AOL blocking LiveJournal referrals
So, according to this Slashdot piece, AOL is blocking referrals from LiveJournal. Now, after a scan of Evan Martin's post (and I haven't read the Slashdot thread), I really don't believe that this is deliberate. More likely, it's an attempt to block deep-linking of images that is somehow being a bit too technically over-zealous in what it will and will not let through.
I'm not an AOL apologist, so if they are blocking all LiveJournal sites maliciously, I'll be disappointed.
However, before we all get up in arms about what is assumed to be going on, it's probably worth analyzing how a company as large as AOL really benefits from this sort of gesture.
Introducing Everything TypePad!
We're proud to announce the launch of our new Everything TypePad! weblog, listing tips, tricks, information and status updates on the TypePad service. We've already got some good information in there on the features we've got under development, efforts by TypePad community members, and changes we're making to the service. (Finally fixed that Farsi date bug!)
We're hoping this new weblog will give TypePad users a single place to check up on what's new with the service, including a place to comment or TrackBack with ideas of your own. And for those of you who aren't TypePad users yet, give the weblog a look and keep checking back in, we bet you'll find some cool ideas that will show off TypePad's unique abilities. Did you know that clicking on QuickPost while browsing a product page on Amazon will automatically fill in the product information for you?
Feel free to leave your comments on any of the posts on the resource weblog, and share your own ideas with the community.
New NetNewsWire Beta and some other thoughts
The latest NetNewsWire beta release (1.0.4b3) has been posted.
Some very cool new features:
- Web Kit rendering
- The ability to view differences in updated feeds (very cool)
- TypePad has been added as a weblog publishing system choice
It's tools like NetNewsWire that make web publishing richer and what we do a lot easier.
(I know I'm NetNewsWire and OS X-centric. I'll leave it to Anil to promote other worthy applications for the PC).
Since we released TypePad, we've had the great opportunity to introduce a significant number of users to a variety of news readers and third-party posting clients. These are users who are completely new to weblogging and who don't care about the technology they are using -- only about the flexibility of the system. In speaking and working with these users, it becomes obvious that we, as developers, need to continue to strive for interoperability.
Continue reading 'New NetNewsWire Beta and some other thoughts'...
Crossing the Threshold
A few days ago, Cameron Marlow (creator of Blogdex) compiled a great list of people who publish what he called "low threshold links". Usually displayed on a sidebar alongside lengthier weblog posts, low threshold links are a way of including the classic filter-style weblog links while still being able to publish longer, more self-contained posts. The increasing number of such lists is an interesting indicator of the maturity of the weblog format itself.
Hearing New Voices
Though there's a lot of talk about newspapers and politicians and celebrities having weblogs, we are continually reminded that the most amazing thing about weblogs is how they let average people share their unique perspectives on life. Two of the sites that have caught our attention recently are Bionic Ear Blog by Meryl Evans and Perry Miller's Cochlear Implants: A Mate's Perspective.
As the title of Perry's site suggests, both weblogs are about cochlear implant technology, which is restoring or improving hearing function for people who've lived most of their lives with profound hearing loss. Reading about these experiences allows all of us to learn from someone who is going through the implantation procedure or to follow someone whose spouse is learning to live a new life enabled by these remarkable devices. It's a good reminder that the best technologies are those that help us communicate with the people who matter in our lives.
TypePad Preview Release
It gives me great pleasure to report that we have finally launched a public version of TypePad. The TypePad preview release came to life at approximately 11:59 pm, Monday (to many, also known as Tuesday).
What does Preview Release mean? Just that we're still adding a whole lot of functionality, making improvements to the overall experience and that those early adopters using the system may notice a wrinkle here and there. We're planning on the full-scale public launch in mid-September.
In the past twenty-four hours since the launch, I've been spending a good amount of time browsing the recently updated list. The sheer quality of these sites have floored me. Where so many "test post" messages are expected, I find engaging entries from users in a variety of backgrounds and countries. After almost two years of developing Movable Type and realizing that the tool, while good, was quite intimidating to many, I'm incredibly pleased to see a new set of our users enter weblogging with ease and not be bogged down by installations and sometimes lackluster hosting environments. What I'm seeing is enthusiastic people drawn to weblogging through a focus on content and their own voice and not on the technologies that enable their tools. We're seeing an influx of friends and family of Movable Type users who have been waiting for a tool for them.
It's amazing to think that it was almost one year ago that we began development on TypePad. Time has simply flown by and the product has taken shape in ways that we never would have imagined. I'm grateful to all who got us to this point (especially the latest additions to the team, Paul and Brenna) and look forward to the months ahead developing both TypePad and the various Movable Type offerings scheduled for release later this year.
If you like what we do, please be sure to mention TypePad to your family and friends. We're still a small company and word of mouth helps a great deal.
