Google continues to send more than 90% of all search engine visits to
my blog, dwarfing Yahoo!. And interestingly, FriendFeed remains a #1
or #2 driver of traffic, depending on the month. TechMeme, Hacker News, StumbleUpon and Twitter figure as well. Referrals from
blog posts remain small. (No doubt also due to them being masked as
part of the Google Reader traffic) - Louis Gray via mail2ff
Allen, focus on writing interesting content instead of focusing so much on why Arrington is better than you. - Robert Seidman
Allen, as always, on full disclosure, that's 30 days, so not a big #. I am still small. Also, as we know, StumbleUpon traffic is very transient. - Louis Gray
Louis, you can humble it up all you want, and while you're no CenterNetworks, 7000+ SU is still nothing to sneeze at! - Robert Seidman
Were you looking at your Google Analytics via Safari btw? Much cooler than how FF displays it. - Roney Smith
@Roney, yes, that was Safari. I've never tried in Firefox. - Louis Gray
Not sure what period of time you've got here Louis, but (very) similar to mine as far as traffic sources. FF can drive traffic despite what has been written by a lot of people :) - Charlie Anzman
Charlie, more traffic yes. Enough traffic to make you money? Please, let's frame it properly.... - Robert Seidman
I'm really shocked by the SU number. Interesting to read the bottom of the list. Lots of sources that I thought would've brought you more more traffic given your prominence. Thank you for sharing this data, nice to see someone is so open. - Nice Fish Films
I actually agree with some of what he is saying. Twitter is an infrastructure component to get messages across. Of course, in its raw form, it can be used for micro-blogging, location sharing, link exchange and other data amongst pre-established relationships, but in its true form, it is just a messaging system and there is nothing wrong with that. I am yet to see anyone use it purely as a publishing system - Shivanand Velmurugan
Somehow microblogging is not blogging anyway, so why bother? - Nikos Anagnostou
Linkbait as well as shoddy conclusion reaching. Hmnnn the word I am looking for is either biased or just extremely grumpy. - Mathew A. Koeneker
Lewis - I am trusting you to filter those items out for me. ;) - Mathew A. Koeneker
Like I said on his blog. It is a tool and used as such. - Mathew A. Koeneker
This whole "microblogging and/or Twitter is somehow less pure than the pearls of wisdom that litter every 'real' blog" is getting ridiculous. Some people tweet boring nonsense. Some people blog boring nonsense. Some people tweet interesting things that start discussion. Some people blog interesting things that start discussion. Twitter has not brought down the quality of blogging, and this disdain for it baffles me. - Evangeline
If Mashable pays traffic bonuses, that guy is going to Disneyworld. - Chris Baskind
@Evangeline I think Steven makes a few really valid points, but you're right. I've seen my share of really insightful tweetversations. I have also seen the prattle he describes. Twitter is just a platform, and it becomes whatever you make of it. If you want to do mini-posts to your followers all day long, then for you it's a "micro-blogging tool" (whatever that means). If you want to use it as an IRC channel, so be it. - Steve Spalding
@Louis I couldn't agree more. I'm never seen Twitter as more than a glorified IM service. In fact, it's always reminded me of chatrooms from back in the day because we use it mostly to communicate with complete strangers, whereas IM services typically are for conversations with friends (i.e. people who you've actually been in the physical presence of, and spend time with in the real world). - Jasmin Smith
Disagree. It's a tool, if you fill it with inane garbage, that's the bloggers fault. If you pull twitters into a blog (as I'm contemplating doing) or load it into FriendFeed where it garners comments, it becomes very close to blogging. The only difference is giving up the increasingly antiquated idea of driving traffic to a website you own, and the lengths of the "tweets". Pull the tweets out of the contextual prattle on Twitter and it's a whole new ball game. - Jason Kaneshiro
@Jason Twitter is obviously a very useful tool (when it's working) but based on the way it is predominantly used, it falls more in the category of IM than Microblog. For example, it's a great tool for broadcasting a new blog post, or getting advice re social media, or generating feedback in general... in other words, it's a great way to drive traffic to your blog, but twitter as a blog, or microblog is give it more credit than it deserves. - Jasmin Smith
