Author: Christopher Carfi

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SDForum Launches Search SIG With Podcast Search

SDForum, the venerable Silicon Valley technology and networking locus, has launched a special interest group focused exclusively on search. The first get-together will be 14Sept2005 at Yahoo’s (Yahoo!’s?…where’s the style guide for that one?) headquarters in Sunnyvale, CA, and will feature:

(Yahoo! will presumably talk about their audio search capabilities as well.)

According to Jeff Clavier, who will be co-chairing the SIG…

“The purpose of the Search SIG is to offer a communication and collaboration platform to the Search ecosystem: search engines, marketers/advertisers, users and developers. Through a series of monthly events, the SIG will cover a large diversity of topics: from the latest developments in search to the needs of brands and advertisers, through the issues and key learnings of starting, funding, building, and exiting a search company.”

Kudos to SDForum, Jeff, and co-chair Dave McClure for getting this going!

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Spam Messes With Your Karma

Social network provider iKarma has taken the ubiquitous “Terms of Service” document to a new level:

“4. Violations. In addition to any and all remedies at law or in equity, any intentional violation of the Terms shall give iKarma the right to immediately suspend or cancel Services or Accounts without further liability. Furthermore, User specifically agrees that any intentional violation shall result in immediate liability for liquidated damages in the amount of Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00) for breach of contract.”

Become a customer, violate the ToS, pay ten grand. A new business model?

(Thanks to alert reader Steve Duncan for the tip!)

UPDATE: iKarma’s CEO Paul Williams responds in the comments at Lornitropia:

“Our attorney assured us that this was becoming an accepted method of thwarting b[l]og spammers. The amount we set was set based on the $5000 it would cost to simply hire an attorney to sue a persistent spammer and another $5000 for the discovery and court costs. If you or your readers REALLY have a problem with this we would be foolish not to change it. But I think everyone is tired of spam and frustrated by the technological limits to solving the problem. Spammers won’t stop till site owners go after them. Site owners can’t afford to go after spammers till there is an economic incentive to do so. I welcome your thoughts.”

UPDATE 2: It appears iKarma has removed the $10,000 language from their ToS.

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Waiting For RSS To Disappear

When will RSS really be successful? Like all fundamental technologies, RSS will be a success when it becomes invisible.

Chris Selland writes:

“RSS is still very much the realm of early adopters (which is why only early-adopter-focused companies like Audible, Woot and HDNet are using it). But as RSS readers become more powerful and more ubiquitous – and particularly as they become more closely entwined with e-mail applications – expect the use of RSS to dramatically accelerate.”

Agreed, but here’s the kicker. In the comments here, Adam Shapiro writes:

“As far as RSS – isn’t that an old Soviet secret service group? That would be the response of 95% of America. Like Web services, fuel injection and the spring inside my pen, it will be most useful and used when nobody needs to consider that it’s there.”

Spot-on, my friend.

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Corporate Blogging, Wikis, RSS All On The Fast Track, Says Gartner

Gartner has published their most recent “Hype Cycle” report, this one covering emerging technologies. The report covers 44 technologies, and prognosticates when they will reach the “plateau of productivity”…that is, mainstream business use and acceptance. Corporate blogging and RSS are flagged as technologies that will take “less than two years” to reach the plateau, with wikis on their tail in the 2-5 year window.

The interesting thing about Gartner’s analysis of all three of these technologies is that all are still positioned as being before the “trough of disillusionment” — that is, the inevitable backlash to their initial hype is yet to come. (n.b. Podcasting’s hype is still on the upswing, according to this, if you can believe it…)

Opinion (mine, not Gartner’s): Of these technologies, RSS is going to be the one that is going to have the greatest challenge slogging through the trough to true mass-market (i.e. not early-adopter) usage. Until there is a truly “zero-training” method of publishing, finding, and subscribing to RSS feeds (which might not even be called RSS feeds in a couple of years), RSS will have a challenge crossing the chasm, to use Geoffrey Moore’s terminology.

(hat tip: Steve Rubel for the initial link. Of course we went out, did some research, and dug a bit deeper to find the details ::poke:: But that’s what we do.)

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When “Content” Isn’t Enough

With increasing frequency, emails of this format have been hopping into inboxes around the planet:

Dear [blogger],

[Some organization] has a new website for info on [some new product]. Could you blog about it to get some more exposure for it?

[random URL here]

Thanks,
[Someone you don’t know]

At this point, maybe the URL gets a click, and the almost inevitable reaction is “thanks for the spam.”

But what if the note doesn’t come from an organizational flack, but instead comes from a passionate true believer? Is “content” always king, prima facie, or does “content” have other, subtle dimensions of intent, and purpose, and earnestness that augment the words on the page?

Chris Pirillo recently received the following email:

Chris,

The Virtual Earth team has a new website for info on VE. Could you blog about it to get some more exposure for it?

http://www.virtualearthinfo.com/

Thanks,
ZG

The typical initial steps and instinctive reaction follow. Pirillo:

“My first thought was: ‘Why do these PR flacks even bother?’ I immediately shot an email off to my MSN contacts, asking about this person. They searched the company directory and came up with no results.”

Upon deeper digging, however, a surprise was uncovered:

“The name was passed around and, ultimately, it belonged to a stepson of a Virtual Earth team member! It wasn’t marketing spam after all – merely an innocent request by a kid who is very proud of his father’s work.”

The same words, sent in the exact same way, carried two completely different meanings. In the “default” case, it’s just another shill hawking just another product. In the second, it’s a real request from a real person who is not even directly involved with the product, who happened to think it (and, more importantly, the folks involved with it) were neat, and wanted to get the word out.

Same words. Same medium. Very different meanings.

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Yes!

Robert Scoble: “The customers are in charge now. Blogs can go from obscurity to the front page of the New York Times in 48 hours or less. So, help the customers. Or you’ll be helped out the door.”