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Results for: splashcast

Discogs rocks the Portland Start-up Index, now at 40 sites

Rick Turoczy on January 15, 2008

A few weeks ago, I reported on the Portland Start-up Index, a ranking of Portland-area startups compiled by Techvibes, based on the average of Alexa and Compete rankings for each Web site. At that time, there were fewer than 30 sites listed on the index. And I noted it was a bit “apples and oranges,” but interesting nonetheless.

Well, apparently, things change quickly around here.

Techvibes has released their first update to the index. And some interesting things have happened.

Not only has the index grown to 40 sites, but now, the top position—formerly held by Portland-based media-widget-wonders SplashCast (#2)—has been soundly claimed by Discogs (#1), a community-built discography engine that is working to categorize artists, labels, and their recordings. Perhaps most interesting about this change is that Discogs’ combined average (4,648) is nearly 50,000 points higher than SplashCast’s (53,642).

Other new entries I noticed (when the index updated, the original list became inaccessible) include Grabb.it (#10), fmyi (#18), Goboz (#20), and Free Range (#27).

And because it has become clear that—without a snapshot of the list today—we’ll be unable to compare the next rev to the previous one, the entire list is included, below. (For actual Alexa and Compete numbers associated with the rankings, please visit Techvibes. They did the research and rightly deserve the traffic. I’m simply republishing to save the information.)

  1. Discogs
  2. Splashcast
  3. Sandy
  4. MyOpenID
  5. Earth Class Mail
  6. Cliq
  7. Gone Raw
  8. Stikkit
  9. NetworthIQ
  10. Grabbit
  11. Attensa
  12. KnitMap
  13. Walker Tracker
  14. Pibb
  15. UrbanDrinks
  16. Iovation
  17. GadgetTrak
  18. fmyi
  19. Imindi
  20. Goboz
  21. Picktastic
  22. Art Face Off
  23. Box Populi
  24. Pheedo
  25. ChoiceA
  26. Lunarr
  27. FreeRange
  28. Kumquat
  29. Kryptiq
  30. GoSeeTell
  31. Avnera
  32. Techchex
  33. Lumeno.us
  34. Workplace2go
  35. Jama Software
  36. MomHub
  37. Lightfleet
  38. YourList
  39. Cendix
  40. IDP Solutions

Being the astute reader you are, you’ll likely notice a few missing.

For the second time around, Portland’s wiki-based Web-site-information site, AboutUs, remains conspicuously absent from the list. As does the highly recognized, funded, and awarded Jive Software.

It will be interesting to see the shuffling that occurs once those sites are added.

And, again, the arguments will likely surface about this being a rather superficial means of assessing impact in the market. And how it is an unfair comparison among widget-based tools and Web-site-based tools.

That’s true. But it is an available—and somewhat objective—metric. And it does provide a reasonable indicator of Web traffic from the user population that has download either of the tracking toolbars.

Uh oh. You see it coming don’t you? Oh, all right. I can’t keep anything from you.

If you think that the Alexa and Compete rankings are misleading metrics, what metrics would you propose we use to rank the Portland-area startups? (And perhaps, more importantly: Do rankings even matter?)

If we can answer those questions, then maybe, just maybe, the Silicon Florist could publish an index that provides a clearer picture. Maybe. If you want.

Portland Start-up Index: Is your site there?

Rick Turoczy on January 5, 2008

Given that I’m still happily digging out from an avalanche of new Twitter followers, I’m a little tardy on reporting the news.

So, a number of folks were kind enough to send me links to Techvibes “Portland Start-up Index,” a list of Portland-based startups ranked by averaging their Alexa and Compete ratings.

According to the post, they chose the Rose City because:

Portland’s unique culture, combined with its proximity to Seattle and Silicon Valley make it fertile ground for start-ups.

