adamyntium

Category: technology

  • Once again, the battle against spam results in high collateral damage

    Google has announced that they’ve added a special “no-follow” tag option for links that is intended to curb comment spam. What is comment spam? It’s the disgusting — often pornographic — crap that lowlife spammers spew in blog comments so that Google will perceive their sites as ‘more important’. After all, Google Page Rank is partly dependent upon how many sites “link” to another site, even if that link is added by a spammer. The new no-follow tag is designed to thwart that incentive by telling the googlebot “Hey, this link wasn’t added by the Webmaster… so don’t interpret it as a popular vote for that other site.”

    Other search engines, including Yahoo and MSN, have quickly decided to support this new tag. And I believe all of their intentions are good. Unfortunately, I think that this is a bad solution.

    As background, let’s look at e-mail: all the major e-mail players (AOL, Hotmail, MSN, Gmail, and even software like Outlook, etc.) have added significant anti-spam components to their systems… but has this stemmed the tide of spam? Not one iota. Instead, the spammers simply were cornered into dramatically increasing the volume to make up for the filtering.

    The same, I expect, will sadly happen with comment spam. Since there’s practically zero cost for comment spamming AND no penalty (albeit no gain) for spamming a ‘no-follow’-protected blog, comment spammers will simply redouble their efforts and intensify their comment spamming campaigns.

    But that’s not the only reason why I’m not very fond of this no-follow thing. From a selfish perspective, I believe that I’ve contributed quite a few thoughtful comments to many blogs, and frankly, I welcome and appreciate the Google whuffie that I earn for my blog. Forgive my sense of entitlement here, but when I’m contributing to the content of the Web, why shouldn’t my own little corner of the Web gain a bit from my efforts?

    * * *

    So once again, we have anti-spam techniques penalizing the vast majority of us who ethically contribute to private and public conversations.

    Personally, I wish that people had just focused on handicapped-accessible captchas (or however you spell those things), MT/Blogger account signin requirements, and so on. At the very least, I hope authenticated comments still get Google whuffie.

  • Next Google acquisition: Flickr + Picasa 2.0 = Fotoogle

    Okay, so I’m kidding about the Fotoogle name (yuck!), but — mark my un-insider words — Google is going to buy community photo service Flickr or perhaps Fotki early next year and integrate it tightly with the upcoming Picasa 2.0.

    What problems would this solve?

    1) Bridge the offline – online photo gap.
    Right now, via Google’s Picasa software and similar products, people can easily catalog, browse, and search for photos on their hard drive. But, one-at-a-time postings to blogger.com notwithstanding, there’s no point-and-click-easy ways for folks to get their photo catalogs online.

    2) Enrich the Google Images database with a plethora of (IPTC-based) metadata.
    The vast majority of amateur photographers (and probably the bulk of professional photographers) have neither the know-how nor the availability of non-geek tools to add IPTC title, description, and category information to their photo files. This, then, makes it extremely hard for Google to return useful hits in its Image search, since it relies on fuzzy contextual clues like jpeg alt-text, general surrounding text, and so on. By making it rewarding and easy for people to enter metadata for their photos and have them uploaded to a site online, Google will reap a humungous windfall of annotated photo data… greatly improving its Image search database. And such annotations will also provide a monumentally stronger hook for effective AdWords advertising on the Image pages ;-).

    Why Flickr?
    – It’s already well-respected and well-liked by bloggers, including at least one prominent Blogger.com team member.
    – Open API!
    – Small, smart, dedicated team behind the service.
    – Flickr already uses AdWords 🙂
    – It’s not evil; Flickr strongly considers member concerns and interests.
    – Flickr uses tags, very similar in concept to Gmail’s labels.
    – Strong focus on community: groups, live chats, etc.
    – It’s based in Vancouver, not all that far from Google’s new Washington office.
    – Flickr’s often-Flash-based UI is creative, useful, fun. And — while lately inexplicably deemphasized — their Flash-based chat is especially brilliant. Maybe something to integrate into Blogger or Google Groups? (“Chat live about this [blog | topic]!”)

    Why Fotki?
    – Offers photo printing.
    – Already reads and works with IPTC info.
    – Seemingly strong backend in terms of computational power, storage, and bandwidth.
    – Also focused on community: blogs, contests, even a personal Image server for sharing photos from one’s hard drive.
    – Based in New York City, relatively near Google’s NY office.

