new products everywhere :D

since i’ve had a little more downtime than usual, i’ve had a chance to check out a few of the really cool products that are floating around on the web. i guess i’d been pretty focused on the projects i was working on while at microsoft and google; somehow, i had missed a bunch of innovative things happening on the web – the blogosphere, for example :O

the first thing i played with today was bloglines. i may be biased since the only other aggregator i’d used was a .net app called sharpreader, but i think bloglines is great. it gives me the exact features i need and has some extra ones too. i can now quickly browse the feeds i’m interested in and “clip” entries that i find interesting for future reference. plus, the entire system is on the web so all of your feeds and clips are available from any terminal. if this weren’t cool enough, they also provide firefox plug-ins that are really neat like the bloglines toolkit and livelines. the toolkit has a ton of “nice to have” functionality and integrates very smoothly with the browser. meanwhile, livelines just makes your life easier when browsing and subscribing to feeds.

next, i checked out del.icio.us. again, very cool stuff. basically, del.icio.us allows users to tag websites (kind of like providing your own meta data for a site) and these tags are shared with all other users. together, the community is able to create tag topics which someone can then browse by and retrieve all sites marked with that particular tag. as a bonus, your bookmarks are now portable since they are stored on del.icio.us’ servers. there seemed to be a cool feature called the inbox where you could monitor new entries for specific tags, but i couldn’t get it to work – maybe it’s still in progress. nevertheless, i think this app has potential for a lot of interesting scenarios.

finally, i just finished playing with technorati. searching through blogs is neat, but the real power is that technorati is indexing in realtime. as in, as soon as a post goes up, you can see it in search results. then, they also have a feature called “watchlists.” they let you specify a url or keywords that you want to monitor and then they create a rss feed that aggregates and republishes links to entries that match the supplied address or terms – it’s like a continuously updated, saved search. i see they also announced a tagging feature, but i don’t see it integrated into the main user experience yet; i’m sure they are working on it. a little twist here is that instead of having users tag pages, they seem to be having blog owners tagging their own pages using the tag.

i also spent some time playing with flickr (as i mentioned in a previous post ), pluck, rojo and filangy. filangy seems to be invite only for now, so if you really want to check it out, leave me a comment or e-mail me.

i’m sure lots of people out there are playing with these products as well. what do you think about these nifty tools?

my blog's stats

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blog stats, originally uploaded by 99zeros.

many people have asked, so here are the stats for my blog. you’ll notice the huge spike around feburary 9th; i attribute that to news.com and slashdot. the little traffic bump in january was when i had originally unpublished and republished my blog entries. at the time, i was amazed at getting a few thousand hits – little did i know a few weeks later, i would be getting 100k hits.

surprisingly, i had to go to a third party site, statcounter, to get web metrics; blogger doesn’t have any sort of functionality built-in. i had to take a supplied snippet of code and put it my blogger template manually. while this is not a problem for tech savvy users, i’d imagine average users might get frustrated while trying to add a simple counter to her blog.

also, blogger only has built-in support for atom feeds and doesn’t give you stats on that either.

i want stats for my blog! i hope the blogger team is reading

btw, i’m posting this entry from flickr (and they are hosting the graphic above too). i’d heard a lot of great things about flickr and so far, i’ve been impressed. cool stuff, props to ludicorp!

adsense works!

just checked my adsense account today and i’ve already racked up enough money to get paid. as alekkomar mentions in my blog’s comments, my first check goes out to Celiac Disease research. looks like adsense really does work, although i wonder what the revenue share is. i’ve heard people around the web complaining that they don’t make as much as they used to and i wonder if that’s because google adjusted the revenue share or if advertisers are bidding less per click.

either way, my google ads are far outshining the amazon associates links i put up. so far, i think i’ve only made a few bucks on the amazon links.

networking in real life

soon after news of this blog first broke, it was said that i might become google’s scoble or zawodny. of course, at the time, i had no idea what people were talking about. soon, it became apparent to me that while it was neat to be in the same sentence as these blogging legends, i’ve still got a long way to go before i can truly measure up to them…

last tuesday, i was looking around at stories about other bloggers who had been fired and i ran across troutgirl’s story. i read through her blog and thought, wow, this is kinda similar to what happened to me. i saw she had posted about a new community meeting she was in charge of planning and it was happening that night, so i decided to show up and try to chat with her a bit about her experience.

when i arrived, i the scene was pretty chill and i immediately found joyce (troutgirl). we chatted for a bit and she ended up introducing me to a few blogging celebrities.

