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7 months ago
in bit.ly blog - Shorten URLs with bit.ly Inside Gmail Last night,... on bit.ly Blog
I think this is really neat! What would make it even better would be a small extra text field allowing us to customize the URL. I find this feature to be very useful (and important) for me, because it helps me remember frequently-typed URLs.
Thanks for taking this into consideration for v2 of this handy Gmail gadget :)
Thanks for taking this into consideration for v2 of this handy Gmail gadget :)
1 reply
kortina
Good idea. We'll add that soon.
8 months ago
in Happy Election Day! on bit.ly Blog
Ah, thanks! I much appreciate the reply, and of course, your very cool service. :)
1 reply
Bit.ly
Of course!
The missing title bug should now be resolved. Where there is no title we either show the original URL, or the file name for direct links to images and mp3s.
We also just added a new "feedback" link on the right hand side of the screen - hopefully this will make it even easier for folks who want to reach out to us. Thanks again for using bit.ly!
The missing title bug should now be resolved. Where there is no title we either show the original URL, or the file name for direct links to images and mp3s.
We also just added a new "feedback" link on the right hand side of the screen - hopefully this will make it even easier for folks who want to reach out to us. Thanks again for using bit.ly!
8 months ago
in louisgray.com: FriendFeed and Enjit: Open Up the Firehose to the Entire Social Web on louisgray.com
Jesse, I strongly take issue with your implied connection between opposing firehoseness and opposition to building and nurturing relationships. I just feel strongly that the latter should involve a greater emphasis on deep and measured conversations and commentary which, IMHO, cannot possibly be either communicated in 140 characters nor thoughtfully digested when it's being firehosed at you. It's the difference, IMHO, between real friends and -- to quote Fight Club -- "single serving friends." I'm all for online networking and connections , and in fact have been active in online communities (even helping create them) for over two decades (yes, before there was a public internet). I just feel there's currently a disconcertingly large proportion of efforts focusing on quantity over quality, speed over depth.
1 reply
jessestay
Adam, as I said, it depends on the person. For the average person, the firehose of their friends data should be enough to consume anyways and it could be a much better way than Twitter or other services to consume and communicate data. For some it won't be. When I originally used Twitter's XMPP feed, this was how it was for me - I only had 50-100 friends max, and it was quite bearable. With track, it made for a very useful service on an interface I was already used to.
For those with much bigger networks, many of those are interested in consuming lots of data. This benefits them as well since it enable them to see the latest and greatest news and hot topics of the time. Those that aren't interested in that it won't benefit.
Then there's the mainstream user who doesn't use a social service at all, rarely uses e-mail except to communicate with family, and turns off their computer at night like my parents. They'll never have a use for the firehose, but then again they'll never have a use for Twitter, or FriendFeed, or even Facebook.
For those with much bigger networks, many of those are interested in consuming lots of data. This benefits them as well since it enable them to see the latest and greatest news and hot topics of the time. Those that aren't interested in that it won't benefit.
Then there's the mainstream user who doesn't use a social service at all, rarely uses e-mail except to communicate with family, and turns off their computer at night like my parents. They'll never have a use for the firehose, but then again they'll never have a use for Twitter, or FriendFeed, or even Facebook.
8 months ago
in louisgray.com: FriendFeed and Enjit: Open Up the Firehose to the Entire Social Web on louisgray.com
I'm going to be the curmudgeon again. More & faster is not necessarily better. I think from a technical perspective this option is pretty neato, but from a philosophical, social, and cultural perspective, it seems merely an additional push towards the more-speed-less-substance end of the spectrum.
Do we need this firehose?
Does it help us make us *usefully* more informed?
Does it improve our lives?
Or would that time better be spent reading a book, writing a novel (or even a real blog post), or even just walking out in a field and putting together ideas and inspirations and so on?
I know, I know. Sometimes I'm such a luddite. But I can't help but be uncomfortable with the pace of frantic change coupled with the increase in, well, franticness.
Do we need this firehose?
Does it help us make us *usefully* more informed?
Does it improve our lives?
Or would that time better be spent reading a book, writing a novel (or even a real blog post), or even just walking out in a field and putting together ideas and inspirations and so on?
I know, I know. Sometimes I'm such a luddite. But I can't help but be uncomfortable with the pace of frantic change coupled with the increase in, well, franticness.
1 reply
jessestay
Adam, it depends on who you are and what your purposes are. As you mentioned, from a technical perspective this is very useful. In addition, as a blogger or journalist it's a great way to scan for the "latest and greatest" as it comes through. From a marketing or PR perspective, if track gets implemented as I predict, this is one of the most useful ways of getting data, realtime, about your brand and even competitors' brands.
