Lijit

I was back on the United “bus” this week…or so that flight  seems to be these days with frequency of trips to the Bay Area for client and partner meetings. This latest trip included a visit to the Nikko Hotel in San Francisco for the OMMA Social Conference, a gathering of on-line social media and marketing professionals. I was asked to be on a panel discussing my ‘favorite’ topic: “real time search”. I’ve been known to say a thing or two in the past about the topic and I loved having the opportunity to discuss it openly with a great group of panelists. Here’s a video of the whole panel if you’re interested.

My point on the panel was this:

There is no such thing as real time search.

Ooooh. “Controversial.” (Yeah, right). Truthfully, I wanted to make it clear that I felt the industry was getting all caught up in a scrum over a term and nothing was really being understood about the “situation”. And the situation is what needs to be understood fundamentally so we can effectively act on it.

I think about it all in this way…

In the days before “user generated content”, life was good. It was simple. The web was a collection of sites with content growing quickly, but consistently and all in a fairly familiar structure (think HTML, image files and text primarily). Moreover, the path to ‘discover’ these sites was perfectly tuned to progressive search algorithms of the time like Google’s Page Rank. Content ‘consumption’ amounted to ‘surfing’ the web on your terms and leveraging search results to isolate items of interest to view and ‘book mark’.

Fast forward to the mid ‘00’s and the era of blogging took off simultaneously with other user-generated forms of content such as videos, photos, etc…all utilizing growing trends to quickly share and syndicate for others to consume. The USB cable and ‘embed’ code changed it all. Faster uploads. Faster syndication. But alas, we were happy to watch idiots do stupid human tricks on YouTube. Content ‘consumption’ at this period revolved around the ‘RSS feed’ and aggregators helped us evolve past the ‘bookmark’ as it simply couldn’t effectively scale. Literally, bookmark features on browsers required search portals to find ‘that old bookmark’!

Now fast forward to today. Everyone is an author. Those that never hit the blogging bandwagon are now provided the weaponry to transcend from one side of the monitor’s glass to the other…from reader to author. The age of ‘micro blogging’ has come in strong and provided an ability to broadcast your ‘status’ to your trusted group of friends that you just sneezed, OMG! WTF! and every hashtag-driven commentary we can manufacture in 140 characters. Content consumption now is just….well it’s just too much as it comes too fast.

So back to my point of ‘there is no such thing as real time search’:

Content is content. I don’t care what form it is (text, video, photo, et al) or by whom it is created. Content is merely DATA. It is how this data is sourced, consumed and synthesized (and at what frequency) by the reader that it can have the hope of becoming relevant INFORMATION to the reader. And therein lies the major problem. The most problematic of all of this is the escalation in data being generated….the majority now of which is 140 characters of garbage.

I personally believe what is meant by marketers who invented the term ‘real time search’ is simply “the ability to search for and aggregate content spilling out of user-generated tools” (primarily twitter). In my view, you are either searching with intent to source content….or being notified in real time of ‘events’ through other forms of content(e.g. tweets, etc). The gross volume of data now requires that people REALLY do a rethink about their social graph…e.g. not being so impulsed to hit the ‘Friend’ button every time and prune those that aren’t true analog friends.

That level of restraint aside (we must assume people will be people and measure their importance by how ‘long’ their follower list is…), tools to synthesize data into information must evolve…and evolve quickly. Search systems need to embrace aspects such as scanning a trusted social graph first (like Lijit and now Google Social Search Beta as a feature of Google Search) before opening up the query to the web (and non trusted sources). Real time notification systems should take a page out of the chapter of financial institutions who have been required to synthesize minute bits of data (trades) on sub-second intervals. A re-think of this being in the browser or as a traditional thick client tool on your non-mobile devices also needs careful examination to ensure the best productivity in consuming the data without friction to your work flow.

OK, rant done. Time to tweet this article.

Defrag 2009 was back in the Mile High City of Denver this year, just a stones throw away from our enclave of Boulder, 45 minutes to the north. The conference is an interesting mix of news school social technology with more progressive ‘enterprise’ companies and solutions who are embracing the need to become more “social”. This could mean embracing the voice of the customer or community or leveraging similar means to allow progressive collaborations to occur between employees and partners of a company. All in all it was great to see the movement of a new ‘voice’ being heard and taken seriously by larger enterprise-focused corporations.

