Add a Free & Useful Toolbar to Your Blog

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wibiyaIt’s no secret that the most popular way to get ideas for your blog is by reading other blogs. I recently stumbled across a blog that was using the exact functionality that I had been trying to implement on my blog. Lucky for me (and you) it’s a simple third-party plug-in that works well with all blog platforms. [Read more…]

Reviewing the Reviewers: The Blog is Alive and Kicking

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The New Yorker’s Malcolm Gladwell reviewed Chris Anderson’s most recent book, Free!, and it is an interesting read (with commentary across the web). Just like Anderson’s response on his own blog.

Welcome to the era of blogs, where reviews can be applauded, questioned, and picked apart not only by the masses (aka the readers), but also by the publishers and producers.

It used to be a straight forward thing, reviewing a product. Not anymore, because when anyone can publish a commentary on their own ground (aka the blog), it also means that reviewers suddenly find themselves being constantly reviewed. [Read more…]

Chris Anderson on the Wikipedia Controversy

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Controversy? Yes, I think we should call it that since it certainly has made the news. In fact, I read about how Chris Anderson copies Wikipedia in my morning paper. So there you go.

If you’ve been following this story, you might be interested in reading Anderson’s response, in a blog post. Nothing new really, he was open about it from the start, but he does explain how this could happen.

Chris Anderson’s Free! Borrows From Wikipedia

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Wired editor Chris Anderson is soon to launch his latest book/theory, following up on The Long Tail, titled Free!. There’s definitely nothing wrong with his ideas if you ask me, and you can read them for yourself on Wired, but the book seems a bit, well rushed perhaps?

First there was the WordPress incident, where Anderson probably was making the famous wordpress.org/wordpress.com mixup. He should know better, and a technical reviewer should have caught that.

Now there’s copy-pasting from Wikipedia.

Fast Company found the Virginia Quarterly Review blog post detailing how Anderson copy-pasted an entry from the Free lunch entry on Wikipedia, and illustrates it with side by side comparisons. Just look at all that yellow text marking the similarities! [Read more…]

Chris Anderson Doesn’t Get WordPress

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I’m a big fan of Chris Anderson, the Wired editor and The Long Tail author. His most recent book is Free!, due anytime soon (for free in some versions, paid in others), and it is all about content online. I especially like his thoughts on freemium, free+premium that is, being what Flickr does with paid pro accounts that more or less makes the service free for non-paying users.

But he doesn’t get WordPress. At least not if this tip sent to WordPress developer Mark Jaquith is true. [Read more…]

Blogs.mu: Hosted WordPress MU service launches

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A new service has launched which offers bloggers (and aspiring blog network builders) the opportunity to run their own branded WordPress MU-powered cluster of blogs.

Offering both free and paid options, the Blogs.mu concept is simple: allow anyone to set up blogs quickly and simply without having to worry about web hosting, server configuration or installation. [Read more…]

UK take-out portal offering free food to bloggers

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The only proviso seems to be that you review the new web site of UK fast food information portal Just-Eat.co.uk.

Most bloggers won’t turn down free stuff, so Just-Eat’s latest promotion could go down pretty well. They’re offering a £15 meal for those who sign up to the service and then blog or write about their experience (with a link, of course). [Read more…]

Year of Original Content: FairShare Helps Track Content Theft

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FairShare logoIn honor of my declaring war on content theft with the “Year of Original Content,” FairShare is offering a limited number of free registrations for readers to try their copyright infringement tracking system currently in private beta testing.

Jonathan Bailey recently reviewed FairShare and said:

FairShare, unlike Attributor’s current business service, is targeted at bloggers and Webmasters who want to track how their content is being used and where, but do not require advanced tools and filtering. It works with Creative Commons licenses and tracks where content reappears, how much is used, if the content is linked and if the site displays any advertisements.

Though the service carries with it many different limitations, for bloggers that can not afford or don’t have the time to use a more advanced system, it is likely a very good choice.

FairShare creates a feed based upon your blog’s URL that is matched against the sites that FairShare monitors and tracks across the web, comparing the content against the original by checking the number of words copied, whether or not the matching site links back, if there are ads on the site, and other copyright violations in accordance with your selected Creative Commons license. FairShare supports all six v3.0 Creative Commons licenses. [Read more…]