Stephen Pickering

The Web Ain’t Dead. Blekko.com Has Come to Save It.

Stephen Pickering — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 06:38:32 +0000

blekko: how to slash the web from blekko on Vimeo.

This is a VERY cool, and very paradigm shifting new site: Blekko.com. I caught this on John Battelle’s Searchblog tonight, got a beta invite, played with if for a few minutes, caught on quick and already found tons of new cool things that I wouldn’t have found before based on my interests and the ability to filter the searches to give me more accented, tailored, specific results.

Example:

My favorite musician, Josh Rouse. Now with a simple / “slash” I can search for Josh Rouse say only on blogs like so: Josh Rouse/blogs or only in forums like this: Josh Rouse/forums (Click those links to see the results of said searches. I also just Tweeted a link to those results. You get the picture, and that’s just scratching the surface.

New interesting information which is valuable to me as a fan, as an aficionado of said artist, immediately begin popping up at the top, based on my filters.

This is making me feel that giddy, ‘irrationally exuberant’ feeling I initially felt when I tried Google for the first time back in 2000. I felt I had the World at my fingertips back then.

But some kind of sludge in search has slowly happened. Some have blamed it on SEO/SEMs gaming the system so much that the results have slowly deteriorated.

I have no doubt that’s part of it, but shouldn’t Google have been innovating like mad to keep up with the onslaught of deterioration?

I’ll be the first to say that I LOVE so many of Google’s additional services, Gmail, Docs, Voice, all their wonky, data, cloud stuff (not their social) and that to say they shouldn’t have extended their reach beyond search would be like saying Amazon shouldn’t have extended its own reach beyond books, but it does sort of seem like, especially in the last three years of the Social Media threat, that Google has not innovated enough on their main product. It’s kind of like Microsoft jealously chasing everyone else’s success so much, they dropped the ball on their Golden Goose. (They did rally and sell 200m copies of Windows7, but still, no one would deny the mindshare, at least in the U.S. lost to Apple.)

I mean filtered searches seem like such a no brainer that you would have thought Google would have had them in right from the beginning. (Well actually they do, but no one can figure out how to use them, and usually the results come back blank for some reason as if the data base and or code running it act like you’ve done something wrong. It’s like when a car back fires, and you hear what you think is an explosion. Except this explosion is not a band, but a ‘whimper.’

Remember the movie “The Fugitive” with Harrison Ford? One of the best Movies ever. Remember that scene in the Hospital when he’s searching the database for records of people who’ve received prosthetic arms? His first search delivers hundreds, maybe thousands of results. Then he keeps narrowing the search by filters (I can’t remember what the exact filters were, dates other types of subsets) and finally gets down to a manageable number of results, and more importantly, results that have meaning.

Granted it was a movie, but still, that was 1994! People understood even back then before the internet was mainstream, that one of the most valuable automations of computers was search, and that one of the most important features of search were filters.
It’s mind blowing Google hasn’t at least already initiated these kind of easy filters for its flagship product. I assume they will soon and or buy Blekko.

I’ve only used Blekko for a few minutes. I want to use it lots more in coming days, but it already has such polish, and it feels silky smooth and fast, the kind of silky smooth quickness I haven’t experienced since FriendFeed, which for the life of me I can’t figure out why no one can duplicate, not even Facebook itself, which purchased FriendFeed and has one of its founders as its new CTO, Brett Taylor.

Remember how last week Wired published a story about how the Web was dead? Well I didn’t buy it. Thought it was link-baity gibberish for the most part, but it did have some valid points. Steve Jobs didn’t leave out flash because flash was dated. Steve Jobs left out flash to close off, to a large extent, the media distribution ability of the Open Web.
More and more stuff is happening through apps and other such ‘silos’ which does tend to negate the open web.

Well, although Boing Boing had a great rebuttal to the Wired piece, I do believe that if there is a sort of , how shall we say, ‘jaded’ feeling for the Web itself, I do believe a large part of the problem is this lessening of the ability to find the really interesting, cool, exciting stuff. It’s out there, but for some reason our discovery engines, the main one being Google, have somehow become clogged and stale.

I think Blekko, for one, can be like Roto Rooter to this clogged drain. These filtered searches are going to re-invigorate the joy of discovering on the open web, and in turn re assert the open web’s, if not dominance, at least equal importance to “apps” in this ever evolving, every life changing, and ever standard-of-living-increasing thing we call the Communications Revolution.