While there, our good friend Louis Gray, hosted a panel of 4 technologists which I was asked to participate in. Each of the panelists were essentially allowed to discuss a topic or trend we’re seeing or playing in within our industry articulated in roughly a 5 minute window. These 5 minute ‘pitch-lettes’ were then discussed collaboratively with the audience.

I went through a subset of the data we gathered and contributed to the Technorati State of the Blogosphere 2009 survey. I plucked out the most outstanding trends we’d witnessed from analyzing our data and distilled 5 of those, each spoken about in a one minute diatribe! The audience participation was great and all the presenters had great lenses into and around our community. The presentation I used is below so have a view!

Last night, our CEO, Todd Vernon, and COO, Walter Knapp, were interviewed by Bloggers School on Blog Talk Radio. They discussed the history of Lijit, the business model behind our company and how our search adds value to both the publisher and the blog reader. The majority of the interview centered around questions about Lijit’s premium Ad Network and how we’re making it even easier for bloggers to make money on their blogs. Give it a listen if you want to hear more from the top dogs themselves.

This was our third year having a booth at Blog World and it just keeps getting better for us. Instead of going on and on about what a great conference it was and how many times our company got mentioned in sessions or during keynotes, we thought pictures might do a better job of telling our story…

Our booth, along with the swag we were handing out, attracted quite the crowd. The  Purell was a big hit…either due to the fact that folks were shaking a lot of hands or that they agreed that Las Vegas was a dirty city.

But, one of the main reasons we go to Blog World is to be immersed in a world we love…that of blog publishers. Seeing their eyes light up when we explain and demo what we do is something that just can’t be described.

Not to mention all the opportunities we have for spreading our message to a larger audience…

However, probably our most favorite thing to do while at a show like Blog World is to thank our current users. Folks like the masterminds behind I Can Has Cheezburger, Neatorama, and WebUrbanist. And slapping a few stickers on cute mommybloggers doesn’t hurt the cause either. (Hi Extraordinary Mommy!)

A conference like Blog World takes a lot of energy. Not only is it a big show, but the fact that it takes place in Vegas makes it all the more tiring. To make sure we were up to the task, we made sure we had all of the essentials covered…

Thanks to everyone we met and to all those who told us how much they loved what we’re doing. Wear your Lijit shirts with pride and we hope to see you next year at Blog World 2010!

[Photo credits: Perry, Grace, Greg and http2007]

It’s that time of year again for the geeks and bloggers to arrive in masses and congregate in Sin City for Blog World.

Lijit is gearing up for our third year at the BlogWorld New Media Expo held October 15-17th at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

We will be setting up shop at our Lijit booth (#330 to be exact) equipped of course with our soft, Lijit t-shirts. Our crew will be ready to meet and talk all things wijit. If you’re a Lijit user, want to use Lijit or want some Purell to help clean up your search, then be sure to stop by our booth and say hello!

Don’t forget to catch some Lijit speakers, too! Greg Keller, Lijit’s VP of Product Development will be speaking at WordCamp Las Vegas in coordination with Blog World. At 3:00 PM on Friday, October 16th Greg will be speaking on: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Our Readers - A Study of Reader Profile Data. Micah Baldwin (former VP of Business Development for Lijit) will be speaking on a panel with our CEO, Todd Vernon at 11:30 AM on Saturday, October 17th on Measuring and Building Online Influence.

We look forward to meeting you and please feel free to e-mail Tara (tara at lijit dot com) or Grace (gboyle at lijit dot com) if you would like to set up a specific time to meet. For the latest Lijit news fresh from Blog World, follow us on Twitter (@Lijit) as we hold it down on the expo floor.

Lijit’ees present: Todd Vernon, Walter Knapp, Tara Anderson, Perry Quinn, Grace Boyle and Gregory Keller.

When I first got to know Stan James (Lijit’s Founder), we had a great conversation about a conference called Gnomdex in Seattle. I thought I had heard of such a conference in my startup days out in San Francisco, and sure enough I had.