From the general user's perspective, it also depends on where you stand. If you need a good way to network, see where those you want to network with are and what they're doing, this is an excellent way to track that, as well as communicate back with those people, building relationships along the way. Staying in a dark room coding or working or doing whatever you do and not building relationships will never grow your career beyond what you currently do. If you're happy with that, then this isn't for you. Again, all this, meaning social media, is about building and nurturing relationships. Reading a book or going for a walk, while good for you, aren't going to help you build relationships as well as these tools will.
From the general user's perspective, it also depends on where you stand. If you need a good way to network, see where those you want to network with are and what they're doing, this is an excellent way to track that, as well as communicate back with those people, building relationships along the way. Staying in a dark room coding or working or doing whatever you do and not building relationships will never grow your career beyond what you currently do. If you're happy with that, then this isn't for you. Again, all this, meaning social media, is about building and nurturing relationships. Reading a book or going for a walk, while good for you, aren't going to help you build relationships as well as these tools will.
8 months ago
in Happy Election Day! on bit.ly Blog
Neato, but something tells me there's no uniqueness constraint here, eh? :P
And on an unrelated note: I've been looking for help documentation or a feedback link for bit.ly but sadly to no avail. For example, two of my recent bit.ly'd pages have no title showing for them in my bit.ly account page, making it pretty hard to tell what's what (without clicking on "info"). Seems like a bug, but -- other than via this comment -- I've been unsure how to report it :-(
And on an unrelated note: I've been looking for help documentation or a feedback link for bit.ly but sadly to no avail. For example, two of my recent bit.ly'd pages have no title showing for them in my bit.ly account page, making it pretty hard to tell what's what (without clicking on "info"). Seems like a bug, but -- other than via this comment -- I've been unsure how to report it :-(
1 reply
Bit.ly
There are a number of ways to reach the bit.ly Team - you can email us at support@bit.ly or send a "tweet" to the bitly Twitter account. Sorry this wasn't clearer, we'll add a link to the main site.
The lack of a title is a bug, and we have a fix that should be deployed in the next couple of days. Thanks for the feedback and for using bit.ly!
- Nathan
The lack of a title is a bug, and we have a fix that should be deployed in the next couple of days. Thanks for the feedback and for using bit.ly!
- Nathan
9 months ago
in Google Reader’s list view just might reveal secret of The Matrix on Online Media Cultist
As a Googler (but not one who works on Reader), I think it's awesome that you're enjoying Reader and that you've discovered the List view. I'm wondering, though, if you're also aware of the very cool keyboard shortcuts. They might save your fingers some wear and tear, too :-)
1 reply
Eric Berlin
You mean I have to learn more than Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, and Alt/Tab !? ;-)
10 months ago
in Thanks Google Now I’m Going To Hell on Shooting at Bubbles
Your post made me smile! And since you like tearing tabs off and having separate "apps" via Chrome, one thing I thought I'd point out (if you haven't noticed) is that Chrome remembers the exact shape of the window, so you can create a FF app (beta.friendfeed.com/yourusername), then resize it exactly how you want it, put it where you want it on your screen, and Chrome will remember that. I've done this with Calendar, Friendfeed, and other sites.
1 reply
StevenHodson
ya I found that out pretty quick the only problem is now I have to look at their other application alternatives ..oh man I am so going to hell ... damn Google
1 year ago
in Stuck in Google Search and Advertising Hell on Shooting at Bubbles
Steven, I typically enjoy reading your articles here and your comments on Friendfeed, but your (IMHO very wrong) assertions here deeply disappoint me :(.
Selecting just a few...
> there will be no initiative to evolve any part of their systems
...
> we have seen no real improvement is the search field
I hope you'll forgive my bluntness here, but speaking as someone who has spent two years on Google's Search Quality team, I can't think of a one of us that's motivated by Google's marketshare. Whether Google's share becomes 3% or 93% or stays something in between, I guarantee you that my colleagues and I will continue to bust our posteriors on improving search quality. You may not see whiz bang UI changes, and I respect that you and some others may yearn for a new "revolutionary" search UI, but what's under the hood is constantly evolving, constantly improving (and in more languages and countries than you can count on many hands).
And while I certainly can't speak even semi-officially for the folks in AdSense, I think it's absolutely nuts that anyone would think that team doesn't have enormous incentive to improve contextual search. As greater percentages of visitors on web sites with AdSense ads become purchasers of products in those ads, advertisers become happier with Google. The happier advertisers become, the more money they are apt to spend on AdWords. There's not just a slight correlation here, there's a darn humungous correlation (and incentive!)
Selecting just a few...
> there will be no initiative to evolve any part of their systems
...
> we have seen no real improvement is the search field
I hope you'll forgive my bluntness here, but speaking as someone who has spent two years on Google's Search Quality team, I can't think of a one of us that's motivated by Google's marketshare. Whether Google's share becomes 3% or 93% or stays something in between, I guarantee you that my colleagues and I will continue to bust our posteriors on improving search quality. You may not see whiz bang UI changes, and I respect that you and some others may yearn for a new "revolutionary" search UI, but what's under the hood is constantly evolving, constantly improving (and in more languages and countries than you can count on many hands).
