Now there’s a way to add those things to your blog. The new Yahoo! Shortcuts plugin for wordpress helps you insert those things. I’m not sure how often I’ll use them, but I installed the plugin to see.

Off the bat, I’m not in love with the Yahoo! Search ones (don’t seem to add much value – a link to search?) and I’m not sure why I’d link to Yahoo Shopping when there’s no revshare program in place. I like the flickr integration, you can very easily add pictures. It’s slick.

On the negative side, it’s a beta, and buggy – I can’t remove ones from this post that I don’t like without editing the HTML – I’ll report that to the team. Also, I’d love a way to say “I never want Search Links”. Looking to the future, I’d love it if this opened up, so amazon could write a plugin to replace Y! Shopping.

If you use Wordpress, check it out.

UPDATE: I neglected to say that I think this is all pretty cool and nice for a first cut. I’m excited about where this can go. And BTW, I saw a demo yesterday of something in a similar vein and I can only hope Yahoo keeps building these add-ons that make our blogging life easier.

And now here is a list of things hoping to trigger the shortcuts:

• Yahoo! Inc – YHOO
• 500 3rd St., San Francisco, CA
• Nikon D-80
• Please buy this for me: 2008 Mercedes-Benz SL-Class SL55 AMG Roadster
• Barack Obama

Anyway, I’m trying (once again) to dust off the blog and start writing more. I constantly get ideas and say “I should blog about that”, so… maybe I should.

To get me in the spirit, I changed WordPress themes to Subtle by Glued Ideas. I debated between this one and Glossy Blue by N. Design, i think I might just randomly switch back and forth from time to time. I like Subtle because it is based on Wordpress Sidebar Widgets and incorporates FeedFlare right into it. For the first time ever, I didn’t have to crack the php code in my text editor. While WordPress still isn’t what I’d call “easy” it is getting much better.

I kept the header photo with this theme, although Subtle makes it less bright (losing a little of the luster). I took that photo on my walk to the beach in Provincetown on Cape Cod. I love the green wild grass and the lighthouse in the distance.

Anyway, I look forward to giving this a whirl again.

Since I took my new job, I’ve really stopped writing and I want to fix that. I’ve got a lot of saved up blog posts in my head, I just need to get them out.

What gave me the kick in the pants today, was that Don Loeb blogged that Feedburner’s Site Stats are now live. It didn’t take me but a minute to get it set up on this blog. I had been using Measure Map and had been pretty pleased, but I kinda stopped looking at the stats. It was kinda cool to know them, but not earth shattering (unless Dave Winer linked to me).

So I’ll give Feedburner a try now. At first blush, it looks really clean & straightforward (like everything those guys do)…

The funny thing is that now that I vented a little, I’m all better.   No real desire to rant on this blog right now.   I think A-list bloggers have gotten too bitchy and its wearing on me.  I do understand the allure of the bitchy blogger.  It really did feel good to rant and get it off my chest.   As one commenter said “if you can’t rant on your own website, where can you?”.   True — too true in fact.

I want all of us just to be a little nicer, focus a little bit less about getting noticed on Memeorandum, use fewer exclamation points, avoid the phrases “___ sucks”, “if they don’t understand what we want, they’ll go out of business” and “___ is doomed to fail”.  But I can’t be too hopeful.   I am thankful for that unsubscribe button – if only I could turn off all the people who forward me bitchy posts with the obligatory “Did you see this?” intro.

Well, anyway, now back to work and back to blogging.  I’m sure my once again re-found love of positive blogging will wane again soon, and when it does I’ll be sure to share some angry Scott with you all, but until then, I’ll try to keep living up to my original goals for this blog.

 

 

What this means is that if you sign up for Yahoo! Web Hosting, you can now get WordPress in a one-click signup. No need to download a zip file and FTPing it or anything. Also, Yahoo! will make sure you are running the latest WordPress and will automatically upgrade you to the latest rev (you can turn this off if you don’t like the idea). So now you can concentrate on blogging instead of loading software.

I was amongst the first alpha testers and this blog is powered by WordPress on Y! Hosting. This whole blog wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the integration announced today. It really was easy and its nice being able to focus on the things I care about: the content and the design, not where files should live and do I have the latest version.

The Hosting team also did a similar deal with Moveable Type last week, so if you prefer that, its just as easy. (although I personally prefer the simplicity and extensibility of WordPress).

Great job Matt (WP), Guy (Y!) and both teams!

It’s been a long time since I so enjoyed reading posts in the net. Two thumbs up! thins that excited you at 14, substances that cure you , my parents didnt told me about it

Those last 3 phrases have links that go to Sun, Adobe, Panasonic and Yahoo! None of these companies (I hope) would be hiring someone to increase their PR, so I’m completely baffled as to what’s going on.

The only crazy idea I can come up with is that the spammers are using some sort of learning technique to figure out what will go through filters and what will get blacklist. Once they learn the technique, then they swap the URLS? Does anyone know?

So now comes this new blog. This time, I’m trying something new – a blog that might actually be read by people I don’t know personally (yet). And I’ll likely focus on more stuff about my professional life and the tech and internet industry at large.

My goals for this blog:

• Write down my thoughts – I constantly am thinking about things, but they are “in one ear and out the other”. I’d like to have an excuse and a place to capture those
• Be a better writer – they say that to become a better writer you need to write more. so there.
• At least two posts a week – ok, so I’m aiming low, but I want to actually make it past my third post

What you’ll see here:

• Things I’m learning about, especially more on being an effective manager
• Things I’m questioning – I’d love to pose questions and get thoughts from you all
• Bragging about my coworkers – there is so much cool stuff happening at work that I would love to share
• Notable stuff in the tech/internet industry – I won’t usually be the first to point things out, but hopefully I’ll add an interesting thought or two.

What you won’t see here:

• Secret stuff about Yahoo! strategy or what could potentially become strategy – I’m a bit paranoid about sharing something that competitors might use to our disadvantage.
• Trashing my company, competitors or other companies – enough people are good at that, I’ll try to focus on the good stuff (although sometimes I won’t be able to contain myself)

Anyway, i’ve written enough, I hope you enjoy what you read here and more importantly, I hope you join the conversation. Use that comment form down there