Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Technorati Widget Survey Enlightening
I'm not one to take surveys, I usually disregard them and file them in the "to do" basket, but I'm glad I didn't do that with the Technorati survey I received today.
Why didn't I delete the email you ask?
Quite simple, the folks at Technorati (especially in support) have really helped me out quite a bit with minor bugs over the past year and I felt that I owed it to them. So I decided to give their survey a fair shake and I was quite pleased with what I found.
Note: I really hate it when companies use 3rd parties for their surveys because it tells me the survey isn't really important enough for us to host it internally... Technorati used Zoomerang for this survey and that would normally be strike 2 but see the preceding paragraph to understand my logic. All of this ties to personal branding by a large company and Technorati is great at that.
Technorati wants to know about widget usage and what bloggers want
I know that sentence sounded a bit like big brother asking permission for some information it already has on us but I'll explain. Technorati is looking to roll out a new line of widgets but want to give users (bloggers) what they really want and as a result has decided to go directly to bloggers to get answers to their questions. Honestly, I'm kind of glad they asked me about widgets since I thought I didn't even use any on mshift. But after reading through some of the questions I realized there's no real standard definition of a widget and we must accept what we see commercially and what we hear socially in order to arrive at one. Let me explain this with a couple sample questions from the survey along with my answers.
Question 1: Which widgets do you have on your blog currently?
My Answer: None Unless Yahoo Publisher ads count as widgets. For purposes of this survey then I'll say that they do. Well then there's the "add mshift to your Technorati Favorites". Honestly I had never considered things like Yahoo Publisher Ads or even the place in the upper right hand corner where I ask folks to make mshift a favorite blog on Technorati, as widgets previously.
Question 2: Where do you find out about new widgets?
Answer: Blosmosis. Honestly if I see something on another blog that I think is useful then I casually ponder the notion of putting it on mshift and then systematically deny it like an ex con trying to get a mortgage. However, as I see more and more other bloggers with the same or similar widgets I lighten up on the ex con and think about giving him a chance but then almost always deny him.
In short, I think the viral nature of the blogosphere can be summed up as Blosmosis. I know my teachers in high school would say I'm nuts but Osmosis does work online... the stuff just seeps into our thought process without us even realizing it, Scouts honor!
In short, I think the viral nature of the blogosphere can be summed up as Blosmosis. I know my teachers in high school would say I'm nuts but Osmosis does work online... the stuff just seeps into our thought process without us even realizing it, Scouts honor!
Okay, last question and I'll leave you alone. This is the one that really got me thinking about the essence of a widget and it boils down to utility... Does the widget automate something for me and add value from that automation? If so then I must consider it.
Question 3: What widgets do you wish you could have on your blog that aren't currently available?
One that tracked some information about what I'm doing during the day (def not like mybloglog). I want to set a list of apps that are off limits to tracking but the rest can be tallied up in a widget so users can see what apps I'm using most often to do my work. I could place web based apps on that list as well but these are cognitively different than web sites... this is the web as a platform.
Note: I know what I'm talking about here sounds like spyware but I promise that's not what I mean at all. As an example, when I'm logged into Gmail on the web I can see a list of buddys and Barry Schwartz name is on my list. Well, I've learned a lot about Barry in recent months by simply watching hist profile automatically update with the song he's currently listening to. That simple widget (if you will allow me to call it that) has given me insight into Barry's love of Southern and Classic Rock-N-Roll and it has come about from automation. That's precisely what I'm talking about.
If you want to give the Technorati survey a whirl then go ahead and fill it out and tell em large Marge sent ya! Oh yeah, if you want to you can always add mshift to your list of favorite blogs while you're at it.
Posted By Jason Dowdell at 04:08 PM
Permanent Link: Technorati Widget Survey Enlightening
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