Sponsors - ReadWriteWeb

Check Out the Companies That Make ReadWriteWeb Possible

Admin — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:00:45 -0800

Our mission at ReadWriteWeb is to explore the latest Web technology products and trends. We're fortunate to have a great group of sponsors who support this goal. So, once a week, we write a post about them; about who they are, what they do, and what they've been up to lately. Pay them a visit and show your appreciation of their sponsorship of this site. Pay them a visit or tweet them a "Thank you" (see link below each sponsor) to show your appreciation for their sponsorship of this site. Or you can follow all of our sponsors at once using our Twitter list.

Interested in being a ReadWriteWeb sponsor? ReadWriteWeb is one of the most popular blogs in the world and is read by a sophisticated audience of thought leaders and decision-makers. We have several innovative new features in our sponsor packages that we'd love to tell you about. Email our COO Bernard Lunn for all the details.

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]]> Ready to learn more about the smart companies that support this site you love to read? Read on...

Crowd Science

Crowd Science gives online publishers reports on the demographics and attitudes of their audience. We at ReadWriteWeb have signed up to this new service, because demographic data is something we've struggled to get in the past. It's important for any online business to know their audience, so Crowd Science is a welcome addition to the stats armory that most of us in the Internet biz use.

Thank Crowd Science on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Mashery

Mashery is a platform for Web services, allowing companies to manage their APIs using Mashery's expertise. At the "Business of APIs" conference, Mashery CEO Oren Michels explained to the audience that while APIs are a technology, their use is a business decision. He went on to say that Mashery has helped customers such as WhitePages.com, Thumbplay, Compete.com, and Calais. Check out the white paper "Five steps to scaling your business development using Web services" to discover how you can use APIs for your business.

You can find out more about APIs and their business use at www.mashery.com.

Thank Mashery on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Rackspace

Rackspace is one of the world's largest hosting providers, but it's also competing in the cloud computing arena. Rackspace Cloud Hosting offers a suite of services which combines a scalable web and application hosting platform (Cloud Sites) with a cloud storage solution (Cloud Files) and on demand server instances (Cloud Servers). The addition of SliceHost a popular cloud computing and hosting provider and JungleDisk, a favorite online backup service that supports Cloud files, makes the Rackspace Cloud a powerful cloud hosting solution.

Explore Rackspace's hosting and cloud computing solutions.

Thank Rackspace on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Aplus.net

Aplus.net offers a variety of services relating to Web hosting, including shared hosting, Web design, marketing and online advertising services, search engine optimization, e-commerce solutions, and domain registration.

You can register for Aplus.net here.

Thank Aplus.net on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Hakia

Hakia is a semantic search engine. It delivers a new search experience based on focus, clarity, and credibility. You can compare Hakia to Google and Bing here.

Hakia currently powers the contextual advertising link engine at ReadWriteWeb with its semantic advertising module, Contexa. Contexa provides page-level contextual analysis (in this case, of blog posts) on the fly and outputs keywords that represent the meaning of the page along with their meaning score. The Contexa system then matches ReadWriteWeb sponsors' requirements with the contextual representation of the page to provide relevant ads for readers. Contexa is offered as a service and can be integrated into any ad system.

Learn more about Contexa.

Thank Hakia on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Domain.ME

.Me is a true phenomenon among TLDs. With its unforgettable meaning and limitless word combination possibilities, .Me gives a truly personal tone to your domain name. If you are looking for a name that speaks for itself .Me is your best choice. Let .Me speak for your online business or personal blog.

.Me potential is enormous and it simply asks for you to be creative and coin the name that suits you best. If you have a great, original idea for a domain name, register .Me before it's taken. To check out other ideas, explore the world of .Me.

Thank Domain.ME on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Codero

Codero is a former division of Aplus.net. Codero became a separate entity focusing on dedicated and managed hosting solutions after the acquisition of Aplus.net's shared hosting, web design, and domain registration services by Hostopia. "Codero" stands for collaboration, engagement, focus, reliability, and flexibility. It means a more secure computing experience for email, shopping, and data transfer.

Codero is a dedicated and managed hosting company focused on the real needs of today's small and mid-sized businesses. The company believes in supporting robust websites, storefronts and online communities that will grow and adapt.

Groupsite

Groupsite.com is a self-serve platform for creating social collaboration communities called Groupsites. Groupsites combine the most useful features of social networking and collaboration tools enabling groups large and small to communicate, share and network. Groupsites are currently in use by more than 30,000 groups as user communities, intranets, member communities, team workgroups and social networks. Each Groupsite can be branded and customized and includes discussion forums, calendaring, file sharing, member profiles (professional or social), activity feeds and full-featured sub-groups among other group-centric features.

Thank Groupsite on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

NaviSite

NaviSite is a leading provider of enterprise hosting and application services for a diverse client base. Leveraging a diverse network of 16 enterprise-class data centers across the US and UK, NaviSite offers a predictable technology environment and a complete suite of infrastructure and application solutions.

NaviSite's product and service offerings include:

Vast custom application development capabilities, including SOA solutions, eCommerce, and Web 2.0 applications.
Full stack of enterprise hosting services for mid-market companies, including shared, dedicated, and complex hosting, SaaS enablement, and colocation.
Best in class managed hosting, such as virtualization and utility computing.

Thank NaviSite on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Faroo

Faroo is a peer-to-peer Web search engine that has no centralized index and crawler. Each web page visited by users is automatically included into the distributed index. Search results are ranked based on distributed usage statistics of Web pages visited by Faroo users, which leads to more democratic, user-centric ranking.

Faroo protects the privacy of users by encrypting search queries and anonymizing its distributed architecture. The decentralized peer-to-peer architecture scales with Internet growth and requires no infrastructure or operational cost.

Thank Faroo on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

MyDomain.com

MyDomain is a leading ICANN-accredited provider of domain name registration and online business solutions. For over 10 years, MyDomain has offered low-cost domain names and free domain services including complete DNS management. Today, sub-$10 domains without the constant upsells you'll find at some competitors are the norm at MyDomain. MyDomain's complete range of solutions include Web hosting and VPS hosting, email, SSL Certificates and more.

Search Engine Strategies

From social media to local search to video SEO, Search Engine Strategies Chicago puts you in front of the experts who will help you sort which technologies and channel will take you to the next level and which are just hype.

