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Stuff-a-blog…a cool ‘proof of concept’ product for bloggers
| Tags: blog, NRI, proof of concept, web2.0 |
I often get tips about web applications that are innovative, but cannot be counted as true blood commercial products as yet. One of Webyantra’s stated objectives is to promote people who are striving to innovate; hence I am starting a series for ‘proof of concept’ products (these reviews will be tagged as ‘proof of concept’). I request Webyantra’s readers to give their frank and insightful feedback to help improve these products.
Stuff-a-blog is a web application that makes it easy for a blogger to create content-rich blog posts. Bloggers often feel the need to enrich their plain vanilla blog-posts with relevant content available on the web. The only way of doing this is to systematically ferret out content from the internet and include it in the post. SAB does exactly that and in a very simple way. Just type in your keywords, select your content, and get the HTML in a snap.
The application has been created by this bubbly Indian techie, whose blog reflects his infectious enthusiasm. He conceptualized the product when he himself felt the need for something of this kind. He wants to develop this into a full fledged web2.0 product and the current webapp is his first move in that direction. He feels that apart from creating content rich blog posts in a jiffy, SAB can improve the quality of your out-bound links (and hence improve your page-rank). SAB works by using several mashup APIs to generate high quality content relevant to the keywords. You can write your blog post in the webapp and then specify a few keywords that are related to the post. The application pulls in related content from the following applications and displays it as in shown in the image to the left-
Yahoo Map Image - embed a Yahoo Map in the post
Flickr Pics – include Flickr images in the post
Yahoo News - append the latest news related to the subject in hand
Yahoo Answers - support discussions with Yahoo answers (questions)
Amazon Product Details - To help write a review of a recent purchase, include the pic & details of the product from Amazon
Opinion Icons - express your feelings using icons
Site Search - add a list of previous related blog posts
Tags - extract the tags/ keywords automatically from the blog-post
You can generate the HTML and insert it into your blog post.
I tried out the application and while it generally works, it needs lots to improvements to make it work as smoothly as intended. My one (usual) crib is about the lack of India related content that flows in through the APIs, though there’s little SAB can do about that. But the concept behind the product is innovative and in a way, quite powerful. What it needs is solid, rigorous implementation.
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9 Comments | Add your own
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1. Mayank | November 2nd, 2006 at 8:43 am
Certainly this is a cool concept however, I don’ t think that this will actually lure professional bloggers. It may attract the bloggers who write about themselves or families but the professional bloggers will not get attracted towards it.
The reason which makes me think this way is that….most of the pro bloggers will love to write and will only include the content which they have created. If at all they want to give reference of any news then they’ll specify the direct news and not its related items.
Next thing is that every pro blogger will make sure that he/she is not violating the copyright issues…which may be the case in Flickr images.
Not being specific to pro bloggers only…..I think that new bloggers will find it as a good tool and will relish it’s features of finding the related things…like Flickr images, news, icons, tags etc. and that too with ease. So, this tool must drive some traffic and what I speculate that it will mostly New Bloggers.
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2. Idea, Execution, Profit | November 2nd, 2006 at 1:12 pm
I see this evolving as a wonderful content discovery tool. I do most of my reading while I research my post. Many times I end up not posting, just chasing the links!
My 2 cents to Seshu is focus on one add on content and let it gain traction. Amazon associate listing looks like a good idea. Perfect it, spread the word that it can enrich the post at the same time enrich the blogger.
On the technical front, is it possible to integrate it with say the standard wordpress, blogger editor?
Cheers!
-Balaji S.
Chennai
Blog: Joy of Innovation
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3. Stuff-a-blog…a cool ‘… | November 2nd, 2006 at 1:52 pm
[…] Stuff-a-blog…a cool ‘proof of concept’ product for bloggers […]
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4. Seshu Karthick | November 4th, 2006 at 7:36 am
Amit, Thanks for taking time to write about Stuff-a-Blog. I’m glad that you all liked it.
I recently created an offshoot of Stuff-a-Blog…. Its called ‘Fundoo Web’, and can be used as a content-discovery tool. Start playing with it, and hope you guyz like it!
Balaji, Thanks for the suggestion, and I believe FundooWeb will serve your research better.
Cheers.
- Seshu Karthick
Creator of Stuff-a-Blog
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5. Seshu Karthick | December 15th, 2006 at 7:22 am
Today, I launched a new service called BStir as a part of Stuff-a-Blog series. Any blog can make use of this service to surprise its readers with a random post from the archives. Give a new life to all the excellent posts you’ve written in the past…
Hope you all like it. Enjoy blogging ~
- Seshu Karthick
Creator of Stuff-a-Blog
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6. 2000 nissan part xterra… | March 27th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
2000 nissan part xterra
This site contains relevant information about 2000 nissan part xterra.
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7. Irriveani | August 10th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Very useful and informative blog. Recommended for all to see.
http://medsdrugs.blogspot.com/
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8. bob | March 26th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
9TY2Y6 great work man thx http://peace.com
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9. Face Lift | April 29th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
i will help to stuff the blog
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Amit Ranjan is a cofounder of SlideShare. Based out of N. Delhi, he is a prime mover on the Indian tech startup circuit. His professional life is a mashup of disparate roles- startup guy, blogger, podcaster, product manager & tech entrepreneur. He closely tracks the Indian consumer internet space...more
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