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...by the inmates...for the inmates...
Monday, February 28, 2005Happy 29th Anniversary To Us
Though this is the official 29th wedding anniversary, Maria and I had already been together many years before that. We've probably known each other 36 years now. "Still crazy, after all these years."
Today is also my father-in-law's 90th birthday.
Wonderful quiet dinner at home: champagne, special soups, sandwiches, meatballs, tarts, and tiramisu. We did the big "dinner out" with Steve and Terry yesterday at Buca di Beppo in Campbell.
Rather rushed today since Maria leaves for New York tomorrow.
Happy 9th Anniversary to Steve and Tammy
It appears that Maria and I share an anniversary date with Steve and Tammy Kirks.
Today marks the official observance of my wedding anniversary (9 years this time) and I couldn't be happier. Tammy and I were actually married on "Leap Day", February 29th of 1996, so our real anniversary comes every four years, just like a US Presidential election. There's a long-standing joke that I'm "running for reelection" which means that I've considered taking campaign contributions.
[house of warwick]
Thursday, February 24, 2005Congratulations to Donovan Watts
A well-deserved honor for a gentleman working hard to improve the lives of Radio UserLand clients. Thanks, and congratulations, to Donovan.
Donovan Watts: Radio's Librarian.
This was an exciting day for me. My iChat and Skype call with Steve Kirks was the highlight. I look forward to sifting through the Radio knowledgebase, helping the documentation settle into a helpful, easily accessed entity.
[Donovan Watts: Radio UserLand: The Missing Manual]"After watching the many outstanding entries at Donovan's Radio: The Missing Manual, UserLand made him and offer he couldn't refuse: Radio's Librarian
Welcome aboard, Donovan--and thank you!"
(Via house of warwick.)
Saturday, February 19, 2005Web Analytics Trade Group Formed
Web Analytics Trade Group Formed [ClickZ News]
Several well-known players in the Web analytics business have joined to create the Web Analytics Association (WAA), a non-profit organization designed to bring together end users, vendors, consultants, and educators to share information and promote the nascent industry.
"One of the main goals of the association is to go ahead and bring what is a small and fragmented industry to more awareness of the value of Web analytics and measurement," said Bryan Eisenberg, co-founder of consulting firm Future Now, who is the WAA's first chairman. (Eisenberg is a long-time columnist for ClickZ Experts.)
Putting Web Analytics To The Test
Putting Web analytics to the test. What do enterprises ask of Web analytics packages? Here's a list of requirements vendors most often see in RFPs (requests for proposals). These specs formed, in part, the testing checklist for this roundup and can help you decide what's most important in your solution. [InfoWorld: Business]
Chart Your Web Site's Success
Chart your Web site's success. In the late 1990s, Web analytics packages did a respectable job crunching server logs and uncovering broad Web site trends such as page views or user clickstream behavior. Today the focus has shifted to business reporting -- pinpointing the effectiveness of promotional campaigns, measuring ROI, and analyzing processes -- and to delivering those facts to content owners in a clear manner so that the appropriate corrective measures can be put into motion. [InfoWorld: Business]
Trouble in RSS Paradise?
I mentioned earlier that we activated RSS feeds at work. I referred our stakeholder to a vendor for implementation before I went on vacation. I hope I don't regret the decision.
I let our stakeholder consider them because the vendor:
- has an RSS analytics approach that speaks well of their vision
- already "has a clue", instead of having to purchase one
- was priced acceptably
- has a non-trivial showcase customer
- can use another well-known corporate client
- is local
- can be replaced by inhouse implementation if they screw up
- "yadda, yadda" - Seinfeld
No RSS? You're Fired!
"It's medieval to make your customers come to you"
- Martha Rogers
coauthor of "The One to One Future: Building Relationships One Customer at a Time" (Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1993)
"You should be fired if you do a marketing site without an RSS feed."
- Robert Scoble, Microsoft
"No Shit, Sherlock!"
