DISQUS

Good article Robert but I think I disagree with you on main point.

Twitter owns its data... it's in their databases and they can mine it and pick it apart as much as they want.

Who's to say that the next version of Twitter Search won't sort results by "relevance" which would be determined by factors like Re-Tweets, number of followers (argh, I know), and other factors. And, if you're logged in, you could opt to only show results from folks you follow... or people that your followers follow (2 degrees out)... or people X degrees away within your social graph.

Twitter has all that data and a whole lot more and they're just not using it right now. This doesn't mean they *won't* use it, it just means right now Twitter Search is "good enough" for most people so they're lax a bit in updating it.

The FriendFeed search you linked to regarding the Hudson crash was very impressive, but not a lot of information being shown on that page is totally unique to FriendFeed. Twitter could show much of that page with similar sorting/weighting algorithms using the data it has. When will that happen? Perhaps as soon as they deem it important enough.

FF's search has the leg up on Twitter right now but *not* because they have superior data metrics to parse through... it's only because Twitter hasn't put their full weight into Search yet, and when they do the new Twitter search will be good enough to replace FF search. As I'm sure you know, when you're the king of an industry and somebody is behind you nipping at your heels, good enough is usually just that... good enough to knock back the #2 for good.

Wow, it's also incredibly ugly. Doesn't Seesmic have any designers on staff? All the text is blurred and the shadows are incorrect. They tried to emulate a left-hand "source list" sidebar like Mac OS X apps have but they just... did it wrong and made it look terrible.

I'll be there!

So I'm a guy that 1) doesn't use desktop Twitter clients, but is 2) writing a desktop Twitter client for the Mac, one that I'll actually use.

Say what?

I totally agree that most desktop Twitter clients are pointless because they don't *add* any functionality or provide any kind of unique experience. They don't expound on the feature set already included in the web version of Twitter, they normally just let you access the data in a slightly different way. On the iPhone it's a matter of convenience so you can get away with a similar experience, but on the desktop, there should be something additional since you can just as easily and quickly access the web interface.

I'm writing my own Twitter client because it does something that I can't get on the web interface -- it lets me temporarily hide tweets from certain people I follow, and highlight tweets from other folks I follow. It lets me more easily cut through the chaff and get to the good stuff which is especially useful when I only check Twitter occasionally since I'm trying to get work done during the day.

So in my mind, the bottom line is that unless a desktop Twitter client offers a feature (or features) that makes it *more* useful than the web interface, then there's just no point.

Like I mentioned in my comment you obviously have not read anything from the case.

Zuckerberg was under contract with ConnectU as a developer, but instead of delivering any of the code he was being paid to work on, he launched The Facebook just a month or two later. In the discovery documents there are code samples comparing proprietary ConnectU code to initial code from The Facebook. The issue isn't that "anybody can write a social network" it's that Mark was under contract with ConnectU to develop code and instead took their code and turned it around into his own service, all while still being under contract. You're making general arguments about social networking patents when that's not what the case is about at all.

Wow, glad to see this article wasn't slanted in favor of Facebook in any way....

Did you read any of the discovery documents or code submitted? They had a pretty solid case against Zuckerberg, and this payment is evident of that.

"Perhaps proof of actual code that Zuckerberg wrote for ConnectU, then ported to Facebook — but this is PHP code, not exactly hard-to-write stuff."

You're an idiot.

I've had a Twitter account for a long time (my user ID is around 10k) but haven't really gotten into it until a few months ago when I realized that *not* posting "what I'm currently doing" is actually the most valuable thing to do. I'd guess than most Twitter users in general have less than 100 followers, not just people in the Triangle.

Do they even count absentee ballots anymore?

The recent controversy that Mickey Mouse is actually going to show up and vote? ACORN committed voter *registration* fraud, not *voter* fraud. None of the people that were mysteriously registered are going to show up and vote and have any impact on the presidential election. These people don't exist, so they're sure as heck not going to show up at the polls.

I absolutely agree that there needs to be some massive, distributed data repository that is infinitely scalable and accessible at Gigabit speeds to large companies and research centers. Google seems like the only place that would have the technology to do this, with their new Big Table technology like you mentioned. It's pretty sad that Google is the first and last company we think of for this task, when there are so many other large tech companies with billions of dollars who the public just doesn't think is as advanced as Google.

I still remember reading a research paper by a Google engineer about PageRank, and they said that to accurately calculate it on the fly for each page load, Google essentially has a snapshot of the entire Internet in RAM across their servers. That was unbelievable to me, and is why I think Google is the one that can provide this service.

I think more bloggers need to get off the "drop code in and have it pay me automatically" bandwagon. If you want to make more money with your blog (or website, or company, or whatever) then you have to get off your butt and make it happen. If you want to make more money from advertising then research your industry and sell directly to companies. Reach out and develop relationships with potential advertisers and make them understand how you'll be providing value. Sending emails is a low-effort activity so if you get in touch with a dozen companies and one of them ends up buying ads on your site, it's well worth the effort.