I refrained from commenting on this thread, but the core of twitter is related to "what are you doing?" within 140 chars. I was not designed for blogging, or IM or any such stuff.. it was meant to help users , let other users what they were doing. However, community in and by itself have found fancier ways to leverage twitter for bloggin, some for IM (If you use DM), or spamming. - Peter Dawson
@Jasmin We may have to return to the definition of a blog. Is it a website with content that's meant to garner traffic, RSS subscribers, and pageviews for ad purposes? Or is it a conversation starter, communication tool, idea generator? I'm more focused on the latter, and therefore Twitter is just another communication mechanism that supplements and could even supercede a blog. - Jason Kaneshiro
This is interesting. I guess the problem is that there is no one true definition of the term blogging. If you believe that blogging is a way to update your status, then it makes sense that twitter is a micro-blogging service. But if you believe that blogging is a way to publish content online, then Twitter can in no way be micro-blogging. I think that the Mashable author is viewing blogging as the later. That is, a way to publish content online and not an online "public diary". - Jay Cruz
I refer to Twitter as a social instant messenger. - Andrew Dobrow
Oh, look, someone else that wants to tell me that what he's doing is cool and what I'm doing is crap. Where the only difference is -- well, there really isn't any. I remember when we invented writing, there was this guy who was all "That's garbage! How are you expected to capture nuance with some simple figures like that! This is wall-painting, this is expressive! How dare you call yourself communicating!" Of course, back then we could just beat him to a stinking, bloody pulp and after stomping around in the mush of his decapitated head scrawl, "Ha ha, I'm gay!" with an arrow pointing down the wall at his body before walking off, whistling a jaunty tune. Man, I miss the old days. - Alexander Williams via NoiseRiver
actually, alex, the guy ranting about the lack of subtlety in writing was quite right, he also didn't mention how addicting it would be, and that it would take millenia to recall that there is meaning beyond words, in fact more than is found in words ... - gregory lent
@Gabriel - thanks for that very asute observation and it did a termendous amount to add to the conversation - please keep it up I appreciate it. - Steven Hodson
@Chris Baskin - no trip for me unfortunately - Steven Hodson
@Alexander Williams - chill out bud .. no where did I suggest that how anyone is using Twitter as being crap. I only talked about how I don't like the idea of calling it a microblogging tool. If you feel justified is calling it such a thing all the more power to you but I neither suggested what I was doing as being cool and Twitter as being crap. If anything I have written many time on winExtra where I believe that Twitter actually holds out great promise so instead of trying to slap me around to justify how you use it take a deep breath and chill out - Steven Hodson
@Steven Hodson (stevenhodson): What you may or may not like really doesn't have a bearing on the facts, though. If there are people using Twitter for microblogging (and there are), then it's a microblogging tool. Period. That's not really an issue for debate; it is what it is. As for not suggesting what folks who microblog on Twitter are producing crap, well, I quote: "If anything, as a blogger I find it insulting that Twitter is even considered to be in the same field as blogs or even micro-blogs." You're insulted they're considered in the same field? We have a word for that: pretentious, elitist crap. I cop to it when I engage in it, you should at least have the same cojones. - Alexander Williams via NoiseRiver
A-MEN Most of the people I'm following are still utilizing it as a micro-blogging tool but there are a few who feel the need to let the entire world know they get out of the house. What're you trying to prove? Btw, Tweeting inside movie theaters = TACKY - Mona N
@Alexander - how is what I said insinuating that what people are using Twitter for as being crap. in fact I have sad exactly the opposite in the past - http://www.winextra.com/2008/0... - just because I don't see how Twitter is being used as being on par with many of the blogs out there is not being elitist it is expressing a person opinion. As to copping to when I have been wrong about something I am not afraid to do that either - http://www.winextra.com/2008/0... - Steven Hodson
