Andy Beard - Internet Business Systems Discussion - Latest Comments in MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

Re: MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

AndyBeard — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 15:09:37 -0000

Hi Rose

So delightful to see you here again

I found out about the MBL timeline around the same time as everyone else, in an email the MBL staff (I think it was signed by Ian) to ALL MyBlogLog members.

Facebook has been doing a lot of this stuff for ages, and the ReadWriteWeb article linked contains 35 similar services.

One of the things I effectively gave up when accepting some kind of financial compensation from the BC guys for the help I give them as a sounding block for new features was any kind of inside line with my friends at MyBlogLog, who also I might add invited a few bloggers to look closer at new features some time ago, though I wasn't among those because of my BC connection.

As it happens I also don't hear about everything from BC a long time in advance - I give feedback when it is asked, and whenever I spot something useful to them.

Some aspects of the timeline are relatively simple to implement, but that certainly isn't true of all the enhanced privacy and information overload controls that BC have built, which I even missed when I first wrote about the timeline. That doesn't necessarily mean I want to use them on BC, because currently not enough people have imported their connections.

If you read carefully, you would note I made it very clear it is in my commercial interest to promote MBL just as much as BC - Facebook wouldn't be worth as much if it wasn't for the success of Myspace.

Developing scalable web applications isn't like installing Wordpress. I am sure Yahoo have done a lot of work on that side of things.

Re: MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

AndyBeard — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 15:09:37 -0000

Hi Rose

So delightful to see you here again

I found out about the MBL timeline around the same time as everyone else, in an email the MBL staff (I think it was signed by Ian) to ALL MyBlogLog members.

Facebook has been doing a lot of this stuff for ages, and the ReadWriteWeb article linked contains 35 similar services.

As it happens I also don't hear about everything from BC a long time in advance - I give feedback when it is asked, and whenever I spot something useful to them.

Developing scalable web applications isn't like installing Wordpress. I am sure Yahoo have done a lot of work on that side of things.

Re: MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

Rose — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 13:50:16 -0000

Andy, isn't funny that everything is just within a few days of each other. An I the only one who notices the dishonesty in BC. They added this feature 11 days ago because you leaked news to them that MBL would be launching theirs is that not right? Pathetic! It shows you can be bought and you are bought in my opinion!

Re: MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

Rose — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 13:50:16 -0000

Re: MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

Ian Kennedy — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 03:19:55 -0000

Hi Andy,

Thank you for the feedback, yes, it is constructive. Just want to make clear that we were not working on this for eight months. When priorities shifted, we put this on the back burner while we worked on other things.

Couple of notes.

Twitter urls not clickable - good suggestion!

StumbleUpon - the duplicate looks like an artifact particular to the example you saw, I'll continue to monitor it

Tags: We want to use tags on updates as a vector across members and sites featured on MyBlogLog. The idea is that if you want to drill down on content back at the source, you'd click through the headline to get to that source post and any actions attached to it. I can see why it's unexpected behavior, I'm open to other presentations.

Comments: I'm totally with you on this. I'm not a fan of spawning yet another disconnected pocket of conversations. It's important to tie it together with the source material somehow. If you cannot, then don't do it.

Also, I looked for the Facebook integration on FriendFeed but couldn't find it.

All the best,

Ian

PS.
The TechCrunch link goes to the wrong article. The one you need is:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2...

I think you mean "Blogcatalog partnered with SezWho" not MyBlogLog.

Re: MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

Ian Kennedy — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 03:19:55 -0000

Hi Andy,

Couple of notes.

Twitter urls not clickable - good suggestion!

StumbleUpon - the duplicate looks like an artifact particular to the example you saw, I'll continue to monitor it

Also, I looked for the Facebook integration on FriendFeed but couldn't find it.

All the best,

Ian

PS.
The TechCrunch link goes to the wrong article. The one you need is:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2...

I think you mean "Blogcatalog partnered with SezWho" not MyBlogLog.

Re: MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

AndyBeard — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 19:24:36 -0000

It is hard to quantify these things because there are different cultural elements.

Blogcatalog isn't on any of the major blogs, and until their partnership with Sezwho hadn't received any coverage on major blogs.