first, i met niall, who works at technorati as the community manager. we chatted for just a bit and he mentioned all the different blogging/techie community meetings that were happening in the bay area – obviously, niall is a great fit for his job . he’s been a great contact and is really getting me plugged into the different groups in the area. he also records these local events and posts them on his blog; if you’re interested in the latest buzz in the bay area, be sure to check it out.

then, the meeting got under way. david sifry, founder and CEO of technorati, was the guest at the meeting and it was run as an informal q&a session (i believe niall is currently working on posting the audio from this session up on his blog). for me, the session was awesome; i was riveted to my chair for 2 hours while dave talked about technorati’s vision, his entrepreneurial experiences, and general commentary about building relationships on the internet. it was a great experience – if you get a chance, definitely find an excuse to chat dave up, he’s a goldmine.

after dave’s talk, i met russ. he apparently had been doing contract work at yahoo and just recently joined there full time. i took the opportunity to chat with him a little bit; mostly, i wanted to know why he chose to join yahoo out of all the other companies in the area. immediately, russ focused in on the culture and working environment. i thought, wow, a place that’s working on bringing revolutionary web technologies to the masses and a great atmosphere? sounds like a dream come true.

then, i met jeremy zawodny. since my story had started making rounds with the press, i had been compared to jeremy and scoble, but i had never expected to meet them in person. we got to talking and he shared with me his experience at yahoo, which also sounded great. jeremy told me that yahoo is extremely blog friendly and that posting their personal work experiences was perfectly acceptable – given, of course, that confidential information and NDAs aren’t breached. i left with his contact info and an invite to tour the yahoo campus.

to top it all off, two nights later, i met robert scoble at a geek dinner he put together in san jose. my conversation with scoble was quite refreshing; he has a ton of perspective on how to deftly handle blogging in the corporate space. it sounds like scoble has a pretty great gig, running msdn’s channel 9. makes me kind of jealous. but then again, i suppose you could say that i’m slightly jealous of all those who are employed . either way, i’m really looking forward to reading that book he’s putting together, i think it’s going to be hot.

also in attendance was dennis cheung, a microsoftie working at the mountain view office. he happened to snap a photo of me at dinner and also got one of my “expired” google business cards. after the geek dinner, i had some time to kill, so i visited the local microsoft office with him. the insides of the microsoft offices here look remarkably like the ones in redmond – in fact, the only difference i really saw was that there were lots of macs around :p

chatting with all these guys was great. they are true blogging veterans and i hope to get chances to talk with them more often. in the meantime, i’ll be trying to attend as many of these meetings as i can; hopefully, i’ll continue to meet cool new people in the area. if you know of any really interesting get togethers (and by interesting, i mean nerdy), send me an invite please!

tipping what?

ever since i got to san francisco, i’ve decided that i should take up reading again. a very smart co-worker of mine at microsoft once told me that reading keeps the mind sharp – now that i’ve started, i wholeheartedly agree! i’m not really sure when it happened, but sometime after i no longer had to attend high school english class, reading slowly dropped further and further down on my priorities list until it was nowhere to be found. i could probably come up with a ton of excuses for this, but in the interest of keeping this entry semi-short, i’ll save that for another time

what’s been on my reading list? well, i started by picking up fortune magazine. in my youth i’d never really cared too much for business magazines, but now i find it absolutely fascinating. i think i’ve at least skimmed the past few months worth of the magazine cover to cover.

next, i read “Touch the Top of the World” by Erik Weihenmayer. i actually didn’t pick this one out, they gave away copies for free at google’s sales conference. anyways, it’s a great story about overcoming obstacles, rising up to challenges and learning to break through the barriers that other people shy away from. if that weren’t reason enough, Erik gave an excellent speech at the sales conference which i got to see live.

then, i read “Fast Food Nation” by Eric Schlosser. this was a terribly frightening read. if you like eating at mcdonald’s or any other franchised fast food chain, don’t read this book. if you want to see a new perspective of how this vertical operates, prepare to be shocked. ignorance might be bliss, but i definitely wanted to know this information. from now on, the only place i’ll eat a fast food burger is in-n-out. yeeks!

while i was finishing up “Fast Food Nation,” someone recommended “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell. as much as i enjoyed my previous reads, this book had by far the most enlightening content i’ve read in a long, long time. if you’re into marketing, social networks, viral epidemics, communications, psychology or just human nature in general, pick up this book. you won’t be disappointed and you won’t want to put it down. basically, Gladwell explores an exciting phenomenon where due to the right mix of people, message and circumstance, something – anything at all – explodes with an exponential uptake. he explores case studies where these principles apply to a wide range of scenarios including viruses, fads, human behaviors, children’s television and more.

