Amazing how Mahalo Share works screencast by ShawnSmith (shawnsmith's blog):



Thanks a lot Shawn!

A lot of folks have been telling me their emailing and IMing Mahalo links around the web--especially for things like travel and people like their parents (btw: your parents will love Mahalo).

A number of folks asked us why we didn't have social sharing sites like delicious, reddit, Facebook, and Stumbleupon. We thought about that for a second and realized there was no reason why we didn't have those services so we just added them under the "clean URLs."

[ Sidenote: Clean URLs is our project to make the shortest possible URLs for folks who like to type in mahalo.com/SEARCHTERM. I'm one of these odd folks who likes to save a couple of keystrokes. ]

We didn't add Netscape or digg because those sites specialize in news and we thought the communities there might not be interested in sharing curated search results. If we're wrong I'm sure we'll find out when people post our curated results to those services.

I just added another page to the Wikipedia: social news.

Social news is obviously very different than social bookmarking, which is already in the wikipedia.

It would be great if folks could help me expand the topic.

Looks like the slimebuckets at Spike the Vote have started up their plot to destroy social media...

best j


From: Spike the Vote <info@spikethevote.com>
Date: Nov 5, 2006 8:17 PM
Subject: Ready to game Digg?

Spike the Vote is ready to launch! Please login and provide your Digg username so we can get started. If you are interested in gaming del.icio.us and Netscape, please provide those usernames as well so I can estimate the overall level of interest.

As you may know, there has been an algorithm change at Digg. Now it takes about 60-100 Diggs to hit the front page depending on your category. Please note that you will only be able to spike a maximum of 50 votes for each story you submit. The spiking is meant to give your story a kick start; it's not meant to spam Digg. If your story has any legs at all, it should have no problem making the front page after 50 spikes.

Spike the Vote is offering 250 points for $50 to a limited number of spikers to get the system started. Please respond to this message if interested.

Thank you for your patience.

Spike

A very enthusiastic journo from NewAssignment called me to discuss how we were revolutionizing the media with Netscape. I tried to talked him down a little and let him know that at this point MetaJ is best described as an experiment right now. We're not even in the first inning of metaJ right now--in fact right now we're trying to figure out how the game is even played!

http://www.newassignment.net/blog/david_cohn/metajournalism_netscapes_approach
Baby steps... baby steps.

CK does a great overview on how tags work on Netscape on the Netscape blog.

Tags are in this format:

http://www.netscape.com/tag/ipod/

Every Tag has an RSS feed

http://www.netscape.com/tag/ipod/rss/

... and RSS feeds include enclosures so you can add them to iTunes (or other Podcasting software for the .0001% of you who use something else!).

Subscribe to this rss feed if you have a huge hard drive:
http://www.netscape.com/video/rss

It seems the very smart folks over at Maxim.com, Blender.com, and AskMen.com have gotten into a little battle to see who can get more stories to the Netscape homepage. Funny.

From what I can tell from the voting pattern these folks work at Maxim.com (or just love the site):
http://www.netscape.com/member/music123
http://www.netscape.com/member/fadedfromwhite
http://www.netscape.com/member/dantethief

... and these folks work at (or love) AskMen.com:
http://www.netscape.com/member/zack23
http://www.netscape.com/member/daniel19
http://www.netscape.com/member/bassil/
http://www.netscape.com/member/armando/
http://www.netscape.com/member/dimadoo/

You can see the Blender stories tagged here:
http://music.netscape.com/tag/blender

NetscapeDevs: I wish we could search the site by domain name fyi.

To the folks at Maxim and AskMen I ask a couple of favors:

1. Don't create multiple accounts (sockpuppets) and vote for your own stories.
2. Please be involved in the Netscape community outside of promoting your own sites. Vote for other stories, submit other news stories, and post comments on other news stories.
3. Don't group vote.
4. Put where you work in in your bio on your member page. I think it's best to be upfront that you work for the sites you do. There is no rule against putting your own stories up... so say who you are!