Search Engine Strategies is the pioneer of educational conference series in search engine marketing. It's the venue where the industry visionaries and thought leaders gather each year to discuss the newest trends, share insights and present the strategic action plans you need to grow your business.

Thank Search Engine Strategies on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Backupify

Backupify provides reliable online backup services for a range of products, including Twitter, WordPress, Facebook, Delicious, Basecamp, Google Docs, Gmail, Zoho, Flickr and Photobucket. Backups are secure, automatic and easy to set up.

Thank Backupify on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Our Gracious Hosts and Blogging Software

ReadWriteWeb is hosted by Media Temple and is published using SixApart's Movable Type.

If you've ever wondered what ReadWriteWeb looks like behind the scenes, or if you've never seen the Movable Type publishing interface - that's it on the left. We recently upgraded to MT 4.23, which is the latest version. We got onto this release as soon as it was available - in fact our contacts at Six Apart emailed the actual code to us before it was up on their website. That's customer service for you!

Thank Media Temple and SixApart on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

The companies above pay our rents or mortgages and we appreciate it. We hope you'll stop by their sites and see what they've got to offer.

Have you got a smart company that could use some more visits by the sophisticated readers of a blog like ReadWriteWeb's? Drop us a line and let's talk.

Thanks to all our sponsors and our readers for your support!

]]> Discuss

Sponsor Post: Build a Better Personal Brand With Your Own Domain

Admin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:00:57 -0800

Editor's note: we offer our long-term sponsors the opportunity to write 'Sponsor Posts' and tell their story. These posts are clearly marked as written by sponsors, but we also want them to be useful and interesting to our readers. We hope you like the posts and we encourage you to support our sponsors by trying out their products.

The concept of personal branding online has become a part of many conversations about social media and social networking recently. The popularity of social sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and various smaller niche sites has continued to skyrocket, offering individuals a chance to create a more robust online presence. The age of anonymity online has all but ended, and individuals should seek to gain further control of their online identities.

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]]> A great deal has been written about how to engage in social media to establish a name for yourself online, but a commonly overlooked piece of the puzzle is also one of the simplest: owning your own domain name. A domain name complements the rest of your online presence through branding, using yourname.com or a similar variation.

Some Personal Branding Background

Personal branding is inherently somewhat egotistical, but not necessarily more so than networking at a conference or sharing business cards. The influence that personal branding online can have has continued to grow as people change the way they seek and consume information. Just over a decade ago, social circles were limited to face-to-face interactions and numbers in a phone book. Now, you can have a much larger reach and audience online. Think of personal branding simply as conducting some marketing as the president of Brand You.

The key to successfully branding yourself online is sharing. This could include contributing valuable information to an online conversation, creating original content, passing along great content from others or sharing knowledge from your experiences. Whatever your interests, social networking provides the opportunity to connect with others who share those same interests and want to hear what you have to say. The tools you can use are nearly infinite, but some of the larger social sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook are great places to start if you're not already there.

Where a Domain Fits With Personal Branding

Whether you're just starting out online or you're a social media power user who has more social profiles than you can keep track of, a domain is an essential part of owning your brand online. Domains were around long before social networking sites, but many people have never owned one, and they're more relevant now than ever. Owning a domain is very affordable, at under $10 per year, and well worth the cost as long as you put it to use. If you don't already own yourname.com, do a domain search to see if it's available. If yourname.com is already taken, the .net or .me extensions are also great options for a personal site. If all else fails, you can use a middle initial, nickname or other variation. Once you've found the perfect domain, consider registering other extensions (.net, .org, .tel, etc.) as well and redirect them to your primary domain.

Once you own your domain, you might wonder how best to use it. The option that comes to mind for many people is to build a website. If you have some knowledge of HTML or a website-building program, then creating a basic website is relatively simple. Content management systems like WordPress and Joomla are increasingly popular among people who want to build personal websites or blogs without learning HTML or Web coding. Here are just a few ideas of what you can do with a personal website:

Showcase your work in an online personal portfolio.
Build an online resume that highlights your strengths and creativity.
Make a website that features your hobbies and interests.
Create a hub that links to all of your social networking profiles.
Start a blog about a professional field or subject that you have expertise in.

If you don't want to create a website or blog with your own domain, there are still many other uses for it:

Brand yourself with custom email (you@yourname.com). You can even hook up services like Gmail to your domain using MX records, if you don't want to use separate email hosting.
If you already have a blog set up with a service like Blogger, Posterous or WordPress.com, use URL forwarding to direct visitors to that blog when they type in your domain.
Forward your domain to your Facebook, Twitter or other primary social networking profile.

Regardless of what you use the domain for, connecting your name to your online presence is important. When you connect with someone in your everyday life, you can share your domain name rather than having them search for you on Facebook. Use your domain on business cards, resume and other professional materials. Whatever the purpose, your domain can be an essential part of your online identity, without you having to rely on numerous online profiles. As Marshall Kirkpatrick puts it, "I'm in charge here at Marshallk.com and that's the way I like it."

Why Create a Personal Brand Online?

Personal branding has a great number of applications, particularly in the professional world. If you're searching for a job, having a well-rounded online presence is an increasingly important factor that many companies consider. Businesses often take more than a peek at what comes up in Google search results for candidates, whether you think they should or not, so use your domain name to rank well in Google to put the content that you want potential employers to see front and center.

Similarly, use your domain and social media profiles to network on a professional or personal level with others who share the same interests and goals. If you have consistently useful knowledge and content to contribute online, you can come to be known as an influencer and thought leader in your field. If you aim to start your own business or new project, having an established presence and network of online connections that trusts you can make a huge difference in your ability to succeed. Regardless of the direction you take with personal branding, a domain name is a great place to start and can serve as the backbone of your online presence.

Have another innovative use for your domain? Please share it in the comments.

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Check Out the Companies That Make ReadWriteWeb Possible

Admin — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 10:00:13 -0800

Our mission at ReadWriteWeb is to explore the latest Web technology products and trends. We're fortunate to have a great group of sponsors who support this goal. So, once a week, we write a post about them; about who they are, what they do, and what they've been up to lately. Pay them a visit and show your appreciation of their sponsorship of this site. Pay them a visit or tweet them a "Thank you" (see link below each sponsor) to show your appreciation for their sponsorship of this site. You can also start following some or all of our sponsors on Twitter with a few clicks on this TweepML page.

]]> Sponsor

]]> Ready to learn more about the smart companies that support this site you love to read? Read on...

