MYBLOG by Ouriel

Seesmic-ed

We just hit a comment record both text and video on TechCrunch France thanks to an operation i called "Killer Startup" which was about posting a 30 sec video about an internet startup idea (serious or not). More than 220 comments including 65 videos. Seesmic the partner of the operation is mentioning it today in their daily show. See below

Engagement is to me the most important form of reward as a blogger. A blog that does not engage is not really a blog. A post should provoke a reaction. A rating, a comment, an email, a trackback, a video comment,...whatever.

Silence means either that that you don't have readers (not very rare), that it is boring (not very rare), that it is not written adequately and that readers do not perceive the necessity of a conversation (not rare). It can also mean your blog post is so perfect it does not need more (extremely unlikely)

Technorati Tags: blog conversation videos comments reaction engagement

ScribeFire little imperfection

I use more and more ScribeFire for blogging here. it has 3 small problems missing for me

• there is not possibility to do a copy paste of a picture or video from the browser to ScribeFire, which should be possible since ScribeFire is part of Firefox. This is forcing me to find the link location of the picture and add it to the editor which is not long but requires too many clicks (or worse, saving the picture on my computer and then add it to the post)
• Flickr and Youtube integration is not really useful as it does not tap in my account but just offers a general search. In addition i would like to have the possibility to type and save the default size of the pictures/videos i add in. Right now this has to be manual drag and drop resizing.
  
• If you want to modify a post you already published the process is confusing. DO NOT make the modification from the open windows of the post you just write and press "Publish to YOUR BLOG". If you do that it will publish you post a second time... Instead you need to go to "Entries" select the post you just published and then "Publish as edit".

ScribeFire is getting better every day. i have no doubt this will be solved soon




Technorati Tags: scribefire blog post

What the hell is SixApart is doing about Spam!! [update: SixApart is on it+ TIP]

Just a short note to say that i am not happy at all with Typepad Lately. I have been under a huge wave a spam comments. I have flagged them, i have notified their team, i have talked even with some people there that tell me they do everything they can. But i still receive spam comments every single day. Worse: i am not even notified when that happens. Worse: i don t even receive notifications when someone post a regular comment (or better said, i receive them randomly)

So Sorry about that, i know if affects your reading (this is why i am writting this note), but that goes beyond my control. If this goes on i will have to either close all my comments on this blog or migrate to an external commenting system like disqus or intensedebate (i tried half happy in the past)

bottom line: Six Apart wake up...this looks really bad. Spam should be priority NUMBER 1 before anything else

update: SixApart has taken my request very seriously. Several guys contacted me in the hour and are putting special attention to my blog to monitor the spam activity. I appreciate this kind of reactivity, i just wish for other bloggers that are on typepad could see an improvement without any "special attention". I do not expect 100% improvement, it is impossible with spam, but this should look better soon.

i actually have a suggestion for blog plateforms. Most spam come from comments of posts that are 30+ days old. would be good to have an option to close comments automatically if a post is more than 30+ days old

update 2: i assume this was not a bad suggestion, Typepad just released an option that enables that. You can see it for yourself here. It is available in the configure tab, in the feedback section

Technorati Tags: spam, typepad, sixapart, comments

10 reasons why, in fact, email is better than twitter

when i wrote the "10 reasons i thought twitter was better than email" i already had in mind the counter post. It was interesting to observe reactions around it though and the post generated lots of comments and Diggs. To be honest i don t what is better. All i know is that i use less and less email for personnal communication and more and more twitter. This is not representing any trend but i am sure a lot of people act like me.

1. Email is stable: no uptime problems like on Twitter
2. No need to explain email: Try to explain twitter around you. A big Challenge. Very big
   
3. No need to remember your contacts: in twitter i never remember my friends nickname. In Gmail they auto complete
4. No limits: 140 caracter is great. but no always. text is good but not always
5. groups/lists on the go: this is something you cannot do on twitter: send a message to a group you decide on the go (should be a feature)
6. Twitter in your Email, not the opposite: You can send and receive twitter from your email with TwitterMail and TwitterReply. I can't get my email in Twitter (actually i don t want)
   
7. Privacy is Privacy: no risk of message exposed to someone you don't want (unless you send to someone not meant to be the recepient which happens a lot with autocomplete)
   
8. Email is easier to turn off than Direct Message: just shut your browser, Direct messages need to be turned off each time in twitter settings
9. Never miss a message: in twitter you never know. Actually to make sure i need to set a scan on my name "ouriel' which works well using TweetScan (lots of people write @ouriel instead of @ourielohayon). But luckily my name is ouriel and not Robert.
   
10. History, History: clear cut, email is better to organize and search in your history.
11. you don't have to read about email everyday in blogs: Twitter must be #2 subject on the blogosphere those days. number 1 being Twitter i guess also
    

Technorati Tags: twitter, email, blog

10 reasons why i think twitter is better than email

I just asked than simple question in Twitter "Do you think Twitter is better than email?". I know the question is overly simple and that many would answer "not better, just different" but i do think Twitter is better than email (at least if uptime issues are solved)

1. Twitter is short: no need to deal with long text, forces you to get to the point. You can say most of what you need to say in 140 caracters. try. you ll see it works.
   
