tools: June 2004 Archives

I've seen this announcement in a couple of different places (and confirmed it): it seems that the next iteration of Safari will come with an RSS aggregator. This is both welcome and important. Why? Here's Doc Searls (whose feed was I think the first place I heard it):

It isn't just RSS that's getting huge. It's that more people are getting their Web services without the complicating container we call a browser. What we're stating to see is another Web, alongside the static one we browse like the aisles in a store, or the stacks in a library, looking for finished goods to read or buy. This other Web isn't served up the same way as the one we've been browsing for the last eight years. We see it in a news aggregator, or a blog, or a message on a phone, or a search through an engine that only looks for fresh goods. Yes, you can see it in a browser too, but it's different in kind from the static stuff. Most importantly, it's live.

As someone whose reading habits have shifted quite a bit from browser to aggregator, I'll testify to this. There are a lot of people for whom the question isn't only "what's out there?" but also "what's new out there?" And this means that all sorts of definitions will have to change in response (like interactivity, as I mentioned a few days back, but also hits, blogrolls, etc.). It's already added a whole new dimension to my own interaction with the web.

Will over at Weblogg-ed just made note of Seb's Bloglines tool, and says:

Now, if there was just a way to add that functionality to the end of each post, right next to the Trackback link...

I'm not exactly overflowing with technical skills, but I think I've managed it with a quick tweak to my MT template. I'll need to go to the individual & monthly archive templates and give it a try. Seems to work, though...I just used the BL script with the MTEntryPermalink as the URL, and put it in the template right after the comment and trackback scripts...

If someone's got a better idea for what to call it, besides "CiteLines" or "Seb's Bloglines bookmarklet," drop me a note...

And while I'm thinking about it: Seb, if you read this, is there a way to retrieve the number of results from Bloglines as well, and to put it in parentheses as part of the link?

Sébastien Paquet's posted a groovy bookmarklet that allows you, with a click of a menubar link, to use Bloglines to find all of the sites that are currently linking to the page you're on.

Very nice. And this was in response to a post by Lilia Efimova, wherein she surveyed the various tools that allow us to trace links in the absence of (or in addition to) trackbacks...

From the Eyebeam reBlog comes this link, to VisitorVille, which advertises itself as "a cutting-edge program that takes a radical new visual approach to web analytics." Not for the faint of wallet, this--the service costs anywhere from $30 to $170/month. And even if I wanted to pony up for it (which I was thinking about doing for a month, just for fun and data), it is for the faint of OS (Windows only).

What's interesting about the site is that it tracks website visits/visitors/etc., and offers them to you in a Sim City-style interface:

When you have many visitors on your web site, it begins to resemble midtown Manhattan, and it's hard to get your eyes off the screen! Buildings resize and illuminate dynamically based on the number of people inside, their relative popularity, and how many visitors exited through them. Buses, taxis, and limos race around the streets; pedestrians walk across crosswalks; helicopters ply the air. It's all very real, because it's reflecting something that's also very real: Your visitors are human beings, and they exhibit human behavior. They are not abstractions, and with VisitorVille you no longer have to think of them as such!

Fascinating stuff. Way way beyond what I will ever need, but I could definitely see how this kind of interface would be fun for someone in charge of some hardcore, high-traffic architecture...