Archive for May, 2008
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.]
Tags: evangelism, Lijit publishers | View Comments
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.
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.
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.
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