“Oh, you are the social search guys.”

“Um, no, we are not social search. We are trusted search.”

“Whats that?”

Social search is often defined as search results that are improved by the input of the community. Chris Sherman, of SearchEngineWatch, writes a great article (albeit a bit dated) about social search and its importance. Even Marissa Mayer of Google, talks about the importance of social search. Mashable, about a year ago, listed about 40 social search engines.

Given all the buzz around social search engines, why do I make the differentiation?

Lijit is focused on providing great results, not from the interaction of the community, but as defined by the publisher. In addition, Lijit is not a destination website, while most search engines, including social search engines are.

Instead, Lijit allows the publisher to be the center of their universe.

The two specific ways that occurs:

First:

Algorithmic and social search engines attempt to index all digital information, and either programmatically or through a community effort, provide relevant and quality results.

Therefore, the assumption is that the indexed content is not trusted, and either needs to have a technical or “cloud” solution applied to them so they can “earn” the right to be included.

Lijit takes the opposite approach. Because its the publisher’s defined content, and the search results are centered around that publisher, the assumption is that the publisher and his created content is trustworthy, and should be included in the results.  The content “earns” its place in the index by default.

Second:

Algorithmic and social search engines are constantly consuming content. Google, for example, considers it their mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Most destination search engines take on a similar mission to Google.

Instead, Lijit believes in the concept of the Social Media Starfish.

Lijit is built on the concept that you are at the center of all the content you create online, and that if someone comes to your publication and does a search, the publisher provides context and trust, and the results should reflect that.

In essence, the publisher’s online brand becomes searchable.

image used by permission. Darren Barefoot of Getting to First Base.

Take my blog as an example.

If you do a search (using the default Lijit widget) on my blog for “billie,” I provide the context, and you will see posts, Flickr pictures and YouTube/Viddler/Vimeo videos of my dog.  The fact that I have dogs, and am a bit obsessed with them, is part of my online brand, and is evident in the Lijit results.

You want a more useful example?

Do a search (he has integrated Lijit into his TypePad default search box) at Fred Wilson’s blog for “kozmo” a famous internet company from the “dot com bubble” of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

In the returned results you get this post entitled Web Services The Cater To Both The Publisher And The Reader (while Lijit isnt really a web service, I do think we focus on providing a service to publishers that help both them and their readers), you get two great flickr photos of Kozmo swag, and in Fred’s network section a fantastic photo of Seth Goldstein with Lee Majors (who was in the first Kozmo commercial. Lee Majors, not Seth Goldstein).

In both cases, the reader learns more about the publisher.  The level of trust the reader has for the publisher’s content and trusted network grows, as does the publishers online brand.

In this case, I favorited pictures of the Kozmo swag and Seth & Lee (since I worked there in 2000 in San Diego), and friended both Fred and Seth on Flickr.

By allowing the publisher to be the center of his universe, Lijit allows four things to occur:

1. More relevant results;
2. The reader learns more about the publisher because he is discovering all of his generated content; this, in turn, allows the reader to
3. Completely trust the results; and
4. Discover and trust content that he would not have found using algorithmic or social search engines (case in point the Seth & Lee photo).

For the publisher, being the center of your universe allows you to better engage your readers, by providing them more relevant and trusted content. (Not to mention the search specific stats Lijit provides publishers.)

As a publisher that spends a lot of time and care on the content I create (I know, the surprise is overwhelming) and the personal brand I am building, it is important to have tools that support that effort.  I think thats why I run business development at Lijit versus a social or algorithmic search provider.

Or, it could be that I just like being the center of my universe.

Armed with the popular Lijit swag of small laptop stickers and uber comfortable t-shirts, we decided that we needed something more. We wanted to provide even more value and functionality to the bloggers attending the conference, so we decided to help people clean up their search. And their hands. (Don’t forget what a dirty city Vegas is…)

Besides spreading the joy of hand-sanitizing, we also helped to spread the word of our search. The beauty of Blog World is that everyone there is passionate about what they’re doing, so from wine bloggers to mommy bloggers, we had the chance to talk to people about what they love doing and to show them how Lijit can make them even better at it.