    Why not a ‘major’ player like Ofoto or Shutterfly?
    – Too big. Google likes smaller, more nimble firms.
    – They’re focused on printing and commerce far more than photo sharing and discovery.
    – They have minimal community aspects.

    Why not a wildly popular site like fotolog?
    – Rudimentary permissions structure.
    – Focuses more on skin than art.
    – Large non-English-speaking audience (which — no xenophobia intended! — merely presents an early hurdle in terms of documentation, community building, and so on).
    – Very little community underpinnings.

    * * *

    So here are my bottom line guesses:
    1) Picasa 2.0 will be out in beta by February 15, 2005.
    2) Google will announce a partnership with or — more likely — an acquisition of Flickr simultaneous with Picasa 2.0, or alternately about 45 days later.
    3) Soon after the Flickr deal, Yahoo will acquire or partner with Fotki.
    4) Microsoft will be steadily working on making MSN Spaces photos integrated with its current software tools and MSN Search. I expect an announcement in this context around May 2005.

    You read it here first ;-).

    —

    Related links:
    Added 12/19/04 8:54pm
    – Salon.com article on Flickr (free daypass or paid subscription required)
    – Conversation on Flickr

    —

    Edited on 1/2/05 to add:
    I’m honored that my prediction has been written up a bit in the blogosphere; however, I’d like to reiterate one word from this entry to make sure things are clear: “un-insider.” My speculation is based upon my broad understanding of the areas of blogging, digital photography, Google’s past acquisition behavior, etc. If you haven’t already done so, you may wish to read my disclaimer.

    Edited on 3/20/05 to add:
    Well, well, well… so I was wrong about Google (it ended up being Yahoo!), but I was only 10 days off in my estimate. Not too shabby, eh? BTW, nice poker face, Jeremy 😉

  • "Google Suggest" service — Now Google reads minds

    Try out the Google Suggest tool, a new Google feature currently in the Labs.


    I’ve long been amazed at the computational power and speed of Google, but this real time demonstration of the company’s muscle is simply astounding.

    How is this latest offering useful? From my perspective, it will come most in handy with searches in the following contexts:
    – Names
    – Narrowing down from general to specific topics
    – Webmaster on-the-fly search engine optimization efforts (finding / measuring most-searched phrases)

    I’m curious to hear from my readers on this one. What are other ways in which this new Google service will be particularly useful… or especially fun / entertaining?

    [Yes, I admit, I’m a bit embarrassed that I’m so often gushing about Google stuff… but this particularly offering is just too cool to ignore, IMHO :D]

    Edited to add:
    – 12/10/04 11:02am: Forgot to give credit to Waxy.org (specifically their links page) for the heads-up!

  • Google classifies sex abuse as Entertainment

    Ah, the perils of relying on automated classification!

    Mind you, I think Google News is quite impressive and useful overall; I’m just pointing out the blip above as example of how automated technologies can cause situations that are either particularly incongruous or even uncomfortable.

  • Why I’ve given up on orkut.com

    Sometimes I’m wrong. I initially hoped for and expected great things from orkut.com, and sadly the service has not delivered. Worse yet, I feel that orkut.com is moving steadily in the wrong direction.

    It does pain me to write this, partly because I’ve had the pleasure of meeting the creator of the service — Orkut B. — in person. He’s clearly passionate about doing Good Things with his networking service, and he’s a very fun and engaging guy besides. Indeed, largely because of this, when I was asked by a Google friend of mine to submit a detailed list of my recommendations to the orkut team, I didn’t hesitate to do so.

    But after a relatively enthusiastic blog entry about orkut.com about a year ago and a history of strong participation on the service, it’s time for me to concentrate my interests and energies elsewhere.

    Seeing the implementation of Orkut Media was the last straw for me. While I had envisioned (and was excited about!) the idea of a Content Manager drawing from and encouraging ongoing participation within the orkut.com network, the orkut.com team instead unwisely decided to create something wholly different… something akin to a high school paper-based literary journal.

    Why was this such a bad decision?

    • It creates a relatively static Publishing (newspaper / book) environment, rather than facilitating a real-time community feel. Want to respond to a photo or an essay on the Orkut Media site? Send an e-mail to the editor. Isn’t that a bit 20th century? Even everyday blogs offer live commenting.

