In the first week of 2008, I’ll be blogging with a fervor and passion never before seen on this site. So, like, I’ll try to squeeze in about 2 posts a day *sheepish grin*.
In all seriousness though, I’ve been off the blogging and tech radar for far too long now. All this wasted time could have been used to build a brand, but instead, I’ve been pissin it all away.
That’s changing over the next couple weeks.
It used to be that you went to Google.com, dropped in a keyword or two and you were quickly whisked away to the page out in cyberspace most relevant to what you were looking for.
That’s changing, dramatically.
Go to Google today and do a simple search. On your search results page, you’ll see links to YouTube videos. You’ll see product listings from Froogle (or whatever the heck they’re calling it now), you’ll see links to pages on Google-owned blogspot.com, etc.
What you’re seeing is a closed loop where the search results are no longer sending you off into the wilds of cyberspace, but to Google’s own content. And with the announcement of Knol, their newest foray into becoming a content provider rather than just a content discovery engine, that loop is getting tighter than ever.
From the Official Google Blog:
“A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read.”
“We are quite experienced with ranking web pages, and we feel confident that we will be up to the challenge. We are very excited by the potential to substantially increase the dissemination of knowledge.”
Other bloggers are calling Knol a Wikipedia killer. Some think Google is going too far. Another blogger wonders how Knols will organize it’s info better than blogs do, or how attributing authors is better than what wikipedia is currently doing.
So at what point does Google’s closed loop become a noose? Time will tell.
I just finished installing the WP-OpenID plugin here on the blog so now, if you have an OpenID account anywhere, you can use that same ID here when you make a comment.
The plugin was painless to install, but you’ll need php5 on your hosting account in order for the plugin to work on your blog.
1. Been working on the template here and still need to take care of a few things, like the sidebars, footer and commenting interface. I’ll get to those when I’m good and ready *grin*
2. Getting more copywriting work lately. That’s what’s bringing in nice amounts of cashola right now so making that top priority over other projects is what I’m doing. Pauly needs a new pair of shoes!
3. Will be ramping up my blogging here on this site and twitter, and winding everything else down by the end of 2007. Too many irons in the fire is not good for me.
4. Any extra projects I work on will be under the radar from now on. Prying eyes too soon means premature opinions. First impressions are not always correct.
Folks, I’m reworking the template here at paulshort.com from scratch. Please excuse any funkiness that may be happening.
For me, 2007 was a year of coming to terms with a lot of things in my online business and personal life. I won’t get into details because I’m considering it all water under the bridge.
2008 will be a new year, and a new chapter in my life. As the last few pages of this chapter are turned, it’s as if I can’t wait to get through it and move on to the next. Because even though 2007 was poorly written and devoid of plot, the author did a good job of building suspense for the rest of the book.
Now, like most of you, I’ve peeked at the first few pages of 2008 and guess what… they’re empty.
To most, that emptiness would be disturbing. No pre-written plot, a map with a hole in it and you’re headed right for it… like a 15th century sailor who’s been warned that the earth is flat but still sails for the edge anyway - and ends up discovering the new world.
Enough bad metaphor for now.
Those blank pages in 2008 will need to be filled, and how interesting they are depends on how passionate you are about filling them.