Crowd Science

Thank Crowd Science on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Mashery

You can find out more about APIs and their business use at www.mashery.com.

Thank Mashery on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Rackspace

Explore Rackspace's hosting and cloud computing solutions.

Thank Rackspace on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Aplus.net

You can register for Aplus.net here.

Thank Aplus.net on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Hakia

Hakia is a semantic search engine. It delivers a new search experience based on focus, clarity, and credibility. You can compare Hakia to Google and Bing here.

Learn more about Contexa.

Thank Hakia on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Domain.ME

Thank Domain.ME on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Codero

Groupsite

Thank Groupsite on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

NaviSite

NaviSite's product and service offerings include:

Vast custom application development capabilities, including SOA solutions, eCommerce, and Web 2.0 applications.
Full stack of enterprise hosting services for mid-market companies, including shared, dedicated, and complex hosting, SaaS enablement, and colocation.
Best in class managed hosting, such as virtualization and utility computing.

Thank NaviSite on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Faroo

Thank Faroo on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

MyDomain.com

Search Engine Strategies

Thank Search Engine Strategies on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Backupify

Thank Backupify on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Our Gracious Hosts and Blogging Software

ReadWriteWeb is hosted by Media Temple and is published using SixApart's Movable Type.

Thank Media Temple and SixApart on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

The companies above pay our rents or mortgages and we appreciate it. We hope you'll stop by their sites and see what they've got to offer.

Have you got a smart company that could use some more visits by the sophisticated readers of a blog like ReadWriteWeb's? Drop us a line and let's talk.

Thanks to all our sponsors and our readers for your support!

]]> Discuss

Sponsor Post: 10 Killer Tools for Small-Business Success

Admin — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:45:03 -0800

If you have discussed social media with small-business owners, you almost always get two questions:

How do I manage all these social networks without going nuts?
Are any tools out there that can help me be more productive and save time?

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]]> The first answer that any good social media thinker would offer a small-business owner would be to pick two or three networks where you can reach the majority of your customers or potential customers and concentrate on those, thus eliminating some of your stress. Fortunately, the second answer is "Yes": tools are out there to help you manage your time and workflow if you plan to spend some time and energy on the social Web.

I polled a few folks who know a thing or two about social media, especially for small businesses, and collected a list of 10 tools, technologies and platforms that can help your small business succeed in social media and Internet marketing. These experts in the field include John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing, Becky McCray of Small Biz Survival, Mack Coller of The Viral Garden, Drew McLellan of Drew's Marketing Minute and Kyle Lacy, author of the upcoming book "Twitter Marketing for Dummies."

Based on their favorites (and some of my own), here are 10 killer tools for small-business success.

1. Jott
Have you ever called yourself and left a voice mail so that you wouldn't forget something? Jott takes that idea a step further, transcribing the voice mail and sending it to your inbox. Instead of sending a quick memo to yourself to remember to email your vendor, you can dictate the email and save time. Upgrade to Jott Assistant and you can dictate to-do lists, automatic Web postings to your social networks, calendar items and more. Jott is a subscription-based service, and it starts at only $3.95 per month for a small Assistant account. For small-business owners on the go, it can be a life-saver.

2. Grasshopper
Grasshopper not only gives your business its very own toll-free 800 number, but it allows your customers to reach you even when you're on the go. Voice mails are delivered to your inbox, as are faxes (in PDF), so you can stay connected everywhere. You can have multiple extensions and extend the service to your employees as well. The service starts at $9.95 per month (plus a $25 activation fee) for 100 minutes. Other plans are $49 and $199 per month.

3. Monitter
If your small business is on Twitter, keeping an eye on the conversations related to your product or service there makes sense. But if you're geographically focused like most small businesses, you probably hate having to weed through similarly named companies and mentions of your industry from folks 1,000 miles away. Monitter lets you search Twitter for keywords, but filters them by specified distances from a zip code. You get tweets about your category, industry and company from within your home territory, where it matters. Monitter is free to use.

4. HootSuite
For anyone who runs a Twitter account for business, a tool like HootSuite can be a productivity boon. Not only can you manage multiple people contributing to the same Twitter account (so that one person isn't solely responsible for tweeting), but you can manage multiple accounts with ease. The software has a bookmarklet for quick link-sharing and offers some cursory stats on your Twitter account as well. It's free to use.

5. Survey Monkey
Perhaps the one luxury that many small businesses can't afford is market research. Survey Monkey enables you to conduct your own online surveys to gain insight into your customer base for free. The tool is easy to use, looks professional and produces a bevy of charts and graphs to help you understand your results. If you have trouble with online tools, Survey Monkey has several video tutorials that make it a snap to tap into customer insights.

6. Simple Online Accounting Solutions
McCray told me about a number of good online tools for bookkeeping and accounting, two really stand out for her. She recommends Outright.com for single-person businesses and WorkingPoint.com for more complex companies. The reason? Simplicity. Speaking as a business owner who is math-averse myself, I'll just say, "Amen!" The simpler, the better. Both of these are outstanding in that category. Outright is free to use. WorkingPoint is free for one user, $10 per month for two and only $80 per month for 10 users.

7. ReQall
Never before has a smart phone app been so incredibly useful! ReQall is a memory aide that enables you to record voice memos via a smartphone or regular phone, have those messages transcribed and then sent to you via email (a la Jott). But wait! There's more. The software uses natural-language processing and some additional analysis to determine whether you're dictating a calendar item or to-do list entry. It then adds those items to your calendar or to-do list. If you say, "Pick up milk at Circle K on Belmont Avenue by 4 pm," you'll get a calendar entry, probably with a Google map link, and a reminder beforehand. For the small-business owner on the go, this app is a must-have.

8. Milog (iPhone App)
While I hate to recommend an application that is limited to iPhone users, this one is worth mentioning. Milog, from SymplySoft, allows you to track your mileage simply, then email yourself neatly organized reports to print or send to your accountant for tax papers. When my CPA told me, "No one tracks their mileage well," I decided to prove her wrong. Milog helps me do that in literally a few seconds per day. The app stores locations for easy trip entry and allows you to add fields for parking, tolls and more. The full version is just $2.99 at the iPhone app store.

9. Minggl
This tool is new (the beta was released two weeks ago) but is very promising. A browser sidebar plugin, Minggl allows you to post status updates across six major social networks (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Digg and Delicious) but, unlike other broadcast services, also allows you to check your inboxes, notifications and public updates from friends on those networks. Add a Google Sidewiki-style annotation service and you've got a pretty useful tool that you won't have to change your habits much to use.