    • It results in an odd separation of community and content and a disincentive to contribute one’s best work to orkut’s communities. Pithy, funny, insightful essays written within communities won’t get highlighted unless the author affirmatively submits them to the Orkut Media editor. Wouldn’t it have been better for the Content Manager to serve as someone identifying interesting posts and quirky but not-yet-popular communities instead of creating a pre-approved island of public content?

    • More than half of the members of the service speak (Brazillian) Portuguese, but not a single initial Orkut Media entry is by a Brazillian or even tangentially related to Brazil. That’s simply inconsiderate, IMHO.

    With that said, perhaps the greatest disappointment isn’t what orkut.com has done with the new Orkut Media feature, but rather what the service has not done in general.

    In particular, the service has done little to put Trust in a supposedly trusted network.

    • Connection type and strength is not factored into any substantive part of the service. When looking at someone’s profile, you can’t tell if any of their ‘friends’ is a close connection, a distant acquaintance, a work colleague, a family member, or a spouse. And given the complete lack of any barriers or disincentives to adding anyone and everyone willy-nilly as a “friend”… the connections have become completely meaningless.

    • Members have no thoughtful or innovative tools to help them moderate their own communities, choose whose posts they’d like to see (or not see), rate others’ contributions (karma points), and so on. Instead, members are given the crude and often backfiring “bogus” button.

    • The system of friends and ‘fans’ is ridiculously obtuse and backwards overall. In real life, I am a fan of several prominent ‘famous people’ but hardly one of their friends. In most cases, they don’t even know I exist. So why can I not, then, mark them as a fan on orkut without bugging them with a ‘friend’ request? Other social networking services have devised such systems in much more effective, intuitive ways. At the most basic but still effective level, for instance, on several other services anyone can mark someone else as a friend; if it’s one way, then you’re a fan, and if it’s reciprocal, then you’re friends.

    Of course, on a more obvious level, the orkut.com UI has scarcely been improved since its inception. Navigation is inconsistent, one can re-assign friends to groups only one at a time (and each after a full screen redraw at that!), and so on.

    But the greatest shame, IMHO, is that the orkut.com team never made communication a priority. They didn’t set up a feedback forum, and very rarely posted notes acknowledging, much less thanking members for their contributions. Mass ‘jailings’, lost memberships, security exploits… generally brushed under the rug… exactly what beta programs are supposed to NOT do to win trust and engage members in improving a service.

    Indeed, instead of a Content Manager, orkut should have hired a Communications Manager, or — better yet — a Community Manager. Someone to guide new members, encourage and recognize feedback, offer insight into the decisions of orkut.com, and so on.

    I recognize that orkut.com was the “20%” project of a well-meaning Google engineer. But, as I brashly suggested in the document I sent to the orkut team, it’s clear that this engineer and/or Google should simply scrap the entire system and start over. Online Networking is too important to simply ignore or give a half-ass ‘fun’ treatment to. A Google-worthy effort deserves a substantive team of engineers, social scientists / sociologists, UI folks, community managers, customer service people, and so on. Whereas it’s fine to give ‘20%’ to a news index or most any other beta project… when you involve a few million people (and their sensitive data), it’s time to up the commitment. Here’s hoping Google eventually sees the light.

  • Too shy or lazy to sneak peeks in the bookstore? Here’s Google to the rescue.

    I know that Google Print — Google’s initiative to scan and place online full-text and searchable book pages — is not really new news.

    But tonight is the first time I recall actually seeing a book result within a regular Google search:

    One thing that’s both interesting and refreshing to note is that Google does not get a kickback from any book sales. As usual, it makes money solely off the clearly-marked paid ads on the right-hand side of its pages.

    (But sorry, folks, a search for Kama Sutra doesn’t yield any book hits).

  • Google Desktop Search — A review via an EXCLUSIVE interview!

    I was able to score an exclusive interview with Adam Lasnik, supreme geek, Google connoisseur, and Google Desktop Search expert, and I’m very pleased to offer the full transcript below.

    Adam, thanks for coming today. To start, why don’t you give us a quick overview of what Google Desktop Search (“GDS”) does?

    It’s delightful to be here!

    Well, GDS enables any personal and business user to search their computer’s hard drive much as they would search Google… typing in a search term using Google’s general search syntax and getting a results page in under one second.

    Specifically, GDS searches both the filenames and contents of the following: Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail, AOL instant messages, Internet Explorer (Web page history), text files, and also files from Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.