now, i’m reading Gladwell’s next book, “Blink.” it’s about how people make snap judgments. it’s about first impressions, how people sense danger, why art experts can just know a piece is fake and more. i’ve only just started the book and it’s as gripping and eye-opening as “Tipping Point.” i think Gladwell is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers – great ideas and great writing, what an awesome combination.

internet savvy readers will notice that i’m using amazon’s associate links for all the stuff i’ve mentioned. just like my adsense search box and ads, i’ll be donating all proceeds to charity. as a bonus, i’m getting to check out these technologies which have started an epidemic of their own across content providers’ websites.

which reminds me, in case any of you out there were wondering, i took out those google adwords ads promoting this blog. i did it so i could get a jump start on getting to know the google ads system. it was one of those start-up assignments you get at a new job where you are supposed to familiarize yourself with the product.

it’s getting late so i’m off to bed. ah, there’s so much to post about the past few weeks but so little time. oh, and also, believe it or not, i do read all those comments so if you have a question specifically for me, please leave an e-mail address or contact me directly. otherwise, i won’t be able to get back to you with an answer

good night, blogosphere!

the official story, straight from the source

i know it’s been quite a while since anything substantial was posted on my blog, but thanks for bearing with me. as i said in my previous post, it’s been a hectic two weeks. i’ve finally finished thinking through a few things so here it is…

on january 28th, 2005, i was terminated from google. either directly or indirectly, my blog was the reason. this came as a great shock to me because two days ago we had looked at my blog and removed all inappropriate content – the comments on financial performance and future products. for my next entries, i was very cognizant of my blogging content, making sure to stay away from these topics. i mean, as much as i like to be open and honest about communicating to users and customers, i’m not insubordinate. if i was told to shut down this blog, i would have.

as scoble says, i should’ve waited a little longer and felt the company out a bit more before i started blogging at length. in retrospect, that is good advice and a lesson learned. i was just too excited. i felt like i was joining a small start-up family; i thought i was going to start new initiatives and improve existing ones; i thought i could jump in the deep end and immerse myself in the revolutionary development environment; i thought i could make connections to real people in the outside world and get first hand feedback; i thought google would love it. i thought wrong.

i’ve actually viewed this as a great learning experience. obviously, i’ve gotten a first-hand chance to learn about the power of blogging. i’ve also learned to be a little more analytical about situations, a lot more cautious and a lot less assuming. however, i’ve also confirmed that i’m willing to take a stand for what i believe in. i’ve confirmed what i’m looking for in a career and i know what i love to do – by the way, it’s not blogging, it’s creating revolutionary solutions . some people live a lifetime without getting a chance to learn these things about themselves; i’m grateful i’ve gotten that chance.

people ask me if i’m bitter. funny thing is, despite all this, at the end of the day, i can see where google is coming from – but i don’t agree with their stances and i wish they had executed a little differently. i think blogging is the next big thing on the internet. the web gave people revolutionary access to information; email and instant messaging disrupted the way people communicate with each other; blogging empowers everyone to create new information and connect in a community. it’s the culmination of lots of the progress that has happened on the internet rolled into one huge, powerful, killer app. corporations should embrace this technology just like the ones before it. companies that are confident in their offerings should let employees spread the word. in today’s age of information overload, blogging is quickly emerging as the fastest and most cost-effective method of marketing.

finally, for all those in the evil/not evil argument, realize that google is a public, for-profit company. i do not believe google is either evil or good. companies take what they feel are logical steps in doing business, and business isn’t always fair.

thanks for reading! oh, and if you’re looking for a talented technical project/product/program manager, i guess i’m on the market now. if you have a corporate blogging policy, i promise i’ll follow it. i’ll use proper capitalization in my specs too .

what's going on?

hi everyone. it’s been a hectic two weeks but i’ll have some new posts ready soon. if you want up to the minute updates, just subscribe to my RSS feed. in the meantime, to take advantage of the traffic, i’ve added adsense to my website on the sidebar. don’t worry, all proceeds will be going to charity .

also, i want to thank those in the community that have been so supportive. for those who are leaving disparaging comments: if you want to have a real conversation, i’m open. don’t be an anonymous troll – stand behind what you say and put your email address on it.

thanks and stay tuned…