In addition to hearing feedback from blog publishers already using Lijit (big thank-you!), we also had the chance to convert some new publishers to our search goodness. Welcome…

Quickrelease.tv
Volleyball Voices
Vino Las Vegas
MoneyNing
Frugal Upstate
John Hawkins Unrated
Don Nozzle
The Wiz of Odds
Money Making Scoop

While we didn’t have much time to walk around the trade show floor, there were a few companies that caught our eye, including MindTouch, Zemanta, Woopra, JS-Kit, Photrade, ContentRobot, and BlogCatalog. This represents just a small sampling of the many Blog World exhibitors present and we only wish there had been more time to find out about all the companies in attendance.

We loved having the chance to co-sponsor some giveaways with b5media, because they are always such a fun group to be around. In addition to the poker chips they were handing out for the game in their booth, we got to see some of our favorite b5 bloggers, like Mary Jo…

Lijit was mentioned in a few other Blog World recaps. John Andrews, Senior Marketing Manager for Walmart, was impressed with us (as you can see in this video clip) and we sold Ben Koo on the up-and-coming Boulder tech scene. David called us some of his favorite naggers, which he meant as a compliment (I believe) and Carlton liked our Purell swag so much, he blogged about it. Additionally, Lijit captured Greta’s interest and managed to make an impression on Karen again this year.

The entire Lijit team worked hard while at Blog World and must thank all those who stopped by our booth to say hello! We appreciate your interest and support in making this year’s Blog World an even bigger success than last year. See you in Vegas next year!

[photo credit: carltonreid]

Two weeks ago, I flew out to sunny California to attend Yahoo! Open Hack Day, an interesting developer event periodically held by Yahoo!. Attendees get access during the event to up-and-coming APIs (and other technology) in development at Yahoo!, and are given a challenge to create a mashup or other interesting hack and demo it at the end of the event. You can find information about the hacks that were demoed at the hack day blog.

If you’ve never been to the Yahoo! Sunnyvale campus, you probably won’t know quite what to think, as it’s filled with purple carpet, exclamation points on the walls, and emoticons everywhere. It’s interesting to see a very large corporation try to promote a youthful and exuberant appearance at a corporate headquarters with security guards, a cafeteria, fountains, volleyball courts, outside dining, and multiple buildings. I arrived Friday morning and was also surprised at how organized the event was; after entering, I was always greeted with friendly faces willing and able to help me find what I needed.

The theme of the weekend was APIs and openness. First, I’m happy to see that Yahoo! is getting behind OAuth, an open standard for API authentication. I wish everyone supported this simple mechanism (*cough* Facebook *cough*), as the various APIs offered by services out there desperately need to settle on a single, well-understood mechanism for allowing users to grant access to private data.

The second most exciting thing demoed (for me) that weekend was YQL, which will be a single URL that takes a SQL-like query and returns data from many Yahoo! services–like Flickr, mybloglog, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Mail, and others. Currently, each of these services has a different API and a different authentication mechanism, which means that supporting them is a pain. Having one mechanism for authenticating to the Yahoo! API (OAuth) and for querying any data within it will greatly simplify the code base we use here to interface with external services.

Next was Yahoo! BOSS, a search API. Many services (like Google and even Yahoo!, using yet another API) expose search services to external users, but BOSS is special. The problems with all the major existing APIs out there is draconian usage restrictions. Many of them, for example, don’t allow you to:

• Reorder search results
• Change the display of search results
• Use the API more than a certain (low) number of times per day
• Inject advertising of your own into search results

This is a mistake: allowing services to use your search data in unique and interesting ways is a win-win for the service and the search provider. With BOSS, on the other hand:

“BOSS (Build your Own Search Service) is different–it’s a truly open API with as few rules and limitations as possible. With BOSS, developers and startups now have the technology and infrastructure to build next generation search solutions that can compete head-to-head with the principals in the search industry. BOSS will grow and evolve with a focus on providing additional functionality, tools, and data for developers.”

