Search-Powered Web Apps

I tend to use the word “genius” lightly. However, when I first saw the Craftastrophe blog, that was exactly the word I used to describe it. Who doesn’t love seeing craft projects that have gone horribly wrong?

The idea behind the site is one of those amazing things that sounds good in theory, but is actually an out-of-the-park homerun when you see it in action. Whether it’s the knit hamburger dress, the stuffed log pillow, the recycled beer bottle wind chime, or the Barbie doll key bag necklace, you’re sure to be pleasantly surprised by how awfully wonderful these homemade treasures are. Reading this blog almost makes me want to try my hand at a craft project…if only to have something to submit.

When the women behind Craftastrophe installed Lijit AND agreed to be part of this profile, I was almost giddy. Listen to what the brains behind this masterpiece (Karen and Sam) have to say about their site.

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

Craftastrophe opened in November 2008, but Sam and I have been blogging separately since 1875, it seems. We each have personal blogs and we each own our own web design companies too. It’s a little nutty.

What has been the greatest thing you’ve gotten from blogging?

Friendships. Lifelong friendships based on relating to people as warped as us. That and cold, hard cash. (It was cold and hard because it’s pocket change, not bills.)

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

Karen: There are so many, but one of my favorites was this post (entitled I Don’t Care How Badly You Want to Save The Earth, There is NO EXCUSE for This Sort of Craft) simply because I found it SO ridiculous that anyone would want a bracelet made from a nasty ol’ toothbrush.

Sam: My favorite post has to be the disgusting pig head bra because seriously? That’s so warped and WRONG.

What are the top 3 things you recommend crafters never do and why?

Use doll parts, use animal parts, and use real human parts because nothing good can ever come from that. (Well, unless you’re us because those items bring GREAT traffic.)

How has Lijit helped you to become a better blog publisher?

The search function is handy, and the stats are comprehensive. Being the stats junkie that we are, they make us all hot and bothered to look at weekly. Seriously, we LOVE stats and having all this information in one place is practically orgasmic.

I sincerely thank both Karen and Sam for providing me with smiles and for taking the time to answer my questions. Be sure to follow them on Twitter and if you’re going to SXSW, cheer loudly for Craftastrophe as they accept their 2009 Bloggie for Best Art, Craft or Design Weblog. Keep those craft disasters coming!

It’s the question that everyone wonders about. Is anyone else using Lijit? And if so, what are they being searched for?

You now have access to that kind of information via the new Lijit Twitter account, Whos Lijit. (Don’t get us started on the missing apostrophe…we’re calling it twammer–grammar for Twitter.) The tweets are real-time searches that are being done on blogs with Lijit installed and the link included in the tweet takes you to the actual search results. Updated every 15 minutes, this new twitterstream provides a very interesting look into the world of Lijit’s publishers.

For example, there are some searches that make you wonder…”How does a golden gopher taste?”

Then there are the searches that make complete sense…

Some of the searches that you see in the tweetstream can make you hungry and provide inspiration for lunch…

Let’s not forget the searches that make you want to learn more about useful life skills...

Not to mention the searches that make you chuckle a little to yourself…

And of course, we can’t forget the searches done in Indonesia…

If we’ve piqued your interest, be sure to check out WhosLijit and have fun discovering new content. You’re welcome.

After our release last night, we’re proud to introduce a super-cool integration that allows you to see blog comments in your search results. If you’re using JS-Kit, Intense Debate, or Disqus, you’ll now see something different when doing a Lijit search.

For example, if you do a search on Guy Kawasaki’s blog for Twitter, this is what you’ll get…

Underneath the search result, you’ll see how many comments the post received and when you click on the link, you’ll get a preview of the first couple of comments. There is also a “View more comments” link that will show you all the comments on the post.

Why is comment integration important?

–People that write and read blogs are always interested in what others have to say.  One of the most valuable pieces of any blog is the comments section because it’s an excellent indicator of reader engagement and shows the conversation taking place around a topic. Lijit understands that and with this integration, give you the ability to judge a search result by checking out the comments before you click on the result.

–The integration of comments into search results is an important step forward in the integration of widgets and the content that BOTH publishers and readers find valuable. Lijit is proud to offer a unique search experience that is not available anywhere else.

–Lijit was founded on the notion of trust.  We recognize the critical importance of your social network in establishing and conveying trust.  This is yet another example of how Lijit uncovers more valuable information for publishers, readers and commenters alike.

We are proud of this new feature and want to know what you think. Leave us a comment with your feedback and enjoy the enhanced search functionality!