With the main discussion forum and custom groups that any user can create, they have a stickiness that goes beyond the number of widgets they have displayed each month.

I went into this a little in my write up at the time of the SezWho partnership, which was also around the time that BlogCatalog passed MyBlogLog on Alexa.
http://andybeard.eu/2008/01...

Recently MyBlogLog disclosed some figures and also mentioned that the change in their server architecture means that traffic numbers are no longer relevant.

http://mybloglogb.typepad.c...

When they started they were using Amazon S3 for a lot of delivery, so I am not sure what major changes would lead to a significant change.
Significant changes normally are depicted in some way with a steep increase or decrease in traffic stats, and that isn't visible on the simple traffic stats I have access to such as Alexa and Compete data.

I have also written extensively about the differences between the 2 services.
http://andybeard.eu/2007/07...

There has been an API available since August 2007
http://andybeard.eu/2007/08...

Re: MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

AndyBeard — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 19:24:36 -0000

It is hard to quantify these things because there are different cultural elements.

Blogcatalog isn't on any of the major blogs, and until their partnership with Sezwho hadn't received any coverage on major blogs.

With the main discussion forum and custom groups that any user can create, they have a stickiness that goes beyond the number of widgets they have displayed each month.

I went into this a little in my write up at the time of the SezWho partnership, which was also around the time that BlogCatalog passed MyBlogLog on Alexa.
http://andybeard.eu/2008/01...

Recently MyBlogLog disclosed some figures and also mentioned that the change in their server architecture means that traffic numbers are no longer relevant.

http://mybloglogb.typepad.c...

I have also written extensively about the differences between the 2 services.
http://andybeard.eu/2007/07...

There has been an API available since August 2007
http://andybeard.eu/2007/08...

Re: MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

AndyBeard — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 19:02:16 -0000

Anthony, you seem to have some kind of nasty penalty on your site or it has suddenly appeared in the last 24 hours and has never been indexed.
Either way, I have taken the precaution of removing your link.

I did check, currently only the index page is in Google's index.

Re: MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

AndyBeard — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 19:02:16 -0000

I did check, currently only the index page is in Google's index.

Re: MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

Anthony — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 18:49:52 -0000

I am a new reader, but if there was another better layout like Jim is mentioning I would like him better then this one. This one suckes, sorry to say that. But this is only my opinion.

Re: MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

Anthony — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 18:49:52 -0000

I am a new reader, but if there was another better layout like Jim is mentioning I would like him better then this one. This one suckes, sorry to say that. But this is only my opinion.

Re: MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

Jim — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 14:42:12 -0000

I definitely agree with you. I was shocked when I saw the new layout because I had honestly just gotten used to the old one, which I thought functioned very well. This new layout isn't very aesthetically pleasing in my opinion, which should be square one for such a successful online community.

Re: MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

Jim — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 14:42:12 -0000

Re: MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

Lisa — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 13:15:54 -0000

I definitely don't see the new layout at MyBlogLog to be an improvement. It's way too cluttered. The font is too small. I'm really hoping they'll give us the right to revert to the old layout.

Re: MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

Lisa — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 13:15:54 -0000

I definitely don't see the new layout at MyBlogLog to be an improvement. It's way too cluttered. The font is too small. I'm really hoping they'll give us the right to revert to the old layout.

Re: MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

Louis Gray — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 12:07:16 -0000

In comparison with MyBlogLog, how big is BlogCatalog? I didn't ignore the service out of spite, but instead, out of a lack of familiarity. I see MBL a lot more frequently, and have been a user for some time. If a blog has opted into one "visitor catalog" system, is there any benefit to using both?

Re: MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

Louis Gray — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 12:07:16 -0000

Re: MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

How To Get A Six Pack — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 09:47:51 -0000

I need to do more with both MyBlogLog and Blogcatalog. These are excellent for bloggers, but I usually neglect them.

Re: MyBlogLog Social Activity Time Line Disappoints

How To Get A Six Pack — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 09:47:51 -0000

I need to do more with both MyBlogLog and Blogcatalog. These are excellent for bloggers, but I usually neglect them.