I attended an excellent presentation by Vik Singh, a member of the BOSS team, on some example usage. He’s also developed a very cool Python library called the BOSS Mashup Framework that lets you whip up interesting mashups using Yahoo! Search with simple, elegant code. If you’re a developer and into this stuff, you definitely should check things out.

Perhaps most importantly, the weekend made me think about APIs that Lijit wants to offer (or could offer) to the outside world. We have access to a lot of interesting and unique data here, and I’ve seen more than a few startups that would benefit by having access to the work we’ve done. Look for more on this in the future, but I think providing access to Lijit’s data via a set of APIs could produce some very interesting mashups, and help Lijit grow in cool and unique ways.

[Photos found on Flickr and used via CC license: freshelectrons, Jinho.Jung, and bluesmoon]

Our service is a unique and powerful offering that Publishers utilize to aggregate their online content making it searchable, and thus increasing engagement between publishers and their readers in a real and measurable way.

Lijit is always open to feedback, comments, and suggestions for improvement.  It’s for these reasons that we were surprised and dismayed by the actions of a former Lijit employee, Mr. Barney Moran and P.U.B., a for-profit entity we understand is owned and controlled by Mr. Moran.

Mr. Barney Moran worked for Lijit for approximately 7 months, starting in late 2007. Mr. Moran’s employment was terminated by Lijit on March 3^rd, 2008.

Shortly after Lijit terminated his employment, on behalf of P.U.B., Mr. Moran sent a lengthy questionnaire to our COO requesting detailed and confidential internal financial information.  Given the confidential nature of the financial data requested and the unusual nature of such a request, we attempted to further identify the nature and legitimacy of P.U.B. We were only able to find a one page web site with a single post referencing only Lijit.

Shortly thereafter, Mr. Moran began posting comments on publishers’ sites that mentioned Lijit.  Mr. Moran largely posts a canned statement drawing into question Lijit’s business practices and data gathering motivations.  It is our belief that these comments are designed to create an air of concern or mistrust around the delivery of our service or the use of private data from our publisher’s sites.

Data collected by Lijit is constantly and in real-time fed back to publishers in their analytics dashboards, and in fact, is a significant value proposition to the publishers themselves.  Our privacy policy, publisher agreement and terms of use available online from our site clearly address issues Mr. Moran calls into question.  From time to time we update these policies to reduce ambiguity and we strive for complete clarity in regards to our service. We monitor best practices in the industry and believe our practices are consistent with these practices.

Recently, we received an unsolicited email from Mr. Moran, sent to our CEO that requested a large sum of money as well as shares of Lijit capital stock.  In this email Mr. Moran states:

“I’m prepared to sell P.U.B. for $25K and 4,000 undiluted shares of Lijit at this time. I am in process securing a TradeMark for P.U.B., and have press releases and marketing spots for P.U.B. scheduled to begin appearing in September. When the trademark is secured and the marketing starts for P.U.B., the valuation of P.U.B.  will be higher.”

In a separate phone call with our CEO, Mr. Moran indicated that if Lijit were to purchase P.U.B., Mr. Moran would no longer work for P.U.B. or make references to Lijit.

Given these facts, we are asking the same questions you may be asking yourself. If P.U.B. is indeed a union that intends to serve the best interests of publishers, why has it sought to target only Lijit? If it is a “public watchdog” why is it a “for profit” entity and why would it be for sale to Lijit? Why would Mr. Moran want to own equity through the sale of P.U.B. in a company that provides a service that he has recommended publishers not install?

We do not intend to purchase Mr. Moran’s company. We have considered taking legal action against Mr. Moran, and we continue to hold this out as an option. In any case, we intend to provide publishers with the best service we can and be responsive to our loyal user base.

As always, please send us any feedback or comments to: info at lijit dot com.

There are plenty of reasons, BlogHer’s mission, the number of BlogHer bloggers that I have met personally and respect, even the ability to not speak for two days during the BlogHer conference, but the truth is, I am excited about BlogHer because it so closely matches the mission of Lijit.

