Disqus - Latest Comments for Bob Wyman

Re: GrabPERF: Search Index Weekly Results (Sep 12-18, 2005)

Bob Wyman — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 13:52:35 -0000

I'd like to suggest that you include a second test for Google BlogSearch to make the comparison to PubSub a bit more fair. What you're retrieving from PubSub is an Atom feed, not a full HTML page. Typically, HTML pages can be filled with all sorts of junk that isn't present in Atom feeds. Thus, the Google BlogSearch numbers may be getting dragged down by them having to transfer more data or do more formatting of the output. So, what I'd like to suggest is that you include a second "Atom" search test for Google BS that would look like this:

http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch_feeds?s...>

Since PubSub always returns 32 results (if present) it makes sense to adjust the Google BlogSearch item "num" to be 32. Admittedly, there would still be a difference between PubSub and Google BlogSearch since GoogleBS only returns summaries while PubSub returns full posts. However, this difference in payload size might get lost in the wash.

bob wyman

Re: MSN Spaces…MSN Groups vNext?

Bob Wyman — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 16:33:59 -0000

You wrote: "MSN Spaces blogs rarely come up in my PubSub searches"...

The problem is that a large percentage of Spaces are non-English but your query is all English words. Searches like yours will generate many fewer results on Spaces than they would on a more predominantly English-language system like LiveJournal, Blogger or Typepad. Remember, Spaces got started in Japan and Asia. It is still gaining momentum in the English-speaking world.

bob wyman

Re: Correcting the Record about Microsoft

Bob Wyman — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 16:10:28 -0000

Robert, Best of luck in your new job! I look forward to remaining a loyal consumer of your work.

bob wyman

Re: Blog Search

Bob Wyman — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 15:31:50 -0000

As you suggest, we at PubSub are definitely keeping our "eyes open" and watching what Google is doing. However, while I think that some of the more traditional retrospective "blog search" services will have some problems now that Google Blog Search has been released, I don't see any particular threat to PubSub from what they are doing. We implement a "prospective" forward-looking search, rather than the kind of backwards-looking search that Google, Technorati, Feedster and others implement.
Actually, I think that Google coming into the business is going to be a good thing for everyone. I recently discussed this in a post on my blog. The point is that now, the resources that used to go into filling the "market hole" that was left because Google, Yahoo! and others weren't doing blog search, can go into doing really innovative things that better address users' needs. I'm hoping that we'll see a lot more innovation in the future as people stop trying to copy Google and do something new instead!

bob wyman
CTO, PubSub.com