Looks good John. I've been tinkering with this same app (it's Pligg, right?) myself. It's a wonderful application.

A couple of suggestions:

I'd like to see are a link to SearchMob on your front page navigation. :)

Also, it would be great if you could show the tag cloud (http://battellemedia.com/searchmob/tagcloud) either off of the SearchMob folder or on your home page.

Best / Rob

• Posted by: Rob Humphreys
• September 12, 2006 9:10 AM

Needs an area for feedback/bugs. I came across a bug in the rss feed links which point to non-existant locations.

Otherwise, looks good. I'll be perusing all three (this one, Search Engine Press, and SearchnSniff) via rss for the forseeable future.

• Posted by: Eric
• September 12, 2006 10:47 AM

John, I'm a bit lost as to the usefulness of SearchMob, at least within the context of this blog. I mean, it is a nice, search-focused, digg-like vertical. But the reason I love coming to this blog is not to find out what everyone else thinks is popular, but to be challenged by the thoughts and insights of a single editor.

I may be a bit of a Nick Carr on this, but durnit, I value the biases and insightful perspectives, the editorializations, that come from one person's educated viewpoints more than I do the output of mob voting.

I know this probably puts me in the camp of folks that "don't quite get it". But I hope this SearchMob effort does not take away from your main blog.

• Posted by: JG
• September 12, 2006 6:04 PM

Well JG, this is not an attempt to replace my editorial voice (or Melanie's) but rather augment it. I get about 10-30 emails a day from folks suggesting stuff that might be posted to Searchblog. I can't review it all, but I'm wagering the wisdom of the crowds can.

I have no idea if this will work, or even be useful, but I am hoping it will add to the conversation, rather than replace it.

I will admit a certain melancholy over how much work FM has been lately, doubled with the Web 2.0 conference, which is picking up a lot as we move into Fall. But I do know that in my heart of hearts, what I want to do is write and think about this world, and all that I'm doing...FM, Web 2, the book (it still takes time) ... are a route to doing that more in the future. Thanks for your comment.

• Posted by: John Battelle
• September 12, 2006 6:25 PM

FYI: If you go in the Tag Clud and click one of the items, you get error messages.

Also, is the username supposed to take you somewhere? It appears to be a link, but does not seem to link to anything.

Not sure how useful this will be. It usually takes someone very active on a site like this to make it work, like Kevin Rose is at Digg, and if you John are feeling busier and busier . . . there may not be the glue to make it stick. But who knows . . . .

• Posted by: soreng
• September 12, 2006 8:34 PM

Hi John -

I just realized that you have all the info I mentioned in my earlier comment: tag cloud, Pligg info etc. on the right hand navigation.

But I'm using IE 6 and this section appears at the very bottom of the page. I just happened to be scrolling down and I saw it. :)

• Posted by: RobH
• September 12, 2006 8:41 PM