- Bruce Zimmer
"Do you have an RSS feed?"
"No, this site is for non geeks."
... That demonstrates an utter cluelessness about how hype gets generated. If you don't have RSS, how will anyone who is a connector build a relationship with your site?
"Why don't you get your non-geek friends to link to it then?"
I think he had heard that lots of press was reading blogs and wanted to get Walt Mossberg or Steven Levy to talk about this marketing site and figured he'd use me to drive traffic.
Sorry, if you do a marketing site and you don't have an RSS feed today you should be fired.
I'll say it again. You should be fired if you do a marketing site without an RSS feed.
Saying that RSS is only for geeks today is like saying in 1998 that the Web was only for geeks...
[Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger]
Thursday, February 17, 2005RSS Feed Customization: Audio Interview With Mark Carlson, SimpleFeed
RSS Feed Customization: Audio Interview With Mark Carlson, SimpleFeed. RSS feed customization could become one of the hot RSS topics in the near future, but right now there are just too few companies doing it … and too few providers offering RSS feed customization solutions.
By rss_feedback@lockergnome.com (Rok Hrastnik). [Lockergnome's RSS & Atom Tips]
Wednesday, February 16, 2005Tips on RSS Marketing, Online PR and SEO
Tips on RSS Marketing, Online PR & SEO. I just recently interviewed Lee Oden, a search engine marketing and PR expert, on using RSS for search engine positioning, as well as on online PR and little-known search engine optimization tactics.
By rss_feedback@lockergnome.com (Rok Hrastnik). [Lockergnome's RSS & Atom Tips]
Tuesday, February 15, 2005RapidFeeds.com Launches its RSS Publishing Service
Choices choices choices ... RapidFeeds.com Launches its RSS Publishing Service. RSS is becoming all about choices. End-users can choose from dozens and dozens of different RSS aggregators, and it’s becoming very much like this in the RSS publishing solutions market. It would seem that “almost every” company is starting to see opportunities in the RSS space, and it remains to be seen how many are actually going to achieve more than marginal market penetration. This week, the free RapidFeeds (Beta version) hosted web-based RSS publishing solution joins the market.
By rss_feedback@lockergnome.com (Rok Hrastnik). [Lockergnome's RSS & Atom Tips]
Monday, February 14, 2005RSS Metrics: Audio Interview with Stuart Watson, Syndicate IQ
RSS Metrics: Audio Interview with Stuart Watson, Syndicate IQ. In this audio interview, Stuart Watson reveals not only what publishers, advertisers and direct marketers can do with RSS metrics, but also shares some excellent RSS marketing strategies and his views (and tips) on the future of RSS advertising and tracking.
By rss_feedback@lockergnome.com (Rok Hrastnik). [Lockergnome's RSS & Atom Tips]
LinkShare, WebSideStory Integrate Web Analytics
LinkShare, WebSideStory Integrate Web Analytics. While more often than not, mergers are perceived as a really bad thing for consumers. It is just the way people perceive it I suppose. However, when I heard the news about LinkShare and WebSideStory, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that their coming together in a partnership will not hurt consumers so much as give them some options they might not have had otherwise. Sounds like a great move for all involved...
By rss_feedback@lockergnome.com (Matt Hartley). [Lockergnome's Web Developers]
And The Winner Is ... Linkshare!
And the winner is ... Linkshare!. I was not necessarily surprised to see that Linkshare had decided to partner with a web analytics vendor to provide greater depth in reporting, but I must admit the timing on announcing a relationship with Omniture and WebSideStory... [Eric Peterson]
Valentine's Day RSS At Work
We launched RSS feeds on our external web site at work today. After over 2 years of dropping hints, nagging, and giving presentations on this tool, the end of the tunnel was finally reached. What a nice Valentine's Day present. Let the feed-reading begin!