Google said their mission statement was to uncover the Worlds information, or something to that effect. Well they are doing a lot of other good things, but their eye, at least lately, has been off that ball at least in the long tail stuff, which are the hidden treasures. Maybe its time for a new leader. Maybe Blekko’s it.

Oh, I’ve got 5 invites. Just email, tweet, or leave a comment, if you would like one.

Update 9/2/10 From my incoming traffic I found this page that is loaded with good information about Blekko over the last few days. Links to 10-15 stories written about it in blogs and a ton of ‘real time’ reactions based on the hash tag #blekko. I wish I could just copy and paste everything from this page and post here, but I wouldn’t feel right. Here is the full URL:

http://www.skrenta.com/2010/09/blekko_coverage_and_twitter_gl.html

You know I was just thinking, I wonder if you could create a cool page like that in Paper.li or really just using Blekko.com itself using the “/” syntax.

Yeah you can. Just check this out: http://beta.blekko.com/ws/blekko+/twitter

Oh here’s a Paper.li I just created for the hashtag #Blekko. Pretty cool, although not filled with as much content as I would have expected.

What is Social Media?

Stephen Pickering — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 20:36:58 +0000

Well it can be a lot of different things. Which is one reason it is so exciting and presumably so valuable.

From the point of view of a business or an individual who has their own personal website or blog, one thing that Social Media is, is advertising.

In the 90′s I owned and ran a retail furnishings store. We advertised mostly in the local newspaper and to some extent on local television and radio.

In the webspace, to a private website owner, the simplest way I can describe Social Media is that it is like new media’s version of the local paper. And your blog or website is like your ‘store’ if you will.

Simply put, social media is exposure, a way to extend your web presence to a larger audience with the scaling help of automation (electrons) and the virtues of the communications’ revolution itself (photons).

Translation: A little bit of intent and pushing a few buttons equals a ton of leverage and distribution.

You pay for this exposure, not with money, but with content. You and the rest of the network of members are providing the social media site its content, and in return it is providing you with exposure and extending your reach, along with a platform for making new connections.

On Google’s algorithmic, non-human network your website or business is passive, and the prospective customer, if you will, is active. Actively searching for something that you or some other site or business may have.

On the human, social network, you the business, website, or promoter, if you will, is the one being active. And the prospective consumer is in a passive mode, using the network as a river to dip in and out of, as entertainment, news, communication, emotional outlet, or just plain fun.

I think there is not only room, but a need for both types of networks, and that the rise of Facebook and Twitter doesn’t mean at all the demise of Google. There are times when we want our network to be flowing, serendipitous, and fun, and there are other times when we are in a more deliberative, utilitarian mode. We need (or want) answers, and we need them now.

Except with Social Media you are not selling your wares directly. You are indirectly selling your self as a real person, a genuine person with real interests. It’s a way to scale your ‘legitimacy.’ Trust is one of the biggest factors in making a sale. And social media is a way to scale the communication of your trust.

From a business standpoint or even just a human friendship standpoint, one’s activity in Social Media is comparable to the “Opening of the Sale” where the goal is to talk about anything except business. In sales this is what is known as the “Schmoozing” process. But before you start thinking how creepy it is to think in these terms, “Schmoozing” only really works if you are truly interested from a sincere standpoint in the subject you are “schmoozing” about. Any insincerity in this process, either in real life or in the venue of Social Media, and one would have been better not signing up for Twitter or any other such service.

So one way to look at Social Media, is as an advertising medium, a free way to extend your reach and your message. But in social media the message is your personality, your real point of view, and what you are selling is your integrity, your trust.

Let’s take one example that I remember coming up recently. Lisa Bettany (@MostlyLisa) is a professional photographer. She posts much of her work on Flickr, the most popular Photography Social Media site. She doesn’t post her work there with each caption screaming “Buy This Now Because I’m Great and I Need Money!” along with a Paypal link. She posts there because she loves photography and loves sharing her work and the tips behind her work with others. Such actions build trust and integrity. She feeds the site with its content. The popularity of the site feeds her with exposure.

She recently told the story of how this photo, which she posted on flickr over a year ago for no money, was recently purchased unexpectedly by Penguin, the book publisher, for use as the artwork for a book cover. Penguin only found the photo because it was on Flickr. They knew flickr to be the most popular photography sharing site. So they went there to search for the right potential content for their project. If the photo was only posted on her private website, it would not have been found. No transaction would have been made. So, the Social Network, in the virtual world, is like the Commons or Marketplace of a University or City in the ‘real’ World. It extended her personal work’s reach into the public sphere for consumption, enjoyment, and productivity.