In the late 1990s, I worked at a startup in Emeryville, CA. While there, several of the developers received an email from a guy named Chris Pirillo, and wished they could attend a conference in the corn fields of Iowa. It was called Gnomedex.

Lijit was a sponsor of the conference in 2007, and last year I attended. It was an amazing conference. Probably one of my favorite of the year because of Chris’ curation of speakers (including the guy that drove the Mars Rover!) and the community interaction of the attendees.

As I laid out my wishlist for conferences to speak at in 2009, Gnomedex was high on the list. Over the course of the year, Chris and I became better friends, and I was honored to be asked to speak at Gnomedex 2009. Talking about the impact blogging and community have had on my life (The presentation was entitled “How to be Awesome…er”) I really enjoyed speaking in front of the Gnomedex attendees, both in there and virtually.

Here are my presentation slides:

As always, it was great to connect with current and future Lijit publishers. Gnomedex has been a great measure of Lijit’s growth. In 2007 and 2008, we were the new kids, and most of the conversations I had about Lijit were filled with explanations of what we do, and why its interesting. Now, with our strong feature set and new monetization options, the conversations are much more focused on how to work together.

If you have a short list of conferences, please put Gnomedex on the list. Its an amazing conference, on par with SXSW (except without the size and craziness), and is the only conference that I lament missing sessions.

Cant wait for Gnomedex 2010!

This past weekend, Lijit was proud to be one of the sponsors for the ongoing Chicks Who Click conference series. San Jose, or to be more specific-downtown Palo Alto, was the setting for this installment of the (mostly) female gathering of those involved in social media and working in the tech industry.

There was a panel featuring Aubrey Sabala of Digg, Margaret Stewart of YouTube and Meagan Marks from Facebook. These three incredibly smart women talked about how they’ve trailblazed their way to fantastic careers by carving out roles for themselves that cater to their strengths. One of the key take-aways from this panel was the notion of “intelligent risk-taking” and that if an opportunity scares you, then it’s probably exactly what you need to be doing.

I spoke on a panel about being a woman involved with a tech startup. (There I am, in the middle, talking with my hands yet again.) Emily Olson of the delicious Foodzie and Suzanne Xie of the stylish Weardrobe joined me as we discussed the different challenges we’ve faced as being part of early-stage tech companies. Suzanne brought up the point that her background is in finance and coming from that kind of workplace, tech seems very open to women. Both Emily and I agreed that being female has helped with marketing our companies in both online and offline communities. A point that resonated with the audience is that if you’re going to have women users, it can be beneficial to have a female voice or face to assist with tech support or new customer outreach.

In case you haven’t experienced it, there really is a kind of magic that happens when you get a roomful of women (and a few men) together, talking about collaboration, connection and how tech can play an important part in building a business. Women of all ages shared stories of how they found jobs on Twitter, used Facebook to get the word out about their startup or formed relationships with major brands all because of their blog. It was an inspiring day, full of shared knowledge and newly-formed friendships. I’m grateful that Lijit was able to help make it happen.

This Saturday, I am excited to speak at the Blogs With Balls conference in NYC. There is quite a line up, and I am glad to be included.

Yes, my 12 year old mind immediately went to the gutter when I was first approached about speaking. But, the conference is all about sports blogging.

Put together by Don Povia and Chris Lucas as a sports blogging conference, they have assembled a strong array of speakers, highlighted by my good friends, Gary Vaynerchuk and Julia Roy.

The sponsors are also fantastic. (Yes, we are helping sponsor the event!). YardBarker, SBNation, VaynerMedia and BlogWorldExpo are all companies that I have worked with and am excited to have them be part of this inaugural conference.

My panel will be focusing on how to monetize your blog. With Lijit’s recent release of our Ad Network, we have learned a lot about how to help bloggers really maximize the revenue their blogs are generating, and it will be nice to share it with the attendees.

While there is a focus on sports blogging, the truth is that many of the panels are providing information that is appropriate to any blogger.

So, if you are in New York City on June 13, you should swing by and say hi.

Of course if you are a Lijit blogger, please let me know, I would love to meet and thank each one of you!

I spent the last week at SXSW. Commonly referred to as Geek Spring Break (I couldnt find the wet laptop contests though…), SXSW is a great event for Lijit every year.