arrgghh...damn FF update! Lost another "like"! Why must you keep doing that!? - JA Castillo
JA Castillo, are you forcing a feed refresh at some point? The only time I've noticed this is when I force a refresh, continue adding faves in flickr, and then later the Flickr feed updates and wipes it out. - Michael Hocter
ha. i *think* i am at full like power right now. so i will try to make sure i keep up with the refreshes. all systems go. - edythe
the same happens to me, but only when i fave at about the same time ff imports them. - Mladen Srdić
@Michael Hocter - yes, it was a manual / force refersh. Did so as the faves had not updated all day. Itchy trigger finger...the FF update lag annoys me. :-) - JA Castillo
it's in Bulgaria, they are building a new artificial lake and water power plant. Not camping, I was working there, and I took this photos on the way back from Trigrad to the Plovdiv. But definitely a place to visit, Bulgaria is beautiful, the people are nice, and it's relatively cheap. - Roland Hesz
Evan Williams just put away his checkbook from the summize deal but needs to get in touch with these guys! THIS is what twitter.com needs to look like! Good stuff. - paisano
oh Orli - this gives me hope! With the auto-refresh we might even be able to have a half-decent conversation on Twitter! Do you know what it's using under the hood for the real-time updates? Ajax? Keep us posted on this please!! - Matt Hooper
Thanks for the positive comments everyone. Our team is really dedicated to providing the best twitter experience possible via the web. There are a few bugs left to work out, but we're hoping to get those ironed out over the weekend and do a soft launch next week. - derek
Oh, and follow @tweenky for the latest updates with the application. Matt, this application uses the Summize & Twitter APIs, and heavily uses ajax (jQuery). - derek
Whats going on with this people! Is IE secondary ?? "It looks like you are using Internet Explorer. We are still in early early early beta and haven't had the chance to properly test in IE yet. In the meantime, go download Firefox! =)"................. - Jigar Mehta
Jigar, Ugh... IE is such a pain in the ass. we're hoping to get IE7 support, but really, we're targeting power twitter users, and they don't use anything but Firefox & Safari. Right now we're at 4% of our traffic is IE users so not sure it is vital to get working during a beta launch. - derek
Sounds interesting. Would love an invite. Thanx! - Barbara K. Baker
Alright derek, any idea where to get invite from?] - Jigar Mehta
The screenshots look really nice. Would love an invite. Thanks! - Sudar
No invites... but hopefully Tweenky will go public soon. - Orli Yakuel
I need something looking like gmail like I need a hole in the head - James Tenniswood
@derek - Thanks for letting us know a bit more about it - can't wait to have a closer look! - Matt Hooper
Wow! it's so cool to see that lots of people liked Tweenky. Really something that worth waiting for. - Orli Yakuel
wheres the innovation ? I Agree with James, do I need another gmail type interface ? to me its just a skin being applied to Twitter, you can do all the makeup you want, but that will not hide the twitter illness beneath a skin !! - Peter Dawson
@Duncan, convenience. But you know what, it's not a second Gmail, it's just some colors an elements that resemble to Gmail, and make it easy to understand and work with the applications. Duncan, this application rocks big time, wait till you try it yourself :-) - Orli Yakuel
Orli, " this application rocks" - this is just a UI app , as much as I hate sayin this, but building an interface on a "rocky" /unstable application will certainly lead to what ? another mini fail whale experience ? - Peter Dawson
Peter, you're talking like Twitter is to be close tomorrow... come on... we all know that this "UNSTABLE" thing, didn't stop none of us from using it. And I'd like to think that Twitter will be stable eventually. - Orli Yakuel
Tweenky.com seems to bring up only a white page... So is this a full Twitter-like platform, or just a UI that talks to Twitter itself? - Jason Carreira
I can't reach at the site.is tweenky under construction?? - Chris Qie
Yes. (even for me, and I miss it already since yesterday) - Orli Yakuel
That's my mate Pietro Spagnoli http://www.pietrospagnoli.com/, nicknamed "Zorro" - he's an opera singer, a baritone. While sporting that odd hairdo, he was singing the role of Dottor Dulcamara in Gaetano Donizetti's "L'Elisir d'amore" in St.Petersburg, Russia, just a few months ago. :) - giorgia
Doesn't even look like the same person! :) - Corie Allison
