Jeremy Goodrich's Blog

The latest thing we did for fun over at FunAdvice was the new photo booth. Unfortunately, you have to login to see it...but, you can read about it here, in our widgets area. It's a simple flash application that ties our site into your digital camera (if it's built into your computer) so you can snap a pic and upload it, instantly.

Doing things for fun is great, but, we're also working on practical stuff: fixing bugs, doing better, etc.

After nearly a week of things hitting the proverbial fan...I've decided enough is enough. From now on, I'm going to try to do better. Focus on the positive, etc. As they say with Murphy's law...who was Murphy, anyway? I've seen enough doom and gloom to last me into perpetuity.

So, I'm going back to basics: what can *I* do to help *you*? Please feel free to get in touch.

I've had several people show up at my blog in the last day...well, searching for me in a most unflattering fashion. Look: it's business, it's not personal, ya? Did I attack any of you (aside from Carol...but, I'm rooting for the thousand plus employees who have been busting their butts working hard for years...NOT the corporate jackass that the idiot board hired).

Look, guys, I used to work there. I know the score. I said here Carol Bartz needs to be fired. And I've given out plenty of crap on Yahoo Search over the years...from memory, I filed more search related bugs than anybody else *not* in the Yahoo Search group, when I was a part of the larger Search & Marketplace team.

If you know me, or have read much from me, you'll know it's been a dream of mine since I was really little to write a book...well, I have the idea, I have the framework, and I'm going to hunker down in September to start writing it in earnest.

Between moving this month and the rapid growth of FunAdvice (not to mention our consulting business being close to full swing again, this month)...I simply haven't had time to do much.

I contacted them for a second time today. In aggregate, various IP addresses belonging to Hostgator.com are the #1 consumer of FunAdvice.

This pisses me off because they aren't an ISP, so shouldn't be consuming our material AND because we've contacted them a few times.

So, what the fuck do I have to do to get them to fucking listen? As soon as we stamp out one of their IP addresses, another one pops up...which is why we simply can't solve the problem on our end, at least, not 100%.

Today I had somebody refer to a blog comment I made as a...well, I can't really figure out *what* he was trying to say. It was odd, though, and vaguely insulting. Then I reviewed the blog for the company I can only assume he works for. Seven months, no updates...WTF?

Rule one of the blogosphere: commenting isn't participating. Blogging is. So if you comment more than you blog on your corporate communication vehicle...you're an idiot.

Really, can you build meaningful relationships with thousands of people at once? No? Didn't think so...even if you get really nuts & say, "well, prostitutes can serve dozens of clients per day..." exactly. Even if you whore yourself out to the max, you *can't* develop thousands of relationships per day. It's impossible.

Look, I don't cold call people. However, they email me, call me, etc, etc...sometimes, I do cold email people (sorry). So...my strategy is this: I offer something, easy to figure out what the value is (site gets 4.9 million visitors...? there's some value, there).

And then I make the pitch...and, thanks for your time, if you're not interested, I'm sorry to bother you.

If you pitch me...and, I'm not interested, I'll outline a few ways I'm willing to work with you...or, tee it back to you, to offer up some other ideas on how *I* can help *you*...because, after all, you asked.

Let's see, from Yahoo alumnis:
Goodrec (Mihir Shah)
Center'd (Jen Dulski)
Krillion (Joel Toledano)
Yelp (well, Vlado Herman isn't a co-founder, but, he works there & he's a great guy).

Then you have a lot of overlap with...uptake.com (formerly Kango) started by Yen Lee.

So...it'd seem the Yahoo alumni that have jumped into some form of local search far outnumber the Google alumni ;)

However...sorry, but, well, this chart says it all for most of these:
http://www.quantcast.com/centerd.com
(and even better):
http://www.quantcast.com/goodrec.com