That’s one example of the Social Network’s virtuous cycle. The users provide the content for free. And the network provides the user with free exposure.

This is just one thing that a Social Network is from the decided point of view of the business/website/blog owner, or anyone using the internet itself to scale a message.

Ads that you pay real money for are the ones for direct selling, talking about your product, its Features, Advantages, and Benefits.

Social Media is like hob nobbing at the Country Club or local Charity Fundraiser but without having to get into your monkey suit and drive down to the venue. Still, you need to be truthfully interested in that person you are chatting with, and really care about that charity you are raising ‘funds’ for, and not be in it just for you or the ‘sale.’

I think most would agree that’s a more fun way to live anyway.

Saturday Reading: Three New Poems

Stephen Pickering — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 19:51:12 +0000

That is the temple there.
The symbol that they stole.
A border thin as hair
Between Bob Frost’s two roads.

But we’re not here to fight.
We dance a certain beat.
Incorrigable night
Will glide upon our feet.

The way it crowns is good
Her charms decide it all.
She guides us to the wood,
And bares the fertile wall.

This vision she will keep.
Eternal in her sleep.

Download One of My Songs “The Darkest Hour Comes”

Stephen Pickering — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 01:10:01 +0000

“The Darkest Hour Comes – Master #12″

“The Darkest Hour Comes” (Right Click This Link and Hit ‘Save As’ to Download this .MP3 if you would like it for your own iPod. Or if you would simply like to play the file on the iPhone or iPad Simply Click the Link.)

You know, I always put my iPod on “Shuffle.” I have around 1700 songs on there and I just like the sense of being surprised by what is coming next. Also it keeps things from being forgotten and somehow the juxtaposition of completely different styles of music creates some kind of spark in me, turns me on more. I look back on the days of listening to the same album over and over again as sort of a rusted, dated, “Provincial” type attitude, as it were.

There’s also another benefit for me. Since my own songs are on there, every once in a while, I get to unexpectedly see how my songs and music, fit in or “hold their own” against the “legitimized” tracks in my library. And to my surprise, and usually when I’m at a point where I am sort of “down” on the quality of my own work, I get this strange sense of feeling my own work objectively, as if it were someone else’s. It seems a trick the brain plays when the setting is on shuffle. And its a pleasant one. And more often than not I end up actually enjoying my own work as much as the preceding and anteceding tracks that have qued up. It’s a weird sort of exilarating feeling of seeing myself as someone else, and liking that someone.

I was playing golf the yesterday evening. And in the middle of the shuffle play list one of my songs came up, “The Darkest Hour Comes.” It’s a song I did a year or so ago. I’ve posted it on this blog before. I can’t remember which songs it came in the context of, but I remember I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it and the quality of the recording within the context of the “professional” cuts that surrounded it.

Fail Whale: The Shadow Side of the Social Media Experience

Stephen Pickering — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:12:49 +0000

Update Thursday Aug. 26th 2010 – As you can see I wrote this Sunday the 22nd the day after Leo’s blog post. I was a bit too negative and ranting. So I sat on it a few days. Read the always non- controversial Louis Gray’s piece that was also in response to Leo’s original piece Soaked it in. All in all, I’d rather have had Twitter and Facebook over the last few years than not. They are exciting in many ways. Facebook’s like rediscovering old friends. Twitter is new friends. There have been a lot of positive experiences. Still I’ll publish the original rant I felt and wrote Sunday pretty much unchanged, because going forward these negative issues are important and need to be addressed and kept in mind.

Original Post from Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

Leo Laporte’s post yesterday “Buzz Kill” about how Google Buzz had failed him recently, and more importantly how Social Media had failed him in general, really got me thinking.

A) I totally agree with him. He nailed it. You should read the piece. We put all this energy into “Social Media” and what do we have to show for it? That information and energy goes into a vacuum, a black hole, if you will, and never comes back out again.

It’s our energy that’s creating the value in these networks, the content, and not only are we not compensated for our energy, we’re practically slapped in the face for it. “Who the heck are you, you pion with your 50 followers? You worthless piece of nothing loser! Why can’t you be more like Aplusk or John Mayer with their millions of followers or at least a porn star with their thousands? Yeah, you heard me, you’re not even worth what a porn star is worth in our eyes!”

Dial it down, Stephen. Dial it down! OK, I’ll meditate on it a few days before posting this, but isn’t that what Twitter, if not literally, seems figuratively to be screaming at us all day long?

