Andy, second time reading your post, and that's all I need, I'll be regularly visiting you from now on.
Interesting (and controversial) post. There's some things I agree and disagree with. First thing, your ping list... I LOVE IT. I've gone through various ping lists and guess what, there's so much replication in the first place (which takes more time to sift through than is worth it) and so many of these services simply DIE! There's a lot of red on my ping lists, and I've been meaning to shorten it for quite some time, this post may become my catalyst.
The thought of Google labelling my pings as spam did cross my mind, but this brings more attention to it.
I like the simplicity of your list, my question is, aren't there a few more high quality services? I'd like to keep my list to below 10, but isn't just two services too few? I realize they are the highest quality, but surely there are at least several others worth to add... your thoughts?
What I disagree with is your take on re-pinging (sort of).
Your caveat is that 'unless it is a very minor edit.' In my own case, this is typically the case, I wonder how many other people fall into this position? My guess is... the majority, but I could be wrong. I would assume the smaller the blog (majority) the more valuable not repinging minor updates are.
In any case, I don't think major revisions to a post should be done. The title should not change, if it needs to be, the poster didn't do a good job in the first place, do you agree?
I mean, minor revisions to a page is fine and that's what the plugin(s) is(are) for, but changing the whole title? Isn't that a bit drastic, and less frequent?
Would like to get your opinions on this, thx, and nice controversial post! I'll try that out once I get a solid foundation.
And I would like your honest opinion, do you think my best strategy is to reduce my pinglist to the two you provided? If so, are you saying that these 2 cover the bases?
Regards, OZ
AndyBeard
· 6 months ago
If you write posts that are anything to do with news, titles change all the time.
As an example I picked up a problem with Bit.ly being labelled as Phishing by OpenDNS - I quickly researched a post so that it was substantive, and had value even when things got fixed, with a balanced view, but I also wrote a title to gain a reaction.
I was unfortunate in many ways that both parties are very much on the ball, and had it fixed within 30 minutes.
What did I do - I changed the title, ammended the leader to the post to ensure any reader knew it had been fixed.
It was actually fixed within 5 minutes of me posting the article
The meta title is used in all kinds of ways, such as by Tweetmeme retweet buttons.
Even more recently, this post was published with a typo in the title, and permalink, which I subsequently fixed within a couple of minutes of publishing.
Fortunately Google allow for this, pick up changes quickly, and determine themselves if the change is substantive
As for other services, I highly doubt any of them are as trusted by sites accepting pings as Google, and if they finally get their act together, Pingshot is a killer app.
Michel Fortin asked about Pingler.com on Twitter but they are one of the services that by default list 55 Google Blogsearch ping sites, along with Feedburner. If they were a trusted service, surely they would have direct contact with Google/Feeedburner, and know that isn't necessary.
Michel Fortin
· 6 months ago
For the record, I ping Feedburner (Pingshot), Pingomatic, Pingoat, Yahoo, Bing (Live), and Google. That's it.
AndyBeard
· 6 months ago
Pingoat closed their remote ping service before John Reese took it over, so it has been closed for over 2 years.
I have considered adding the major search engines to the list just in case, but then I would be faced with the dilemma of minor edits and pinging them
Pingshot used to ping Pingomatic, though I can't remember whether that was just optional. It is probably superfluous.
Michel Fortin
· 6 months ago
Right. I knew about Pingoat, though I've never removed it. But I don't rely on Pingshot to ping Pingomatic. The fact they don't list ping sites worries me somewhat. So I'd rather play safe.
With minor edits, the biggest problem isn't pings, but the article appearing as new in a feed reader. Just after publishing I wouldn't look on that as being a problem, later on it is.
I can't tell you whether all of those services are covered by Feedburner, but most of them used to be, before they simplified the interface, but didn't publish their "directory"
Feedburner suggests in their information that they are sophisticated enough to determine whether a post needs to be repinged, or just refetched for your readers to read the correct version.
I can see lots of negatives with using the MPO plugin if you are just using Feedburner for pings.
If you use a huge ping list, I can see a reason to use it, but it seems like 2 negatives doesn't make a right
phollows
· 6 months ago
Hi Andy:
That ping is a ping sink; we don't currently repeat the ping out.