10. Backupify
Whether you're dabbling in social media for your business, conducting full-scale sales calls via Twitter or Facebook or running everything you do through project management software like Google Docs, Zoho or Basecamp, you'd probably get mighty frustrated if one of those services went down and lost your data. Backupify.com serves as a daily or weekly (you decide) backup service for a variety of social media and Web 2.0 services that many small businesses depend on. The service is available at a low cost (accounts start at $4.95 per month) and backs up your important company data (Gmail, Google Docs, Basecamp, Zoho), plus your entire database for services like Flickr, Twitter and even WordPress. (Disclosure: Backupify is a ReadWriteWeb sponsor and a client of mine.)

These applications, programs and platforms only skim the surface. I'm sure you have favorites of your own. Please share them in the comments for your fellow readers and help make this post a one-stop shop for killer small-business tools.

Jason Falls is a social-media consultant based in Louisville, Kentucky. He blogs regularly at SocialMediaExplorer.com. He is also chief evangelist for Backupify.com, a ReadWriteWeb sponsor.

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Check Out the Companies That Make ReadWriteWeb Possible

Admin — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:14:31 -0800

Our mission at ReadWriteWeb is to explore the latest Web technology products and trends. We're fortunate to have a great group of sponsors who support this goal. So, once a week, we write a post about them; about who they are, what they do, and what they've been up to lately. Pay them a visit and show your appreciation of their sponsorship of this site. Pay them a visit or tweet them a "Thank you" (see link below each sponsor) to show your appreciation for their sponsorship of this site. You can also start following some or all of our sponsors on Twitter with a few clicks on this TweepML page.

]]> Sponsor

]]> Ready to learn more about the smart companies that support this site you love to read? Read on...

Crowd Science

Thank Crowd Science on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Mashery

You can find out more about APIs and their business use at www.mashery.com.

Thank Mashery on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Rackspace

Explore Rackspace's hosting and cloud computing solutions.

Thank Rackspace on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Aplus.net

You can register for Aplus.net here.

Thank Aplus.net on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Hakia

Hakia is a semantic search engine. It delivers a new search experience based on focus, clarity, and credibility. You can compare Hakia to Google and Bing here.

Learn more about Contexa.

Thank Hakia on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Domain.ME

Thank Domain.ME on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Codero

Groupsite

Thank Groupsite on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

NaviSite

NaviSite's product and service offerings include:

Vast custom application development capabilities, including SOA solutions, eCommerce, and Web 2.0 applications.
Full stack of enterprise hosting services for mid-market companies, including shared, dedicated, and complex hosting, SaaS enablement, and colocation.
Best in class managed hosting, such as virtualization and utility computing.

Thank NaviSite on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

MyDomain.com

Search Engine Strategies

Thank Search Engine Strategies on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Backupify

Thank Backupify on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

LeapFish

The Web has evolved. It used to be a place where people came to just search for simple information. Now it's a place where people come to also share information: information that is multi-media, complex, real time and social; recommended by people who know, and people you know. LeapFish calls this new place The Living Web, and it has designed an evolved engine to help you get the most from it - a service to help you live the new Web.

Thank LeapFish on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Our Gracious Hosts and Blogging Software

ReadWriteWeb is hosted by Media Temple and is published using SixApart's Movable Type.

Thank Media Temple and SixApart on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

The companies above pay our rents or mortgages and we appreciate it. We hope you'll stop by their sites and see what they've got to offer.

Have you got a smart company that could use some more visits by the sophisticated readers of a blog like ReadWriteWeb's? Drop us a line and let's talk.

Thanks to all our sponsors and our readers for your support!

]]> Discuss

Sponsor Post: The Rise of the Micro-Screencast

Admin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:00:59 -0800

Remember what it was like to capture video off a computer screen before desktop recording software came along?

You'd mount a big, expensive camera on a tripod, point it at the screen and, unless you had tweaked a bunch of settings or loaded special software, you'd get black bars creeping up and down the screen because of a refresh rate mismatch. And once you solved that problem, you still needed to be well versed in editing tools, video-tape transfer and replication.

]]> Sponsor

]]> 1990s: Cost of Production and Distribution = Very High

The advent of all-in-one desktop recording software was a minor revolution, because it gave ordinary computer users the means to capture anything they could see on their computer, edit it into a finished production and get it onto a CD-ROM or their Web server.

Now, anyone could be a software trainer—or at least share tips and show off cool stuff that they'd done on their computer.

Just as blogging platforms lit the fuse that rocked the world of online publishing, tools such as Camtasia Studio brought screencasting production to the mainstream. And video-sharing sites (think YouTube and Screencast.com) came along to eliminate distribution costs and hassle. The read/write Web took a step forward.

2000s: Cost of Production and Distribution = Low

Then along came "instant" screencasting tools such as Jing, ScreenToaster and Screenr (see ReadWriteWeb's reviews), which have lowered the barrier even further. The cost of these tools is nothing. And because content uploading and hosting is built right in, the time between idea and posted content has shrunk from hours to seconds. Think it, record it, post a link.

If the all-in-one screen recorders are like blogs, these new apps are like Twitter. And they've birthed a new mode of communication: the casual, disposable micro-screencast.

2010s: Cost of Production and Distribution = 0

Meticulously orchestrated and slickly edited screencast productions will always have their place. But now it's also practical to fire off a quick, informal micro-screencast in the time it takes to jot an email or dial a phone number.

And just as with Twitter, a stripped-down feature set and length limitations can be a benevolent deficit. The author has no time to ramble and no temptation to fiddle around, "improving" something that's good enough. (Anyone who has wasted 15 minutes tweaking the formatting of an unimportant document just because you could, raise your hand!)

On the other hand, simple doesn't mean poorly executed. You don't want the equivalent of typos and grammatical errors in your screencast. So, keep these basic tips in mind and you'll make something worthy of the viewer's time and attention.

Three Tips for Micro-Screencasting Excellence

Prepare
This is as easy as pausing to collect your thoughts and maybe jotting down on a sticky note three things that you want to communicate. This will help you focus and be succinct.
Practice
No one wants to watch you hunt around, looking for the right window or browser tab. A quick dry run goes a long way towards smooth delivery on the first take.
Pause
Memorize the hotkey that pauses your recorder (or write it at the top of your sticky note). Use it to stop and regroup if your brain freezes or you start to bumble. It's faster than starting over.