Saturday, February 12, 2005Windows XP Support Tools
Install the Windows XP Support Tools (XP Pro). The Windows Support Tools are located on the Windows XP CD. These tools are normally used by technical support or more experienced users to troubleshoot and resolve various problems. The support tools are not installed with Windows XP. If you want access to these tools, you must complete the steps below. Once you do, a Windows Support Tools folder containing the different tools is added to the Start Menu….
By rss_feedback@lockergnome.com (Diana Huggins). [Lockergnome's Windows Fanatics]
Just Another Weekend Blogger
Looks like jenett.radio is looking for Weekend Bloggers again. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a fool here at the asylum.
Welcome To The Boomer Blog
Dan Bricklin's Boomer blog and my lights post led me to Nancy Fernandez Mills and her new Boomer Blog. Please welcome Nancy as she makes the transition from old media to new media.
Steve Rubel's Firm Starts Blog Response Service
I know a company which should seriously consider this service, or implement a similar function internally. Do you? By the time you realize how badly you need this, it is too late to do anything about it. Think your PR team can handle the weblog-fueled waste product when it hits the air circulating device? Think again.
CooperKatz Launches Blog Response Service. CooperKatz & Company, Inc., a mid-sized New York City public relations firm, more famously known as the employer of Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion, today launched a new service to help corporations monitor, analyze, plan for and respond to issues that might bubble up from blogs. The service is the first ... [The Blog Herald: more blog news more often]
Thank you, Dave Winer, for RSS
Thank you, Netscape and Dave Winer, for the RSS infrastructure which supports the info-addict in all of us.
Today's an important day in the history of Scripting News, and as it turns out, the history of the web. On this day in 1999, Netscape went public with its RSS reader, the first-ever. It was called My.Netscape.Com, and it was something like a page layout program in a browser. You arranged boxes containing news from a publication or a weblog. They got their service to work with Scripting News (I knew because they were sending me questions about my XMLization). Anyway, the news of their rollout is in the archive for the day, six years ago, and in a DaveNet piece that explained the news to the industry. [Scripting News]
Radio UserLand Slacker Bug Strikes Again
Twelve-Step Intro: "Hi! I'm Bruce, and I'm a weblog slacker." I post when I feel like it, and I haven't felt like it for a long time. In addition, a new personal project is sucking up every spare minute of my time. Thus, I was pleased to note I'm not the only one who takes a one-month hiatus from time to time. Someone else in the Radio UserLand discussion group was bitten by "the slacker bug", and now I don't feel so alone. [grin] Maybe I should start a slacker club.
Friday, February 11, 2005Eric Peterson on WebSideStory acquisition of Atomz
Thoughts about WebSideStory's acquisition of Atomz. Just in case you haven't heard, WebSideStory announced ... they're acquiring Atomz and using Atomz Search and Atomz to build out something they call the "Active Marketing Suite" ... WebSide [also] soft-launched a bid management application ... [Eric Peterson]
ClickZ on WebSideStory acquisition of Atomz
WebSideStory Acquires Atomz [ClickZ News]
Web analytics provider WebSideStory has acquired site search and Web content management provider Atomz for $39 million in cash and stock. Atomz' applications will join WebSideStory's HBX Analytics and a new pay-per-click bid management product in the Active Marketing Suite of products.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005Scott Shuda of UserLand Returns to Radio
Donovan is sooo right about this. It is great to see Scott "eating the dogfood" again. Only good things can come of this. Welcome back, Scott!
UserLand CFO Scott Shuda Sees the (Radio) Light!.
I'm happy to read that Scott Shuda, CFO for UserLand, has decided to return to blogging with Radio. That can only be good for our favorite little engine that could.
[Donovan Watts: Radio UserLand: The Missing Manual]"So another turn in my weblog journey and once again I am reminded just how thoughtful and powerful are the tools built by Dave Winer and his team during the early days at UserLand. I also have another basis for understanding why Steve Kirks is so enthusiastic about Radio as a product. I intend to continue adding to my personal weblog, and it looks like I am going to be using Radio to do it." (Via Scott Shuda's Radio Weblog.)