The list features an apples and oranges combination of both companies and products (which, quite honestly, isn’t immediately obvious to people who don’t obsess over monitor this stuff as actively as I do). So, companies with multiple products—but only one Web site—like Earth Class Mail (#5) (which unfortunately moved to Seattle to attract funding) and Kryptiq (#20) are mixed in with site-specific products like Matt King‘s Knitmap (#8) and JanRain‘s Pibb (#10).

SplashCast tops the list, with I Want Sandy and MyOpenID rounding out the top three.

Values of n garnered two spots on the index with I Want Sandy and Stikkit (#6). As did JanRain, with MyOpenID and Pibb.

Some notable sites conspicuously absent from the list include Jive Software, Platial, Unthirsty, and AboutUs. But commenters are already noting some of these exclusions.

Techvibes plans to update the list on a regular basis. And, I’m looking forward to seeing a few more of you folks on it, the next time around. Please comment on the post (as a number of folks already have) to ensure that your product or site is listed.

(Hat tip to Mike Berkley, Adam DuVander, and Ben Parzybok)

Ignite Portland videos available

Rick Turoczy on October 29, 2007

While the official videos won’t be available for another week or two, thanks to A.J. (aka Linuxaid), we have videos of Ignite Portland available, now. And using Portland-based SplashCast’s technology, all 18 videos are available for you, below, in one convenient package.

http://web.splashcast.net/go/so/1/p/NYZI5663NK

(Hat tip to Raven Zachary and the Ignite Portland blog)

Twitter on Portland, Portland on Twitter

Rick Turoczy on October 23, 2007

It’s no secret that Twitter tends to be my newswire. And I’m not the only one. Portland’s own Marshall Kirkpatrick of Read/Write Web goes so far as to say, “Twitter is paying my rent.”

To me and many others, Twitter is the AP wire. It’s where I hear about stuff first.

In fact, Twitter is part of the reason I started Silicon Florist. Because I just saw so much happening out there in our fair city.

For the uninitiated and perhaps intimidated, it is important to note that the beauty of Twitter is its clean and nearly foolproof opt-in setup. Getting spam? Quit following. Done. Want to know who’s following your news? Just look. There they are.

Doesn’t get much cleaner than that.

So, I thought it might be helpful to highlight a by-no-means-exhaustive smattering of the Portland organizations and events that I am following on Twitter as a way to stay up-to-date with Rose City happenings. (For the complete list of whom I follow, visit Twitter.)

If I were you, I’d consider following the following Portland-area startups on Twitter:

And then, there are a number of Portland-area startups who have employees on Twitter. (Which, honestly, is almost better than a company on Twitter. In the same way that, by and large, employee blogs are far more interesting than corporate blogs.)

Some of those startups are:

Finally, it isn’t lost on me that I may not be following all the people, companies, and groups that I should be following.

So, I’m asking you to enlighten me.

If you want me (and other Silicon Florist readers) to follow your Silicon Forest startup on Twitter, please feel free to add your Twitter identity to the comments, below. (I’ve refrained from posting a list of individual Portlanders here. But if you want more people following you, feel free to add your Twitter account to the comments, as well.)

If the list gets long enough, I might have to work on publishing a Portland-centric “who to follow on Twitter” list.

Walker Tracker hits one billion steps tracked

Rick Turoczy on October 1, 2007

As Lao-Tzu said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” So began the journey for Walker Tracker, a Portland-based community site for pedometer fans to log and track their steps.

One billion steps later, that journey continues.

To see how that total number of steps breaks down into the people who have taken them, try starting at the Walker Tracker Hall of Fame.

SplashCast hits one million. Walker Tracker hits one billion. Do I hear one trillion? Anyone? Anyone?

Marshall Kirkpatrick moving back to the other side of the desk

Rick Turoczy on September 13, 2007

Marshall Kirkpatrick, up until a few short hours ago the Director of Content for SplashCast, has announced that he is he is leaving SplashCast to join Web 2.0 blog Read/Write Web.

According to Read/Write Web, Marshall will be a lead writer, a role with which he is intimately familiar. (Many of you may remember that he held a similar position at another little Web 2.0 blog called TechCrunch.)