How about you? Are screencasts part of your day-to-day communication? Got a story or tip to share?

Daniel Foster (@fosteronomo) is a marketing writer at TechSmith and edits the company's monthly e-newsletter.

]]> Discuss

Check Out the Companies That Make ReadWriteWeb Possible

Admin — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:40:28 -0800

Our mission at ReadWriteWeb is to explore the latest Web technology products and trends. We're fortunate to have a great group of sponsors who support this goal. So, once a week, we write a post about them; about who they are, what they do, and what they've been up to lately. Pay them a visit and show your appreciation of their sponsorship of this site. Pay them a visit or tweet them a "Thank you" (see link below each sponsor) to show your appreciation for their sponsorship of this site. You can also start following some or all of our sponsors on Twitter with a few clicks on this TweepML page.

]]> Sponsor

]]> Ready to learn more about the smart companies that support this site you love to read? Read on...

Crowd Science

Thank Crowd Science on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Mashery

You can find out more about APIs and their business use at www.mashery.com.

Thank Mashery on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Rackspace

Explore Rackspace's hosting and cloud computing solutions.

Thank Rackspace on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Aplus.net

You can register for Aplus.net here.

Thank Aplus.net on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Hakia

Hakia is a semantic search engine. It delivers a new search experience based on focus, clarity, and credibility. You can compare Hakia to Google and Bing here.

Learn more about Contexa.

Thank Hakia on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Domain.ME

Thank Domain.ME on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Codero

Groupsite

Thank Groupsite on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

MyDomain.com

Search Engine Strategies

Thank Search Engine Strategies on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Backupify

Thank Backupify on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Our Gracious Hosts and Blogging Software

ReadWriteWeb is hosted by Media Temple and is published using SixApart's Movable Type.

Thank Media Temple and SixApart on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

The companies above pay our rents or mortgages and we appreciate it. We hope you'll stop by their sites and see what they've got to offer.

Have you got a smart company that could use some more visits by the sophisticated readers of a blog like ReadWriteWeb's? Drop us a line and let's talk.

Thanks to all our sponsors and our readers for your support!

]]> Discuss

Check Out the Companies That Make ReadWriteWeb Possible

Admin — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:00:07 -0800

Our mission at ReadWriteWeb is to explore the latest Web technology products and trends. We're fortunate to have a great group of sponsors who support this goal. So, once a week, we write a post about them; about who they are, what they do, and what they've been up to lately. Pay them a visit and show your appreciation of their sponsorship of this site. Pay them a visit or tweet them a "Thank you" (see link below each sponsor) to show your appreciation for their sponsorship of this site. You can also start following some or all of our sponsors on Twitter with a few clicks on this TweepML page.

]]> Sponsor

]]> Ready to learn more about the smart companies that support this site you love to read? Read on...

Crowd Science

Thank Crowd Science on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Mashery

You can find out more about APIs and their business use at www.mashery.com.

Thank Mashery on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Rackspace

Explore Rackspace's hosting and cloud computing solutions.

Thank Rackspace on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Aplus.net

You can register for Aplus.net here.

Thank Aplus.net on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Hakia

Hakia is a semantic search engine. It delivers a new search experience based on focus, clarity, and credibility. You can compare Hakia to Google and Bing here.

Learn more about Contexa.

Thank Hakia on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Domain.ME

Thank Domain.ME on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Codero

Groupsite

Thank Groupsite on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

TechSmith

Founded in 1987, TechSmith is the world's leading provider of screen capture and recording software for individual and professional use. People use its products to capture content from their screens in ways that help them communicate more clearly, create engaging presentations for diverse audiences, and analyze product usability and customer experience.

With products localized into five languages and a distribution network of resellers in more than 30 countries, TechSmith's global reach is continually expanding.

Thank TechSmith on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

NaviSite

NaviSite's product and service offerings include:

Vast custom application development capabilities, including SOA solutions, eCommerce, and Web 2.0 applications.
Full stack of enterprise hosting services for mid-market companies, including shared, dedicated, and complex hosting, SaaS enablement, and colocation.
Best in class managed hosting, such as virtualization and utility computing.

Thank NaviSite on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Verio

Verio is the recognized industry leader in delivering online business solutions to SMBs worldwide. Distributed through its network of OEM and viaVerio channel partners, Verio's solutions provide web hosting, application hosting and SaaS applications that enable SMBs to drive online success.

Verio has emerged as the preeminent provider of web hosting services worldwide. In 2000, the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT Communications, one of the largest companies in the world and supports its operations through NTTs highly reliable and scalable Global IP Network. Through this network, customers and partners can extend their global reach with access to business solutions around the globe and in more than 200 countries.

Today, Verio leverages its financial strength and stability to support its growing customer base, extend its product leadership and expand its global footprint for partners worldwide.

Thank Verio on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

PayPal

PayPal is a safe, easy way to pay and get paid online. The service allows anyone to pay in any way they prefer, including through credit cards, bank accounts, buyer credit or account balances, without sharing financial information.

PayPal has quickly become a global leader in online payment solutions with more than 153 million accounts worldwide. Available in 190 markets and 18 currencies around the world, PayPal enables global ecommerce by making payments possible across different locations, currencies, and languages.

Thank PayPal on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Our Gracious Hosts and Blogging Software

ReadWriteWeb is hosted by Media Temple and is published using SixApart's Movable Type.

Thank Media Temple and SixApart on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

The companies above pay our rents or mortgages and we appreciate it. We hope you'll stop by their sites and see what they've got to offer.

Have you got a smart company that could use some more visits by the sophisticated readers of a blog like ReadWriteWeb's? Drop us a line and let's talk.

Thanks to all our sponsors and our readers for your support!

]]> Discuss

Sponsor Post: Microsoft Retail Store

RWW Sponsor — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:00:33 -0800

Coming soon to a mall near you: the Microsoft Retail Store.

Yes, that's right: Redmond, Washington's favorite son wants a closer, snugglier relationship with you, the consumer.

]]> Sponsor

]]> Given Microsoft's relative lack of retail experience, and the fact that it plans to locate near its nemesis (well, one of its nemeses), the Apple Store, we wanted to help. So we came up with a list of ideas to help the big MS make its stores a hit.

