Technically Speaking

In this current day of information overload, I figured I’d offload a few tidbits in my blog post today. If I had the time each day to do this, it would be like the good ol’ days here on Technically Speaking. Unfortunately, only time these days to catch my breath occasionally. While the economy is in the dumps, my company Lookery as tweeted by Todd the other day, is booming. We are all busy and slammed with enough work for 3 or 4 people.

Check Your State - If you are interested to see where your state stands in the general election coming up on November 4th, you need to go to this site. Currently, Missouri is now leaning Obama, but just last week it was leaning McCain. Thanks to @billstreeter for the original URL he sent over which lead me to the above.

Cloud Contacts - This is Allen Stern of Centernetworks new start up called Cloud Contacts. I say “new start up”, as those who remember, he had another great start up that didn’t quite take off a little more than a year ago. That one was dealing with running ads on video content. Again, and probably like this one - he was ahead of his time. Read the great write up here on CNET by Rafe Needleman.

Scott Rafer in Berlin - Wow, almost is like dejavu for us guys who started Lookery. Last time Scott was in Berlin, that was when this whole Lookery journey started. Though last time, he was on a well deserved vaca, this time he was speaking at the Berlin FBDevCon. Side Note: Scott, I’m usually still groggy and sans laptop connected at 7am my time zone!

This Is Cool - Especially if you are a smoker (which I am)! The idea seems like it could work, only the one time I tried the patch, as soon as I stepped down successfully - I went back to smoking with no nicotine input into my system. I am hoping that Drew does quit for good. Smoking Everywhere is what he is using, and I wonder if you can really “light up” like the video showed.

Technically Speaking, if you haven’t gone Lookery yet, you really need too with the new cool site design as well as the enhanced audience analytic data page. What I really enjoy is the more direct message (tagline) on who we are and what we are all about:

Lookery is a user-targeting service that helps site owners amplify their audience data.

No surprises here today. Digg has been talked about in the past on a variety of sites out there as being a totally gamed system. Yet, with the foreknowledge of the gaming that goes on there, people still rely on it as the what is hot and what is not story of the minute.

The thing that disturbs me somewhat is the owners of Digg are more or less anti-establishment as they come, but still the same - they are turning into the man. Instead of, as a great sports entertainer of our time coined the phrase, “To be the man, you have to beat the man!”, they are just saying “Hell we may as well be the man.”

What say I? Well I have a rather good resource that tells me that the blog over on Lending Club has been permanently buried. Strange, for some reason because this post made page 1 of digg a few weeks back, our next post that went on digg was denied page 1 status, as well as an earlier attempt post page 1. The reasoning is laughable at best. Due to the blog being a financial blog, it’s buried. Plain and simple. Grant it these posts are all written with the intent of getting on Digg, but also with the intent of spreading good financial information in a light and humorous down to earth way.

Now I say that is one of the more stupid reasons to be buried on Digg. Why is it that a blog that is purely written as a resource on p2p lending and personal finance be buried? Is it perhaps that as we have mentioned many times on the LC blog, people are really that afraid of talking about personal finance?

Interesting still the same. There is really nothing new here, we all know that Digg is a game at best. Do the really best stories get to page one, or are they the ones that are granted that right? Now my good blogging friend over on CN, Allen has used Digg and played within the system set up. I for one am glad, as earlier this month I showed how his statistics have climbed in astronomical ways. I don’t begrudge him at all for using Digg.

Digg is there for the technology oriented blogs. The “man’s” stamp of approval and free pass is quite evident. Now CN deserves it. I have watched personally, as many of you have, watched CN climb in status as a blog to watch in his quest to take on the man. He is now becoming the powerhouse blog that he set out to be. Yes, he has used every trick of the trade, but he also has some of the most compelling and quality articles you won’t find elsewhere.

So on one hand, I can say “Digg is good for blogging”. On the other hand, the LC blog while still in it’s infancy as a blog, has done quite well. It’s solid and has many articles to read. Some more helpful than others, some with a bit of personal humor from our group of bloggers, and some are long reads like the last series that ran in the entire month of December. Our variety of all original material is pretty good if I say so myself.

Now I think that qualifies us to be on Digg page 1 every once in awhile. I guess the “man” who is trying to be so anti-establishment on the outside, but truly nothing more than the people we all despised in our cubicle dwelling days. “The Man“. If Digg truly wants to be the place where mainstream America will go after they sell for what I have read to be between $150-300 million, they need to correct this.

