chrisdrit's blog

3 New Ways to Measure the Social Web

There’s a lot to learn about analytics from the frontrunners in social media. The intense competition has resulted in many new and innovative ways to track and analyze visitor data.

We covered three such concepts in detail today: Funnel analysis, which lets you track conversion rates across whole parts of your site, engagement tracking, which is becoming more relevant than pageviews, and visitor retention analysis, which helps you understand and optimize the number of repeat visitors you get.

via mashable.com

I don't know how "new" these are, been measuring this for some time now, and not just on social media sites...

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Launch: AngelList, a curated list of angel investors

Angels: How to join AngelList

If you’re an angel investor, apply to join AngelList here. At a minimum, you should have made two $25K angel investments in 2009 and plan to make two more $25K investments in 2010.

Startups: How to contact the angels

Read an angel’s profile before you try to get in touch with him. All the angels have listed how many investments they expect to make this year, their typical investment amount, the markets they invest in, how to get intros, and lots more information you can’t find anywhere else.

Some of the investors let you contact them directly. But, before you do, build a minimum viable product and learn something about your customers by putting it in front of them. If you can’t get that far on your own, go find some idea investors instead. Then send the angels an amazing 150-word elevator pitch.

via venturehacks.com

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Subscriptions are the New BLACK

ASSERTION #2: The default startup business model for 2010 & beyond will be subscriptions and transactions (e-commerce, digital goods).

Newsflash folks: The Internet does NOT want to be FREE... It wants to GET PAID on Fucking Friday, just like everybody else on the damn planet.

via 500hats.typepad.com

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What killer feature(s) are social bookmarking sites missing?

Ask HN: What killer feature(s) are social bookmarking sites missing? What features would you like to see included in Delcious, Stumble etc? Is there a big gap in social bookmarking that has not been plugged?

via news.ycombinator.com

joshua schachter HN account
joshua schachter blog

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Anatomy of a Large-Scale Social Search Engine

So take a read, and let us know what you think…

Back in October, we wrote a research paper entitled “Anatomy of a Large-Scale Social Search Engine” and submitted it to WWW 2010. We found out last week that it has been accepted, so we’ve decided to share it with you today!

The paper describes the fundamental differences between the traditional “Library” paradigm of web search — in which answers are found in existing online content — and the new “Village” paradigm of social search — in which answers arise in conversation with the people in your network. We explain that in social search:

• Users can ask questions in natural language, not keywords
• Content is generated “on-demand”, tapping the huge amount of information in peoples’ heads
• The system is fueled by the goodwill of its users

via blog.vark.com

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Things I've learned at Google so far

Seriously, the corporate culture is based on hiring really smart people, giving them responsibilities, letting them know what problems the company thinks it should focus on, then letting them figure out how to tackle it. What management hierarchy there is is very flat. And people pay little attention to it unless there is a problem. You are expected to be a self-directed person, who solves problems by reaching out to whomever you need to and talking directly. Usually by email. The result is an organization which is in a constant state of flux as things are changing around you, usually for the better. With a permanent level of chaos and very large volumes of email. It is as if an entire company intuitively understood that defect rates are tied to distance on the corporate org-chart, and tried to solve it by eliminating all barriers to people communicating directly with whoever they need to communicate with. (Incidentally the point about defect rates and org charts is actually true, see Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering for a citation.)

via bentilly.blogspot.com

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Dan Gilbert: Exploring the frontiers of happiness

via youtube.com

Start at timeline 13:10

Comparison changes the value of things...

When you go to the grocery store and desire a bottle of wine, your confronted with some basic comparisons. The wine on the top shelf is the most expensive (sometimes it's even under lock and key), the wine on the lowest shelf is the cheapest and the wine on the middle shelf is moderately priced - in comparison only.

Most people don't want the most expensive, most people don't want the least expensive, so most people will opt for the item in the middle regardless of it's price, because in comparison it's the best choice.

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The 5 Ways To Become A Social Media Douchebag.

via youtube.com

Haha, I love how they are on the BART

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First Round Capital Gives Entrepreneurs A Way To Get In On The Portfolio Action

For those not aware, an exchange fund in this regard is exactly what it sounds like: company founders are given the option to give up a small piece of the stock they own in their venture in exchange for a piece of the action of the larger pool of all the First Round portfolio companies that choose to participate. Basically, this allows these entrepreneurs to diversify their own holdings without having to sell any stock. More importantly, it lowers their risk of walking away with nothing while adding an incentive to see other companies in the portfolio succeed.

via techcrunch.com

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40 Apple Inspired Website Designs for Design Inspiration

via instantshift.com

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