Warning: some of these are serious, others not so much. Which is which? You be the judge.

Hold star-powered store opening events.
Announce that Microsoft will celebrate all store openings with live skits featuring goofy bosom buddies Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld.
Hire the very best people to run the stores.
You only get one chance to make a good first impression, so make sure your people have the track record to pull this off.
Offer diagnostic and repair services.
If Geniuses can fix or replace any Apple-branded electronics still under warranty, then Microsoft's retail staff can do the same for stuff that sports stickers claiming things like "Windows Vista Capable."
Build alliances with computer manufacturers to staff the Guru Bars.
And why not? The big names have plenty riding on the launch of Windows 7. Besides, they've built up plenty of customer service expertise in places like Texas, California and Hyderabad. (Note: certain fine computer builders, like Bob & Doug's Corner Computer Emporium, might not get a seat at the Bar.)
Train all staff to maintain the highest level of professionalism.
For instance, make sure associates smile politely when a customer walks up, grins, says "Hello, I'm a Mac" and elbows them in the ribs.
Display Windows-based hardware for people to try.
Show how Windows runs on computers, smartphones and whatever else Microsoft wants to convince people to buy.
Promote fan clubs to celebrate previous Microsoft consumer successes.
Start with enthusiasts for Microsoft Surface, Windows Tablet Edition, Passport, Vista and Sidekick.
Run workshops for business users.
Exploit current holes in software available for the Mac. For instance, bring in experts to explain how to set up popular accounting packages and, for lawyers, legal practice management systems.
Run workshops for creative users.
Run workshops showing how Windows computer users can start their artsy projects (photo books, websites, music videos) right out of the box. Have the workshops led by cute little girls who end each seminar by saying "I'm a PC and I'm four and a half."
Run safe computing workshops.
Teach users the basics, like not opening all attachments, not clicking links in spam email and so forth.
Run basic Windows repair workshops.
Teach computer users how to: remove pre-loaded trial software; replace faulty .dlls; make changes in the Windows registry; manually uninstall software when Windows botches the job; effectively scan online forums for answers to other problems; and, when all else fails, reinstall Windows and all other software from the ground up.
Create an X-Box gaming area.
Preview the latest games, hold in-store tournaments and otherwise build excitement around Microsoft's gaming platform. Contain this area in a soundproof room away from workshops, ideally in the mall display window so that everyone can see how rockin' Microsoft is.
Guerilla marketing (offense).
Every day, send people to nearby Apple Stores to pose as shoppers, whine about how expensive Macs are, then proclaim loudly, "Maybe we should go PC."
Guerilla marketing (defense).
Prepare a list of canned answers to anticipated questions from Apple operatives. Of particular importance, be ready to explain how Microsoft's operating system is not a copy of Apple's.
Offer kids play area.
Create a low "play table" where kids can sit down and show their parents how easily they can figure out a Windows computer.
Store closing.
To tell shoppers the store is closing for the day in a way they're sure to understand, have the giant video wall display the Windows Blue Screen of Death.

What do you want from Microsoft Retail Stores? Please tell us in the comments below.

]]> Discuss

Check Out the Companies That Make ReadWriteWeb Possible

Admin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:00:25 -0800

Our mission at ReadWriteWeb is to explore the latest Web technology products and trends. We're fortunate to have a great group of sponsors who support this goal. So, once a week, we write a post about them; about who they are, what they do, and what they've been up to lately. Please pay them a visit or tweet them a "Thank you" (see link below each sponsor) to show your appreciation for their sponsorship of this site. You can also start following some or all of our sponsors on Twitter with a few clicks on this TweepML page.

]]> Sponsor

]]> Ready to learn more about the smart companies that support this site you love to read? Read on...

Crowd Science

Thank Crowd Science on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Mashery

You can find out more about APIs and their business use at www.mashery.com.

Thank Mashery on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Rackspace

Explore Rackspace's hosting and cloud computing solutions.

Thank Rackspace on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Aplus.net

You can register for Aplus.net here.

Thank Aplus.net on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Hakia

Hakia is a semantic search engine. It delivers a new search experience based on focus, clarity, and credibility. You can compare Hakia to Google and Bing here.

Learn more about Contexa.

Thank Hakia on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Domain.ME

Thank Domain.ME on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Codero

Groupsite

Thank Groupsite on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

TechSmith

With products localized into five languages and a distribution network of resellers in more than 30 countries, TechSmith's global reach is continually expanding.

Thank TechSmith on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

NaviSite

NaviSite's product and service offerings include:

Vast custom application development capabilities, including SOA solutions, eCommerce, and Web 2.0 applications.
Full stack of enterprise hosting services for mid-market companies, including shared, dedicated, and complex hosting, SaaS enablement, and colocation.
Best in class managed hosting, such as virtualization and utility computing.

Thank NaviSite on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Verio

Today, Verio leverages its financial strength and stability to support its growing customer base, extend its product leadership and expand its global footprint for partners worldwide.

Thank Verio on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

PayPal

Thank PayPal on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Our Gracious Hosts and Blogging Software

ReadWriteWeb is hosted by Media Temple and is published using SixApart's Movable Type.

Thank Media Temple and SixApart on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

The companies above pay our rents or mortgages and we appreciate it. We hope you'll stop by their sites and see what they've got to offer.

Have you got a smart company that could use some more visits by the sophisticated readers of a blog like ReadWriteWeb's? Drop us a line and let's talk.

Thanks to all our sponsors and our readers for your support!

]]> Discuss

Check Out the Companies That Make ReadWriteWeb Possible

Admin — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 11:19:12 -0800

Our mission at ReadWriteWeb is to explore the latest Web technology products and trends. We're fortunate to have a great group of sponsors who support this goal. So, once a week, we write a post about them; about who they are, what they do, and what they've been up to lately. Pay them a visit and show your appreciation of their sponsorship of this site. Pay them a visit or tweet them a "Thank you" (see link below each sponsor) to show your appreciation for their sponsorship of this site. You can also start following some or all of our sponsors on Twitter with a few clicks on this TweepML page.

]]> Sponsor

]]> Ready to learn more about the smart companies that support this site you love to read? Read on...

Crowd Science

Thank Crowd Science on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Mashery

You can find out more about APIs and their business use at www.mashery.com.

Thank Mashery on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Rackspace

Explore Rackspace's hosting and cloud computing solutions.

Thank Rackspace on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Aplus.net

You can register for Aplus.net here.

