Category Archives: Asides
Blogger Ads above Search Results
I had read a few stories about Google services being advertised above search results as a “tip” but I hadn’t realized it was this prevalent. In their position if I was trying to get more users I might do the same, but for some reason this surprised me coming from Google. (It wouldn’ from Microsoft. Hat tip: Mark.
WordPress Wii Plugin
WordPress Wii Edition Plugin, so you can browse your blog from the Wii browser. I’ve gotten a Wii and it’s definitely the device of the season, it doesn’t do as much as the PS3 or Xbox, but it’s way more fun.
Firebug
Why Blog Posts Matter
Why blog posts matter — 91% of the people who came to the permalink for yesterday’s post visited WordPress.com to see the new design. Online advertising is usually thrilled to get a 1-2% clickthrough rate. This is why I believe that online advertising as we know it is going to have to change dramatically in the next decade, beacuse the folks who matter are blocking it out, emotionally and technically. The shifting of money is also going to be the biggest threat to people media (blogs, etc).
New WP.com Design
We just made the redesign of WordPress.com live. Watch how when you make your window smaller the tags on the sidebar drop to the bottom.
Quoted
“I am always hard to buy for” — Bill Gates in response to what’s on his Christmas list.
Iconistan
Tony Conrad muses on Iconistan.
On Simplicity
WordPress.com Private Stats Now Public
We’ve decided to open up 99% of our internal aggregate stats at WordPress.com to the world, really everything except our PayPal graphs. There are still some todos, such of the language signup information we track, but all of that will come with time.
MT Export Helper
Split Your MT Export File. I wrote a quick little web service to intelligently split large export files from Typepad and Movable Type into more manageable chunks.
Ma.gnolia Uses Akismet
Google CAPTCHA
Why does google use CAPTCHA? Hat tip: Joe Clark.
Cranky Geeks 2
500,000
Muse Waiting
DoubleMattic
Now with Twice the “Mattic” – Matt Thomas joins Automattic full-time. We’re still figuring out what to call him, since “Matt” is obviously taken. 😉
Biggest Community Wins
Biggest Community Wins. “I picked, in other words, community over open source. And honestly, I have very few regrets about that decision, despite our pending migration.”
El Pais Interview
There has been a ton of media attention here at the blog conference in Spain. Friday and Saturday were a whirlwind of TV and newspaper interviews. The most in-depth, I believe, was from Pablo Fenandez in El Pais and is now available online in Spanish. There is something really special going on here in Spain with blogs, the people are full of such energy and passion that it’s definitely going to be a space to watch over the coming years.
Netflix Iteration
The Freedom of Fast Iterations: How Netflix Designs a Winning Web Site. I don’t think two weeks is really that fast though, but it’s probably the fastest a big company could possibly move. Startups should be able to ship iterations daily or weekly.