adaptiveblue

AdaptiveBlue CEO Alex Iskold has a post today discussing his time doing customer service. He suggests that all CEOs should do some customer service and support noting, "you will never think about your product and customers in the same way."

I've always been a nut about customer service starting from my very early days delivering newspapers. I would take Alex's statement one step further. During my time leading product teams and large-scale marketing programs, everyone had some time on the customer service hotline. Designers, developers, marketing, it didn't matter to me. While some of the team needed a coach from customer service to help them with the replies, it taught the team lessons about what customers look for in a product. The projects always seemed to finish stronger and we'd consistently receive more positive feedback.

It's one thing to see the feedback on a chart or graph, it's another thing to be immersed in it yourself. Products like GetSatisfaction are a good start. Check out what happened when we put 10 of the top Web apps to the customer service challenge. It's worth a read - Technorati ranked worst, Dogster ranked at the woofpack.

Below I've emebdded a video from VW. It's their latest commercial for the Golf. It made me wonder how many times we just hear, but don't listen. Goes along with the customer service theme above.

Tonight NY-based AdaptiveBlue is announcing the launch of the latest version of their BlueOrganizer Firefox (and Flock) add-on codenamed Indigo. I had a discussion with CEO Alex Iskold and Biz Dev Director Fraser Kelton about the new features and my notes are below.

Iskold loves to talk about "semantic Web" -- I think he has used the term more than any other single person online today. In simple terms, BlueOrganizer is a "smarter" way to browse. It takes normal links and enhances them. It senses what a page is about and can switch how it handles the page based on content type. For example, if you are on a book page on Amazon, BlueOrganizer knows and adjusts the links it presents to you. If it's a movie site, you might see Fandango but you wouldn't see that as an option on a music page. The little icons on the toolbar change to reflect what type of page it is.

There is a tie-into many of the major social services including: Twitter, Tumblr and Lijit which lets you export your saved items directly. It's a good way to get your favorites out to your friends quickly.

When you install BlueOrganizer, it filters through your Internet history to determine what initially shows up on your BlueOrganizer profile. Iskold says that none of this data is transmitted to AdaptiveBlue.

One of the interesting bits I noticed when watching the video is that if you install the Smartlinks widget (another AdaptiveBlue product), it automatically adds BlueLinks to the site. This is a very smart distribution move. Once you install the BlueOrganizer add-on, it scans Web pages and injects the SmartLinks into the page as it finds them. It's a good idea but at the same time, could it take away my chance to earn affiliate revenue? If I have a link to a book on Amazon using my affiliate code, and then the person goes to Amazon thru the SmartLink, I lose that sale. Perhaps there is a way to engineer it so I still receive credit.

The add-on also makes the most out of microformats so if you click on an address (that has microformats in use), it presents the address with links including Google Maps and other location-based information. The system also recognizes 500 common names and by clicking on a name, it provides a menu of options including Wikipedia and Google Search.

Some stats that Iskold shared include: 1.3 million downloads of the add-on, 5000 blogs have installed SmartLinks and hundreds of thousands of active users of BlueOrganizer.

The company continues with the same revenue model we have written about previously -- affiliate sales. When you click to purchase a book or movie through BlueOrganizer and don't have the affiliate field set, the commission goes to AdaptiveBlue. Amazon came out last week with a strong notice about people using their own affiliate code for sales. Not sure how that impacts how the affiliate codes work with BlueOrganizer.

This week on nextNYers, Meghan sits down with NY-based AdaptiveBlue's Director of Engineering Karen Teng. We've covered AdaptiveBlue several times over the past year.

They have continued to make their products (BlueOrganizer and SmartLinks) easier to understand for the common person (aka me) and Karen noted that they are looking to enter the social space this year so I expect to see the terminology continue to shift. While some geeks might care about "semantic web", most Internet users just want something that helps them without big words.

Karen also noted that they are seeking a series B round of funding and are currently in discussions with investors. Lastly, she noted that AdaptiveBlue is considering adding advertisements to their panels which would be highly contextual.

Come inside to view the interview »

Don't forget to check out all of the previous nextNYers episodes along with our review of online video in NYC.

NY-based AdaptiveBlue continues their mainstream appeal push which is something I have written about before. Last night I spoke with Fraser Kelton, Director of Business Development. We discussed the new RSS BlueLinks which basically take any RSS feed and transform it into a BlueLinks widget. And they have created about 50 of the most popular feeds from the top eCommerce and social sites including: Amazon, wine.com, IMDB, Last.FM and more. And they offer a widget for your Amazon wishlist - perfect holiday timing.

It's a great next step to gaining mainstream appeal for the BlueLinks widgets. In the title I noted that they still have work to do. The reason is simple - there is still too much "geek speak" on the site for the mainstream audience. The AdaptiveBlue team is a very bright and intelligent team and their level of education comes across in their content. But the mainstream audience doesn't care about "semantic Web", they just want widgets that provide value. I am normally against double branding but I would be curious as to how their widgets would do branded under a new name targeting completely the mainstream audience. Perhaps split the BlueOrganizer and the BlueLinks widgets? They need more non-tech bloggers to "accept" their widgets - get a PerezHilton to use it and their take rate would increase over night - perhaps offer a "latest Britney news" or something through the widget. I would also look at creating a sexier-looking widget.

