I got a chance to take a look at the new Technorati during lunch today and I was pretty surprised. It seems like these guys are constantly reinventing themselves, still struggling to define the currency of the blogosphere. Is it the blog, the keyword, the tag, or the post itself? The post seems to get the vote in this latest redesign, which has top blog posts broken down by category in a manner very similar to the latest Digg. These days, Digg must be feeling very flattered.
Truth be told though, Technorati may be the more ideal social bookmarking platform than Digg. Digg is a supposedly an open platform, but you have to be a member to submit or “digg” content and these days you may even have to sign in to view it. This and the fact that “digg”-ing a story takes extra effort is the reason why only a subset of Digg’s readers actually contribute. Technorati, on the other hand, uses links as its article sorting method. It profits off the links people are already putting in their blog posts. So it in theory is a more accurate reflection of what is hot on the Internet.
But does the wisdom of the masses produce a better set of articles? I would argue no. The front page of Digg still seems much more compelling content-wise than the front page of Technorati. It’s the same reason I like the most-emailed stories more than the most-read or most-linked on the New York Times. Making the “cost” higher means that people focus on more interesting stories, rather than ones that are already popular. So while the new Technorati is interesting, its Digg-likeness is only skin deep.
I am changing the location of this blog again, hopefully for the last time. I recently reaccquired the rights to http://www.quietkid.net again, so I am moving this blog to that domain. You can read about how I originally lost the domain here. WordPress.com has been a great host and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to get into blogging. I wanted a little more control, however, and this gives me the oppertunity exercise that. The new site has mostly the same look, but I have made some improvements and added some additional content.
I'll keep re-posting here for a limited time while people make the transition, but eventually I'll stop. So you can start directing your bookmarks and feed readers to http://www.quietkid.net from now on. Last of all I would like to thank all my readers who have discovered me on WordPress.com. For the first time in my blogging career I felt like I was contributing to a community and had a real audience. I hope this will continue at the new domain. I appreciate your help and patience in this matter, thanks for all the support.
Man, I’ve gotten myself into another posting slump again. I feel like half of all my posts are me apologizing to my non-existent readers about my posting irregularities. I have a lot of ideas to write about, but I can’t seem to get them out. So I’ll play a little catch up.
I survived last week and got home safely for spring break. Now that I am home I am battling with allergies a bit. I have come to the conclusion there is something in the house, specifically the living room area, that is causing me to sneeze a lot. I was out a lot today though, so it wasn’t too bad. I picked up Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on DVD today and was annoyed to have to chose between a plain release and a 2-disc edition. I guess they’re trying to charge more for value added features, but its just really annoying for consumers.
Speaking of movies, I enjoyed the Oscars a lot this year. I didn’t think that Chris Rock was bad last year, but everything else was pretty boring. I thought Jon Stewart did a great job and I was glad to see others having fun as well. I was really happy to see Crash win Best Picture. I don’t have anything against Brokeback Mountain, I just felt like Crash was better movie. Thus I am kind of annoyed by all the whispers about Crash’s win, saying that Hollywood was too scared of gay cowboys. One thing Hollywood is scared of is DVDs as noted in Academy president Sid Ganis’ speech that encouraged people to see movies in theaters rather than on DVD.
On a much more serious note, I just wanted to mourn the loss of one of my high school classmates Jay Crawford. He died suddenly and unexpectedly in his sleep last week, the exact cause has not been determined yet. I can’t say I knew him well, but I was in a couple of classes with him my freshman year. I was a shy new student then and he was one of the first people to treat me as a friend. He was a good guy and will be missed.
There’s a good essay going around the blogosphere about a former journalist who started up a blog about the happenings of her local community. She uses sarcasm and humor while covering “hyperlocal” stories, such as a train delay or a set of lazy lifeguards (I take a bit of offense to that one, because I was once a card-playing lifeguard myself :)). At its worst she calls it “small town newspaper meets the Daily Show”, but at its best they publicly scrutinize the small town happenings that never get covered.
Blogs get a lot of attention these days, usually unwarranted. This is the type of thing that the medium is great for. Jeff Jarvis talked about the flaws of local newspapers today before talking about this essay. The truth is a lot of news, and blog postings (i.e. this one) are regurgitation. There’s a lot of news going on in your own backyard and I would like to see more people recognize this. The web has an opportunity to enhance real-life communities by mirroring them in cyberspace. We see this in play on campus with the Facebook.
This is the type of thing I would love to be doing in my hometown when I am through with school. Last summer we had two totally random shootings that got some press coverage, but I haven’t heard much since. We also had a town commissioner hit a cop, that I would like to hear more about. Until then, though, I guess I’m stuck with reading Philly.com.
I came across Google’s Firefox Extentions yesterday afternoon when I was looking for new software to play with. I downloaded and installed a new one called Blogger Web Comments. The extention uses Google’s Blog Search to find posts that link back to the page or site you are currently viewing. So it automatically brings up any posts about the page you are using, which is pretty handy.
It does have some weaknesses. For starters its branded as a Blogger tool, so its meant to allow Blogger tools to add posts. So I can’t use it to post to my blog. It also includes a lot of splog entries, which is rather annoying. Still, I find it kind of handy and I plan on playing with it for a while.
What I think is really neat is kind of creates a notion of blog posts being part of a larger online conversation. I wonder if in the future blog search tools will also be able to aggregate comment systems on a site - a one-stop shop for web feedback. Imagine if you could search for a movie and get a listing of critics and users opinions. This sort of interconnectivity sets the web apart from other mediums.
I have to say that I have been very impressed with WordPress.com. This has not been my first test of the service, but I have used it more consistently this week than I have in past weeks. I have used WordPress for a while now and the updates to the software are pretty nice. This is simple enough for anyone to use, but has enough options for advanced users. And they announced today that now anyone can register for a WordPress.com blog.
The thing I am most impressed with, however, is the way a WordPress.com blog promotes itself. I checked it out and this blog comes up #4 on Google, #2 on Yahoo, and #2 on MSN for “quiet kid”. One thing I have started doing is treating categories as tags and I get more hits from Technorati. It also feels good to be part of a blogging community, with other members seeing your work and success through the dashboard.
Another part of my success this last week is that I have lowered my expectations. I just try to post something that’s on my mind everyday. Sometimes the posts are good, sometimes they’re not. The point is I am continuously posting.
I am a little irked about not being able to modify templates, but I guess I can put up with that for now. It keeps me focused on the writing. Anyway, I am happy with things so far. Thanks to WordPress.com, I am blogging again.
Since seeing Garden State I have become a big Zach Braff fan and I have enjoyed reading his blog. After a long layoff, he recently made a pretty neat video post. He shows off a piece of the sky from Chicken Little and a Natalie Portman doll he made using leftovers from Star Wars. Celebrity blogging is pretty cool when they keep up with it. Reading about long days on a set and hearing him talk about things from an insiders perspective is interesting. But most interesting is how normal they seem. Braff’s posts are letters handed down from above like some fan club, but more personal thoughts and stories. It’s pretty cool stuff and I hope he keeps it up.