This past September, Lijit had the pleasure of attending Blog World and meeting many bloggers who were interested in our widget. One of the nicest guys to stop by our booth was Jay Christensen, who realized our value almost immediately and had lots of questions for us about how to install Lijit on his blogs. With his journalistic background and sharp sense of humor, Jay’s sports blogs (The Wiz of Odds and The March to Madness) do a wonderful job of entertaining and informing.

In addition to bringing his readers news of recent coaching changes, he also covers Bowl chances, recruiting practices, and what other reporters are talking about. All this AND a podcast? Fortunately, Jay was able to make some time in his schedule to answer a few of our questions and shed some light on his experiences blogging.

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

My blogging experience began in August 2005. Normal people don’t bring work home, but I’m not a normal person. I’m a journalist by trade and blogging was a natural extension to my skill set, so getting comfortable in front of the computer and pounding out a few paragraphs didn’t feel like work. Now that I look back on it, I realize what a fool I was.

My employer at the time was the Los Angeles Times and having worked at four newspapers–three of which had folded–I knew the business was on the decline. So my reasons for starting were part fun, part trying to figure out what the heck I wanted to do when I lost the gig at the Times, which eventually happened in July of 2008 during something called a “workforce reduction”.

• What has been the greatest thing you’ve gotten from blogging?

Working for myself and not somebody else. I get to make the decisions and then take on all the risks and get all the rewards. I’m still waiting for the awards, by the way. Is being interviewed by Lijit one of them?

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

I kept my identity a secret when I started blogging for fear my bosses could use it as a reason to cut me loose (conflict of interest or something like that). But the morning after I was laid off, I revealed my identity on the Wiz.

Best thing I ever did.

L.A. Observed, L.A. Business Journal, The Big Lead, Deadspin and Sports Journalists were just a few of the sites that linked to the post. I became the poster boy for the layoffs and the Wiz had instant street cred.

Yes, it’s true, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

• Since you write about sports, what are some of your favorite teams and why?

Because my sites–The Wiz of Odds and The March to Madness–deal with college football and basketball on a national scale, I’m not a fan of any team. My posts tend to be issue-driven and I try and take an analytical view of each sport. If that fails–usually the case–there is always the humorous approach. If that fails, then I’m out of luck.

• How has Lijit helped you as a blog publisher?

I stumbled on Lijit at BlogWorld in Las Vegas and couldn’t be happier. It was exactly what I was looking for: a customizable search engine that keeps people on the site. It’s fast, offers statistics and is integrating the ability to derive revenue from search results. You must give Lijit a try!

I’ve told countless friends about it and Jacqueline and Tara have always been there to answer my questions. Plus, the operations are based in Boulder, one of my favorite cities. How cool is that?

I appreciate Jay taking the time to answer our questions, for his continued support, and for the kind words. If you enjoy reading about college sports, I highly recommend that you give both of Jay’s blogs a look. With his indepth wisdom and reporting, you’ll have all the team knowledge you need to get you through the season!

(And to answer Jay’s question, yes, being interviewed by Lijit is one of the highest honors that any blogger can hope to accomplish.)

On our homepage, we have an area dedicated to what our publishers are saying about us. You may call them testimonials or publisher praise, but we call them totally awesome.

If you’d like to be featured on our homepage, you can submit your Lijit story to us here. In addition to our everlasting love, we’ll also send more readers to your blog AND you can sleep well knowing that you’ve helped out your favorite little search start-up. (No, not that one.)

Your story can be anything related to Lijit. Did our search help to bring you more readers? Is there a crazy keyword that people keep using to find your blog that you found out about via our stats? Whether it’s a tale of an unusual search term or an ode about how easy Lijit was to install on your blog, send it to us and we’ll share your story with others. We would greatly appreciate the help as would those folks who come to our homepage and have no idea how awesome we are! Thanks in advance…

If you’re looking to spice things up this season, why not coordinate the color of your search results with your widget? After last night’s release, we’ve made that possible. Now, if you are choosing to have your search results pop up over your blog, you can match the color of that box with your widget’s look.

If you didn’t already know, on the ’search wijit’ page within your Lijit account, you can choose how you want your search results to display. If you’ve chosen the ‘on my blog’ option from the drop-down menu, you’ll notice a new box previewing what your search results will look like…

If that’s not enough lovely eye candy, check out the customization options we’ve made available. You can choose your color palette and pick what color you want every aspect of your search box to be…

At this time, these options only exist for the slim, rectangular widget style, but we encourage you to have some fun and play around with different colors. Enjoy the more unified look of your search results and please let us know if you have any feedback around what we’ve done.