But we could.
We've a couple of things in the queue at the moment but drop me a note on this and anything else that would help you make the decision to switch.
Phil
Steve
· 6 months ago
I couldn't be more sick of Google and their page rank, search engine ranking, slapping, black hat and all the other crap that no one really knows the truth about but everyone spends all day biting their fingernails about. I'm buying ads on Yahoo! from now on cause that don't cause me hours of worrying and give good traffic.
BrianJones12
· 6 months ago
I have long suspected this about ping lists. Glad to hear I am not alone.
goldsteinmedia
· 6 months ago
Hi Andy,
Now here's where I'm concerned. I have a bunch of ping services listed. I rank high in the keywords I want. I'm afraid that if I only go for two ping services I'll lose my ranking. Am I being nuts?
AndyBeard
· 6 months ago
The tone of my message is to apply thought to what you are doing, but that Feedburner potentially is the best solution... but you can't see where they ping.
As an example there are ping lists that include Google Blogsearch... 55 different versions - plus they also have Feedburner.
When I ping Feedburner, my content appears in all versions of Blogsearch (though there might be a delay across datacenters, it isn't something I have tracked.
Is it sensible to ping Google 55 times + have Feedburner do it, plus most likely other ping broadcast services on the same lists.
I remarked on Twitter that this is similar to using a sledgehammer to open a door.
Mikael @ Retire Early
· 6 months ago
Well it is an interesting topic that I have never really thought about. I am however at little confused since you start off saying to only use the two pinglists and then ditch Feedburner/Google. :)
AndyBeard
· 6 months ago
That is why I placed a few encouragements to continue reading in the post
If Google/Feedburner were giving some correct signals... hell any signals that they cared about Feedburner, I think my post would have been titled differently. e.g. "The Ultimate WordPress Plugin List" "Best WordPress Plugin List"
Unfortunately Google doesn't give me the chance, though the problems highlighted in the post still exist. They also exist with other services.
Mikael @ Retire Early
· 6 months ago
I did read it all but I guess I didn't get the twist that they ping list WOULD HAVE BEEN enough if Google did a good job with Feedburner. Sorry about that ;)
AndyBeard
· 6 months ago
It is more a case of how strong an emphasis I can place on recommending just using Pingshot.
Pingshot may be enough - it is all I use and the problem exists with every other list I have seen
Unfortunately I had to cover the negative aspects of relying on a Google service that is in the twilight zone.
Juanita
· 6 months ago
Myself have faced the same problems with the ping pages many a times. There noting i can do about it is just wait and watch. Services like this will be harmful or not?
LDS Realtors Nationwide
· 6 months ago
Google is going to screw all IT companies
Neo
· 6 months ago
Well Google advice not to ping Google in any way but I don't think that its bad to ping techorati or feedburner as they themselves come with ping services.
Thanks
AndyBeard
· 6 months ago
Based on some of the ping lists I have seen, Technorati would be pinged 5-10 times every time you post.
People are pinging Google 50+ times - the others you mention are pinged by Feedburner
Vlad Zablotskyy
· 6 months ago
Andy,
The WordPress by default comes with Ping-O-Matic pre-installed, it was if I am not mistaken, one of the services Feedburner use to have on the list. Why not use just Ping-O-Matic?
You can't beat Feedburner's price as far as e-mail subscriptions go. But as they say when you pay peanuts you get monkeys.... or something like that.
As far as Google Reader goes I guess it all comes down to profits. They can not show ads to your e-mail subscribers unless you let them- with reader they don't need your permission.
AndyBeard
· 6 months ago
That screenshot was from an email subscription to Problogger, thus Google are advertising Google Reader in emails without any notification or consent.
Pingomatic was one of the options but unnecessary replication
No paid services currently provide what I want - still waiting on access to Getresponse Beta to see if it is more useful than the current one which I have had a few problems with.
Ram
· 6 months ago
Thanks for pointing out the minor-edit plugin, that thing is brilliant!
Timmons
· 6 months ago
I have never used long ping lists. I figured that what came with Wordpress was good enough. I have been thinking about switching the email portion of my subscribers over to Aweber but I don't know if they have auto delivery or not. I also thought that pingomatic also pinged feed burner, but I believe you are talking about pinging your actual account right?