We aim to bring trust to search.

Can you trust standard search engines, of course you can. Mostly. Some of the results are spammy. We know that, and we deal with that. Sometimes you dont find what you are looking for because the search engines have deemed the content inappropriate to include in their index.

Lijit takes the opposite approach. BlogHer has identified more than 2,000 publishers that write on many varied topics, but that are all trustworthy. We trust BlogHer and therefore have included all of those publishers’ content in the Lijit index.

That way, when you go to BlogHer.com and perform a network search, you will discover publishers whose content you can trust. You may have never heard of the blogger, but more often than not, you will find a publisher that you will probably continue to read over and over.

For example, if you do the search “gluten free” on the BlogHer.com Network, the first result is Gluten Free Mommy (imagine that!) talking about gluten free recipes. The same search on Google returns GlutenFree.com, a shopping site, which really provides very little information about gluten free diets. Which would you rather read? I know which one I would return to.

We are very excited to welcome BlogHer to the Lijit family, and look forward to the continued growth of our relationship.

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…

Not to gamble all of our new funding, but to attend the second annual Blog World Expo. We were there for the first one last year (in fact, it was our first time having a booth at a BIG show) and had so much fun talking to bloggers that we had to make plans to return this year.

There will be some changes to the Lijit booth this year. Now that we’re not a baby startup anymore, we have to kick things up a notch. There will be a new booth design and some new faces.

This also means that if you’re heading to Vegas with the desire to be turned into a widget, like this guy…

You’re out of luck. Our homemade widget will not be making the trip to Vegas with us. But we will have lots of Lijit swag, including shirts, stickers, and a little something-something to help you clean up your current search. Guess you’ll have to stop by our booth to find out more!

In addition, our VP of Business Development, Micah, will be moderating a panel on Widgetizing your blog for Profit, so if that sounds like something you might want to hear about, don’t miss this informative session.

And if you’re heading to Vegas next week, let us know. We’re excited to see friends from last year as well as to meet new publishers who have yet to discover our search goodness. Be sure to say hi and go “all in” for us, mmmkay?

You can read more about our exploits at the Blog World Expo last year in my four-part series, which isn’t nearly as long and tedious as it sounds…

Part One: Lijit Users

Part Two: Lijit Wijits

Part Three: The Players

Part Four: The Miscellaneous

A short time ago, colleagues, friends, and family told me I was crazy for even thinking about working for a start-up company where nothing is ever certain. But growing up, I was always told, “You’ll never know until you try”.

So I tried, and two start-ups later, look at where I landed!

The intrigue, adrenaline rush, and personal satisfaction of working for a start-up far outweigh any disadvantages there may be. Here at Lijit, the people really make this place go. I knew it from the moment I was told that Lijit was looking to build their QA team and the Software Engineers were driving the need. Could such a place really exist, where Software Engineers and QA Engineers work in tandem to get software to the market? Why, yes it can!

There is a core group of folks here that have successfully worked together at other companies. They provide a solid foundation for Lijit. Combine these folks with the rest of us and we all bring life and career experience into a collaborative environment where we take pride in reaching for and obtaining the same goal–getting it done quickly and getting it done to a great degree of publisher and investor satisfaction. How and when we get it done can be both challenging and exhilarating but well worth the effort.

We are continuously in motion to improve upon and formalize the processes that work well for us as well as being open to processes and procedures that will help us continue to improve and grow.

A few weeks ago, Lijit went on a field trip (sans parental permission slips) to the Democratic National Convention. It was an opportunity to witness history in the making in Denver. History always transcends politics and we saw that firsthand. Generational and racial barriers fell to the side as people from all walks of life embraced themes portrayed throughout Obama’s campaign. It was inspiring to see.