And while I certainly can't speak even semi-officially for the folks in AdSense, I think it's absolutely nuts that anyone would think that team doesn't have enormous incentive to improve contextual search. As greater percentages of visitors on web sites with AdSense ads become purchasers of products in those ads, advertisers become happier with Google. The happier advertisers become, the more money they are apt to spend on AdWords. There's not just a slight correlation here, there's a darn humungous correlation (and incentive!)
1 reply
StevenHodson
Adam I'm glad you enjoy reading what I offer up but I equally appreciate a person's bluntness - especially when it is well written. I additionally appreciate when people such as you who are members of companies or teams within companies that I write something about are willing to give me a slap down if I deserve it :).
I really don't care about whiz bang UI for search - hell I was a big fan of the original start.com before it got sucked into that vortex called Live.com. Yes I want the results to be presentable and easy to read but what I am fed up with is polluted results. Which I am sorry to say; while it may not be entirely the fault of Google, is happening. I wanted to ad "more and more" but since I can't really qualify the statement like that which hard data or facts I am going just by practical daily experience. I know I am see more splogs dirtying up the results - many of which are coming from the Blogger.com domain.
I really hope you guys in the trenches are doing your best to improve what we the customers are getting as results but my main point was that without serious competition from the other main players Google at some point will begin to rest to heavily on its laurels. It might not be you are your team members but as with any big corporation those at the top often are the ones whose feet need to be held to the fire the most.
As for AdSense I can tell you as a content provider who runs the product I am not happy. I know that I am in constant competition with things like ad farms and splogs which are proliferating like bad weeds and drag down the whole industry and yet nothing is done about them. Sure individually some might get blacklisted but on the whole they are a blight on the whole AdSense system. I realize that for Google this type of misuse is extreme hard to do anything against but the seeming inactions of Google to fight this problem give the impression - right or wrong - that it is operating under a wink and a nod in regards to these types of things because of the immense number of dollars that it earns via operators of these eyesores.
Regarding the contextual problem just look at the ads on the main page of even this site and tell me how contextual to the story content they are. And this is with using the tips as supplied by the AdSense tips page about using weighting tags within the PHP and yet all I see is ads about blogs 99% of the time. The only time this change is on the single page display of a post and then the results get a little better but not by much.
This all doesn't even take into consideration the revshare that is a big bone of contention as Google adds billions to its coffers based on the AdSense that content providers run.
The problem is that there is no viable competition to Google on any of these fronts and it knows it so why do anything to make the system better. I realize that you and your team mates probably do care about what you are doing but that doesn't mean that those in the positions of making sure things get done care. I could be wrong but I'm not seeing this and I think a lot of others feel the same way I just happened to be the one with a big mouth :)
I really don't care about whiz bang UI for search - hell I was a big fan of the original start.com before it got sucked into that vortex called Live.com. Yes I want the results to be presentable and easy to read but what I am fed up with is polluted results. Which I am sorry to say; while it may not be entirely the fault of Google, is happening. I wanted to ad "more and more" but since I can't really qualify the statement like that which hard data or facts I am going just by practical daily experience. I know I am see more splogs dirtying up the results - many of which are coming from the Blogger.com domain.
I really hope you guys in the trenches are doing your best to improve what we the customers are getting as results but my main point was that without serious competition from the other main players Google at some point will begin to rest to heavily on its laurels. It might not be you are your team members but as with any big corporation those at the top often are the ones whose feet need to be held to the fire the most.
As for AdSense I can tell you as a content provider who runs the product I am not happy. I know that I am in constant competition with things like ad farms and splogs which are proliferating like bad weeds and drag down the whole industry and yet nothing is done about them. Sure individually some might get blacklisted but on the whole they are a blight on the whole AdSense system. I realize that for Google this type of misuse is extreme hard to do anything against but the seeming inactions of Google to fight this problem give the impression - right or wrong - that it is operating under a wink and a nod in regards to these types of things because of the immense number of dollars that it earns via operators of these eyesores.
Regarding the contextual problem just look at the ads on the main page of even this site and tell me how contextual to the story content they are. And this is with using the tips as supplied by the AdSense tips page about using weighting tags within the PHP and yet all I see is ads about blogs 99% of the time. The only time this change is on the single page display of a post and then the results get a little better but not by much.
This all doesn't even take into consideration the revshare that is a big bone of contention as Google adds billions to its coffers based on the AdSense that content providers run.
The problem is that there is no viable competition to Google on any of these fronts and it knows it so why do anything to make the system better. I realize that you and your team mates probably do care about what you are doing but that doesn't mean that those in the positions of making sure things get done care. I could be wrong but I'm not seeing this and I think a lot of others feel the same way I just happened to be the one with a big mouth :)