Corie - that happens quite often with opera singers, as they wear a ridiculous amount of makeup onstage ---> here's more pics of rehearsals and of the opera, too: http://www.pietrospagnoli.com/... - giorgia
identi.ca is still nothing more than a Twitter clone best I can tell. A step back from FF. Not sure why anyone would want to spend time there when we've got this. - Thomas Hawk
Tease: And even more so in the coming months. Spoke with Evan last night and there are some interesting things on their way. - Austin Hill
I personally think it will be interesting to see what identi.ca does to differetiate itself from twitter - Mike Hamilton
@Thomas - Twitter clone hasn't begun to cover what's possible. I think that's like calling Wordpress a Blogger clone back in 2004. I wish the Twitter guys all the best, but there is a lot of innovation to come in Microblogging, Lifecasting and Activity stream aggregation. Twitter seems to have it's hands full scaling and I'd love to see some innovation on features in the market place. I think identi.ca will be part of that market for innovation. - Austin Hill
Why should identi.ca differentiate itself? It's really about recognizing that federating status updates should become a "taken-for-granted" part of social infrastructure. Next step is Interop with Twitter, not differentiation. - Chris Messina
Austin, but isn't identi.ca a step back from FriendFeed really? Why spend any time there? - Thomas Hawk
I don't want to "like" the post, but I do want to "like" chris messina's comment :) - Karl
I know what it is! David Winer has found out that identi.ca has turned into a wishing well and he's keeping it to himself. I'm going to like this so he remembers who his friends are :-) - Jonas Anderson
"With today's addition to Identica, you can now follow people!" - Bryan Woods
One reason I spend more time on identica and less and less on FF is comments like 'Eh ? It's just a Twitter clone.' - Andy C
evan did say last week that a Twitter-compatible API was on track for this week. Hopefully, that's the news. And it's NOT about a twitter clone; it's about making microblogging an open standard -- like email -- that allows you to use your access method of choice (local client, web, mobile, etc.) Interoperability to microblogging will FREE it! Remember MCImail? cc:mail? Remember Profs? Remember VAX All-in-1-mail? All frontrunners in the email channel. All closed. All dead (or on life support). - Bundini
I am waiting to see who is the first one to fall. After Twitter bought Summerize and their increasing stability I doubt it will be them. Obviously it won't be Friendfeed either. - Parvez Halim via feedalizr
The TwitterAPI is already available on identi.ca and in the darcs repository. maybe something else? - Markus Heurung
Parvez - increased traffic to admire the new Ajax has brought the fail whale back (again). Got any stock tips you want to share ? - Andy C
Come on Dave - apart from the Twitter compatible API which was already in the public domain, precisely what was the exciting, new development on identi.ca yesterday ? SMS, a desktop client for identi.ca, replies that cite the correct post - what ? - Andy C
@Thomas Hawk - Why do you see FriendFeed as a step forward from Twitter? FriendFeed is something different - you can't really compare the two when you look at the core use case. - sebmos
@Thomas: as someone who never really got into twitter, I thought the same as you. However, after becoming addicted to ff, I began using twitter more as a great way to post messages to my ff (there are just so many ways to get things *in* to twitter). I'm rooting for identi.ca, though, simply because i think it will one day do all that twitter does using an open source system. That, and I have no real follower base on twitter to worry about abandoning anyway. - Trent Olson
I also use Twitter primarily as a way of posting onto FF, with the bonus that my followers on Twitter who haven't moved across the FF (still a majority) get the message two. I'll move to identi.ca if there are people there I want to share ideas with, not because of features... well... unless they're killer! - David Sim
"iRing allows you to control playback and volume on any of your Apple media devices. iRing features a bright OLED status display with a touch-sensitive funtion strip, and a rechargeable battery life of up to 12 hours" - Mona N via Bookmarklet
How long before cancer develops in that finger? - Justin Korn
If the battery isn't user-replaceable, it'd be an ominous choice for a wedding ring. Most folks in the US end up trading their spouses in as it is... - MiniMage via NoiseRiver