A call to action within the Democratic Party was interpreted through an artistic lens at the “Manifest Hope Gallery.” The gallery was comprised of contemporary political art, with its star, none other than Senator Obama. Talented artists from around the country used their art as a voice in order to amplify and motivate the grassroots movement surrounding the Obama campaign. Progressive politics through art captured the core values of Obama’s campaign, “hope, progress, change, unity, and patriotism.” The art displayed has made a huge impact in the visibility of the Obama campaign.

Walking around the gallery provided a personal sense of patriotism. Collectively and individually each piece of art addressed the current challenges and struggles felt under the Bush administration, and how Senator Obama will bring about the change that is so desperately needed. The artwork captured strength, power, and intelligence as the brush, paint, and artist worked together to give Senator Obama a place on the canvas. Portrayed as an iconic symbol, it truly is an Obama nation.

As the end of the day drew near and things ended, the Lijit team headed home. Lijit has publishers from all different walks of life with different political beliefs. Today, we were lucky enough to meet and speak with some of our publishers. They expressed their opinion of the candidates and the issues important to them in this election. Separated from Denver by thirty miles, Lijit felt extremely fortunate to be a part of the Democratic National Convention and represent not blue or red but, our own color, Lijit green.

**As with all of our guest posts, Jacqueline’s views are her own and do not necessarily represent those of the entire company.

]]> http://www.lijit.com/blog/2008/09/08/lijit-goes-to-the-dnc/feed/ http://www.lijit.com/blog/2008/09/08/lijit-goes-to-the-dnc/ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/lijit/GbIC/~3/383432921/ http://www.lijit.com/blog/2008/09/04/invite-your-friends-to-be-lijit/#comments Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:37:40 +0000 Tarable http://www.lijit.com/blog/?p=333 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]

Lijit was fortunate enough to be one of the sponsors of a fantastic party that took place last Thursday, on the closing night of the DNC in downtown Denver. The Rocky Mountain Blogger Bash aimed to bring bloggers from the area together to talk about one of our shared passions: blogging. Regardless of political viewpoint, bloggers from all over Colorado (along with many out-of-town bloggers in Denver for the convention) gathered to watch Obama’s speech, eat, drink, and exchange URLs.

Since bloggers are our people, it made sense that Lijit was there. We had the opportunity to meet many publishers already using our widget and the chance to explain what we do to others. Our Lijit t-shirts and stickers were a big hit with all attendees, as were the free drinks that our sponsorship provided.

Our new friends include: Amber of Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck, Heather of A Mama’s Blog, Laura of LaLaGirl, Amy of Crunchy Domestic Goddess, Melissa of Nature Deva, Aviva of Parentopia, The Crunchy Green Mom, Hubs of Artifacting, Rosie of Rosalicious, Tessa and Michael of My Left Nutmeg, and Kath of A Likely Story.

In addition, many bloggers from the Denver/Boulder tech community showed up to attend their FIRST ever Rocky Mountain Blogger Bash, including: Aimee of Greeblemonkey and her awesome husband Bryan, Julie of mothergoosemouse, Geekmommy, Jeremy Tanner, Dave Taylor of Ask Dave Taylor, Robin from CopyDiva, Gerhard and Kary of Fling it Girl, Kit Seeborg, and the fabulous Deb in Denver.

And let’s not forget the old pals from past Blogger Bashes: Molly, Wheels, Left off Colfax, and Andy of The World Wide Rant (pictured above) who, unfortunately, is no longer blogging.

A big thanks to the organizers of this fantastic RMBB: Mr. Lady and Zombyboy, who pulled off a great event on what some called “a crazy day to have a party in downtown Denver”.

You can read other recaps of the event here, here, here, and here.

Jill writes a food blog about eating gluten-free, Hey, that tastes good!, and as soon as I saw that she had a recipe for making marshmallows from scratch, I was hooked. In addition to beautiful photography, Jill posts gluten-free product reviews, recommendations for gluten-free restaurants in both Europe and America, and instructions on how to make her favorite rice flour mix. And don’t even get me started on the recipes: jalapeno poppers, pizza, spring rolls, and, my favorite, chocolate overload cookies.

