DISQUS

Contxts really took the conference by storm. My friend, Danny Newman, Contxts founder, estimates almost 1/2 of the attendees signed up for an account.

FourSquare was awesomely fun. By adding a gaming component and the feeling of action, which made it just more fun to use (and overall more useful). Brightkite on the other hand has a voyeur feeling - which led to my comment that FourSquare makes Brightkite look like Linkedin. Useful in a certain context, but overall kinda boring.

There didnt seem to be anything else that really exploded on the scene in the way that Contxts and FourSquare did.

I think the word "alliance" is a good one. When some of our publishers asked if we could develop sa replacement for the Feedburner Networks, we realized that our technology could enable others to form these alliances centered around specific topic area.

We are doing just that now, providing the technological support for publishers that want to create topical content networks. They are viewed as a perfect complement and showcase for the work we are doing around trusted search and helping publishers understand how readers engage with their content, and monetize their content.

I imagine you will see many pop up over the course of the next few weeks.

Stan, any interest in starting one for European Tech Bloggers? :) I'd be happy to help out.

I promise to keep Marshall and Louis under wraps...Oh! you meant me. Gotcha! LOL.

Cant wait to see you guys in March.

Competitions like this always kill me because it becomes a popularity contest. If one is looking for the qualities of a strong spokesperson, then #14 jeremy seems to have the ability to truly engage people on Boxee (which is just rad!)

SEO is always an interesting topic. Some (like me) write posts that the role of the traditional SEO consultant is dead, and that companies need to learn to integrate the function of SEO into their day to day activities.

This holds true for bloggers/publishers as well. Learn the basics of SEO, there are a ton of resources out there.

But where social becomes interesting as its relates to search, is in two places: reputation management and trust management.

SEO/SEM is important only as a function of driving traffic to your publication. Reputation/Trust managment squarely sits on the shoulders of user generated content, or social content. What I generate outside of my blog becomes as important as the content I generate on my blog itself. Why?

Because I am the sum of my parts. Each tweet I send, each photo I take, each video I upload allows potential clients and friends (anyone looking to create a relationship with me, or vice versa) helps to create trust and support my reputation/expertise.

Damn you Brogan! You have inspired me to write yet another blog post!

There are two things I love to do at conferences, speak on panels and meet new people. Of everyone I met, you were certainly the most memorable, and almost single-handedly made the trip worth it!

Looking forward to seeing you again soon.

Overall, these tips feel more like "bootstrap" startup suggestions rather than "venture backed" startup suggestions (although networking and understanding the space work for all startups).

If you are venture backed startup or looking to be a venture backed startup, the first point should be "get out of PERSONAL debt" or at least make your personal debt managable. Its okay for the startup itself to carry debt (most will use debt rather than equity to finance capital expenditures for example), but as a founder, it becomes much easier to secure SBA loans, equity lines of credit, etc. of your personal credit is in good shape.

Leslie, thanks for picking up the string from my blog post http://learntoduck.com/micah/birthday. I couldnt have gotten a better gift than this post! You are awesome.

One thing I learned about SocialVibe as I researched various online companies like this, is that they actually generate contributions in two ways, when a user installs the widget (rather than the click through), and through the generation of points (the social network-y side).

I really like SocialVibe, specifically because it allows young people to participate in philanthropy without having to use cash. As a fundraiser for 7 years for higher education, being involved with philanthropic endeavors was always a positive, and lead to greater involvement (and donations) over time.

Having run an ad agency in the past, it also interesting to see the interaction with the brands. It has to be great for Coca Cola and the like to participate in this effort.

Whatever. FavTape has surpassed Muxtape in functionality. I wish them well, but FavTape rocks.

Wendy, thanks. Sometimes I feel so unloved! *sniff* :)

Kristen, thanks for the great writeup. We are (clearly) very excited for the funding and what it will allow us to build for our publishers.

I look forward to hearing what people think of our service and how it can be improved.

@mack dammit, and I was beginning to dislike you... ;) Im sure it will work out. At lijit, we really try to make our actions speak louder than our words (after all if you follow me on twitter @micah, those arent always GOOD words...). I hope that Todd and our team's actions did just that.

As always, if you have any questions or need anything, I am micah@lijit.com and cell - 720-231-7120. Im at BlogHer this week, but available.

@mack - this is actually a good thing. I always assumed that people knew and understood that feature. It appears that I was wrong. What could I do (or what could we do in the signup process) to make it more clear, more evident?

We certainly were not trying to dupe anyone. After all, we consider that feature to be beneficial to the publisher. And its (relatively) customizable. Is it just the ad, or the feature itself?

@chris - I hope that a "tear" not a "tear." Wouldnt want lijit to make you cry... ;)

@mack - see my comment. You will see that you can turn that feature off. We are in a test mode with it, and any feedback you can provide would be great.

@Chris,

The re-search box doesnt have all the customizations that I would like it to have (you can either have it appear at the top of the blog, or with the widget, which is where it appears here).

I think that the best place for it is at the end of the post, which is where it appears on Seth Godin's blog (do a search for "seth godin" on Google, click any of the indented results--I usually pick "this time its different"--and you can see the placement.

I also think that the option to have it appear collapsed is a interesting idea.

If you think putting it at the end of posts (although in your case, it might compete with the Zementa related content block) is a good place, I will have one of our developers make the change (I think its actually something you can do, but its not self evident). I will also ask about having it collapsed to begin with.

I believe that within your settings you can also play with its width (to a certain degree), but only if it appears at the top of your blog. (doa search for "iphone flip" on google, and click on the learntoduck.com result. It appears at the top of my blog.)

Morten, Thanks for the interesting post. I would like to continue to work with you to make some of the changes you suggest, and perhaps figure out which ones would work on a more global scale. The truth is that the widget was originally designed for blogs and the inherent trust relationships blogrolls and other social links included. We should explore Wiki's given that they often have similar trust relationships to blogs.

@tom - I could eat 5 more waiting for the comment system to load. Woah! Did I say that out loud? Yes I did.

Bring it children. Bring it.

http://twitter.com/micah/statuses/835123902 - Double Shot.

Colin, I think web standards are a wonderful way to pass data around the web. At Lijit, since we sit in the middle of all the conversation and data flowing around the social web, we want to be able to index and present that data in its native format and in a way that is useful to publishers and searchers.

Needless to say, we are experiementing with all kinds of things, and I hope to have some cool stuff to show off soon! (Like integrated Viddler videos, now that would be super cool!)

We should have a summit! But yes Lijit and I would love to expand the discussion.

Something like this can only be affective if its accepted by all. I applaud you for taking the lead in this.

I wonder if there is a larger bill of rights that should be discussed as there are more publisher addons than ever before.

@JH I love the cheesy comment without leaving a URL or using your real name. So, you dont stand behind your statement? Dont have the integrity to indicate who you are?

Love the trolls.

@ahson I think you are on to something. Lets start by listing them here in the comments.

@gerhard that is one of the most difficult shady activity to respond to. Because if you call them out, are you not being a team player?

Regardless, I stand by my premise. The right way is always clear and some people choose to do it another way. It is our choice to work with those people or frequent their businesses.

this is a test

I made one small change. Had to add Dont Fear the Reaper. I have personally listened to that song a million times, and I have 26 versions of the song. This was the Wilco version live. Listen for someone in the crowd to yell out "We Need More Cowbells!"