Thanks Jack! The writeup and compliments are much appreciated.

Hey Bijan, I've actually heard a lot about Dopplr and was surprised to see you blogging about it. Can you shoot me over an invite?

I hate these algorithm ads that Ask.com has been running, they're pointless. Nobody in the mainstream cares about their algorithm, they care about the results that show up, and nobody ever complains that Google's results aren't "good enough" and want other options.

Thanks a lot man, very nice to see your thoughts on the new site. Your caching architecture is still in place, albeit with some changes so that magpie can handle unicode feeds since it has always had some trouble. I'm glad you like Topics, that was a pure Mike Rundle Special, and my.9r is still underpinned with the Notes magic we put together back in the Summer, so we're still cooking with that same fire :)

Will WTF likely be a hit? Absolutely not. Technorati can't even keep their Search service working properly (works about 50% of the time for me) so what makes you think their Digg rip-off will do any better?

The premise of WTF is broken. Why do people want to annotate exactly *why* they searched for what they did. They search and that's it. I don't understand why Technorati just can't do a better job of quantitative analysis on the top searches and present the list more effectively rather than rely on their users (who have been leaving for greener pastures) to add content.

Your wish is my command :)

Sun isn't relevant anymore because they are following in the footsteps of SGI -- both are relics of an era that relied on CIO/CTO fear-uncertainty-doubt to force large companies into thinking they needed this type of hardware to do anything relevant. Now you've got Google running thousands of the cheapest boxes they could find and it all works because of the custom software file system they put together that holds the Internet in RAM. Expensive, proprietary *hardware* is absolutely worthless for a server environment because it is now the software that can make or break your server architecture. Sun created its business by selling the whole widget (expensive Sun servers + Solaris) and now that half that widget is irrelevant they have to reinvent themselves or they're already halfway in the grave.

Java has no business on the iPhone because the device is meant to be the future of mobile devices, not the past. I can write a Dashboard Widget for Mac OS X that calls native Objective-C code straight from the JavaScript, enabling a world of functional possibilities, all without the need for a middleware compiler. Java is a slow, bulky, resource hog that has ancient UI hooks built throughout. Try running Eclipse for Mac OS X and then switch over to Apple xCode and tell me the difference isn't night and day.

The fundamental problem with Java is that it's built for cross-platform compatibility and easy development, for developers and devices of the lowest common denominator. Jobs' iPhone is built to be a world-class interface linked to smartly-built and intuitive applications that no one in the mobile world has gotten "right" yet. The iPhone is all about elegance, minimalism, and beauty, and Java applications are the antithesis of those three.

9rules accounting for 11% of your total visitors? That's amazing to me, I need to put that into some sort of page on the 9rules site!!!

Thanks for covering the story, I'll definitely keep you guys in the loop.

The mashup contest was just done in fun -- one of the only ways a young designer like me has "pull" is in traffic and influence through my blog, so I thought having a tongue-in-cheek contest to mashup the Toyota logo would get people talking. I doubt that anyone at Toyota corporate would do anything since parody of a copyrighted/trademarked logo is covered under fair use, but we'll see. Every day people take company logos and drop them on donkeys or change them in funny ways for blog postings, so this is really no different.

Because Toyota and 9rules (or Meridian Communications and 9rules) are in completely different industries, a Trademark case would be very difficult. My work is normally ripped off once or twice a month by various means, but this is by far the most blatant infringement of my work I've ever come across, and because of that I'm definitely weighing my options.

Aaron you obviously can't read:

"So now you say our members aren’t valuable? Good job, Mike. Way to play your cards so everyone can see your hand."

You said you'd take your round of funding over a round to add new members. I said this:

"We’d take a few hundred 9rules fanatics over money any day of the week, but you’re free to value money and people any way that you wish."

C'mon man, we're both using English here.

Aaron, I'm not sure why you think I don't approve comments that disagree with what I say — that's the point of blogging.

My entry discussed some of the feedback in the blogosphere I thought was interesting, and then pointed out some things I think b5media does well and some that I'd love to see you work on. You can dramatize on your own blog if you want since that's your right, but your first comment said this:

"I rolled my eyes when I saw that you had posted that but I'm pleasently surprised that this indeed was a fairly objective piece. Good job, Mike."

As for taking money over valuable members, if that's what you're looking for then that's your right. We'd take a few hundred 9rules fanatics over money any day of the week, but you're free to value money and people any way that you wish.

I've been there, it's awesome!! The decor is absolutely, hands down, the most amazing asian decor I've ever seen on the inside of any asian restaurant I've ever been to, and the food is very good too. Expect P.F. Chang's prices but with actual good food.

So now we have Snapvine and Newsvine in Seattle. Trend or just unoriginalosity?

Yeah I'm down too.