If they hadn’t had the followers number highlighted would the service have taken off? I don’t think so. So Twitter had to appeal to a lowest common denominator “High School Popularity Contest” mentality to, not only make it work, but for it to keep working.

When I first joined Twitter in early 2007 thanks to following early adopters like Leo and Scoble, I thought, “How cool is this? Even though no one in my small town knows about this, I can do all kinds of cools things.” I had always noticed how inspirational or ‘insightful” thoughts would come to me when I least expected them, usually when I was out somewhere in my car, at dinner with friends, etc. and now I could simply text such thoughts to my Twitter account and retrieve them later for expanding. Or if I simply wanted to remember something cool that I saw or heard while out. Just tweet and retrieve. A repository of my daily life, my existence, my continuum, my stream of consciousness.

But where are these insights, these things I wanted to remember, this digital outline of my life that I so dutifully recorded the last 3 years? Gone. I can’t retrieve them. I can’t search them. I can’t find them. And even though one hears that Twitter has been working on such a feature that will be released ‘sometime’ in the future, its like “Gee thanks Twitter, it’s my information, for God’s sakes. I don’t need it some time in the future. I need it now, and every day since I’ve been using your service, feeding your service, so that you could sell me out down the river to Microsoft and Google with your ‘firehose.’

If instead all of this info had flowed into my blog, it would still be there, searchable, mine, the true archive and repository that it was meant to be. Some will say, “Well that is the price you pay for ‘free’”

Oh yeah really? You know, I’m not the biggest fan of Ma.tt in the world, but look at WordPress.com. Totally free. Holds at least a thousand if not a million times more information than Twitter or Facebook, and it yours, you control it. You can put it in and you know you can always get it out. He’s not selling your information to third parties for his gain. He’s upselling (the freemium model) on additional features and using the popularity of the WordPress site and name to make a cut on Web Hosting purchases for those who choose to self host their wordpress blog. He’s Smith Barney. He’s making his money the ‘Old Fashioned’ way.

But look, this is not an attack on Twitter, per se. Facebook is 10x as bad. At least Twitter is semi part of the ‘Open Web.’ Facebook hides behind its wall, not because it wants to protect the privacy of its users, but because it wants to protect its monopoly at the expense of its users. You post a picture into Facebook, it ain’t comin out again. You post a video into a Facebook, not only is it not coming out again, you can’t even SHARE the damn thing with the internet. I mean, how evil is that? That is crazy evil. All the comments and exchanges and time you put into writing messages on the Twitter or Facebook platform? They’re not yours. They belong to these companies. And they can and do disappear at the drop of a hat.

Not to single out Twitter and Facebook. Tumblr, Posterous, Foursquare, Flickr, (just go to Scoble’s Google Profile to see a list of every Web 2.0/Social Media company that’s every existed) just to name a few are all the same. ‘Evil’ gets thrown around a lot. That’s too strong. ‘Evil’ is Hitler. How about ‘Unethical’? More interested in building a brand, a critical mass or ‘network’ effect as they call it, ala the Zeitgeist of the ‘Start Up’ crowd, so they can have a profitable ‘exit’ and IPO rather than being ‘into’ it and wanting to build something cool to benefit the user him or herself.

Review: “Management” with Jennifer Anniston and Steve Zahn

Stephen Pickering — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 06:45:38 +0000

Here’s the short review: Its a really good movie. It’s worth it, and you’ll enjoy it. Grade: A-

The off beat nature of the first 15 minutes will throw you. It threw me, and I stopped watching it on night one. It felt like it was going to devolve into something uncomfortable. But it didn’t. To the opposite: it really opened up and became something vary rare for a movie: entertaining and subtly moving. A serene palette with just the right punch of accents to keep an emotion, even if subtle, developing.

I like things that give you a sense of a continuum, especially a subtle continuum, that even as it builds in intensity, becomes quieter, calmer. That’s part of what’s special and worth seeing about “Management.”

It’s definitely not your typical Jennifer Anniston movie, which is probably one reason she chose it. Her acting is great in this. Mature. Subtle yet strong. Seamless with the feel of the movie and the story. Same for Steve Zahn. You know one reason I was reticent to chose this movie on my Netflix Instant Cue is that he didn’t appeal to me as an opposite to her. But he really was great. One really feels both these characters and believes them.

This is one of those movies that’s like a short story brought to screen. What I mean is the “filming literature” type like “Monster’s Ball” or the recent Matthew Broderick film “Wonderful World” but easier to watch than Monster’s (what isn’t?) and more satisfying than “Wonderful.”