Richard MacManus, RWW’s founder, writes:

Marshall will focus on breaking news for Read/WriteWeb, something he is very skilled at and which will complement Josh and I well.

While I’m sad for SplashCast, I couldn’t be happier for Marshall and Read/Write Web.

For all of you startups looking for coverage, I’m the first to admit that Read/Write Web pulls in a bit more traffic than Silicon Florist. A bit. And Richard and team have really come back into their own after re-dedicating themselves to the space and refocusing the blog.

So heed Richard’s advice:

A note to startups and companies wishing to be covered by Read/WriteWeb: it is even more important now that you use the tips@readwriteweb.com email address to contact us with news. Josh and Marshall will be monitoring that address daily.

Finally, you should all know that Marshall has been a great supporter and promoter of Silicon Florist in its infancy. (I have no reason to expect that will change.) In fact, I’m quite sure that a good many of you are reading this post because of Marshall’s efforts to promote Silicon Florist. And for that I cannot thank him enough.

At the same time, Marshall has also been an exemplary contact for SplashCast. But I know that both Alex Williams and Kim Ramage will be equally sterling representatives for SplashCast. Which, by the way, is the first media player to include Twitter functionality. In case you were wondering.

I’m very much looking forward to poaching Marshall’s Portland-oriented RWW articles working with Marshall in this new role, and I hope all of you will extend your congratulations to him, as well.

For additional details on Marshall’s move to Read/Write Web, see Marshall’s blog post, the RWW announcement, the SplashCast blog post, and the growing list of coverage on Techmeme.

JanRain releases Pibb for Facebook

Rick Turoczy on September 12, 2007

You may know Portland-based JanRain as one of the leading local proponents of OpenID. But you may not know that they also have a few applications under their collective belt.

One of those applications—their IRC-like Pibb application—has recently been ported to Facebook.

This communications conduit has the potential to be incredibly useful for those folks looking to tie Facebook communications to the rest of their online communications. (Like say for instance, keeping your Facebook comments and your blog comments all in one place.)

By adding the Pibb Facebook application to your account you can easily tie together two end points of your social graph, Facebook and Pibb. Once you add the application to your Facebook account, you will easily be able check for new messages and connect with your Facebook friends on Pibb and vice versa.

Sounds like a useful Facebook addition. (For a useless Facebook addition, feel free to join the Silicon Florist group on Facebook.)

For more information, see the blog post announcing the launch of Pibb on Facebook.

(As an aside, with both JanRain and SplashCast supporting Facebook applications, I’ve got to assume there are others of you out there building Facebook apps. Yes? No? Well, if you’ve got a Portland-built Facebook app, link it up, below, or drop me a note. If enough folks respond, I’ll post a roundup.)

Silicon Florist: One month as the florist

Rick Turoczy on September 12, 2007

Excuse me, if you will, as I step out of character. I wanted to take a second to chat with you.

Don’t look over your shoulder. You. Yes, you. Please, read on.

Right around a month ago, I decided to try a little experiment.

I felt the local coverage of small technology startups was somewhat lacking. I mean, I could thumb through international coverage on sites like TechCrunch and Mashable for once-in-a-blue-moon postings on Portland-area companies. And, I could read about larger startups in The Oregonian.

But none of those was really hitting the mark. So I decided to quit being part of the problem. And I tried to do my little part to help solve it.

That solution, from concept to first post, took an earth-shattering 35 minutes. And the Silicon Florist—a blog covering the small startups in and around Portland, Oregon—was born.

And so here we are, one month hence. And I’ve been pleasantly surprised.

No, that’s not true.

I’ve been shocked. Shocked with the reception. Shocked with the kind notes. Shocked with the participation.

I think I’ve struck a nerve. And I hope that I’m providing a valuable service for you readers out there.

I also thought it might be valuable to provide a little recap of what has happened in the past 30 days or so. I’m not setting any records, but I am seeing some interesting stuff.