Technically Speaking, while maybe Digg really doesn’t care and I’m sure will gladly take that $150-300 million; don’t blame them at all, take the money dude, I still feel that if you are truly going to be a true resource of what is hot and what is not for the day - you really need to fix this. Maybe they will want to discuss this in person, or maybe they will want to talk about how Lookery can help them out. I seriously doubt it, but for those of you in the San Francisco area the first week of February, I will be in town. If you want to meet and chat about Lookery or anything, drop me a line.

To be quite honest, I have actually found Mahalo more user friendly these days.

Full Disclosure: Rex Dixon is the Director of Social Media Content for Lending Club and works as Publisher Relations for Lookery. nutritional supplements

CenterNetworks has always been a favorite blog to read. Their topics are diverse, and he still breaks the big story that everyone else seemingly ignores sometimes.

On the heels of the fact that Compete.com passed Alexa, I decided to check some facts out via Compete. I think the people are in agreement. CN has now overtaken some major players; up 19xxx% this year.

RWW earlier this year scored a major coup by hiring outgoing SplashCast Director of Social Media Marshall Kirkpatrick, and you can see that their stats are also climbing. RWW also recently updated their look.

Of course CN is still screaming like a supersonic jet over the top of RWW and the blog empire GigaOm. Very interesting indeed. Now of course I figured to check the heavyweight class out, shown below, and while TechCrunch still has a sizable lead, CN is east coast stylin’ in the west coast blogosphere over VentureBeat.

What I hope this all means for CN is that they grab some of those millions that are projected for next year’s advertisement dollar. Allen’s blog deserves it as he is like James Brown, the hardest working blogger in the blogosphere today. It shows. The numbers don’t lie.

Technically Speaking, using Alexa or hearing about Alexa being the “defacto standard” or the “pulse” has always had me wondering about stats online.

Full Disclosure: Rex Dixon currently works at Lookery with the former CTO of Compete.com. With that being said, I still give CN big thumbs up for entering 2008 on a high note! Chrysler 300 accessories

TechCrunch, the tiny blog that went big time for Mike Arrington looks to be on the verge of a deal of astronomical proportions. Now if the deal is true, this could make TechCrunch another thing that CNET destroys. I think that the offer is probably going to be hard to refuse, and for Mike maybe it’s time he cashes out and leaves the rental he lives in.

CNET’s growth has stagnated, while TechCrunch is growing like a weed. And so are SeekingAlpha, GigaOm, Huffington Post and other new media companies. These companies have filled a niche that appeared when traditional media began cracking apart–and they’ve taken full advantage of it.

The main question is why have big sites like CNET have supposedly stagnated? Well the answer is that Mike worked his nutz off making TechCrunch work. He put in the time, the hours, and did what it took to make it work. CNET rested on it’s already established place, and that my friends is the reason TC took off like a rocket and surged in growth like nobodies business.

The blogs I look to do the same very soon of course are Allen Stern’s CenterNetworks, often overlooked but out of nowhere he is going to drop a DDT before you know what hits you. Than of course there is Read/WriteWeb, who has had tremendous growth over the past year. RWW is another contender for the crown. We mustn’t count out VentureBeat, the scrappy true journalism integrity site left in the blogosphere. If you want the complete story, you go there. Matt Marshall is one heck of a reporter and person. GigaOM, well Om already has his money and he is building a fine network of blogs; GigaNET if you will. Lastly we must not forget the blog that posts 900 items a day of course - Pete’s Mashable.

Technically Speaking, there are a lot of great blogs that have the news when you want it. TC becoming a CNET property is interesting and for one thing, it will free up the blogosphere and put in a new fight for #1!

FileRadar, is a company that will be using Digg like algorithms to help gamers make wise choices. Now I don’t exactly call it Digg thinking, because Digg doesn’t think. I like this idea as when you are downloading games via bit torrent or demos, you want to be sure you are spending your time wisely. FileRadar Digg like algorithms (a far cry from thinking!) help you do this.

More Propeller News - It appears that CN and I agree, and I haven’t even really looked at Propeller. That is quite a shame, that even the smart bloggers see the truth unfolding behind the curtain. This isn’t the wizard of oz and no matter what mirror you look at, Dorothy still isn’t in Kansas anymore! steel buildings

Technically Speaking, did I do that on purpose? You bet your a$$ I did!