    Do note that GDS only works on Windows XP and 2000 at this time.

    So is this all pretty easy to use, or is it a tool just for geeks?

    Perhaps unsurprisingly, GDS is quite user-friendly from end-to-end. It installs very quickly (it’s 400K) and it politely uninstalls just as easily. And actually using the tool is a snap: When you click on the GDS icon in your system tray, a browser window opens; you simply type in a search query, and BOOM, Google lists results are shown, formatted very similarly to regular Google searches.

    Whoa… regular Google searches… does this mean other people can search my hard drive? Or can Google see what I’m searching for or what’s on my hard drive? I better start removing those porn…er, confidential business plan documents!

    No, no… unlike with Google Web Search, the index of your files remains on your computer. While you have the OPTION to let Google learn about your search stats (not terms!), Google doesn’t peek into your hard drive contents or examine what you’re personal searching for. So if you’re looking for a big ass barbeque to grill a fluffy bunny, you don’t have to worry about Google notifying the ASPCA (I
    hear rabbit meat is tasty, though… but I digress). In a nutshell, Google’s GDS privacy policy should make you feel better.

    Okay, so GDS is easy to use and it’s not going to get me in trouble. So far so good. How about a few more techie details?

    You got it! First, let me say that — while GDS isn’t a power tool yet — it performs well on machines of power users like myself.

    I have a decent rig (2.4 ghz Pentium with 512 megs of RAM), but it’s loaded down with other file indexing programs, numerous Outlook plugins, more than a dozen apps in the systray, two routers (one wireless, one phone adaptor), a firewall (XP SP2-based), a virus checker (AVG), and many general programs running concurrently (Trillian, Dreamweaver, Outlook, and so on… and GDS has worked flawlessly. No install problems, and no noticeable slowdown of the system during indexing. Furthermore, searching with GDS is LIGHTNING FAST… both on my rig, and on the machine of a less-geeky friend of mine who’s sadly cursed an older machine. The downside of that, understandably, is that GDS is pretty conservative. It initially indexes quite slowly in the background (you’ll need to leave this puppy on overnight to get a full index!), and overall the product doesn’t try to do too many things for too many people.

    Hmm… well, tell us a bit more about the limitations of GDS, then

    GDS provides ease-of-use at the expense of power-tool complexity. Whether in the interest of not overwhelming non-geeks or simply due to the fact that this is still a version 1 (0.9?) beta release, Google has chosen not to offer much functionality customization or ANY UI customization.

    In some cases, this is a mere minor annoyance. We can’t opt to have the system go into a turbo mode (using more processor cycles) to get everything indexed quickly.

    There’s no way that I can see to have the system wholly refresh the index without doing an uninstall and reinstall.

    Some holes are a bit more frustrating. GDS doesn’t monitor e-mails and files after it indexes them, which can result in an inability to pull up items, or a duplication of listings in search results. Additionally, while you can tell GDS not to index certain sites or folders, you can’t block it from indexing specific Outlook folders. Luckily, it does ignore (perceived) spam folders by default.

    From a UI perspective, GDS is generally streamlined and will please folks who are looking for an experience that matches what they’re used to with general Google search results. Power users, though, may be a bit disappointed.

    The key issue is that GDS doesn’t yet offer search results in a contextual way. For instance, when you’re searching for an image on your hard drive, you probably want to see image thumbnails. When you’re searching for a particular e-mail, you likely want an easy-to-scan list of mail-related headers. However, GDS treats all search results alike, except for a little icon next to each search listing. In a way, this is understandable. In order to offer more strongly contextual search results, GDS would have to do one of the following:

    1) Show only one type of results per screen, which would require extra navigational clicks.
    2) Divide up results by column (e.g., e-mail results on the left, image results on the right), which could be problematic when there are more than 2 file types returned or when someone’s browser window space is limited.
    3) Limit search queries to one file type at a time.

    As you can see, none of these options are particularly desireable. Furthermore, many folks might find it disconcerting to see a shifting UI with search results.

    Therefore, it’s not surprising that Google has decided to go with a more generic but consistent results UI at this point.

    So GDS is sounding like a useful and effective, if not revolutionary product. How does it compare to existing desktop search solutions?

    It’s easier to install, it behaves more nicely, and it returns results faster than any other desktop search program I’ve seen.