Thank Aplus.net on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Hakia

Hakia is a semantic search engine. It delivers a new search experience based on focus, clarity, and credibility. You can compare Hakia to Google and Bing here.

Learn more about Contexa.

Thank Hakia on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Domain.ME

Thank Domain.ME on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Codero

Groupsite

Thank Groupsite on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

TechSmith

With products localized into five languages and a distribution network of resellers in more than 30 countries, TechSmith's global reach is continually expanding.

Thank TechSmith on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

NaviSite

NaviSite's product and service offerings include:

Vast custom application development capabilities, including SOA solutions, eCommerce, and Web 2.0 applications.
Full stack of enterprise hosting services for mid-market companies, including shared, dedicated, and complex hosting, SaaS enablement, and colocation.
Best in class managed hosting, such as virtualization and utility computing.

Thank NaviSite on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Verio

Today, Verio leverages its financial strength and stability to support its growing customer base, extend its product leadership and expand its global footprint for partners worldwide.

Thank Verio on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

PayPal

Thank PayPal on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Our Gracious Hosts and Blogging Software

ReadWriteWeb is hosted by Media Temple and is published using SixApart's Movable Type.

Thank Media Temple and SixApart on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

The companies above pay our rents or mortgages and we appreciate it. We hope you'll stop by their sites and see what they've got to offer.

Have you got a smart company that could use some more visits by the sophisticated readers of a blog like ReadWriteWeb's? Drop us a line and let's talk.

Thanks to all our sponsors and our readers for your support!

]]> Discuss

Sponsor Post: Courtroom Tweeting

RWW Sponsor — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:00:57 -0800

Traditional news services once had a monopoly on breaking stories. Not anymore. Just as blogging seems to have displaced longer features in traditional media, micro-blogging sites such as Twitter are racing against (and often beating) news services to the scoop.

Does this make for better-informed citizens? Maybe.

]]> Sponsor

]]> Reporters glom onto Twitter to research info and broadcast stories to their readers. They may even attain the ranks of Muck Rack, a Twitter stream composed of the tweets of thousands of media workers, from reporters to managing editors to Stephen Colbert.

The tweet tsunami has hit the whole world. It's still moving, and it promises to evolve as journalists dream up new ways of working with Twitter.

Some of the places where journalists are practicing their trade are raising eyebrows, too.

Take courtroom reporting, for instance. Wichita Eagle reporter Ron Sylvester makes ample use of his Twitter account (upwards of 10,000 tweets) to report on a range of trials. In Sweden, warbling over the Pirate Bay case grew tumultuous. The Ottawa Citizen's Glen McGregor used twitter.com/obrientrial to document Mayor Larry O'Brien's fight against charges of bribery and influence peddling (and illustrated a best practice of devoting one stream to a long-running news story).

But is Twitter better than traditional media for broadcasting news from a courtroom? One camp holds that tweets don't do trial reporting justice. Another maintains that Twitter promotes judicial transparency and helps citizens stay abreast of trials.

Admittedly, the latter argument falls short should people try to make heads or tails of a three-month-long trial based on tweets from days one and two. But interested parties who can't attend in person can benefit from the contributions of trained journalists, even if deep analysis can't happen 140 characters at a time.

"Trained journalists" is an important caveat. While interested citizens armed with BlackBerrys can document a trial, their varying levels of skill elicit the Mark Twain-worthy quip, "I trust citizen journalists as much as I trust citizen surgeons."

Imperfect tweeting should not pose a problem, though. Excessive inaccuracy and bias - and commentary discrediting them - appear quickly in a real-time world replete with news sources. Expect those who produce slanted streams to quickly lose followers.

For all this, the whole debate may not be worth the pixels they're displayed on. The cat is decidedly out of the bag, and Twitter will probably carry blow-by-blow accounts of many future trials.

Will this help or hinder the ever-evolving fields of journalism and justice? Let us know what you think.

]]> Discuss

Tweet a "Thank You" to the Companies That Make ReadWriteWeb Possible

Admin — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 10:45:21 -0800

Our mission at ReadWriteWeb is to explore the latest Web technology products and trends. We're fortunate to have a great group of sponsors who support this goal. So, once a week, we write a post about them; about who they are, what they do, and what they've been up to lately. Pay them a visit or tweet them a "Thank you" (see link below each sponsor) to show your appreciation for their sponsorship of this site. You can also start following some or all of our sponsors on Twitter with a few clicks on this TweepML page.

]]> Sponsor

]]> Ready to learn more about the smart companies that support this site you love to read? Read on...

Crowd Science

Thank Crowd Science on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Mashery

You can find out more about APIs and their business use at www.mashery.com.

Thank Mashery on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Rackspace

Explore Rackspace's hosting and cloud computing solutions.

Thank Rackspace on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Aplus.net

Aplus.net offers a variety of services relating to Web hosting, including shared hosting, dedicated server, managed hosting, Web design, marketing and online advertising services, search engine optimization, e-commerce solutions, and domain registration.

You can register for Aplus.net here.

Thank Aplus.net on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Hakia

Hakia is a semantic search engine. It delivers a new search experience based on focus, clarity, and credibility. You can compare Hakia to Google and Bing here.

Learn more about Contexa.

Thank Hakia on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Domain.ME

Thank Domain.ME on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Codero

Faroo

Thank Faroo on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Groupsite

Thank Groupsite on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

Our Gracious Hosts and Blogging Software

ReadWriteWeb is hosted by Media Temple and is published using SixApart's Movable Type.

Thank Media Temple and SixApart on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.

The companies above pay our rents or mortgages and we appreciate it. We hope you'll stop by their sites and see what they've got to offer.

Have you got a smart company that could use some more visits by the sophisticated readers of a blog like ReadWriteWeb's? Drop us a line and let's talk.

Thanks to all our sponsors and our readers for your support!

]]> Discuss

Sponsor Post: The Limits of Tweet-Based Web Search

RWW Sponsor — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:00:01 -0800

Many of the recent real-time search engines are based on Twitter. They use the URLs enclosed in tweets to discover and rank new and popular pages. In this post, we'll take a look at the quantitative structure of the underlying foundation, to determine the feasibility and limits of this approach. We'll also look at how to overcome these limitations by using the implicit Web.

]]> Sponsor

]]> You may have seen recently the interesting visualization of Twitter statistics. It essentially proves that, as with other social services, only a small fraction of users actively contribute.