Stats

  • 70+ posts
  • Flirting with 100 RSS subscribers at times. The current count is:
  • Nearly 2,000 visitors
  • 37% returning visitors
  • 70% of traffic comes from referring sites (Thank you to all of you who showed Silicon Florist the link love!)

Top cities by visitors

  1. Portland
  2. Seattle
  3. Beaverton
  4. Troutdale
  5. New York
  6. San Francisco
  7. Los Angeles
  8. Washington, DC
  9. Hillsboro (C’mon Hillsboro! Yeesh.)
  10. Atlanta

Top posts

  1. KATU Portland-blogger invites blanket the area
  2. Goboz launches Digg for Portland
  3. Roundup: KATU Portland-blogger meetup
  4. Jive Software secures $15 million… and moves blog to Clearspace
  5. Grabb.it releases incredibly cool interface for iPhone
  6. To-do: Name that stealthy Portland startup
  7. Video: OpenID and Digital Identity
  8. Reminder: Digital Identity and OpenID, tonight
  9. Rumor: Goboz looking to take on CitySearch
  10. Ignite Portland?

Portland-area blogs, groups, and products mentioned

Finally, thank you for reading. Thank you for subscribing to the feed. Thank you for sending your tips. Thank you for your participation.

I’m looking forward to continuing this little experiment as long as it remains interesting to everyone involved.

Vimeo releases Hubnut widget

Rick Turoczy on August 23, 2007

Now, I know Vimeo (Connected Ventures) is based in New York, but did you know that they have a tie to the Rose City?

They do. The Community Director for Vimeo, Dalas Verdugo, lives here in good ol’ Portland. I think. I’ll have to admit, I can’t confirm that he lives here. (Chris Anderson, however, can.) But it certainly appears almost certain that he does.

He just posted a photo of IKEA Swedish meatballs. And everyone knows that Portland is still all gaga over the new IKEA. So, he lives here. Probably.

So there’s a tie.

Well, Vimeo just released a widget they’re calling Hubnut Projector (it was referred to as “Projector” when I originally posted; now they appear to be calling it “Hubnut”), that enables you to embed a series of Vimeo videos within a Web page. And since we’re all big fans of the embeddable media—like SplashCast—around here, I felt it worthy of a mention.

An example can be found, below. Scratch that. I tried to embed it and it appeared to conflict with the site template. An example can be found here.

Marshall Kirkpatrick offers blog matchmaker service

Rick Turoczy on August 14, 2007

If you’re like most of the Silicon Forest startups, you don’t have a ton of money to advertise, you probably can’t hire full-time public relations help, and most people don’t even understand what you’re doing. So, there’s a communications gap between you and your audience.

Blogging helps fill that gap.

But, let’s be honest. After spending 20 hours cranking code, it’s hard to find time to keep your blog up-to-date.

That’s what makes this offer from Marshall Kirkpatrick so interesting:

So, if you are a company who would like to hire a blogger for either in-house content creation or for news coverage for your blog network, send me an email at marshall@marshallk.com. Tell me what topic areas you’re looking to fill, whether it’s a part time, very part time or full time job and how much the position pays. (How much should you pay? See the bottom of this post.) If and when I find bloggers who I would recommend for the position, I’ll email you and offer to introduce you. This is where the quality control comes in, my reputation for this depends on my not recommending bad bloggers. If you would like to hire me to offer advanced training for whoever you select, that’s great – let me know. You’ll end up with a world class social media presence. I’m happy to make introductions regardless.

Marshall is asking bloggers who are looking for paying gigs to contact him, as well. Then, he’ll work to synchronize the right writers with the right companies. Win-win-win.

To get the full story, see Marshall’s post, entitled “Introducing good bloggers and companies to hire them.”

Marshall Kirkpatrick currently serves as the Director of Content at SplashCast and a consultant on social media. Prior to joining SplashCast, Marshall was the lead blogger at TechCrunch. For more information, see Marshall’s personal site.

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