If you stay away from those first three votes you'll be cool. If you break those first three votes you will set off the alarms (computer and community) and your site could get banned for two weeks/three months/a year (check the FAQ for details).

Other than that... digg 'Scape on!

Note to folks gaming : Be careful... we can obviously track IP and email addresses, and your voting records are public so if you're gaming (to much) you will get put in the sandbox.

In case you didn't notice we just added a bunch of basic syndicated video features to Netscape (a la YouTube).

If you see the Netscape video link (in yellow in the first image below) and you click it the list of stories will expand (image two circled in red below) to show you the cool new Netscape Flash-based media player (same at YouTube, Uncut, or Revver). What's nice about this is you don't have to leave the page and you don't have to click through to the permalink page. Sure, we're gonna lose a ton of page views, but we're helping the users consumer more content quicker--and that will make them love us more. As we all know, f you show more love to your users you're gonna win in the long-run. [ Note: hat tip to Ted who is all about the love. ]

Note: A couple of weeks ago we added the best feature of MySpace--site mail--to Netscape. This week we added the best feature of YouTube--a syndicated, Flash player--to Netscape. What feature do you think we should/will add next and why? The comments are open. :-)

Here is a sample.




... here is what happens after you click watch video... the player opens up without a page refresh!


... and of course you can take videos from Netscape and syndicate thm to your own blog. Upload tools are not opn to the public yet, but will be shortly.

I sent this internal note to a bunch of folks at AOL earlier today... sort of an update on the state of Netscape and what we've learned about the 1, 19, and 80%. After thinking about it for 27 seconds I realized that this is the kind of stuff I used to post to my blog and i figured I would share with y'all.

I have to keep reminding myself that the best feedback we got at Weblogs, Inc. was when we talked about our company publicly on my blog. When you get to a big company you tend to be more closed because people smack you down just because your big. I've been getting smacked down since I've gotten to AOL as a "sellout" or "big company guy," but I'm not going to let that change how I run my businesses. I beleive in transparency and the fact that the more you put out there the more you get back.

Sure, some folks will spin what I say as "AOL senior exec says BLAH BLAH BLAH," but frankly that's a small price to pay for gaining the trust of the community and the good advice they give you when you open up to them.

best j



Team AOL,

For those of you not watching the drama unfold in the social news space for the past couple of days, there has a been a big shift in people's thinking about us paying the top social bookmarkers for the 1-3 hours a day they put into sites like digg, delicious, and Netscape. Two months ago we were "destroying the space" by paying the top 1% of the user base, now we're considered the savvy ones who recognized that there is a real difference between the 1%, 19%, and 80% of the user populations (creatives, contributors, and consumers).

At its most basic what we've learned is that the top 1% of these community members deserve to get compensated for their time, and if you do compensate them they will be 1,000% more active and appreciative. Paying them isn't about the money as much as it is the recognition, and they are so psyched to be recognized that they will really go overboard in thanking you with very high-quality work. The Netscape Navigators are doing a phenomenal job of not only putting in good stories, but also of building a community. They talk to the users via site mail and explain to them how to participate. They let them know when they've made a mistake and how to fix it. They are mentors and leaders in the best sense of those words.

The 1% brings in the 19%, and that 20% bring in the masses/consumption class (the 80%).

Of course, Netscape was an established brand when we converted it. So, we had the the consuming masses (the 80%) and we hired the 1% (the creatives). What we're really working on right now is training and inspiring the middle class: the 19% we call the contributors. The folks who vote, comment, add friends, and send messages on the site. These folks are the most active portion of the masses and they are new to the social news process in many cases. We have about 1/3rd of those folks trained and we should build out our "middle-class" by the end of the year from what I can see.

I suspect this process will be the case for many of AOL's (and Yahoo's) user-driven projects. You'll have the masses by default, but not the creative and contributing classes. Those are the two you'll have to build.

So, I'm wondering if the folks on AIM pages or Uncut are seeing something similar and if similar strategies might work. Maybe Uncut should hire the top 20 video producers on YouTube to work for us? Maybe AIM Pages should hire the top 20 folks on MySpace to be part of our "leadership program" (or something like that). Have them train the user base and give feedback to the developers.

