At Lijit, we are constantly developing and testing new features for the product, the search results and the re-search box.

Recently, we have begun to explore the concept of including Flickr thumbnails within the search results themselves. Pretty cool idea, right?

What we cant come to a final decision on is exactly where the thumbnails should be placed. So, we are asking our users for feedback.

Here are the choices:

Here are the thumbnails on the LEFT (click the picture to expand):

Here are the thumbnails on the RIGHT (click the picture to expand):

And, here is a quick poll to help us figure this out. The cool thing about this quiz, is you can cut and paste it onto your blog, and share it with your friends. Check it out and thanks for the help!

A big part of what I love about working for Lijit is the tech startup community that we belong to here in Boulder. I may joke about having our investors in the same building, but it’s amazing how much support we receive from everyone in the area. Case in point: Kary and Gerhard Rivera

I met Kary at a local women in tech meetup and her husband at the second Boulder Startup Weekend. Besides just being awesome people, the two of them have teamed up to start their own venture, Fling it Girl, which is a cool way of sharing online finds. They understand the value of the Lijit search application and it was one of the first things they installed on their new blog.

After our meeting, I made sure to get them outfitted in Lijit shirts so that they could help out with our evangelism efforts. Seeing this picture made my heart flutter in appreciation. (Now that we have a Rockies picture and a Broncos picture, I’m wondering who’s going to step up and provide us with our next sporting Lijit shot.)

Big thanks to the Riveras for their support. With a community like we have here in the Silicon Mountain, it’s exciting to think just what they might accomplish with Fling it Girl.

[Full disclosure: I’m helping the Riveras out as a beta girl, testing their new site and providing feedback.]

It’s a dichotomy older than the web itself: right brains and left brains, creatives and geeks, ponytails and propellerheads. However you label the two camps of web development, it is undeniable that there is often a mutual misunderstanding between them.
As Lijit’s first and only designer I am learning just how different a creative’s processes are from those of an engineer. We prioritize differently, put emphasis on different aspects of the product, and use different language (I can’t express clearly enough the terror I feel when a “design meeting” is called to discuss php classes and database integration). But those differences are what make us a great team. We are all experts in our respective disciplines and together we can make the web a better place. But it’s not always easy, there are a few things a designer should remember should they find themselves in an engineering-centric environment.

Be the Designer
Stick by your warm and fuzzy guns and make good design decisions. Engineers will often not see the benefit of hours spent scrutinizing over a page layout but it is your duty to make everything you touch both beautiful and useful.

Walk a Mile in a Geek’s Shoes
I have spent more time in a command line during the past month than I ever would have liked to. And you know what? I enjoy it. Use your nerd exposure as a learning experience. Starting Apache via terminal is a useful skill after all.

Work as One
Having access to people who are much smarter than yourself is a wonderful thing. Use the skilled programmers around you to implement functionality that you couldn’t on your own. The nature of web design has always been somewhat constraining. It’s the challenge of designing in a box that makes it fun. Developers make the box bigger.

Be Flexible
Probably the most important advice I could ever give. Be willing to sacrifice some for the good of the product. Not all your ideas can work. Use criticism to become a better designer.

I have generalized a huge spectrum of disciplines here and in no way think that there is an easy solution to group dynamics. But I do believe that recognizing and understanding our differences will ultimately make us better at what we do.

This guest post was brought to you by Mike Bucks, one of our newest employees at Lijit and a wonderful addition to the team. Besides bringing his design sensibilities to the table, he’s also good for music recommendations and spur-of-the-moment badges.

In January, Orli Yakuel, one of the authors of the Go2Web2.0 blog wrote a post about the value she sees in Lijit. As someone who checks out a lot of web apps, Orli’s opinion and feedback meant a lot. I thought it might be interesting to hear more about her thoughts on blogging and what she’s learned from her experiences online. Fortunately, Orli was game enough to answer a few questions and I’m proud to put the spotlight on one of our Lijit publishers.

• How long have you been blogging and what made you start?