But it also shows another fact: that those people who contribute publish an even smaller fraction of the information they know.

Both of these factors account for the huge difference in efficiency between implicit and explicit voting. Explicit voting, as the name implies, requires users to actively express interest in a page; for example, by tweeting a link. Implicit voting requires no deliberate action on the part of the user; a simple visit to a Web page would count as a vote.

A Quick Calculation

Twitter now has 44.5 million users and delivers about 20,000 tweets per minute. If every second tweet contained a URL, that would be 10,000 URLs shared per minute.

According to Nielsen, the number of visited Web pages per person per month is 1,591.

Twitter's 44.5 million users visit 1.6 million Web pages per minute and explicitly vote for only 10,000 per minute. That is to say, implicit voting and discovery generates 160 times more attention-getting data than explicit voting.

This means that 280,000 implicit votes could provide as much information as 44.5 million explicit votes. Put another way, as many Web pages are implicitly discovered during one day as there are Web pages explicitly discovered during half a year.

This dramatically shows the limits of Web searches based solely on explicit votes and mentions, searches whose potential could be leveraged by using the implicit Web.

Beyond the Mainstream

This becomes even more important if we look beyond mainstream topics and the English language. Then it becomes simply impossible to achieve the critical mass of explicit votes needed to have statistically significant attention-based ranking or popularity-based discovery.

Time and Votes Are Precious

Time is also a crucial factor, especially with real-time search. We want to be able to discover new pages as soon as possible. And we want to assess almost instantly how popular those new pages are. If we fail to reliably rank a page quickly, it will get buried in the noise. But the goals of speed and votes conflict with the fact that the number of votes a page gets is inversely proportional to the time it took to be viewed.

Again a much higher frequency of implicit votes would help.

Relevance vs. Equality

We could also improve on explicit votes. But we should not treat them as being equal because they are not. We trust some of them more than others, and our interests overlap with some more than others, for the very same reason that we follow some people and not others. This helps us get more value and meaning out of that very first vote.

FAROO is moving in this direction by combining real-time search with a peer-to-peer infrastructure.

A Holistic Approach

Discovering topical, fresh, and novel information has always been an important aspect of search. But the perception of what "recent" is has changed dramatically with the popularity of services such as Twitter, and it has led to the emergence of real-time search engines.

Real-time search shouldn't be a silo, but rather should be part of a unified and distributed approach to Web search.

The era of purely document-centered search is over. The equally important roles of user and conversation, both as targets of search and as contributors to discovery and ranking, should be reflected in the infrastructure.

A Distributed Infrastructure

As long as both source and recipient of information are distributed, then the natural design of search is distributed, too. P2P offers an efficient alternative to the ubiquitous concentration and centralization of search we find today.

A peer-to-peer client allows every visited Web page to be implicitly discovered and ranked according to attention received. This is important, because the majority of pages in a real-time search are in the long tail. They appear once or not at all in the Twitter stream and can't be discovered or ranked through explicit votes.

With real-time search, the amount of indexed data is limited, because only recent documents (those that have gained a lot of attention and a high reputation) are accounted for in the index. This allows for a centralized infrastructure at a moderate cost. But as soon as search moves beyond the short head of real-time search and aims to fully index the long tail of the entire Web, then a distributed peer-to-peer architecture provides a huge cost advantage.

]]> Discuss

Sponsor Post: Case Study of Contexa at ReadWriteWeb: Context Improves CTR

RWW Sponsor — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 05:00:06 -0800

Since the launch of the contextual link advertising product on ReadWriteWeb, we at Hakia have been anxious to see the results and evaluate the success of our contextual advertising product, Contexa. The Contexa system matches the semantic context of a blog post with a sponsor's criteria on the fly to deliver relevant ads to the reader. Participating ReadWriteWeb sponsors have provided the contextual engine with up to three "trigger phrases" that define their business. As a reader of the blog, you may have seen the product's implementation at the bottom of certain blog entries, as shown below. You can see another example here.

]]> Sponsor

]]>

As we began this exciting journey, the ReadWriteWeb team defined its objective as follows:

"To offer value to our readers by providing advertising links in the context of what they are reading, links that would therefore more likely be of interest to them, and
To offer a higher level of engagement to our advertisers, resulting in both more branding impressions and more click-throughs."

The preliminary aggregated statistics of the six participating sponsors (excluding Hakia), covering a 40-day period, demonstrate that the Contexa system has met ReadWriteWeb's objectives:

The Contexa system increased ad clicks by 14% (i.e. advertiser received, on average, 14% more ad clicks).
The click-through rate (CTR) for Contexa was more than twice that of ReadWriteWeb's 125 x 125 banner ads.

We decided to turn the tables and interview Bernard Lunn, ReadWriteWeb's COO and Feature Writer for his feedback! Hakia's own COO, Melek Pulatkonak, poses the questions.

Melek: Bernard, we have been working together on the ReadWriteWeb contextual link advertising system for a while. Has the system met your expectations?

Bernard: Yes, it has. We wanted to see if it would generate a meaningful uplift in CTR, and it has.

Melek: What feedback have you received from advertisers? And what would you recommend to participating advertisers going forward?

Bernard: Advertisers have to get the traffic–relevance balance right. You can drive a lot of clicks with a hot term - something we are writing about a lot - but if the relevance is low, the advertiser won't get good conversions. As with any new type of advertising, an art and science emerges over time. People know how to buy search terms on Google, but this is a bit different. I think we need to get better at creating more of a feedback loop (e.g. stats on how different terms have performed) so that advertisers can tune their keyword selection accordingly. Each advertiser has different needs and knows its market intimately, so it is best positioned to decide what works and how to tune its selection.

Melek: What's next? What is your vision?

Bernard: For this first phase, we provided Contexa to our long-term sponsors. In the next phase, we want to offer Contexa as a standalone offering, so that advertisers can purchase keywords (or trigger phrases) directly on ReadWriteWeb. This will be an entry-level self-service advertising option that many smaller startups have requested.

Melek: Anything else you would like to add?

Bernard: Context matters to engagement. That is an obvious statement, but doing it right has been hard, and the opportunities for bloggers to offer ads that engage readers well and offer them value have been limited. Contexa is a good step in this important journey.

We thank the ReadWriteWeb team for working with us closely to create a new contextual ad system for blogs and other publishers. To learn more about Contexa, please contact us at bdev@hakia.com.

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