(Plus, she has a cupcake tattoo on her foot. Can you argue with that?)

When I saw her on the recent sign-up list, I wanted to know more about Jill and her passion for food blogging. She was kind enough to take time out from her cooking adventures to answer some questions I had for her.

How long have you been blogging and what got you started?

I started my food blog 2 years ago. Originally I started it because I was bored at work all day (although I couldn’t access the blogger page from my work computer, I could type posts at work and then post them when I got home) and because I was relatively new to being gluten-free. It was around then that I figured out how to bake/cook a lot of things that I’d had pre-gluten-free that I missed, and I had been calling my mom (who is also gluten-free) every day to tell her what I was eating because I was so excited. I stumbled upon a few other gluten-free blogs, and decided that was a good way to share with my mom what I ate, and anyone else who might be interested.

What’s the greatest thing you’ve received or the best lesson learned from blogging?

I think the greatest thing I’ve received are comments from people who say thank you for the recipes I post, that they never thought they would be able to taste whatever it was I was writing about again. Getting a comment like that makes me feel that I’m helping people realize that being gluten-free isn’t terrible, it’s just a different approach to thinking about your food. It’s a challenge!

I know it’s a hard question to answer, but do you have a favorite post?

I think maybe my Thanksgiving post from last year. It was the first year I hosted a Thanksgiving party, and my sister, my roommate and I did all the cooking ourselves. Everything was gluten-free, except for some bread that we got for cheese and pates. My sister did the photography, it has a number of recipes, and I think it really captured the spirit of the party.

What tips do you have for people looking to go gluten-free?

First, and most important, DON’T PANIC. Don’t spend a lot of time dwelling over the things you can’t eat anymore (I’ll never have pizza! I’ll never have cake! I’ll never have lasagna!) and instead think about the things you eat every day that you can still eat. Fruits, vegetables, meats, and many grains are naturally gluten-free.

Also, don’t settle for something you don’t like. If you buy a loaf of gluten-free bread that’s gross (and chances are you will), grind it up in the food processor and use it for bread crumbs, and don’t buy it again. Read gluten-free blogs (I have a big list on the side of my site) and get a good gluten-free cookbook or two. Read the introduction, most have a chapter or two about how to be gluten-free, and tips, and flour mixes and ideas. Also, read Shauna’s book. And, contact me or any other gf blogger, we’re (probably) happy to help.

How has Lijit helped you as a food blogger?

I’m new to Lijit, but hopefully it will give me a sense of what people are interested in so I can focus more on those topics (or ingredients!)

I appreciate all the hard work that Jill puts into her blog and the fact that she has chosen Lijit as her trusted search tool. Be sure to visit Jill’s blog to find out more about eating gluten-free and to read about her delicious kitchen experiences!

[All photos are from Jill's blog.]

We are excited to be one of the sponsors for the upcoming Rocky Mountain Blogger Bash, taking place on Thursday, next week in downtown Denver. In addition to having the usual suspects gang of bloggers from the area, because of a certain little event that will be taking place at the same time (ahem, the DNC, cough, cough), there will be MANY more bloggers in attendance that night. The response from attendees has been overwhelming and it’s shaping up to be a bash to remember.

If you’re interested in joining us, you can find out more details and RSVP here.

And if you’re worried about missing Obama’s speech, don’t. The RMBB has reserved the only room in the bar with a TV.

Finally, if thinking about the parking in Denver stresses you out, don’t. (As in don’t even think of driving!) The organizers of the RMBB have put together a useful guide to help you navigate Denver’s public transport system.

We look forward to seeing you in the Mile High city and yes, there will be many comfy Lijit t-shirts at the party as well. So, whatever your political leanings, remember that this party is for the bloggers, by the bloggers, and booze has no party affiliations.