AndyBeard
· 6 months ago
If you are using Feedburner to host your feeds, I think it is highly important they have picked up your feed before pings are sent to other services.
Robert
· 6 months ago
Andy:
How do you test to see if a ping service is no longer active or like Pingoat has closed their remote ping service?
Robert
AndyBeard
· 6 months ago
Well with Pingoat they had a blog post about it
Some only accept pings from recognised services such as Feedburner
You could use the Max Blogpress Ping Plugin to test, or just write a simple PHP script and check the response code. Ultimately the easiset way is to just use Feedburner
Alex Sysoef
· 6 months ago
Great post Andy and I can't agree more on Ping List. People do so many duplications and don't even realize it. I will have to investigate deeper into FeedBurner list, I ping them in addition to about 4 others on my list but since they stopped providing info on What other services they ping - it made me wonder.
Thanks for info!
paul
· 5 months ago
interesting i didn't realise that Google bought feed burner. good thing a like about blog sites is that there is more resource of information. thanks Andy
Rachel
· 5 months ago
I have had the same thoughts about ping for a while now! Good to see you blogging about them! Yahoo is the way forward, google page ranking is much toostressful!
Dwayne
· 5 months ago
I ping about 20 places. After I post, Google usually indexes the new post with in an hour, sometimes with in minutes. Why would I want to change what already appears to be working?
If it is true that I end up ping Google repeatedly, it would appear that it is doing no harm. I still don't seem to be catching the point of why it would be worth changing.
Andrew Keir
· 5 months ago
"I couldn't be more sick of Google and their page rank, search engine ranking, slapping, black hat and all the other crap that no one really knows the truth about..."
Your not kidding, I forsee months of my life being wasted keeping up with Googles cloak and dagger rules.
cakey2k
· 5 months ago
I tend to use the standard list that comes with Wordpress but I assume from your posting I should be changing that. Like you say there are lists and lists out there so as someone starting down this journey your advice it helpful.
Thanks
Sarasota Injury Attorney
· 4 months ago
I was about to recommend that you get a longer ping list for your blog... and then quickly realized that I have no leg to stand on when it comes to giving you advice! Sounds to me like you get a billion hits a month.
kamiller
· 4 months ago
i recommend pingler.com it has all the ping services
All Comments
Interesting (and controversial) post. There's some things I agree and disagree with. First thing, your ping list... I LOVE IT. I've gone through various ping lists and guess what, there's so much replication in the first place (which takes more time to sift through than is worth it) and so many of these services simply DIE! There's a lot of red on my ping lists, and I've been meaning to shorten it for quite some time, this post may become my catalyst.
The thought of Google labelling my pings as spam did cross my mind, but this brings more attention to it.
I like the simplicity of your list, my question is, aren't there a few more high quality services? I'd like to keep my list to below 10, but isn't just two services too few? I realize they are the highest quality, but surely there are at least several others worth to add... your thoughts?
What I disagree with is your take on re-pinging (sort of).
Your caveat is that 'unless it is a very minor edit.' In my own case, this is typically the case, I wonder how many other people fall into this position? My guess is... the majority, but I could be wrong. I would assume the smaller the blog (majority) the more valuable not repinging minor updates are.
In any case, I don't think major revisions to a post should be done. The title should not change, if it needs to be, the poster didn't do a good job in the first place, do you agree?
I mean, minor revisions to a page is fine and that's what the plugin(s) is(are) for, but changing the whole title? Isn't that a bit drastic, and less frequent?
Would like to get your opinions on this, thx, and nice controversial post! I'll try that out once I get a solid foundation.
And I would like your honest opinion, do you think my best strategy is to reduce my pinglist to the two you provided? If so, are you saying that these 2 cover the bases?
Regards,
OZ
As an example I picked up a problem with Bit.ly being labelled as Phishing by OpenDNS - I quickly researched a post so that it was substantive, and had value even when things got fixed, with a balanced view, but I also wrote a title to gain a reaction.
I was unfortunate in many ways that both parties are very much on the ball, and had it fixed within 30 minutes.
What did I do - I changed the title, ammended the leader to the post to ensure any reader knew it had been fixed.
