Dylan Hunter

As you’ve probably noticed by now, the site’s both looking and functioning a bit differently. And no, it wasn’t intentional - yep, overwrote my site theme when upgrading WordPress this morning, (I know, I know - make a copy, edit the copy - was being slack when I started futzing around with several months ago, and now it’s bit me in the tail, as it should). Maybe I’ll finally take this as a good kick in the tail to do my own design…. or, especially since it’s summer, and I’m really trying to find an RoR replacement that I can futz with, maybe not… In either case, we’ll be spending some quality time with Kubrick for a little bit. Enjoy the “familiarity…”

Ok, bizarro, but wanted to put this up here since I couldn’t find anything at all about after firing a whole ton o’ queries @ Google, (it can’t really be that no one else has ever had this problem, can it?!). In any case, here’s the issue:

Have been reading Dan Cederholm’s Bulletproof Web Design, (been looking for new web designs - hey, when you’re idea rich, but cash poor, you do what you need to do to get the job done! ) and each time I try setting background images using the precise code from the book, I get nothing… zip…. nada…. I normally use Firefox, (1.5.0.1) so tried checking to see if it worked in IE6, nope.

Ok, so after running a whole ton of queries on Google, and otherwise futzing around without success for quite some time, (playing with file paths, single quotes, double quotes, using @import instead of <link />, etc., etc.) decided to download Dan’s sample code, and extracted the files for Chapter 9, (i.e. where he finally does a full-page layout). For transport, Dan decided to put all the styles inside <style> tags within the main index.html file, rather than as an external stylesheet. No biggie, should be no problem to cut it back out, put it into a separate file, insert a link, and go. So, before going any further, I open the file in Firefox, all background images, etc. are there, so great, we’ve got a working prototype.

So, onto step 2. I yank all the style info out of index.html, save as a new .css file, link the two together, and phoosh - the background images are gone again! All the rest of the formatting is intact, so it’s definitely using the external css file, but the background images are just not showing up for some reason, (and the images themselves are still in the exact same directory, as is the index.html file).

So, after cross-checking again about a hundred times, it was back to Google, (again largely without success - which is _really_ surprising - I don’t think I’ve ever had Google fail me as utterly as it did on this one, which is why I’m writing this, so hopefully the next poor sap will have this come up! ). After just about giving up, I remembered how many variants people used to point to their bg images, and one that I saw, in particular, kept bothering me, since it didn’t look like it should work - i.e. url(../img/bg.gif) - which suggests that the browser’s thinking you’re in some other first level child directory, and thus need to back out (../) and then go into img/ to locate bg.gif. So, what the heck, apparently it’s working for somebody, why not give it a try? Sure enough, boom - the bg images are all back in place.

So, not sure, but it looks like if you reference a css file in a subdirectory, all bg image locations are taken from wherever that css file is, (hence why you need the ../ preceding) rather than from your document root. Now, I could have sworn that a whole mess of folks had their css files inside css subdirectories without using the ../, but who knows? The important thing is it works! So, change all url(img/bg.gif)’s to url(../img/bg.gif)’s and you should be fine, (and here’s hoping you found this easily on Google so that you don’t have to waste all the time I did for something as silly! ).

Just checked out Jobby after reading about on TechCrunch, and darned if Michael wasn’t dead on - the interface, (with a slight glitch on the “user experience” tag for some reason) is definitely awesome, (heck, almost turns looking for a job into a video game! ). Will definitely have to keep in mind going forward.

Would be really cool if, as it grows, live jobs appeared in a right pane or something in order of best match to their tag clouds, as well, (now that _would be_ a video game! ).

And for a viral piece, since recruiters care often care most about what others say about you, how about throwing in a little LinkedIn endorsement kind of thing, on-the-fly weighted by the skill of the endorser for the given tag, (i.e. for “Product Mktg” or “Ruby on Rails,” etc., you would get further gooses for the number of people who endorsed your skill on those tags if they also had high skill / endorsements for theirs, moderate for moderate scores, low for low - yep, peer review / Backrub / Google for jobs! ). Also should help out a bit in differentiating the 4000 people that’ll all come up with Advanced on tags A, B & G, which are most important for a given job.

Suggested over @ Ajaxian as a good resource for Ajax tutorials, etc. Not going to dive into too much now, (concepts first, Man, concepts first! ) but good to keep in the “to check into later” pile, (anyone ever notice things go onto that pile and never seem to come out? ).

You’ve seen the logo page elsewhere, but liked this one with the list of who the companies are, (though still can’t believe Alexa is included… )

A very cute tongue-in-cheek look at interface design for all of us who are hopefully building out sites to make us all ludicrously wealthy, (or, in my case, still digesting the stupid Ruby books - nice language, Rails looks to be an excellent framework, but still would prefer that magic code wand! ).

A nice reminder for later about using RSS for categories / search results, etc., (almost a direct analog to when some folks bookmark certain searches and just periodically re-issue). News readers have certainly replaced some of the things that folks used to go to SE’s for, as well as inserting additional competition for time while online. Certainly no reason the SE can’t easily morph to also be avail through this type of interface.

