gregword

After only a few months, this blog is back up and running.  Upgraded Wordpress, which was only slightly agonizing.

I joined Twitter a while back, but never really picked up using it. I’d been using my Facebook Status in much the same way. I’m picking up twittering again, as I realized that, had I been using it, it would have helped me today.

I was in DC for the Sun Tech Day; I spent about 1.5 hours in a hands-on session that was supposed to teach me how to use Ajax with Java Server Faces. In actuality, I spent about one hour installing NetBeans and various other NetBeans add ons (all of which I am now uninstalling), and then about 30 minutes trying to resolve a ClassNotFoundException. After grabbing a quick lunch, I walked around DC a little.

Now, if I’d had my twitter working, it would have been much easier to alert a bunch of people I would be in DC, that I was leaving the Sun event, and looking for something to do. As it is, I haven’t been using twitter, so I couldn’t. So this afternoon’s activity is to get back on twitter and get some friends.

Here I am on twitter. Follow me.

There really needs to be some kind of meta social network; something that I put all my accounts and friends into so that when I start using a new service, I can somehow import friends/contacts/etc. from my existing accounts. This would be a great feature for just about any social network/app to integrate, as it offloads the whole “import your contacts” process onto a third party that will likely have broader reach that your individaul app anyhow.

Anyone going to the NextDC event tonight? I’m going to do my best to get there. And Social Media Club is tomorrow night, I’m going to shoot for that one as well.

For all you loyal readers of my blog, waiting anxiously for my pearls of wisdom…I’m hoping to start blogging again here soon, but I’ve been incredibly busy with various projects. In the mean time, Loren Baker has been gracious enough to allow me to post over on Search Engine Journal, one of the leading search engine blogs. I’m going to focus on blogs, blog search, any anything else related to blogging. My first post, about Google’s new PPA program, is up on Search Engine Journal today. UPDATE: My post is now on digg’s homepage.  Not bad for a first go. ;)

So head on over and check me out. If all goes well, I’ll pick things up here soon-ish.

Oh, and if you’re looking for something to read, check out this article in ComputerWorld about how having an online identity can help in landing a job (they were kind enough to mention Blogdigger, so they get a link). Of course, the opposite is true as well, even more so in many cases. Probably the #1 support request we get at Blogdigger is from folks perplexed as to why their real name is showing up in our search results associating them with a blog that has nothing to do with their professional identities. Almost 100% of the time, these folks are coming from a specific blog host (Typepad), and have neglected to change the default setting, which is to include their real name in their syndicated feeds.

I’m going to be in San Francisco/Palo Alto next week (Aug. 20-23). I’ve got some family stuff as well as some business stuff, but I’m wondering if there is anything else going on that week. Maybe a little dinner/lunch/gathering together at some point (Tuesday night?). If you’re around and interested, let me know (email at greg AT blogdigger DOT com).

So in the space of two days, I’ve found myself with a conference panel speaking engagement and a podcast interview. If good things come in threes, something else should be right around the corner…

I’ll be speaking at the Poltiics Online Conference 2006 on March 7-8 in Washington, D.C., talking about RSS and other emerging online tools. The conference looks really interesting, with keynotes from David Weinberger and Dan Gillmor, and others.

I’m also being interviewed for The Best Damn Tech Show, Period, talking about Blogdigger and other tech stuff. Should be fun.

Still waiting on number 3…

After less than a week, I own the Google search for gregword.

Onwards and upwards.

I had an old invite to MeasureMap from way back in December, so I’m testing it out on this blog; setup was really simple, very easy-to-follow instructions. I’m used to your vanilla Javascript trackers, with more raw information like IP addresses, referall links and stuff like that, so it might take a bit of getting used to. I’d like to compare it to Google Analytics (I tried to signup back when it launched, but the signup crashed on me). I’m also quite intrigued by my FeedBurner stats;I can’t believe I haven’t looked into it more before now. S o far I’ve got a circulation of 14…not too shabby (thanks to Steven and Ross for the link love). I was also surprised to see I’ve already got four subscribers via FeedLounge, which is quite new; I took the 3 hour tour yesterday, and honestly, I’m at once amazed at the UI they’ve built as well as confused on how to use it.

To get this blog started off, I thought I go into a bit of detail about why another blog. I got into blogging on the personal side of things, and have, for the past 3 odd years, maintained a personal blog in some form or another, not at all on the topic of things related to technology or business. I have, of course, maintained the Blogdigger Dev Blog for almost as long, and while I occasionally ventured forth into the topics other than the latest developments of our up and coming search engine, there was always something that, being directly associated with the company, held me back from posting about anything and everything.

Not many folks know much about the inner workings of Blogdigger as a company, mostly because I haven’t shared all that much. While Blogdigger is cash flow positive, we currently employ zero full time people; Mike and I have developed and maintained the site over the past three years on our own time, while employed elsewhere full time. Through a series of events both fortuitous and unpredicted, I am, as of now, full time on Blogdigger, or whatever else it takes to make ends meet, which means consulting and contracting. As such, this blog is meant to act as a presence (man, Presence would be such a good title for a blog…) for me, Greg Gershman, independent of any other entity.

So welcome to my little home. Please spread the word and give me some good initial linkage to get the ball rolling.

One final note on names: I agonize over naming things, probably more than is healthy (although perhaps I should have spent a bit more time on Blogdigger). I wasn’t necessarily looking for a name that referenced me specifically, but that’s what I ended up with. Initially, I was considering some permutation of the word gregarious, which besides consisting of my name, has meanigs relating to being social, but all the obvious domains for that were taken. I finally settled on gregword at the suggestion of my wife. I firmly believe that all good blog names must be a triple entedre, at the least. To wit, gregword is a) something some friends used to call me in college, b) The Word of Greg and c) a Wordpress blog, published by me. That’s all I got.

Got Wordpress installed, no problem. Quite possibly one of the easiest pieces of software I’ve ever had to install. Let’s get the ball rolling!