I’ve been blogging for 2 years now. When I first started my blog, I didn’t know if I was going to keep blogging but somehow, I did. I was always good with discovering interesting links and offering them to my friends, but I didn’t think I was good at explaining about those link’s essence. Well, I guess like in any other issue in life, practice made perfect…

My first blog post wasn’t actually a text post. It was a post with bunch of Web 2.0 services on it. My dream at that time was to create a web page that gathers all those wonderful Web 2.0 applications, but I didn’t have the skills to make such a page, so I added them onto one post. But I was lucky to have a friend (Eyal Shahar) that took my dream and made it fly, and now both of us are the co-founders of a pretty successful Web 2.0 directory. So basically, I can say that my dream to have a site made me start a blog. I was also inspired by TechCrunch blog, and since Mike is a good friend, he was very supportive and gave me the strength to carry on with blogging.

• What’s the greatest thing you’ve received from blogging?

The answer for that would have to be: exposure and recognition. If it wasn’t for my blog and site, there are lots of things I couldn’t imagine in my life that I am able to do. My entire life has been turned upside down from this blogging experience, and I’m very thankful for that. But I really have to say that I didn’t expect this, and for me, I’m still just a girl that likes to explore the Web and to get the word out to everyone who doesn’t have the time, or desire, to do that themselves.

• Of all the posts you’ve written, what has been your favorite?

That’s a tough question. OK, I can think of two right now:

The announcement on the launch of Go2web20 Directory
The post about web-based tools that you don’t need to sign-up for I REALLY worked hard on this one

• You write about Web 2.0 apps and services. What’s your favorite and/or the one you get the most use out of?

Since I really test lots of services, this list of favorites is changing every day. However, I do have some services that I’m currently using on a daily basis:

Google Docs - I can honestly say that I don’t use WORD or any other office software since I’ve started to use them.

Facebook - I guess I don’t need to explain why.

Twitter - Because if friends following you, it must be because you have something interesting to say. So for me, it’s one of the most real places on the web today.

Flickr - Using the service since May 2005, I think it will be very hard to move me from there (even if they close).

Blogger - What can I say, with all the problems that I had with this blogging platform, I stayed.

Bloglines - Because you need for at least one RSS reader…

Del.icio.us - My main search engine.

And these are only few from many that I’ve chosen to list.

• How has Lijit helped you as a blog publisher?

The reason I replaced the Google search engine with Lijit was the social results it gave while searching. I just love the way it not only searches my blog, it also searches my community as well. In this case, it is almost certain that people who search will get an answer to their need. Moreover, the stats that Lijit gives helps me to see what people are really interested in reading. Bottom-line, Lijit simply provides added value to bloggers.

Big thanks for Orli for her time, support and for understanding the value of Lijit. If you’re interested in finding out more about anything Web 2.0, make sure to check out her blog to get the full scoop!

Recently, one of our publishers reached out to us to get our take on third party cookies. They were considering removing our widget due to the fact that we set a cookie when a browser views our widget. This brings up the debate over security and safety when it comes to third party cookies, and cookies in general. We responded to the post in the comments, but I wanted to elaborate on that a bit more.

Why Lijit uses cookies:

We use cookies to not only track whether someone is a Lijit user (allowing them to login etc), but also to allow us to match up a blog/widget visitor to any searches they may perform through our widget. This helps us to provide valuable metrics to our publishers in the form of stats, which in turn allows publishers to give their readers better content.
Generally,cookies allow us to gather better data about our users. Due to the ever rising pattern of “cookie blocking”, either by browsers, firewalls, security software,or explicitly by users, we have had to find other ways to continue gathering statistics. This means we have to use traffic pattern matching techniques, and logging analysis to get all of the data we need.

Historically, advertisers were the primary “pushers” of third-party cookies. This would allow them to track your viewing behaviors across any properties where their ads appeared. Some people disliked this since there was no real value to the web user, and the advertisers got free data. This was perceived as not only a security and privacy issue , but also pushed the perception of third party cookies into a grey area. These conditions, and the rise of spyware and malware pushed OS, and browser companies to institute tighter control.

In the current world of social media , distributed web services, and widespread widget adoption, the value to the user has changed. There are many services, Lijit included, that offer value to the user during their browsing session, versus just “tracking” them. The key, is that the web user is informed about what sites they visit, and the kind of content they allow in their browser. It is important for companies to disclose how they use the information they collect, and Lijit does this in our privacy policy.