Search Meets The Syndication Engine
by David Berkowitz, Tuesday, January 24, 2006

A RIDDLE: WHEN IS A search engine not a search engine?

One of the most popular blog search engines isn’t really a search engine at all, and its index spans far more than just blogs. Today, we’ll devour a few lessons from Feedster in exploring how it offers a new model for the search business.

What is Feedster? It depends on whom you ask. On Feedster’s site, the company writes, “Feedster is foremost a search engine.” Yet when I asked Feedster President Chris Redlitz whether he’s concerned about Google or Yahoo! dominating his business, he said, “If we were just a search engine, we’d be much more concerned. We’re really much more of a syndication business.” Feedster, the search and syndication engine, specializes in aggregating RSS feeds, the behind-the-scenes backbone used by blogs and a rapidly growing variety of content ranging from major news sources to classified listings.

This is how a niche search engine aims to stay competitive: by specializing its focus and differentiating its model. While a search engine on the surface, Feedster aims to engender long-term loyalty by syndicating its results and allowing users to subscribe to the feeds. That means the most valuable consumer for Feedster is not the one searching its site; it’s the subscriber, who then accesses the feeds from his/her preferred reader of choice. The subscriber can even choose to receive feed updates via e-mail.

While the feed reader business, connoting a software or online application for gathering and accessing blogs and RSS feeds, is still in its infancy, the safe long-term bets for the winners there are the usual suspects: Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and AOL. In other words, many of the most valuable consumers of Feedster are those accessing its content via another search engine’s site. Thus Feedster’s greatest potential competitors are also its most promising distribution channels.

One key differentiator for Feedster is that it has much more content than just blogs, emphasized Redlitz. “We get compared to Technorati a lot,” he said. “They’re a blog search engine… We’re different because we’re feed-centric. We’re not just looking at the blog pulse.”

Feedster’s business model centers on RSS advertising, syndicating ads every few posts into its feeds. If you’re looking to run an advertising campaign on Feedster, get in line. “We’ve probably turned away more campaigns than we’ve run,” said Redlitz. Holding Feedster back for the time being is an inventory crunch. Redlitz said Feedster could double its inventory this year, yet advertiser demand is spreading beyond the early adopters. I asked Redlitz when he foresaw inventory meeting advertiser demand. He answered bluntly, “I don’t think it will.”

In the context of other developments in the search engine space, Feedster fits in most closely with vertical search, both as a vertical search engine itself and as a distribution channel for other vertical search sites. In aggregating others’ feeds, Feedster can be a resource where consumers can subscribe to publishers’ feeds of news, jobs, movie reviews, recipes, message board posts, product listings, travel deals, and other types of content. The syndication model changes the nature of search from a pull to a push model, and in the push model, search isn’t really search at all.

Keep an eye on Feedster’s next moves. The company is launching a mobile service in Japan in the next several weeks, and consumers will likely benefit from personalization options down the road. One thing’s for certain: even while billing itself as a syndication engine, Feedster’s future developments will inevitably parallel where search engines head.

So now, when is a search engine not a search engine? In Feedster’s case, it’s when it can better serve consumers by making search only a small but integral part of its value proposition. It’s not what you are; it’s the value you provide.

David Berkowitz can be reached at dberkowitz@gmail.com or via his blog at MarketersStudio.com.

I’m hardly an anti-javascript zealot, (in fact, there are many times where I’ve been a strong proponent, and am definitely interested in where AJAX could go) but I do have to say I definitely find it highly irritating that when I go to a new website without javascript activated, I either get absolutely nothing, some random jumble of text, and/or can’t navigate at all. Come on, folks, javascript is supposed to _enhance_ the experience, not preclude it! And yes, as a user, given the horrible extent to which companies, (even ones with great brands) have abused javascript for use with pop-ups/-unders, it is definitely a wise idea to start with it turned off, and only enable for trusted sources!

If you’re one of the folks who went over to Firefox primarily to get away from the pop-up hell that is IE, (and/or because you believe that no one company should have the level of hegemony that MS has commanded for quite some time, especially not with the business practices that are all too tempting for any monopolist, but especially MS) you will have noticed that in the last few months, as our new friend has started getting some very strong browser penetration numbers, that some folks have started breaking through Firefox’s higher resistance to pop-ups, etc.

To get back the browsing environment that we got Firefox for in the first place, I _strongly_ recommend installing the NoScript extension, which defaults javascript off, but when you go onto a new site with javascript, it will pop a small band on the bottom of the browser to let you know that the site has javascript. You can then either choose to enable for that site either permanently or temporarily, and pretty much be back off to the races. Although a bit of a pain in the beginning, you do get used to it after a bit, and once you start seeing all the entities that are trying to do things to your computer without your knowledge/consent, you’ll never even think about browsing without it, (i.e. did you know that Sourceforge, the core of Open Source, no less, drops Tacoda tracking cookies on you when you go that site - come on, of all the sites that cater to some of the most psychotic online privacy proponents, SourceForge doing this?!).