    And speaking of other solutions, here’s a list of other desktop search programs I know about, with an asterisk by those I’ve tried:

    – X1*

    Seemingly one of the most popular desktop search tools, X1 distinguishes itself in several ways: it displays search results as you type each letter, it shows previews of documents, it offers special fields for different searches, and it supports a ton of different file formats. Downside? It’s pricey, it can be a resource hog. [See license giveaway; still some left as of 10/15/04 2:46pm PST]

    – LookOut*

    Recently bought out by Microsoft, this program integrates into Outlook, but searches many different types of files. It’s more flexible and powerful than GDS, but it’s not as fast… and it’s not useful for those who don’t have Outlook.

    – Enfish*

    Big, pricey, and highly customizeable, with an especially useful saved-searches feature and decent integration with ones Outlook data overall.

    – Copernic
    – dtSearch
    – 80/20
    – Superior Search
    – Wilbur

    Wow, that’s a lot of competition for Google. So what makes GDS so special and important, then?

    Several things:

    1) Speed, stability, and ease of use.
    2) The trusted and liked Google brand.
    3) Integration with Google Web searches (you can configure the program to show desktop search results when you do a general Web search)
    4) Potential later integration with existing popular Google tools (toolbar, Gmail, etc.)
    5) Perhaps somewhat controversial… but there’s also the possibility that Google could — at the user’s option — use desktop search fingerprinting to steer or filter that individual’s Web results.

    Okay, I can see why GDS may be particularly noteworthy for consumers, but what does it mean for Google?

    It will enable Google to take over the world, though not all at once.

    But seriously, folks… I think GDS suggests several significant ramifications for Google (and yes, its shareholders):

    1) This may increase the frequency and quantity of Google Web (or integrated Web + GDS) searches, thus augmenting ad revenues.

    2) As many others have noted, it’s a clear strike-ahead at Microsoft, who is building desktop search capabilities into their future operating system. Why does this matter from a revenue standpoint? GDS will help insure that more people remain loyal to Google (and its advertisers), instead of defecting towards the possibly-OS-default MSN search feature.

    3) Each foray into Windows tools allows Google to build up an aggregate competency in this area, strengthening not only each individual tool, but the broad set of desktop-based tools overall (Picasa, Deskbar, etc.).

    Well, I’m pretty sold on Google Desktop Search at this point, I must admit. But how do I know if it’s right for me?

    I’d suggest that you simply give the tool a try. But if you’re really gung-ho about this space and have some extra time, you may want to give the other desktop search program a look-see as well. It’s notable that all of them are either free or offer free trials, so you have little to lose. Just remember to fully un-install any desktop search programs you decide not to use to insure that their likely-sizable indexes aren’t continuing to clutter up your hard drive.

    And in the meantime, here’s my humble list of what to look for in a desktop search tool:

    1) Ease of install (and, indeed, uninstall!)
    2) Comprehensiveness of indexing (how many different file types does it support?)
    3) Speed of indexing (initial and ongoing)
    4) Load on computer (during initial indexing, ongoing indexing, searching)
    5) Speed of searching (how long does it take for it to deliver search results?)
    6) Power of searching (Boolean expression support? Ability to search particular fields?…)
    7) Usefulness of search results (relevance, completeness, formatting)
    8) Cost of program
    9) Support from company (FAQs, e-mail support. etc.)
    10) And I almost forgot the most important thing — does it work on your system (platform, necessary specs, etc.)

    Adam, thanks so much for all of this information and for taking the time to stop by here today

    Absolutely a pleasure. It’s always been my dream to appear on BLADAM, and I thank you for the opportunity to address your wonderful, smart, and attractive readers who will no doubt eagerly link to this page and share it with all their friends. But tell me one thing: Why has it been more than four months since you posted anything in this blog?

    Ahem… um… well, I was in the process of changing blog software, but never got around to actually finishing the transition, plus I started two new jobs recently and…

    Ah, no worries! Just glad to see BLADAM back up, even temporarily.

    :blushing: It’s nice to be back.

    —

    Relevant and cool links:
    – A Net Takeway examination of the desktop search space
    – Excellent overview of GDS from SearchEngineWatch
    – SearchEngineWatch – Privacy and Google Desktop Search
    – John Battelle’s take on GDS

    —

    Edits: (Times are Pacific Standard Time)
    – 10/14/04, 21:45: Actually linked to the product. What a revolutionary idea, eh? [smacks head]
    – 10/15/04, 14:46: Added x1 license giveaway link (not likely to be applicable for long!)

