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Sarah Lacy is an award winning journalist and author of the just-released book, “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0” (Gotham Books, May 2008). Lacy has been a reporter in Silicon Valley for nearly a decade, covering everything from the tiniest startups to the largest public companies. She writes a biweekly column for BusinessWeek called “Valley Girl” and is co-host of Yahoo! Finance’s Tech Ticker. She lives in San Francisco and blogs. Sarah’s discussion sparked much controversy amongst attendees. Many feel this is a good thing. I always think it’s great when audience members are engaged, giving feedback, debating the issues. In Sarah’s own words:

In the early days of the blogging revolution it was all about aggregating a mass niche into a powerful force that could rival the world’s biggest entertainment, news, and technology brands. We did it. Maybe not each one of us, but collectively. Look at Huffington Post or DailyKos or Drudge Report and the force they wield on politics. Look at how TechCrunch has out-new-economied cNet. And of course there’s Perez Hilton and the Gawker Empire– forces that have knocked tabloids back on their heels.

Of course, we all know it’s community and content that’s made this happen more than it is the code. But what happens when you get too much of a big thing? Does community scale? Or does it break down? Having proven they can grab as large of a megaphone as they want, some of the Internet famous are choosing to step back – burned out from the work, pressure and scrutiny. Making matters worse, many bloggers have been manipulated into being tools of the very powerbrokers they were trying to disrupt.

Is there a way to value sites off more than just size? Can new business models bring our priorities back in line and can tools like video commenting bring humanity to the anonymous snarky world of blog commenters?

Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

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• Tagging Your Posts for Gnomedex
• Todd Friesen – Confessions of a Reformed Spammer
• Gnomedex 9 Photo Awards with Kris Krug
• Chris Brogan and Julien Smith – Rise of the Trust Agents
• Phil Plait – Active Skepticism Online
• The Business of Social Media
• Christine Peterson – Life Extension for Geeks
• Firas Khatib – FoldIt
• Jay Grandin and Leah Nelson – 20,000,000 versus 20: Audience vs. Impact
• Warren Etheredge – The Art of the Interview (Or How to Grill a Star)

I’m quite active over at FriendFeed. I find that the more I post and read, the more I learn about people around me. FriendFeed has allowed me to reach out and meet people I never otherwise would have, and it has enriched me in many ways.

As with the Blogosphere (and pretty much anything else), FriendFeed has its “A-List” group of posters. Recently, I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if I quit following all of those people. I found that inevitably, those following the A-Listers were much more interesting at times.

So what do you think? Would you rather follow a group of “A-Listers” on places like blogs, Twitter and FriendFeed? Or would you rather break from the norm, and follow your own beat?

• What is Twitter Good For?
• Social Media Updates for 2009-11-22
• How Can Companies Hire Social Media Directors?
• Word of the Year: Unfriend
• Social Media Updates for 2009-11-15
• How to Surf
• Social Media Updates for 2009-11-08
• Phil Plait – Active Skepticism Online
• What Technology has Shaped Your Life
• Me in Real Life

In his latest “State of the Blogosphere” report, Technorati founder Dave Sifry finally conceded defeat to spam from BlogSpot and .info domains. His team of developers will be issuing Technorati 3.0 SP1 within a few weeks to address this climate shift.

The impending update will transmogrify Technorati.com from a hub of live Web content into a portal where only the latest spam posts and splogs are indexed and displayed. All junk entries, all the time! It’s a market that’s gone largely underserved until now.

A-List mortgage and erectile dysfunction bloggers were not available for comment.