Big thanks to the organizers, Shannon and David, for making this happen and thinking of Lijit as a worthy sponsor. (Funny that they asked around the same time we got our recent funding…)

**The RMBB numbering scheme is as mysterious as the recent sightings of Sasquatch. Less hairy, but still unexplainable.

Once the gauntlet was thrown, there was no looking back. Micah pulled off a friendly competition that brought together all those with big appetites in the local tech community. 12 guys showed up to compete and after deciding on the rules together, the contest began. But not before the spectators put their predictions in for who they thought would win. Jenny from Boston thought that Danny Newman was the one to pick, mainly based on the fact that he came dressed to play…

Brad Feld was honest when he said that he would stop eating when he was full…because Amy, his wife, told him to and we all know what a good husband he is. (Additionally, Brad kept making the competition harder by adding in his own rules, like drinking a beer between each round and attempting push-ups as well.)

Spectators took turn ordering the rounds of sushi so that the competitors didn’t have any unfair advantages. The first few rounds were easy, but the sushi got progressively worse as the night wore on. Plates of the hard stuff (quail eggs, smelt roe, fermented soybean, and the like) began appearing in the later rounds, knocking out weak-stomached competitors along the way.

After 14 rounds of sushi, one competitor puking, and many others looking like they were going to puke, the first Sushi Regurge champion was crowned. To the surprise of no one, the same guy who organized the entire event (and talked the most trash) was the one who was left standing at the end of it all.

Many thanks to the employees of Hapa, who put up with our screaming and cheering, and to everyone who showed up to support the competitors. And of course, thanks to Micah…

without whom, none of this disgusting gorging would be possible. Thanks for pulling it together, calling everyone out, and putting your best stomach forward! We look forward to another equally unappetizing gathering like this again next year.

This Wednesday, Frank Gruber and Eric Olson bring their traveling techie road show to Boulder for a second appearance. If you’ve never been to a TECH cocktail before, you’re in for an evening of fun. Imagine a bunch of tech enthusiasts, VCs, bloggers, and entrepreneurs drinking together, watching demos, and sending the geek quotient of the Boulder Theater through the roof. Yes, it really is that good. (And I’m not just saying that because Lijit is a sponsor…)

• Where? The esteemed Boulder Theater
• When? August 20th, from 6:30-9:00 PM (although the TC site says that it’s taking place EST, I wouldn’t bet on that, or we’re all going to be early…)
• Why? Duh…because geeks and beer are a great combination.
• How much? Totally free, but you must RSVP

Last time the boys brought the show to town, we found out that as a sponsor, Lijit was supposed to be one of the demos. We hadn’t really thought about that and, at the last moment, grabbed our homemade widget to bring with us to the party. People loved being turned into widgets, as Frank Gruber can attest…

While we’re not sure if the widget will make an appearance this time, the TechStars are coming out to play and they will be demoing their wares. TECH cocktail will be the conclusion to their day-long investor presentations, so you can imagine the relief these teams will be feeling. The TechStars have been working hard all summer and honestly…the least you can do is to come out and support your local tech community by drinking some beer. Is that too much to ask?

In conclusion…

What more could you want? (Unfortunately, due to the limited supply of Lychee liqueur, there will probably NOT be any Lijitos made at this event.) You can RSVP here and we hope to see you on Wednesday night!

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!

As you may know, Lijit recently received 7.1 million dollars in venture capital funding. This means different things to different people. To the investors, it means they see promise in the company and are willing to take a calculated risk. To the executives, it’s a significant milestone in building a successful company. To the employees, it means we still have jobs, and it keeps alive the stock-option dream. But to the engineering team, it signifies a new phase.

Prior to this, Lijit has been a true startup. Everybody has worn multiple hats: the VP of Engineering does systems administration, the senior architect does configuration management, and everybody doubles as the QA team. This early phase can be very exciting and very satisfying. You get to do a little bit of everything, and the urgency to ‘just get it done’ means that you’re rarely constrained by bureaucracy or red tape. But it’s also a difficult time. Everybody is overworked, you often have to do tasks outside of your comfort zone, priorities and direction can change daily, and progress is often constricted by a lack of resources.

I only joined Lijit a few months ago, so I missed a lot of the early pains. But I got here in time to experience some of it, and I worked with many of the Lijit staff at a previous gig where we went through all these phases.