Some folks claim it's desperate to have to pay the 1%. That's pure *spin* by people who don't want to pay other people for their hard work. These folks are the life-blood of these systems and paying them isn't desperate--it's smart. Also, paying them does not stop other folks from want to get involved from getting involved. The folks being paid have obligations they have to meet, and the other 99% can come and go as they please.

The 1% are not getting paid for exactly the same things as the 99%--which was Yochi Benkler's big complaint about our Navigator program (he said it made the other 99% of folks into suckers). It turns out that the public understands that the Navigators have more to do than an average user (i.e. killing spam, getting rid of duplicate stories, helping users), and that they are obligated to show up for "work" every day. That last part sets the difference--the 1% we pay are obligated and the 99% are not obligated.

Anyway, just some thoughts for a Sunday.

best j

ps - here is the latest story giving us credit... i knew the tide would turn.
ps2 - votes and stories submitted broke records every 2-3 days over the last two weeks--and Netscape's web pages are growing again. Mission *almost* accomplished. (the mission for me is to double Netscape's traffic from the bottom out weeks of late August/ early September (when we lost the email users).

In case you missed it Delicious redesigned (see above) and they took a page from both Netscape and digg.

From digg they borrowed the prominent number of votes/bookmarks, and from Netscape they borrowed the thumbnail image with each story.

The irony of course is that digg was inspired by the delicious bookmark, and Netscape was inspired by both netscape, digg, and reddit (which doesn't get enough credit in my book--their services is really great). Of course, when we launched everyone was like "you stole digg's idea!" I found this very entertaining since Kevin at digg is always a standup guy and credit Josh at delicious with the entire idea for digg!

The bottom line is that no one has any ownership over the concept of voting and social news--we're all standing on the shoulders of the first wave of slashdot, furl, and fark.

The thing I love about this industry, and the competition in it, is that we all make each other better. digg, Netscape, delicious, and reddit are all innovating at a faster rate, and a huge company like TimeWarner/AOL coming into the space with the new Netscape does nothing but validate the space.

Folks used to make a big deal about Nick Denton and I being in competition with each other back in the Weblogs, Inc. vs. Gawker days. The truth is that Weblogs, Inc. made Nick get more focused, and both teams built the space. Almost every advertisers that Nick convinced to advertise on Gizmodo wound up on Engadget and vica versa. Today media buyers frequently do an Engadget/Gizmodo buy.

That's the next phase of the "battle" between the social news sites: convincing advertisers to come into the space. I've started making the rounds and explaining the opportunity to media buyers. Every time I explain Netscape to them I'm paving the way digg, reddit, and delicious to get the same advertiser--and that's great. I'm sure John Battelle is out there pitching digg, and every time someone makes a buy on digg they are primed to understand and buy on Netscape and reddit.

It's a beautiful, beautiful thing...

Whoever made the very cool diggScape can you make a version which submits to delicious and reddit too?

The word is getting out about the first 10 Netscape Navigators (people who took "the offer" to become paid bookmarkers). You can see their photos on the right hand column at www.netscape.com.

Here are the basic details, we hired:

1. Three of the top 12 DIGG users
2. The #1 user on Newsvine
3. The #1 user on Reddit
4. We hired a bunch of folks from Weblogs, Inc. (since we know and love them :-)

It is important to note that this is all an experiment. No one knows for sure if this model of "paying people for work" us gonna work. I mean, it's crazy to think that people could be paid to do a job and do it with integrity--that's just crazy talk. :-)

Seriously, the fact is that the top 10 users on DIGG are responsible for 30% of the front page stories on DIGG. That's 3% of total front page stories each!!! Think about that for a second... the top 10 users of DIGG do 3% of the work each--that is stunning. They get paid nothing but they are responsible for 3% of the total content on the home page. Wow. Like WOW, WOW, WOW!

My hope is that the first 10 Navigators do such an amazing job that we can extend our offer out to other members of the DIGG, NEWSVINE, and REDDIT top 10.