Source: Technorati.com
Domain: Technoerrati.com

[Use the Coupon Code "bLaugh" to save 10% on your next GoDaddy purchase]

• Tagging Your Posts for Gnomedex
• BloggerCon was Awesome
• On BlogHer
• bLaugh: The (un)Official Comic of the Blogosphere
• Over 300 Tag Searches in One Spot
• Windows 7 – Thumbs Up or Down?
• What Role Do Blogs Play in Your Life?
• Tagged!
• Heaven on Earth – Geek Style
• You Need a Thick Skin to Participate Online

I love to laugh – so now I’m preparing the world to bLaugh! Today, we’re launching the (un)Official comic of the blogosphere – colorful, satirical, and comical. Expect parodies of “A-List” bloggers all the way down to the meme of the day – no holds barred. Brad Fitzpatrick is bLaugh’s artist, and I’m the writer. The strip is exclusively sponsored by a single company, GoDaddy. We have a bLaugh feed for you to suck down – and we’ll rotate the daily comic image in a static URL to encourage deep-linking from anywhere (widgets, anyone?). Of course, all you ego-whores should be watching closely – because you’re likely the ones to be parodied on a regular basis. If you blog, or your name (brand) is getting tossed around in the blogosphere, you’re on our radar. That includes you, Hugh and Jacek (because we love everybody equally).

• My Favorite Portal: Protopage
• Comic Freeware
• A Void Has Been Filled
• Who does this remind you of?
• Is This Offensive or Funny?
• RubelWithoutACause.com
• bLaugh is a Reader’s Choice
• Stop Emailing “Funny Stuff” to Me!
• Comic Life for Windows Beta!
• Don’t Download This Album

I’ve had a few people ask me what to tag their posts as for Gnomedex. I say (and have always said) just tag things “Gnomedex” and leave it at that. If you wanna get fancy, you can also do Gnomedex6, Gnomedex06, Gnomedex2006, or SirNotAppearingInThisFilm. For maximum flash efficiency, stick with “Gnomedex” and call it a day. The only other tag we’d like to recommend is “GnomedexDiscussion” – for the times when you’d like to make a comment on something that’s being said at the conference – specifically when we run out of time for a discussion on-site. If you want to watch what’s happening with any of the keywords, you can import any of the following into your news aggregator from TagJag:

• http://tagjag.com/blogs/gnomedex/opml (Recommended)
• http://tagjag.com/all/gnomedex/opml (Large!)
• http://tagjag.com/blogs/gnomedex/rss (Single Feed, Beta)
• http://tagjag.com/all/gnomedex/rss (Single Feed, Beta)

TagJag outputs OPML and RSS without you ever needing to visit the site! Plus, it combines tag search directories (fresh, like Flickr, Technorati, or de.l.ici.ou.s) with traditional search directories (static, like Yahoo!, Ask, or MSN).

• Tagging Technorati
• OPML to RSS
• Over 300 Tag Searches in One Spot
• Is Gada.be for You?
• Sarah Lacy – What Happens When You Get What You Want: The Growing Blogosphere Angst
• RSS and OPML for Feed Subscriptions
• Aaron Johnson
• WordPress Plugin Ideas
• Outlook Contacts from OPML
• Halley Suitt

I needed to do this sooner or later, so I’ve revamped our About page with the following sections, outlining Gada.be cases for eight types of users: Enthusiast, Mobile, Developer, Business, Casual, Researcher, Jobseeker, and Shopper. I’d consider this a comprehensive list, but I’m sure there are a few usage points and user types I missed. The About page also now includes an extensive list of Gada.be’s resounding credibility in the blogosphere. The reasons for pointing out our supportive features will become evident to you in the Gnomedex timeframe. Do you have a usage case for Gada.be?

