever click on an ad. by installing the extension to their browsers, they are only improving their experience without causing any additional loss to the content creators/publishers.

regardless of which side of the argument is more legitimate, pretty soon we might see lawsuits flying.

many web sites prohibit any kind of ad-blocking in their terms of service agreements. myspace.com prohibits ‘covering or obscuring the banner advertisements on your personal profile page, or any MySpace.com page via hmtl/css or any other means.’ six apart’s livejournal uses similar language, as do some news organizations including the chicago sun-times and fox tv’s houston affiliate.

what we’re seeing here is reflective of nothing more than the fact that the advertisements are so poor in their targeting and relevancy that the users just don’t want to see them and won’t click on them even if they do see them. at the same time, rather than acknowledging the flaw and improving the ads, the content producers/publishers want to push the ads in the consumers’ faces. with reference to the question of whether something can be done about firefox and ad-block plus, the honest truth is that all that is going to come from discussions of the plugin is increased exposure and greater user adoption to the point where advertisers are forced to innovate towards more viable ads.

Technorati Tags: online, advertising, adblock plus, firefox

compete is reporting that facebook, the rising star of social networking sites, is not only ranked number 3 in terms of page views now (and possibly stealing users/visitors away from myspace) but the site’s developer platform is a huge success. a total of 14 million people interacted with facebook applications in august alone.

have a look at the following visualization from compete, depicting the different activities that facebook users engaged in during august.

the size of the circles represents the share of all facebook visitors that engaged in each activity, and the shade of the color represents how much each function was used (dark is more).

Technorati Tags: facebook, social networking, compete, f8, facebook applications

i was going through the archive of articles on my site when i realized something. i’ve written some articles that i usually put in the ‘other’ bin because though they represent some of my other interests, they don’t rhyme with the main purpose of my blog. here’s a look at 3 such articles that i’ve recently written and where they would’ve found a better home.

original photo: darwin bell

1. i wrote an article yesterday about prince, trent reznor, and the future of the music industry. it was an article that i really wanted to write in response to prince’s lashing out against digital media and content piracy but in retrospect the article is much better suited for ohad’s music and entertainment blog, the plugg.

2. a week ago i wrote an article detailing 4 ways you could get your money back if you were an iphone early adopter. i felt compelled to write the article because i got my money back and i wanted others to know the different ways they could get their $200 refunded. this article, i think, would’ve done much better for k. stone’s dumb little man, a site about tips that can save you money and increase your productivity.

3. about a month ago i wrote an ‘expose’ on at&t and how their paper bills for iphone users would kill more than 70,000 trees. when i mentioned the article to hank, he quickly wrote it up on his site, ecogeek. because i am conscious of the environment i just wrote the article on my site, but now that i think about it, writing it for hank would’ve given the post much more exposure, to a much more relevant audience, and much faster.

i’m certainly not the only one who from time to time writes articles for the ‘other’ bin. by guest blogging this content that you are interested in by isn’t directly relevant to your blog, you can not only get more exposure and more relevant exposure, but there are other benefits too. for example,

1. the content on your own site stays laser-focused.
2. by using a byline and a link on the guest blog, you get draw a more diverse audience to your blog.
3. by writing for other people you can instantly build lasting relationships with people who share the same interests and beliefs as you.

with that out of the way, i wanted to get the word out that i’m always open to guest bloggers and guest blogging!

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging

it’s official ladies and gentlemen, people still have absolutely no idea what socially driven news means. a study from the project for excellence in journalism finds that news promoted on socially driven sites like digg, reddit, and del.icio.us is significantly different from the news reported in mainstream media and that the many of the stories selected by the users often don’t appear in mainstream media at all. furthermore, the sources used by these sites are much different (70 percent of them were blogs or other sites) from the sources that more established outlets use for their content.

to some of the claims in the study i can’t help but say ‘no shit sherlock’ while others are simply misguided.

before we look at the media’s misguided reaction to the study, let’s take a look at some of the most regularly featured sites on digg (from march 14, 2025 - april 14, 2007, latest data available):

1. nytimes - featured 44 times - ranked 3rd
2. yahoo news - featured 32 times - ranked 6th
3. cnn - featured 32 times - ranked 7th
4. washington post - featured 30 times - ranked 8th
5. bbc news - featured 27 times - ranked 9th

i would hardly make the case that news from mainstream media isn’t represented on social media sites. regardless, the study has prompted nick gonzales to wonder, does social media make you dumb? at the same time, nick carr refers to the social media audience as the people formerly known as informed, and matt ingram is one of the few people to have a levelheaded response to the study.

carr writes,

when you replace professional editors with a crowd or a social network, you actually end up accelerating the dumbing-down of news. news becomes a stream of junk-food-like morsels. the people formerly known as the audience may turn out to be the people formerly known as informed.

what he fails to understand is that social media is driven by the people and the news that is submitted and promoted is what the people are actually reading and what actually matters to the people. just because the new york times prints something, doesn’t mean that the people are reading it or that they care about it. all it means is that the publishers think that’s what should matter to you. that said, if people (like nick and other haters) think that their view, or what they think is important, isn’t being represented in social media, rather than jumping to half-cooked conclusions, these same people should register on the sites and have their say.

all socially driven communities rely on the law of large numbers and are only as good as the communities that powers them. as these communities grow, they start to more accurately represent the community at large, and the content promoted on these sites changes to reflect that. social media is just a platform and the results are exactly what people want them to be. it’s not social media that’s dumbing the people down, rather it’s a reflection of people’s true interests (no matter how shallow they might be).

Technorati Tags: social media, digg, reddit, del.icio.us, project for excellence in journalism, techcrunch, nick gonzales, nick carr, matt ingram