Now, I actually understand and believe in the value of behavioral analysis, (both for search, where I first tried even before working on Alltheweb,* and now in advertising, though in the latter case, I honestly do find myself somewhat conflicted on the issue of tracking cookies - btw, in case you couldn’t guess, I also have y cookie settings set to prompt me before anything happens! ) but on a personal level, I do find myself feeling quite irritated when things happen to my PC that I didn’t _specifically_ ask to have happen, and since I’ve installed NoScript, and now seeing how many companies are trying to do all kinds of questionable things, I would _always_ suggest going to Firefox, installing NoScript, setting cookies to ionly be set by the given site, and then to have the site ask you whether it’s ok to cookie you.

I definitely _do_ wish NoScript would modify from being whitelist-only to providing a blacklist option based on popularity of folks submitting sites to be blacklisted to them, but having worked on similar technologies in a failed attempt to pull off a Safe Search version of ATW for Pax I know how this can quickly blossom into a _huge_ pain in the tail for even firms getting paid good money to solve, forget about random folks contributing personal time and effort to help out, (thank you, Giorgio!!! ).

——————–

* Was the basis for the search engine I designed while in B-School @ Babson. Yes, for those who have poked around a bit, that’s the “better version of Direct Hit before Direct Hit existed.” Taught me several very important lessons:

1) If you believe strongly enough in the value of something, don’t let yourself be dissuaded even if authority figures you respect tell you what you’re proposing is irrational / impossible. Heck, if you think about it, there’s nothing rational about Search in the first place: making not just one, but multiple copies of all the knowledge and experience of the entire planet? Most people don’t even think about how utterly insane that is, so when was any web search concept ever rational?

2) Even for highly-capital intensive ventures, (of which, Search is definitely one) you can’t allow yourself to abandon a good idea because you’re not going to get funded. Now, back in ‘97-’99, when I was going to B-School, that was the proscription:

A. Business Plan
B. Management Team**
C. VC Funding
D. GO!

Now, in ‘05, Search is definitely coming back, so yes, there are at least the glimmers of hope, where 3 yrs ago, we were all trying to figure out how to “re-cast” Search on our resumes, since there were certainly no Search companies hiring, (at least here in the Greater Boston Area) and since there was a truly sick and disgusting semi-triumphant attitude to see those crushed in the post-Bubble fall, (i.e. early 30’s VP’s). And yes, there were many of us who _were_ jack-asses, (much of the Lycos staff coming immediately to mind - hated their partners, hated each other, bragged about so-and-so having been “shit-canned” after 6 months, the median lifetime of a Lycos person back then) but there were many of us who loved the Internet for the chance to do something extraordinary, to actually have an impact on the companies we were working for, rather than just being a random cog, and yes, for sure, to make enough in doing so both to make secure lives for our families, and to ensure that we could do it again a couple of years down the road when the funding sources told us we were out of our minds yet again, (i.e. do you honestly believe that Google could have become what it is today if it had tried to launch in the funding climate post-2000? As I said, though, am definitely pleased to see interest in Search coming back up - you’ll still have to bootstrap hard, and probably be able to make a go of it for a good 12-18 mths or so, which’ll be nigh unto a killer for many of us, but it’s still infinitely better than it was, but the question on Google post-2000 still stands…). Well, at least some folks are still living the Dream, and for the rest of us, Hope dawns again!! - And this time, there _will_ be a liquidity event before the financial markets choose to crush us again, and forget B2B - yes, it’s a very easy way to get good a good bunch of cash / traffic at one shot, but the very protracted last recession should have shown us all that corporations do _not_ behave rationally to their environment, refusing to invest even as the consumer economy remained very strong. B2C - takes longer, may need to be funded from some B2B endeavors while corporations remain “positive,” but so long as you’re providing a product / service that has value, individuals _will_ continue to consume, and you _will_ be able to survive through the down times. Businesses, as now well-established largely-economically-irrational actors will not.

Whew! Enough random catharsis for today, time to get back to productive uses - I have my own company to try to bootstrap for now, and prospecting’s not getting done while I sit here babbling about ancient history!

————————-

** ‘Course, “Management Team” was always probably the hardest of those steps, especially during the up times, as anyone who was willing to shelf his idea, where he’s the CEO, for yours, where you are, probably wasn’t good enough to be on your Team, if you really wanted those “A-players” that everyone’s always spouting about. Still a huge issue for anyone who looks back into their history and sees tens / hundreds of millions, if not billions, in value fail to have been created by the companies that these folks were a part of, (i.e. how much are the folks from Excite, Lycos, AV, as well as me still kicking themselves in the tail on a nigh-unto daily basis? Ah well, get up, dust oneself off and move on, but yes, when the bills come due each month, and you’re still playing with mail float while trying to scrape by, as opposed to working on something that people the world over will truly appreciate, and which is thus truly joyful to work on, it does get hard….)