Gada.be for the Internet Enthusiast

• A multitude of new searches come online every day, either general or specialized. There’s no way to keep track of every single useful search engine out there. Gada.be continually adds new search engines to its mix – currently standing at 250+ separate data providers, each one providing an individual RSS feed for your query against their database.
• It’s challenging not to look beyond Technorati, Google, Flickr, and del.icio.us. There is a vast world of information past this quadumvirate – but not easily accessible in one place. Gada.be allows you to look past the resources you already know, easily finding new information you had previously no idea existed.
• RSS is a great way to keep track of your favorite keywords. The problem is in (a) finding all the RSS searches out there and (b) managing all of them without overloading your news aggregator. Gada.be makes it easier to locate the Web resources with valid results through a single, simple query.
• With the amount of RSS search subscriptions for keywords, some items are duplicated across several subscriptions. There’s no simple filter taking what’s out there in RSS and stripping out the duplicates in a single search subscription. Gada.be hopes to funnel your search subscriptions into a single feed – eliminating as many duplicates as possible along the way.
• There’s no quick way to find the feeds for your favorite search term en masse. With Gada.be, every search renders results inline – with the RSS feed for each provider clearly visible next to its title. Imagine having to visit ten separate sites and searching ten different times to get those ten feeds – or searching Gada.be once and getting all ten subscriptions up front and center.
• “Web 2.0″ is about user-generated content, but what happened to user-generated revenue from their own user-generated content? Gada.be accounts will solve this gross oversight.
• OPML is the next “RSS,” but few resources are taking advantage of its power today. Gada.be will help you quickly create an OPML file (on-the-fly) which contains your keyword(s) already infused into those search subscriptions. There’s no quicker, easier, or more compatible way to track and organize your favorite terms.
• There’s currently no simple way to syndicate your “user-generated content” from other sites through a single feed or OPML reading list. Gada.be user accounts will help you organize and monetize your own content.
• There are no indexes of search sites. If so, none of them provide direct links to the search subscriptions inline. Gada.be is creating an open index of search feeds – which nobody else is doing, including A9 (which hides some of its OpenSearch resources). We are constantly updating our list.
• Search indexes can be dichotomized, or the query can be rolled into a single set of results – why use separate sites for either reason? You might remember to use a vertical search engine now and again, but are you going to remember where to go when it comes time to look? Gada.be has comprehensive general categories for you to scour at a moment’s notice.
• As more social bookmarking and tagging sites come online, it will become increasingly important to unveil results from every one of them on a single page. Gada.be has been doing this from day one, and more search providers are added on a regular basis with ease. Steve Rubel (in ‘Search the Universe, Not Just the Galaxies’) says “There’s gold to be had for the provider that can scale to include every major social network. I would bank on folks like Gada.be.”

Gada.be for the Mobile User

• When you’re on the go and in need of search results, you need to maximize time and minimize bandwidth. It typically takes a minimum two page loads before you can get to your results on a mobile device. Gada.be enables you to use your query as the subdomain (dog.gada.be), and specify the search category with a single letter (dog.gada.be/p).
• When you search from a mobile phone, you typically use one search provider – which has a limited set of results (its own). Gada.be incorporates a few hundred search providers and funnels them into a clean interface.
• Most of the Web’s search engines aren’t easily accessible from a mobile device, and certainly not through the a memorable and simple URL. Gada.be sounds strange at first, but it can be quite memorable (with a slight play on words). The more you use it, the more you see it, the more you remember it.
• When you perform a search and the results aren’t what you anticipated, it takes even longer to visit other search engines from a mobile device. When you can’t find it the first time, you might give up because of this hassle. Having results from a variety of popular engines on the same page is terribly convenient. Gada.be really shines in the mobile space.
• Many search services are not optimized for mobile platforms. Gada.be strips out excess markup and provides you with a quick-loading page that’s chock-full of results.
• Most search URLs are long, complicated, and difficult to key-in on a moment’s notice. You can get to G-A-D-A-.-B-E by punching in 4-2-3-2-.-2-2-3-3 in a traditional cell phone keypad.
• Providers would rather invest in a third-party service for results rather than roll their own for their own network of users. As such, we’re making our service supremely simple to use from any mobile device – with the same, simple URLs that work just as easily from a desktop browser.
• Why use a different search engine on your mobile device than you do on your desktop? Bring the power and breadth of search results into the small screen to alleviate frustration and time wasted. Gada.be works as well on the desktop as it does on a mobile device – no separate URLs to remember!