We are gearing up for our trip to Sin City later this week for the second annual Blog World Expo. To prepare, we started looking at the agenda of speakers and were pleasantly surprised to find so many that use the Lijit widget on their blogs. We knew that the following folks are smart (you have to be to qualify as a Blog World speaker), but seeing Lijit on their blogs makes them even smarter…

Nic Adler
Doyle Albee
Stowe Boyd
Chris Brogan
John Chow
Brian Clark
Jason Falls
Louis Gray
Daniel Ha
Tris Hussey
Guy Kawasaki
Paul Kedrosky
Jim Kukral
Howard Lindzon
Jake McKee
Scott Monty
Jeremy Pepper
Darren Rowse
Jennifer Satterwhite
Jeremy Schoemaker
Robert Scoble
Brian Solis
Dave Taylor
Robyn Tippins
Jim Turner
Erin Kotecki Vest
Denise Wakeman
Des Walsh

We’re looking forward to hearing the wisdom these speakers have to share and maybe, just maybe, giving them t-shirts!

Update: One of our favorite ladies, Wendy Piersall, was inadvertently left off the list. Sorry about that…

We released some new features last night and in order to take advantage of the improved functionality, you need to know about it. Away we go!

Invitations. You don’t have to make them by hand, fortunately, but you now have the ability to invite friends to join your searchable network within Lijit. From your Lijit ‘account’ page, you’ll see a new section underneath your account information. Click on the link under the header ‘Invite your Friends’ and you’ll get to the page that allows you to manually enter email addresses or import them from the contacts in your address book. (Don’t worry…we’re tied in with many email services!)

If your friends already have Lijit accounts, they will be automatically added into your network upon accepting the invite. (And if they don’t have Lijit accounts, they will be added in once they set up their account!)

New Re-Search options. In the past, if you wanted to utilize Re-Search on your blog, you only had the option of displaying results on top of your widget or at the top of your blog. We are proud to announce that you can now show that Re-Search goodness either above or BELOW your content. So, if someone comes to your blog through a Google or Yahoo search, they will get even more of your related content with the blog post. Using Re-Search allows random searchers to stay on your blog longer and to allow them to discover even more of your knowledge!

For example, if you do a Google search for ‘winamp itunes plugin’, the first result you get is a blog post from Daniel, one of Lijit’s finest. If you click on that result, you’ll be taken to his blog where you’re met with even more of his content, easily found underneath his blog post…

To change your Re-Search settings, simply log into your Lijit account and click on the ’search wijit’ tab. Scroll down to where you see Re-Search listed and pick your option out of the drop-down menu. Remember to save your new wijit settings!

Better integration with Vimeo and Viddler. We’re now serving up thumbnails from your Vimeo and Viddler content, meaning that searchers can now watch videos from within your search results. What could be cooler than a more multimedia approach to search results?

For example, if you search for Boulder on my blog, you’ll now see this doozy in the results from my content…

More robust search results. With the release last night, you’ll begin to see better search results from content sources like Flickr, Twitter, Delicious, YouTube, Tumblr, and MyBlogLog.

Please let us know what you think of the new additions and send your feedback our way. We love hearing from our publishers and it’s important to know what YOU think about what we’re doing.

[Photo credit: zakwitnij via CC license]

After a lot of work, we are proud to introduce something new for our WordPress.org users. If you like the Lijit search and want it to be integrated on your site in a more, how shall we put it, hijacked fashion, then this plugin is for you.

As everyone knows, you can currently install the Lijit widget on your blog in the traditional, add-the-code-to-your-sidebar kind of way. But now, with this new Wordpress plugin, you can keep the current search bar you have on your WordPress blog, but have Lijit power the search results. It’s like magic.

It looks like a normal search bar, but when you do a search, BAM! Search results brought to you courtesy of Lijit.

Like any other Wordpress plugin, you can find the Lijit Search (version 1.0) in the plugin directory. Or HERE.

Once you download the widget, simply log into your WordPress dashboard, go to the plugin page and activate it. Upon activation, you get to choose whether you want to use your existing Lijit account or you can create a new one inside the WordPress admin console.

You can also choose between the classic widget install option OR hijack the existing WordPress search box and make it Lijit-enabled.

But wait! That’s not all. We’ve also included another super-cool feature…integrated statistics. You love the stats that Lijit gives and now you can see those from the comfort of your WordPress dashboard. Simply click on your Lijit stats and you’ll see all that detailed goodness, telling you exactly what you need in order to keep your readers happy.

Many of you asked for a better way to integrate Lijit search on your WordPress blog and here it is. With a cleaner and tighter feel, Lijit and Wordpress.org are playing even better together than ever.

***This plug-in is only available for those WordPress users with versions 2.3-2.6.***

We would like to thank the great team at Crowd Favorite for helping us to make this happen. And by all means, let us know what you think of the plugin. We think it rocks, but are more excited to hear your thoughts.

Happy hijacking!