Overall, the message should be about awareness and consumer education. The value of enabling third party cookies can actually be additive to the consumer vs. being a security or privacy concern. Modern browsers allow you to whitelist services you trust, and there are many services on the web (such as Lijit) that deserve that trust.

Often, when I tell people my profession is “Business Development” the response I get is “Sweet! You must get to travel a lot. How much fun!”

Yeah right.

Don’t get me wrong, the best part of my job is the people and you run out of people if all you ever do is deal with the people in your neighborhood (Thats kinda anti-Mr. Rodgers isnt it?). So travel is a large part of the gig.

Last week, I headed out to DC for meetings and TechCocktail. Since meeting people in a one-on-one situation is preferable, Lijit sponsored a “Hangover Breakfast” the next morning for a small group of people.

At the end of the trip, when I was sitting at Reagan National Airport, I recorded a quick video about the trip:

To recap: I left Denver at 6pm, landed in DC at 10pm, was in my hotel by 11:00pm. Woke up and had a series of meetings starting at 9am (9am, 10:30am, noon, 2pm). TechCocktail started at 6:30pm. I was back in my hotel by 1am. I woke up at 6am, went to our breakfast at 9am until noon, when I jumped in a cab and headed to the airport, where I recorded this video. Back at my house in Boulder by 5pm.

Total time in DC: ~40 hours. 4 meetings and 2 events. Not bad, and certainly not out of the ordinary.

Want to work in Business Development? Learn to love airports.

With growth comes the need for more people in order to get more done. We have been feeling the growing pains and have gone through a bit of a hiring streak as of late. Our little startup is definitely getting bigger. While our office is almost at capacity, it only means I have even more people to profile. Today’s victim recipient of this honor is Bill.

Bill is one of those guys that you immediately feel comfortable around. I’m not sure if it’s his easy smile, laid back demeanor or quick wit, but this guy fits in wonderfully around here. I asked him a couple of questions and he was kind enough to provide me with some answers.

1. What is your Lijit contribution?

I’m a software developer-I help build the software that powers Lijit. Currently, I’m working on the search engine side, but in the future I expect to work on all components-search engine, website and adserver.

2. What is your least favorite sound and why?

The theme to ‘Law & Order’ (sheer repetition). Or, the sound of the woodpecker that is currently attacking my house.

3. What turns you on (emotionally, spiritually or creatively) and why?

I really like building things: bicycles, software systems, whatever. When I get to that point where it almost works, I get obsessive about it and have trouble sleeping til it’s done.

4. What profession, other than your own, would you like to attempt and why?

Bike shop owner or record store owner. I’d love to spend every day playing with my favorite toys (bikes, records) and hanging out with people that share the same interests.

5. Something you’re guilty of…

I still love Devo.

[Interesting side note: Bill and Charlie both hate ‘Law & Order’ and when he does open his bike shop, Bill can hire Charlie to work as a mechanic.]

It’s obvious that Bill has what it takes to hang with our company. I mean, anyone who can juggle like this…

has got to be good. We’re glad to have Bill around even though there have been a few times when he’s walked in to the office wearing his bike “tights”.

Over the weekend, one of our favorite Lijit users, Fred Wilson, posted his desire to do a blog spring cleaning.

Of course, the first thing I did was rush over to Fred’s blog and see if Lijit had made the cut. Luckily, it appears that we are one of the chosen few.

Thinking that Fred made a good point about keeping a blog clean, I headed over to my blog at Learn To Duck and started whacking widgets.

Last.fm? Gone. Instant Message widget? Outta there.

After the third whacked widget, I began to think about 1) why people should keep Lijit on their blogs (other than its the coolest widget ever!) and 2) what value do widgets bring to a blog.

Widgets, by design, should provide three things:

1. No apparent slow down of the blog page itself;
2. Real utility to the readers of the blog;
3. Real utility to the publishers themselves.

So, how does Lijit stack up?