Not for everyone, but for literature type geeks like me two thumbs up.

Fail Whale: The Shadow Side of the Social Media Experience

[Video] “The Clear Coast”

Stephen Pickering — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:45:43 +0000

Song “Oh Honey”

Stephen Pickering — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 17:12:07 +0000

Oh Honey18 by spickeringlr

Work in Progress, “Take Me Home”

Stephen Pickering — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:44:16 +0000

Take Me Home by spickeringlr

Like I said, I’ll just start posting things here, even when they are not finished. It seems I need to the motivation of getting it out there to do any real work on these tracks. I know that lack of patience and need are the Ego factor, but so be it for now. I’ve been really frustrated with this track. Still am. But I do think it has gotten better with each step, although I hate the fact that the process has been frustrating. I think I’ll work on putting out an EP, this and four other tracks. I’ve got plenty of material for 20 double albums, but I get so perfectionist with producing, it takes me forever and like I said, it becomes frustrating when the sound in your head isn’t able to realized in the recording. But I think I need to start playing these songs live. Let them breath and get some life. Then I think the natural arrangements will come more freely instead of having to “force” it. Take the songs I’ve written lately, learn them by heart, play and sing them emotionally, live, and I think I can move the ball forward. Oh, if you happen to like this track , you can download it by clicking that little down arrow on the right side of the player.

Please, by all means, give me feedback. Much appreciated!!!

“Take Me Home”

Take me home
Take me on
I’m better than I used to be
I’m better than I used to be

Now love’s gone wrong
And I’m out on my own
I’m older than I used to be
I’m colder than I used to be

But I’m not that same kid
Who ruined your game you did
And I know it’s hard
To be on your own

Laughter’s cry
That same goodbye
We don’t want it ‘till we have it made
We don’t own it ‘till it’s been to late

Summer’s dawn
Walk the streets of this town
I like it when its cold outside
I like it when there’s room to hide

But I’m not the same kid
Who ruined your game you did
I want to be in another
Womb that’s like the mother
And you know it’s hard to be alone

(Repeat first verse)

Fim.

Thoughts on Music, Social Media, and a New Song, “The Night Was You”

Stephen Pickering — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:34:27 +0000

Man, I hate producing, even with the beautiful, large screen Apple Garageband interface. I hate editing. I want to do everything in one take. And plus, even if I were a good producer, it’s frustrating separating your brain from creating to objectively producing. Producing is an art in itself. You almost need someone else, even if they weren’t the greatest producer in the world, to take the material you’ve recorded and objectively put it together.

I have so many songs. But it seems it takes me weeks to produce just one. Oh well, whine, whine, whine! I’ll continue to do it. Because it satisfying listening on your ipod or CD to something that sounds almost as good as a professional studio recording. And these days, with a computer, especially a Mac, anyone can do it. That’s a great leap forward for creativity. I’m working on one now called “Take Me Home.” It’s almost done. Well, is it ever done? But anyway I’ll post it when it is.

But in the meantime, I sort of like just sitting with my guitar and playing “raw” into the computer into something like this, “Cinch” There’s something fun and satisfying about just being raw and playing and singing at the same time, spontaneously. Plus it gets the material out there and gets the ball rolling for the subconscious mind to start working on a more professional production. It’s all good. The live playing and then the more “slick” studio recording really feed into each other. So it all eventually comes together.

I need to stop being so uptight about the blog. Blog’s are meant to be “farm” clubs anyway for your more finished product. I just need to post my raw stuff and not worry about it being “perfect.” People engage with “real” anyway. I think my reticence it that my blog is my front facing web page. I’ll probably build a static front facing web page that features my finished work, and then make the blog a link on that where my more “raw,” spontaneous stuff gets posted. That’s kind of what blogs are meant for anyway.

“The Night Was You”

It’s nice
Oh lord
Please forgive me
For this World

They don’t
Understand
They’re sayin’ things
It’s part of their plan

And at night
To sunrise
they left you
In disguise

I want out
I want in
Want good things
To begin

Chorus:
And the night
Was filled with star-
Light (It was you)

And denial
Can’t be the part
Of life you want come true
You want come true.

Dismayed
At this World
So unhappy
When it turns

And you know
When you die
They put up buildings
To the sky

They got out
We went in
But they ain’t saying what’s
About to begin

It’s too late
It’s too long
All we got dear
Is this song

Verse: G-Em7-C-Am7-D7

Chorus: C-G-D/F#-C