In Steve's office he has a diamond button on his desk which he presses and we all do his bidding. And yes, iWant. - Adam Turetzky
I asked my girlfriend if she would say yes to a proposal with this ring. She said... "uhh no". Ouch... I thought the ring didn't matter :( - Michael Narciso via NoiseRiver
So... I control Apple stuff by giving it the finger? - Outsanity
Frozen treats began to be produced as a substitute for ice cream after World War II, when almost all dairy products were designated for military use. A popular simple treat at the time was merely ice mixed with sweetener, into which a pair of disposable chopsticks were stuck. Very basic, but it made folks happy in those tough times. Beginning in 1952, treats with milk finally began to appear, and soon shops sold a great variety of frozen delights. - Mark Forman via Bookmarklet
oooooo yummy-looking treats.... must ....have....one.. - Benedict Wong
Cold and sweet is the summetime treat! - Mark Forman
"This beautiful Onigiri House was created by NKS Architects in Oita, Japan. Constructed entirely out of locally-sourced cedar, the wood-paneled wonder features a gorgeous light-laden interior that celebrates clean, simple lines and an elegant, uncluttered floor plan. Modeled after the triangular shape of one of Japan's favorite delicacies, the project is the latest in NKS' line of architecture that take its cues from the purity and precision of traditional Japanese food." - Corie Allison via Bookmarklet
aesthetically, the design is really nice. how livable can a structure like that be though? - Cee Bee
"The idea that people have an innate mathematical ability has been questioned by a study of an Amazonian tribe that has no sense of number. The ability of tribal adults of the Pirahã to conceptualise numbers is no better than that of infants or even some animals and their language, with only 300 speakers, has no word even to express the concept of "one" or any other specific number." - RAPatton via Bookmarklet
yes, they never needed to count, they eat what they killed or shared what they had. the concept of rich and poor does not exist. SO why did they need to count ? the days of your life ? They lived and dies.. just is ..type of life. and that's what humanity needs to go back too ! - Peter Dawson
I read about this several months ago in The New Yorker and I think they made a similar point to the one Peter just made here. They probably *can* count but their culture doesn't *require* them to count, so it doesn't get developed. I bet if someone adopted one of their babies and raised them here in America speaking English, the child would learn numbers just fine. It's nothing genetic or anything, just cultural and linguistic. - Kamilah Gill
Peter, you want us to go back to 50% infant mortality and old age at 30? No thanks. - Tad Donaghe
what exactly surprising is? there are languages without gender concept, there are without future tense for verbs, and now there is without numbers ;) - silpol
It's not just about having no sense for numbers, it's about having no sense for any type of abstraction: http://www.sil.org/americas/br... . They don't have music and their logic system also differs from what we are used to. - 802.11
Surprising because when gathering food, I would expect it would be handy to know when you have one for each person. No, you don't need to know exact, but it would make estimation easier to count. The fact it was never needed nor developed therefore surprises me. - Michael W. May via twhirl
mmmm... what if you have just enough food, everyday? it hangs there on trees... - silpol
hear hear. Why not start tonight? When's the last time you read a book? played a game of REAL scrabble with your wife/partner? Talked to your kid? Go offline. NOW. - melmcbride
We can work on our individual lives and get those in order. But what about the bigger picture? - Mark Dykeman
Wait, smiley's don't count as body language?? ;) - felix
lol@felix It's the best I can do from a keyboard! - Shey
Shey, I don't agree. I find that many people aren't even aware of social media and are missing out. Also social media and real life interactions are not mutually exclusive. - Alan Le
@Alan I think the point Shey's making is that some people in the "Social Media World" (I call them "Tech-Nerds" .. :D) are so engrossed in Social Media that they become ignorant of the REAL Social World -- becoming hopelessly ignorant of the REAL ramifications of their actions. - Jasmin Smith
![volcano (900×602) [starboardside, Pixdaus]](http://pixdaus.com/pics/12162829176PlvVRg.jpg "volcano (900×602) [starboardside, Pixdaus]")