This year I spoke on a panel entitled Beyond Aggregation: Finding the Web’s Best Content. I was lucky enough to join a panel with old and new friends: Marshall Kirkpatrick (ReadWriteWeb), Louis Gray (LouisGray.com), Melanie Backer (AideRSS/PostRank) and Gabe Rivera (TechMeme) and speak in front of a standing room only crowd (it must have been the ICanHasCheezBurger Happy Cat Plushy I was giving away).

The panel went exceedingly well, with some great questions from the audience.

At SXSW, I did more that just speak on that panel. I also was interviewed by several different bloggers and websites. Here is my interview with Grant Robertson of DownloadSquad. You might notice that I am whispering (we were in the press room) and smiling (there was a really funny massage therapist next to me).

The full post is here:

SXSW 2009 : Finding relevancy in the blog haystack with Lijit from Download Squad on Vimeo.

I got to meet with brands and other bloggers and continue to learn about ways that we can continue to provide real value to our publishers…

(MICAH! You said it was Geek Spring Break! I want the juicy stuff!)

…fine.

SXSW is also about the parties, of which there were about a million. I enjoyed the iMeem party (probably because of the Salt Like BBQ that was served, saving me a 20 minute drive) and we helped sponsor the Colorado Interactive Party at the Pure Volume House, which is always a highlight every year (about 5,000 people came through it).

SXSW is the largest conference in our space. It allows all us geeks to get together, eat a little BBQ and talk about all kinds of things. My favorite picture of SXSW (that I took) is this one:

Which was taken at J. Kelly’s (An amazing BBQ place near my hotel), and includes Richard Moross (CEO of Moo/UK), Harper Reed and Dylan Richard (CTO Threadless/Chicago), Scott Belsky (CEO Behance/NYC), Jared Goralnick (CEO of AwayFind/DC). At this meal, Blaine Cook (who built Twitter’s framework/Ireland), Sarah Townsend (Social Vibe/LA), Mark Dillon (Founder & CTO, Phonetag), and, of course me.

Where else would we ever have met and talked over a meal?

Thats the real magic of SXSW. 10,000 geeks in one area do more than bring down AT&T network or party into the night. We talk about great ideas and interesting partnerships. New ideas are birthed at SXSW (see FourSquare and Contxts) and great ideas are given a further push to become even better (cant wait for the new stuff Lijit is bringing out in April).

So thats the juicy stuff. We geeks came to Austin, ate some BBQ and found some more interesting ways to work together. Some of us left with our laptops adorned with new laptop stickers, but we all left with new friends and business relationships.

See you in 2010!

Thats right. I am headed to SXSW.

I will be there from March 12 - March 18, and would love to meet up with everyone!

Want my contact info? Text micah to 50500. Not bringing cards. Follow me on twitter: @micah.

Want to see me speak? I mean on a specific topic? I am on a panel discussion entitled: Beyond Aggregation — Finding The Webs Best Content. I am joined by moderator Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb, Gabe Rivera of TechMeme, Louis Gray of the famous LouisGray.com and Melanie Baker of AideRSS.

It should be super interesting as we discuss how is good content found these days. After all, with 70 million blogs out there, how do you find the good stuff?

Im attending several parties, having several meetings (want to have one? Send me a tweet), and generally “doing SXSW right.”

SXSW, for me, is going to be an interesting time. A year ago, I was just getting into blogging and social media and working at Lijit, and learning about who was who and what was what. This year, I know a bit more, and know a *lot* more people.

I expect SXSW to be highly successful for Lijit and extremely fun for me.

Here are some articles I wrote after last year’s SXSW. I wonder what I will write after this one?

Wanna Know How to do SXSW? - I wrote about how a veteran transversed the halls of SXSW.

There Were Three Types of People at SXSW - My observations of SXSW 2008.

Here is a link to a lijit search of everything in my trusted network about SXSW. What a great way to discover new content, huh?

[I also posted this to my blog LearnToDuck.com. Mostly, because I am lazy. Have you seen Walter's rules? But what LTD readers wont see is that I will be bringing Lijit tshirts. Find me. I bet I have one for you.]