HOW CAN YOU BECOME THE NEXT NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR?
Folks have been asking me the best way to get a paid bookmarking job with us. The best thing you can do to get on our radar and have a chance of getting a gig is to participate in the new Netscape. Of course, being in the top ten on DIGG/Delicious/Reddit/Newsvine is also great. However, I'd also like to see more of these folks participating on Netscape as well.

... and you thought it would be a slow summer. :-)

UPDATE1: There is a story on DIGG about the new Navigators here. The DIGG community is supporting the three users who have left DIGG for Netscape!
UPDATE2: There is a Netscape story about the new Navigators here.

Update: This story has been DUGG (but is not yet 'Scaped).
Update2: Looks like the story has been killed on DIGG--go figure. :-)

OK, it's on. :-)

On the latest DIGG Nation (minute 8), Digg co-funder Kevin Rose goes on a massive attack of my plans to hire a dozen top social bookmarkers, but he doesn't seem to have a point about it. I'd actually be interested in hearing what he thinks about paying folks to do social bookmarking, but instead he just personally attacks me.

This is a serious discussion and I'm saddened that Kevin has reduced it to personal attacks. At the very least he could have a serious discussion about it *AFTER* he attacks me.*

Also, Kevin has some facts wrong:

1. The top DIGG users have not changed that much over time.
2. The top DIGG users are not responsible for 14% of stories--they are responsible for over 50%.

Also, the truth is that DIGG, REDDIT, Newsvine, Delicious, and Netscape will all succed together. There are very few winner-take-all verticals on the Internet. There are 3-5 major players in email, IM, and search--no one owns 80-90% of a market. It really isn't about Netscape vs. DIGG... in reality the battle is "social news vs. top-down news." Kevin and I are brothers in arms right now and at some point I hope he will realize that.

The top ~50 members on these services are responsible for over 50% of the top stories--that's a straight up fact and Kevin knows it. That seems to scare the heck out of him, and it shouldn't. I've created a market for these users, and others are about to jump in and do that same (I know this for a fact). So, if there is gonna be a market for community leaders, why not just join the party Kevin? You raised a ton of money and you can raise more. You're making money from advertising and you can easily afford to pay the top 12 users $1,000 a month each--share the wealth dude! Why not carve out 10-20% of your revenue for users?

It only makes sense that folks should be paid for community leaders.

Kevin Rose is going to make millions of dollars (perhaps tens of millions) when he sells DIGG to Yahoo (my best guess). When he does sell DIGG--and trust me it will be sold before in the next 12 months--he will have done it on the backs of those top 50 members. Those top 50 members will get exactly... ummm..... nothing. If I was running Netscape as a startup I would create a bonus pool for these users in the case the site gets bought. I can't do that given our structure, so we're gonna just pay folks. Kevin should do something similar.

* For those of you entrepreneurs watching make a note: you know you're winning when the debate when the other side opts out of the logical discussion and moves to personal attacks.

** Update: A considered story on the issue here--I wish Kevin would take this issue seriously and discuss it like Jay does.

When Brian and I started Weblogs, Inc. the idea of paying bloggers--heck, even making money from blogging--was considered offensive to many. Blogging was, as the case was stated, a highly personal activity that should not be trivialized by the forces of commerce and greed. I don't have a complicated relationship with money or capitalism: I love them both and see them as simply as fuel and the process by which fuel is produced. Money to me means time, time means quality, and quality means success.

Quality. That single factor is what determines the winners in our business. Google's search is of higher quality than Yahoo, MSN, and even AOL's. Because of that Google wins. Engadget is of higher quality than Gizmodo and they are ranked first and second place in their space. Similarly, LifeHacker is of better quality than DownSquad today and as a result they are ranked one and two in their space. For background, my friend Nick Denton of Gawker fame owns Gizmodo and LifeHacker, and we (AOL) own Engadget and DownloadSquad. My point here is that in order for us to beat LifeHacker we need to increase our quality, and in order for Gizmodo to ever beat Engadget they need to increase their quality. The only way to do that is an investment of time. Time equals money, so they both need an investment on a cash basis.