It was actually fixed within 5 minutes of me posting the article
The meta title is used in all kinds of ways, such as by Tweetmeme retweet buttons.
Even more recently, this post was published with a typo in the title, and permalink, which I subsequently fixed within a couple of minutes of publishing.
Fortunately Google allow for this, pick up changes quickly, and determine themselves if the change is substantive
As for other services, I highly doubt any of them are as trusted by sites accepting pings as Google, and if they finally get their act together, Pingshot is a killer app.
Michel Fortin asked about Pingler.com on Twitter but they are one of the services that by default list 55 Google Blogsearch ping sites, along with Feedburner. If they were a trusted service, surely they would have direct contact with Google/Feeedburner, and know that isn't necessary.
I have considered adding the major search engines to the list just in case, but then I would be faced with the dilemma of minor edits and pinging them
Pingshot used to ping Pingomatic, though I can't remember whether that was just optional. It is probably superfluous.
email marketing software from a qualified email list vendor.
And what's your take on my ping list? Id love your feedback.
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping
I can't tell you whether all of those services are covered by Feedburner, but most of them used to be, before they simplified the interface, but didn't publish their "directory"
Feedburner suggests in their information that they are sophisticated enough to determine whether a post needs to be repinged, or just refetched for your readers to read the correct version.
I can see lots of negatives with using the MPO plugin if you are just using Feedburner for pings.
If you use a huge ping list, I can see a reason to use it, but it seems like 2 negatives doesn't make a right
That ping is a ping sink; we don't currently repeat the ping out.
But we could.
We've a couple of things in the queue at the moment but drop me a note on this and anything else that would help you make the decision to switch.
Phil
Now here's where I'm concerned. I have a bunch of ping services listed. I rank high in the keywords I want. I'm afraid that if I only go for two ping services I'll lose my ranking. Am I being nuts?
As an example there are ping lists that include Google Blogsearch... 55 different versions - plus they also have Feedburner.
When I ping Feedburner, my content appears in all versions of Blogsearch (though there might be a delay across datacenters, it isn't something I have tracked.
Is it sensible to ping Google 55 times + have Feedburner do it, plus most likely other ping broadcast services on the same lists.
I remarked on Twitter that this is similar to using a sledgehammer to open a door.
If Google/Feedburner were giving some correct signals... hell any signals that they cared about Feedburner, I think my post would have been titled differently.
e.g.
"The Ultimate WordPress Plugin List"
"Best WordPress Plugin List"
Unfortunately Google doesn't give me the chance, though the problems highlighted in the post still exist.
They also exist with other services.
Pingshot may be enough - it is all I use and the problem exists with every other list I have seen
Unfortunately I had to cover the negative aspects of relying on a Google service that is in the twilight zone.
Thanks
People are pinging Google 50+ times - the others you mention are pinged by Feedburner
The WordPress by default comes with Ping-O-Matic pre-installed, it was if I am not mistaken, one of the services Feedburner use to have on the list. Why not use just Ping-O-Matic?
You can't beat Feedburner's price as far as e-mail subscriptions go. But as they say when you pay peanuts you get monkeys.... or something like that.
As far as Google Reader goes I guess it all comes down to profits. They can not show ads to your e-mail subscribers unless you let them- with reader they don't need your permission.
Pingomatic was one of the options but unnecessary replication
No paid services currently provide what I want - still waiting on access to Getresponse Beta to see if it is more useful than the current one which I have had a few problems with.
I also thought that pingomatic also pinged feed burner, but I believe you are talking about pinging your actual account right?
How do you test to see if a ping service is no longer active or like Pingoat has closed their remote ping service?
Robert
Some only accept pings from recognised services such as Feedburner
You could use the Max Blogpress Ping Plugin to test, or just write a simple PHP script and check the response code.
Ultimately the easiset way is to just use Feedburner
Thanks for info!
Yahoo is the way forward, google page ranking is much toostressful!
After I post, Google usually indexes the new post with in an hour, sometimes with in minutes. Why would I want to change what already appears to be working?
If it is true that I end up ping Google repeatedly, it would appear that it is doing no harm. I still don't seem to be catching the point of why it would be worth changing.
Your not kidding, I forsee months of my life being wasted keeping up with Googles cloak and dagger rules.
Thanks