2. Yes, Twitter is private: with Direct messages and locked network (you need to decide it is locked)
3. Twitter does not need blackberry or Imap: it goes with you wherever you need, including your mobile and iphone including your email (with twittermail)
   
4. Twitter does not have spam: you only can get messages from people you know or want to know
5. Twitter is the best group message system: no need to create mailing list. But if you want you can create one
   
6. Twitter is responsive: usually i get my twitts answer in the minute maybe less. Twitter is criticized for its noise but curiously each time i ask something i get an answer immediately.
   
7. Twitter has stats: try to have some stats with your email....
8. Twitter can have attachements: either use Tweet-r or other services
9. Twitter has video: with twhirl, try to send a video message with email
10. Twitter does not have unread items and limited space (for now): you can see what's addressed to you simply and filter the rest

Other things i missed?


Technorati Tags: twitter, email

Mac: What is the best desktop client for blogging?

There is not even a doubt: on PC/Windows the best desktop client is Windows Live Writer. By far in addition to be free. i tried them all. For those who do not know what is a desktop blog client it is a soft installed on your computer that let you blog and publish directly without having to open your browser. saves you a lot of time.

The only problem now that i am on mac is that there is no perfect equivalent of Live Writer. I also tried them all. Ecto is Fine but not as good, MarsEdit also. But both are not free (i think they will eventually become free). i Finally turned to ScribeFire which is a free Firefox plugin that does perfectly the job. The only missing point is maybe a direct integration of YouTube or Flickr. Missing also is advanced picture editing (border, spacing, direct copy/pasting). But other than that this is my client of Choice for now (a new improved version in beta is coming up soon)



Did i miss something? Would you recommend something else?

Like I Said, Not totally fool

I just read that in ReadWriteWeb. How a blog got success with an offline print edition... I assume that what i said on printed blogs was indeed not totally fool

to explore ZetaPrints and the FlyingPickle

Not totally fool

This picture on the left (click to enlarge) is a fake cover i have created for april's fool for TechCrunch France. I pretended a few days ago i would launch FranceCrunch a paper magazine out of TechCrunch France and added in the note plenty of details that would make it obvious it was an april's fool (like a paper version of tetris, a hack on how to install android with the iPhone....). I expected 100% of readers to get it right away

But i was wrong. at least 50% of reactions including of people that are very advanced internet pros were buying the story and really believed it. I received a lot of emails, skype messages, twits, facebook notes, ...to encourage, support and even try to find a way to collaborate (including from some famous journalists). And if you check the number of comments and trackbacks you will realize the subject fired a great conversation. I even had to write a complementary note to explain this would not happen and probably disappointed a few.

I then realized the idea was not totally stupid, although i think it does not make sense from an economical point of view. I think what made people really excited about the idea is the possibility to find blog content in newspapers. I don't know what is the right formula but here is maybe a free good idea: creating a magazine out of blog contents.

It sounds to me that people who love blogs (and there are many) wish to find the kind of voices they are now used to read everyday, but in news papers. Maybe this will inspire someone to do something out of it

ps: FYI an american startup called blogburst is already distributing blog posts in national papers but i think the idea can become more powerful

Recommended Blog: VentureHacks.COM

I rarely find a blog good enough to open my blog editor and start a post about it. But now this is the case. I am discovering Venture Hacks a blog on VCs/Entrepreneurs landing in a crowded category. But this one has a voice i have never heard/read before. It is written by talented guys and provides good insights on the industry. In addition it has really funny stuff. Like this T-shirts for VCs

Update: i just saw VentureHacks was covered on Techmeme for the launch of their recommendation feature. Keep track

New Outbrain features for better blogs

I have updated the upcoming features by Outbrain on my blog that now delivers post recommendations below the ratings. Those recommendations are based on your rating history and on the content you just read. Over time the recommendations are becoming more and more personalized. The content recommended is either coming from other blogs' best posts or from your own blog.This will be a great to spot new relevant content for you right from where you are reading interesting stuff

 

I also added on the left side bar a "Most popular posts" that features a selection of best rated post via Outbrain and which gives the reader, and specially the new reader a better visibility on what is interesting, specially if outdated. The posts are selected not only according to the average rating but also according to the pace of rating over time (if you have only 1 5 star rating this is unlikely to appear there)

Outbrain will soon roll out very more new cool features to improve the way you understand how your readers appreciate your content. But also ways for readers to better navigate the great content present on the web. Outbrain has more adopters everyday. Those i know who have updated it love it. Give it a try. I am a big fan too (and not only because this is a portfolio company)

On the side note i took twitter widget off this blog. i am totally fed up with this service because of his instability and load time. i LOVE twitter. but it is not buit to scale. Twitter it is about time you use your VC money...

Technorati tags: outbrain, rating, recommendations, twitter