With the funding, it all begins to change. From an engineering perspective, this can be a very exciting time. In the past couple of months we’ve hired a QA team, built a dedicated Test Environment which mirrors the production system, and instituted a bug tracking process. We’ve brought additional developers on board with specialized skillsets, and organized into teams dedicated to each of our primary products (website, search platform, adserving platform). Not only have we built a talented IT team, we’re hiring a configuration management engineer. We’re adopting agile development methods, and we’re building a product roadmap and release timeline that give us direction months into the future. Across the board, we’re transitioning from a small team with limited process to a larger, more specialized team, with greater resources, and naturally, more process.

If we do this right, we become a more productive and higher quality organization which can quickly respond to business needs. If we do it wrong, we can become mired in process and overhead.

And that, really, is the exciting part–we get to define ‘doing this right’. The trick is to integrate these processes and resources while still remaining nimble. We get to pick and choose the parts that make sense. If it doesn’t make sense, if it doesn’t make us faster and improve our quality, then we don’t do it. It’s easy to get bogged down in all this stuff. But we won’t because we’ve been here before.

Photo credit: noahwesley

Then, almost like magic, an incredible publisher signed up – that, at the time, was HUGE.  I remember thinking, what a blue bird.  But how are we going to make the February numbers!  Well, we did make the February numbers and every month between then and now.

As a result of our success we decided to pour more gasoline on the fire.  Now we have a genuine Burning Man going on here.

Thanks to Foundry Group, who led our investment round.  If you’re going to do something in the online publisher space, get these guys onboard.  Nuff said.  In fact, all our investors are amazingly supportive and at one time or another have been instrumental in building what we are doing.

Lookout, there is no stopping us now.

Sure, that sounds too much like a box of chocolates, but, well, nobody would ever accuse me of being original.

1. The more skill you have, the more fun you have. The more challenging a trail, the more satisfying it is. If search was easy, it wouldn’t be fun.
2. You don’t always know *exactly* where you’re going.
3. Sometimes there are crashes, and you have to fix your bike or the web servers:
4. You have to keep moving and be able to improvise to get through the most difficult bits.
5. You have to suck it up for some long, brutal climbs sometimes.
6. Beer is good at the end of the day.

I’ve been riding seriously for 7 or 8 years or so, and over the years have fallen in with a group of people that are great riders, and great friends. We all ride regularly and go on weekend trips together, with different combinations of people every time. I’m not the best rider in the group, but we all like the same kind of difficulty, and are willing to work on the technical sections until we ride them clean.

I’ve known some of the people at Lijit for 15 years. These are among the most technically competent people I’ve ever worked with. We’ve worked together for a variety of different companies, in different product domains and different combinations. We all like to have a tough problem that’s worth solving, and are willing to work on it until we get it done.

That is why I ride with those guys, and that’s why I’m at Lijit.

Sure, that’s a pretty short post, but, well, nobody would ever accuse me of being too vocal. And beer is good at the end of the day.

In the world of destination search, Google pretty much owns the show. It’s not impossible for that to change as witnessed by Google’s own rise. The latest contender in destination search is Cuil. I tried a few searches and had really good results. Others, not so much.

I had to chuckle at the Cuil results for a search for “Lijit”.

Cuil seems to lead with the Wikipedia definition of things (as do many other destination search engines – much to Google’s consternation). In our case the top result is the Wikipedia page Stan made about us a long time ago. (An aside: Now, I’m pretty sure we are the most knowledgeable people about “lijit” but Wikipedia outwardly dogs our entry as being a “conflict of interest” regarding this subject matter. It seems to me that requiring people less knowledgeable to be involved is a conflict of interest with regards to Wikipedia).

Anyway, where I was going here are the images. I kind of like the tabloid presentation of things but where did these images come from?

Apparently the best match images of “Lijit” is of a tire company logo, a boat of some type, a “buy now” button (our service is free), and my favorite a guy sniffing glue.

Search is hard..