Gada.be for the Software Developer

• The amount of server-side applications built to consume and subsequently render Web data is growing at a staggering number. XML is a fantastic format, but the fetching of said documents isn’t always scalable – or readily available to be developed upon. Gada.be is built upon a memory and CPU efficient “fetch” client, running independently of the Gada.be service itself. This software can and will be licensed to partners.
• How many search feeds are out there today, what can be done with the information each feed provides, and (most importantly) how can a company easily collect and organize that data? A single OPML file can do the trick, or at least provide a structure upon which an application can be built quickly. We generate search subscriptions in OPML on-demand. Upon these open XML outlines, other commercial, open source, and free Web applications may be built.
• Who is linking back to your pages, and what’s the relative value of those links? We have already developed an early-stage Web service that sits on top of the same “fetch” program that Gada.be relies on. The possibilities for development are limited by imagination, not resources or inefficient data retrieval mechanisms.
• Enterprise-class data retrieval systems are not readily available for the startup developer. Each information collection effort has to be started from scratch. There are no easy, efficient platforms upon which information-remixing services may be built. Gada.be intends on delivering our “fetch” software to programmers eager to see their own Web services project come to life.
• Two heads are usually better than one. We are constantly looking for ways to improve our own product to the benefit of its supporters. Collaborative efforts are welcomed, especially as we continue to move forward with the integration of more Web services and APIs.

Gada.be for the Business Professional

• Brand-tracking online is still a complicated process. The bevy of search services doesn’t make it any easier with the lack of filtering and consumption options. For some, the learning curve of a “news aggregator” is simply too much. Gada.be user accounts will make it simple for the average user to find and track their brands online through RSS or email digests. We’re looking through hundreds of databases for them.
• Many companies are looking for a business case for producing RSS feeds, possibly delaying the adoption of OpenSearch (or similar) feeds for their database of information. Who will list them and promote their results? Gada.be will include any search subscriptions provider, so long as we aren’t already collecting the same data through another provider.
• Established Internet brands are fighting for the user’s attention, and new search providers need an extra edge on getting their name and set of results in front of more eyeballs. Gada.be levels the playing field in amazing ways. One search provider is now equal to another, judged not on their interface – but by the quality and relevance of their results. Now anybody can start their own social bookmarking service or blog search index – we’ll include them alongside everybody else.
• Many corporations provide their employees with some type of Internet-connected PDA, or these same employees may use such a device on their own. Gada.be was designed to return results swiftly from a mobile Web browser, including on the ever-popular Treo and Blackberry platforms.
• This is the information economy. The information you uncover is valuable, especially if you found it where others could not (or knew not where to) seek it. Gada.be cross-references several hundred resources and pares those data sets down to a simple list of top results. Your co-workers, and competition, might wonder how you did it. Gada.be is your secret weapon.

Gada.be for the Casual Surfer

• When you need to share a set of related links with a friend, there’s no easy way to put them all together. Then, too, the URL may be too lengthy to transmit via mailing lists and other text-based media. Gada.be gives you search results short URLs that won’t break in email.
• How do you know who’s really talking about you on the Internet? Who’s linking to your blog? Relying on one or two services for that information will never give you the full picture. For a comprehensive set of results, you just can’t beat Gada.be.
• Most metasearch services aren’t open. They collect results from a few search engines, but don’t give you an easy way to subscribe to those results through the original provider. What you might need is a gateway to find information or RSS search subscriptions easily – what you might need is Gada.be.
• Metasearch services pick one or two vendors and stay that way indefinitely. New information providers are seldom added, minimizing the continual link discovery possibilities. The Gada.be index is constantly being updated and upgraded so that you’re always working with the freshest information.
• You might use one social bookmarking service, but your friend might use another. Where can you view both sets of results for a tag in the same place – mixed in with other potentially relevant information? Gada.be splashes indexes together so you only have to visit one page to see results from more than a single provider.
• Are you looking for a certain image, but can’t seem to find the one you need? There are dozens of photo-based indexes out there, but no easy way to get all of the results with the other navigational clutter stripped away. Our Photos category is one of the most direct ways to browse the images that match your search term.
• It can be difficult to navigate different sub-categories of a search term. Without a clean interface, you can often get lost amid a myriad of options. Gada.be is clean and uncluttered for your sanity.
• The user never wants to upgrade or remember where to go to find something – that should be the responsibility of the search provider. You shouldn’t have to keep up with the hundreds of search providers on your own; Gada.be brings new providers to users without intervention.

