MetaMuse

Keyword Seeding Successful!

A main objective of the Others Online private beta was to organically seed our tag database. Since we connect people by a controlled set of tags/keywords, it's in our best interests to let the users (rather than us) define how they wish to be connected with others. I'm pleased to report that so far it's been very successfull.

Within just a few days of launching a private beta, our huge base of almost 50 users have explicitly defined 262 valid tags in our database (which they can use to connect with each other). Even with this few number of users, I'm no longer seeing Featured Profiles when I sign in (we have Featured Profiles show when there is not enough info to match you with others).  Every page I go to, I see others online. (Disclosure: of course, since I personally invited the users into the private beta, there is more likelihood that we share interests! I suspect other users continue to see Featured Profiles.)

The really cool part is our "queued keywords" which you might think of as keywords suggested to us by our users, based on their online browsing (and which aren't already 'valid' keywords). These are keywords/phrases which have been weighted heavily within Web page content. I sifted through such a report last night of 2600 keywords/phrases, sorted by frequency of recurrence, and selected 156 additional keywords/phrases that we'll match users around.

This is really cool for a couple reasons. First, now we can connect people around the interests they demonstrate but didn't type in. For instance, one keyword I activated is "TechCruch", which is a popular technology news blog several of our users apparently visit. Now that it's activated, "TechCrunch" forms a visible connection between those users, like "hey, I go to that site too".

Second, this is an interesting way to approach Web sites for partnership, by sending them a note essentially telling them (albeit with more tact):

• We've activated your site as a keyword, based on the fact that we share users.
• As a result, these users can see each other both on your site and when they're at other Web sites, because we're connecting them based on their interests, this keyword being one of them. Oh, and they're talking to each other and going to each other's Web sites too.
• We're sponsoring and monetizing your users while they're off AND on your site.
• If you'd like to benefit from this, we're happy to work with you, but we really don't have to.

Seems to me that could elicit an interesting response from them, especially if they learn of zero cost to work with us on distribution, and everything to gain. If you haven't seen the Keyword Ownership pitch, you should.

The Concept of Personal Tagclouds

A "tagcloud" (accoding to Wikipedia)  is a visual depiction of content tags (tags are really just keywords) used in a Web site, where size reflects popularity. Here's an example on Flickr.

Others Online introduces the concept of "personal tagclouds", for the first time (I think). Instead of weighting the keywords that pertain to lots of content on any given Web site, we're weighting the keywords that pertain to a lot of interests for any given person. We're associating people to all the relevant tags that pertain to their (a) explicit interests, (b) browsing behaviors (ad hoc), and (c) implicit interests. We simply use these "personal tagclouds" to connect people with other people, instead of people with content, on every page they visit. The tagcloud changes with every new Web page they go to, and therefore the intersections with other users' tagclouds also change.

Here's how that can be even more interesting than just connecting people around "boating, Wild Ginger, Comdex, hiking, jazz, etc." -- connecting people by intention rather than interests. By adding descriptors to keywords, we can for example match people:

• selling an ipod to those looking to buy one
• looking for a UI Designer to those UI Designers looking for work
• trying to find a good flamenco bar in Spain with those who have that information to share
• looking for a ride to Whistler from Seattle with those heading up there anyway

Currently, such intention-matching is hindered by the fragmentation of people and Web sites. If you're not on the same site or page as me, then I can't see you. And there's much more content on the Web than people. You have to abstract the people from the content in order to make all this a reality.

Soft Launch of Others Online

I'm delighted to announce that we launched Others Online today!

The Web site is up and ready for the world to see at http://www.othersonline.com. I hope you'll take a look at it and provide feedback on our messaging to users and potential partners. Product tour and team section needs to be finished yet (product tour is in PowerPoint while we wait for the final 'proper' online tour  :-P).

We've launched the Others Online toolbar too, albeit on a controlled basis. This beta release will be on an invite-only basis for the next two weeks, so that we can monitor the initial growth and scaling of the system. First invites go out today, followed by more every day --- please be patient! Yes, we're being cautious.

Another reason for a controlled initial release is to organically grow our initial keyword database. These keywords determine how people are being connected to each other, so it's obviously critical that we not let useless keywords proliferate within the system. Our users will seed the initial keyword database with the interests they include in their profiles, then over the next week we'll add keywords to the database based on their online behaviors. This way we ensure that WE'RE not telling users how they would like to connect with each other, THEY are -- thus hopefully starting a virtuous cycle.

We are looking for interesting, socially active Internet users and/or bloggers to be beta testers and possibly even "featured profiles". Featured profiles are what we show users on first login or when the context for a match is really weak. Please let me know if you have anyone in mind.