Page Load Speed:

I asked one of our developers what specifically do we do that ensures that Lijit doesn’t slow down a blog’s load. Andy explained that we cache the javascript for a two hour period, making the javascript call (which is the main culprit in page load slow down - watch the lower left of your browser, you can watch how long it takes widgets to load) much shorter. In addition, we will always display the latest widget to a user, and then cache the javascript in the background for the next user.

Not being technical, I am guessing that means we load more quickly because the site doesn’t have to go get the widget every single time someone comes to the page.

Reader Utility:

Why is Lijit better than standard site search or Google custom search? Two specific reasons:

1. We search the publisher’s entire social graph and trusted sources.
2. While Google tries to index everything, Lijit just indexes everything that is important to you.

So the likelihood a relevant result is returned through Lijit search should be higher than if the same search was done on any standard search engine.

Also, unlike most widgets, Lijit is built to keep users on your site. Most widgets are connected to a destination site and their sole purpose is to drive traffic to the destination site. Lijit just wants to search your stuff.

Publisher Value:

For a widget to earn the right to live on my blog, it must make me a better blogger. The stats that Lijit provides is a direct example of this. One stat that I use a lot is “Results that returned zero results.” If people are searching for topics, but not finding them, then I need to write about them.

Also, because Lijit is trusted network-based search, relevant content from my blog is surfaced on other blogs that include me in their network. Basically, I get more traffic the more people trust my content, because it appears more often in the network’s search results.

Finally, because more of my social content is exposed through Lijit search, readers are more engaged and consume more content across my site and my social graph.

I certainly can understand Fred’s desire to clean up his blog, and have echoed his efforts on my own blog. Frankly, I wish more people would periodically do a widget clean up and when the time comes to determine which widgets stay and which are round filed, ask yourself three questions:

1. Does this widget slow down my blog page load?
2. Does this widget provide real value to my readers?
3. Does the widget provide real value to me as a publisher?

Hopefully, the answer in Lijit’s case is a clear yes to all three.

Last month, Eric Olson and Frank Gruber brought TECH cocktail to Boulder. Lijit was more than happy to help sponsor the event. While they were in town, the guys stopped by our offices to say hello and Frank wanted an official tour. Watch to see what happens as we cruise around the Lijit offices…

I’m excited to announce an innovation on the Lijit customer service front. You might notice a shiny new badge in the sidebar of our blog here? (If you are reading our feed, simply click out for a second to behold the greatness of the badge!) From their site…

“Get Satisfaction is a place where people can get the most from the products they use, and where companies are encouraged to get real with their customers. Customers, employees, and companies are all welcome here. Nothing is hidden, and no one is censored. Join the conversation!”

I first heard of Get Satisfaction when their CEO Thor Muller installed the Lijit wijit on his blog. During my usual outreach, I started checking out what Thor was up to and discovered Get Satisfaction. I was so impressed with the idea behind GS (Open customer relations? A public space to have conversations with your users? Why hadn’t someone thought of this before?) that I immediately signed up for an account with Lijit. However, I never did much more with the account than upload our logo and establish myself as the company representative. I figured that other people would come and do the rest.

That was that. Until I found out that the nice Get Satisfaction folks were hosting a meetup at SXSW…and they were serving breakfast tacos. (That’s a picture of Lane Becker, the GS President standing by all the delicious tacos!) Besides the necessary hangover nutrition they provided, Lane, Thor and Amy also gave me lots of information about how to cultivate Lijit’s presence on GS. It turns out that I forgot to tell people about it. Whoops! Thanks to all at GS for helping out a newbie community gal.

And now, look at me! My how times have changed. When you click on the Get Satisfaction badge, it will take you straight to the Lijit account. I’ve started to add some of the questions that I frequently answer from users and hope to continue building it out over time. However, since the whole point of Get Satisfaction is about fostering the customer community, your input is most appreciated. Ask a question, report a problem or share an idea. I’m there and I’m listening. Don’t forget that you play a HUGE part in getting satisfaction out of this site.

One additional note: once you start digging into GS, you’ll realize that there are many other companies striving to open up the conversation. Some of my favorites in there are Timbuk2, Apple and other Boulder startups Socialthing!, Intense Debate, and Filtrbox. Sign up and start getting heard!