Gada.be for the Research Community

• Knowing where to search is a common frustration; Google doesn’t have everything. Even so, having to query multiple sites with the same query is tiresome and repetitive. Gada.be gives you everything in one shot – and lets you access the RSS search URLs from anywhere via OPML.
• Serendipity can be more interesting than planned direction. With information, it’s not always easy to see past a specific provider. By providing an open space through which more search providers may share the limelight, we’re offering a wealth of destinations that otherwise may have never been discovered.
• If users typically only view the first ten results for a query, then why not present them with sets of 10 results per engine at the same time? The description is still there, placed inside the link’s title tag (and viewable by hovering over a headline link). This way, a quick scan down a page will give you what you need – further opportunity to dig deeper.
• Tabbed browsing has been utilized by academia for several years. Being able to manage Web pages from within the same program makes it easier to save multiple bookmarks for presentations and posterity. Gada.be was built with tabbed browsing in mind. You can scroll down the list of headlines, click the more revealing ones for perusal, and save out that set of pages for later reading.
• Sometimes, knowing where to find something is the most challenging part of the greater search problem. No single search engine has it all, but one metasearch service may be able to show you many of them. If you have a general category idea, Gada.be gives you a better chance of finding the relevant information than trying any one single search provider online.

Gada.be for the Job Seeker

• When you’re looking for a new career path, there are likely a few online “job finder” brands that spring to mind. We’ve put all of them together under the “Jobs” category – so that with a single query, you can find and subscribe to all of the feeds that are relevant to your job search.
• It’s likely that your current employer knows about all the major job search engines out there. But do they know about Gada.be yet? Probably not, so searching for a new position through our service is a way to hide your intentions in plain sight. Plus, the “boss key” is merely a category click away.
• Which job search services have the most relevant results for your position? There’s no easier way of finding out than to perform a quick and simple query through Gada.be. What’s more, you can take the OPML file and import it into your news aggregator for future tracking across all the job search engines we list in our index.
• Looking for a job takes time. The more results you have to choose from, the better your chances of landing a position will be. You can limit yourself to one or two job search services, or you can keep an eye on as many as possible through Gada.be.
• How many job search providers have a mobile browser optimized experience? If so, can you get to any two of them with relative ease, perform the same query, and get results back before your 30 minute lunch break is over? Gada.be can do it for you quicker – we promise.

Gada.be for the Web Shopper

• With Gada.be’s dedicated “Shopping” category, it’s easy to key in a product name and discover detailed information and pricing for what you’re looking for. We’re collecting ecommerce data from multiple sources and collecting those direct links for you.
• Comparison shopping engines work well on their own, but why not get results from both comparison engines and your traditional e-tailers at the same time? The more you know, the more you’ll potentially save.
• Making a decision to buy something online is easy to do, but what happens after you’ve made that decision should be dedicated research. You should know what people are saying about the product you intend to purchase – you should know who carries that product, too. The big brands are listed in our Shopping category, so you’re never more than a click away from familiarity – while branching out and discovering who else might fit the bill (so to speak).
• Search product names, brands, prices, stores – you name it. If you’re not ready to buy, quickly flip over to the “Blog” category to see if anybody’s been writing about it (with good or bad reviews). Then, try the “News” category to see if it’s received any positive or negative press coverage recently. Gada.be is a powerful online shopping tool!
• The obstacles of using a traditional (generalized) search engine is that you can’t drill down easily to what you need: a tool to help you hone your shopping choices. We’ve even created a separate Amazon category that works better (and is more comprehensive) than Amazon.com’s search form itself!

• Tagging Your Posts for Gnomedex
• TagJag in Firefox
• OPML to RSS
• Over 300 Tag Searches in One Spot
• Ask.com RSS Search – NOT!
• OpenSearch RSS AutoDiscovery for WordPress Searches
• How to Compare Search Results between Bing, Yahoo, and Google
• Windows 7 Search Connectors: Twitter, YouTube, Amazon, eBay…
• Sarah Lacy – What Happens When You Get What You Want: The Growing Blogosphere Angst
• What Happens When you Don’t Follow the Norm?