    —

    [P.S. — Please feel free to leave a comment with any corrections, or suggest any additional aspects of GDS to cover. Thanks!]

  • Hey, Alexa… what’s your RDF noseyness about?

    I’ve recently noticed the Alexabot searching for /[every-category-on-my-blog]/index.rdf. Anyone know what’s up with that? Why not .xml? Or .rss?

  • Changing blog software… new Adam site, and more

    Hi there 🙂

    Before I skedaddle off to a going away party for a friend, I thought I’d share a few brief tidbits with you:

    1) For a variety of reasons, I’m moving from MovableType (the software that currently powers this blog) to ExpressionEngine. More info on that later… but now, I’m warning you that there may be some (not-so-fun) funkiness with this blog over the weekend. Sorry!

    2) For the whopping two or three of you (hi Mom, Dad, and Sis!) that are interested in more personal AdamDetails and would like to, say, listen to music I’ve composed and stuff like that… I now have a new site, lasnik.net. Come visit and let me know what you think 🙂

    3) On a geekier note, I’ve learned that link rel=”stylesheet”… seems to be a better choice than the style type=”text/css” @import url(Style.css)… method, which for some reason makes the (same) stylesheet be reloaded upon every page (on IE, not Firebird, interestingly enough).

    Anyway, I’m off! Have a great weekend, everyone! 🙂

  • It’s the Community, stupid!

    Last night, I had the pleasure of attending a meet-‘n’-greet sort of open house with Technorati, a company that is making really useful and fun tools for the blogosphere. I was honored and humbled to be at this event, given that the list of folks there read a bit like an impressive Who’s Who in geek lore.

    Beyond all the cool info and group conversations, a chat that particularly stuck with me was one I had with Mike, one of the Technorati engineers. I learned that he has a blog on TypePad, and I was initially puzzled as to why someone so technically savvy would opt to pay a monthly fee for a hosted blogging option instead of just using a free tool like WordPress. I always viewed services like TypePad to be geared towards those folks who had lots of interest in sharing their writing and photos with others, but not much geek-knowhow to set up a site on their own.

    What I learned from Mike was striking and simple: It’s the Community, stupid. Mike noted that when he was blogging ‘standalone’ with MovableType on his own site, he would typically get few, if any comments on his musings. With TypePad, however, he has enjoyed a much more active participation on his blog, because his fellow TypePad bloggers tend to follow recently-updated links on the service and strike up friendly conversations as they ‘travel.’

    It was like a ‘duh’ moment for me. Of course, this would make sense. Look at LiveJournal, for instance, in which even the 7,419th (seemingly identical) teen posting about how someone is mad at their boyfriend is likely to solicit tons of sympathetic or tweaking comments in response. It’s easy to make fun of the stereotypical echo chamber with situations like that, but on a broader note, it’s both interesting and encouraging to see that even the less angsty-type notes by TypePad users are also swept into friendly conversations.

    And indeed, this highlights what’s so starkly missing from much of ‘independent’ (non-centrally-hosted) blogging today… a sense of Community beyond the vast overarching uber-community of Blogging. Sure, there are the occasional blog rings, and yes, the same dozen or two A-List bloggers get 5,000 comments even when just posting what they ate for lunch. But for the new bloggers — the ones NOT already famous or posting about their sex lives or serendipitously capturing or landing upon some wacky niche or meme — blogging can seem frustratingly like simply typing into a vaccum.

    The head of Technorati, Dave Sifry, both understands this concern and is thankfully committed to addressing it with his company’s services. And I’m confident he will make headway in exposing folks to interesting but-not-yet-household-name bloggers.

    But in the meantime, services like TypePad and LiveJournal — and, increasingly — Blogger.com — are already paving the way. Via profiles and tools for interacting with other members, they’re facilitating the creation of micro-communities and giving people not only a voice, a platform… but also an appreciative and actively participating audience.

    And it’s not just about numbers. Right now, I have about 15,000 visits to this blog monthly. Small compared to the A-Listers, but still pretty significant. But far less than 1% of that group ever comments here. This makes me, then, a somewhat popular Publisher… but it sure doesn’t make this a community.

    I wonder if tools such as Movable Type, Expression Engine, and WordPress will ever more substantially facilitate Discovery and Community… and if so, how and when.

    What are your thoughts on this?