Today we have around 200 bloggers on the Weblogs, Inc. payroll. Two years later John Battelle took the idea and extended it in a blog repping business. Om Malik has raised funding and stolen a Red Herring reporter, and even the nascent vlogging space is in full-blown talent war mode. What was foreboden three years ago is commonplace today.

Talented people's time in our society is primarily engaged with money. As a result we are doubling the staff of DownloadSquad and we've increased the rate we are paying our bloggers to $10 a post on that blog (much more for features). As a result I'm sure our traffic will double over the next three months--in fact I will guarantee that it will happen. Money does change everything.

Talent wins, and talent needs to get paid. I love paying talented people so they can sleep well at night doing what they love. That's my biggest joy in business: gettin' people paid.

Before launching the new Netscape I realized that Reddit, NewsVine, Delicious, and DIGG were all driven by a small number of highly-active users. I wrote a blog post about what drives these folks to do an hour to three hours a day of work for these sites which are not paying them for their time. In other words, they are volunteering their services. The response most of these folks gave back to me were that they enjoyed sharing the links they found and that they got satisfaction out of being an "expert" or "leader" in their communities.

Excellent... excellent (say that in a Darth Vadar/Darth Calacanis voice for extra impact).

That is exactly what bloggers told Brian and I three years ago when we started. Given that, I have an offer to the top 50 users on any of the major social news/bookmarking sites:

We will pay you $1,000 a month for your "social bookmarking" rights. Put in at least 150 stories a month and we'll give you $12,000 a year. (note: most of these folks put in 250-400 stories a month, so that 150 baseline is just that--a baseline).

Now, this offer is going to get a big response I know, so we're going to have to limit to a dozen or so folks. However, I'm absolutely convinced that the top 20 people on DIGG, Delicious, Flickr, MySpace, and Reddit are worth $1,000 a month and if we're the first folks to pay them that is fine with me--we will take the risk and the arrows from the folks who think we're corrupting the community process (is there anyone out there who thinks this any more?!).

We're gonna identify this people in our system as "Netscape Navigators," and they will work with our full-time "Netscape Anchors" to build a community. I see a day when we have the eight full-time Anchors working with two dozen Navigators to keep the site fresh and clean (hmm... I think I need a better choice of words here).

The concept of "free" content producers, which I think WIRED called crowdsourcing, is going to be a short-lived joke. A loophole in the content business that will be closed by savvy startups which identify the top 5% of the audience and buy their time.

If we're (DIGG, Delicious, Flickr, Reddit, MySpace, Netscape, etc) are going to make businesses out of this space we should share the wealth.

As we say in Brooklyn: everyone's gotta eat.*

* Note: Everything I know about business I learned in Brooklyn. I learned this one from my father while at his restaurant when I asked him why we didn't just buy our own jukebox and instead split the money with the "goodfella" who brought the machine in, changed the records every month, and split the quarters with us. "Everyone's gotta eat" he told me. It wasn't the last time I would hear that expression, and there are many variations of it that the 'fellas in the neighborhood would use. "Can I get a taste?" or "I need a taste" were two of many variations on the theme. This expression was a the humble--or demanding--way of saying you wanted a cut of the action (money).

Note 2: One of my favorite Knicks of all time, Latrell Sprewell, famously used a variation of this saying by stating that he had a family to feed when turning down a $10M+ deal from the Timberwolves. They wouldn't give him a better deal and he sat out last year--perhaps his final quality year as a basketball player. This is an important lesson for the talent out there: your first offer is usually your best offer. I'm just saying... :-)

I guess the 3.0 in DIGG 3.0 means three ads above the fold! We got our butts kicked by DIGG users for having two ads above the fold--I wonder if they'll slam Kevin Rose for putting *three* ads above the fold--OUCH!!!

Note: The TOS (top of service) has only one advertisement, a leaderboard. Smart move... go light on top level ads, make it back on the second level. We're doing something similar (this is the Google School of Design btw).

Update: They are also doing graphical ads... not just text for those folks who said they don't do graphical ads. See first shot below.