I look forward to seeing how they continue their move to mainstream usage of the AdaptiveBlue suite of tools.

NY-based AdaptiveBlue has announced a change which makes adding their SmartLinks service easier. In the past, you had to install their script code, then add "bluekeys" across the site which frankly was a bit of a pain. Now, just add the script code to your template and any links that point to services that AdaptiveBlue supports automatically become SmartLinks. SmartLinks adds additional value to books, movies, wines, stocks and a variety of other options. Installation is one-click for TypePad and Blogger and one Javascript code for everyone else. Tonight's announcement and functionality improvements should help increase the take rate.

I still stand by what I said earlier in the year. SmartLinks should be promoted as a monetization tool as much as it is a quality of Web tool. The tool has a high level of "reason to believe" difficulty and pitching it as a monetization tool should improve the take rate.

Come inside for their installation and overview video »

AdaptiveBlue has announced their new SmartLink Feeds which is a great way to add a new layer of monetization to your Web site or blog. It seems like everyday I am speaking with someone about using widgets to monetize, and this might be another way to do just that. You can also use the widget to show any feed you would like and relevant links will appear including Wikipedia, Google, Yahoo, etc. The easier way is to monetize existing feeds published by AdaptiveBlue. Among these feeds are NY Times Best Sellers, Netflix Top Rentals, iTunes Top Albums and Amazon Hot Gadgets. All you need to do is to grab the widget for your blog and fill in your Amazon id. The feed content will update automatically with new, popular items. When your readers click through or buy via SmartLinks you make money.

As Alex notes in the official blog post, SmartLink Feeds is a good complement to your existing advertising programs. As opposed to say AuctionAds which provides a widget of eBay items, the SmartLink Feeds widget can provide more content about the book or music item. Depending on the type of item, ~20 links are provided to the item including links to purchase the item on Amazon, eBay, etc. These purchase vehicles can use your affiliate code so any purchases made credit your account.

View a sample SmartLink Feed »

Editor's note: AdaptiveBlue is a current CenterNetworks sponsor.

Thanks to everyone for continuing to support CenterNetworks, I am excited to announce that we just broke the Technorati 2k! Here are some updates from our excellent sponsors who help keep the rabbits spinning the wheels here! Please take a minute and visit their offerings.

TWERQ - our newest sponsor, TWERQ is a better (and smarter) way to search. There are loads of time-saving features including multi-search at once, collapsing titles, saved searches, search collaboration, etc. I have found it valuable when searching for company information as I use TWERQ as my search hub.

The Go BIG Network - The Go BIG Network is the World's Biggest Community of Startup Companies. Startups use Go BIG to find funding, recruit talent and get expert advice. They also have project listings and information about jobs within startups.

Zoho - one of the leaders in online office suites, Zoho has recently released two major upgrades. iZoho takes your favorite Zoho applications and allows you to access them from your iPhone. Raju has a demo video on the Zoho blog. Also, today they announced a Facebook app and there is an upgrade in the works for managing all of your Zoho documents centrally.

AdaptiveBlue - the team at AdaptiveBlue make the BlueOrganizer which increases your overall Web experience. Most recently they launched SmartLinks which take a regular link and transforms it into something much more powerful. In addition, Web site publishers and bloggers can also generate revenue from their use of SmartLinks.

WingSix - WingSix provides the hosting and server support for CenterNetworks. They have the absolute best support in the hosting business. Lastly, they launched a new customer web site last week.

If you are interested in sponsoring CenterNetworks, send in an email and let's discuss how CenterNetworks can help you maximize your marketing investment.

AdaptiveBlue has launched their latest version of their BlueOrganizer Firefox plugin. Named "Denim" it offers a variety of new features to help site visitors, publishers and plugin users. Richard and Duncan have done a good job of explaining the new features so I thought I would take a stab at the benefits for the site publisher.

The new smartlinks option allows you to setup links that offer the BlueMark panel which offers many options for that product. This works mainly for books, music, dvds, etc. So rather than just linking to Amazon (which still remains), a small bluemark box appears next to the links (only the ones you specify) and when you click the bluemark box, a layer opens (see image below) displaying all of the options available for that product and category.

What's great is that for publishers, you can now monetize most of the links. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. So whereas before, your link went to Amazon and if someone prefers to order from B&N, you see nothing, now you have an opportunity to monetize no matter what the customer wants to use. Your Bluemark box also offers more options as displayed below.

What I like about this new bluemark option is that I determine what links get the special treatment and which don't. This was one of the big beefs with Snap previews... they were on or off, no middle ground.

Also, the BlueBadge widget (as seen on left menu) will now also offer the BlueMark option. And as always you can monetize the widget as well.

One thing that I would suggest is that they look at offering me some custom options within the BlueMark. So I could add Viddler to the list of movie clip options or add Buy.com to the list of booksellers.

In summary, I think these new publisher monetization options should help AdaptiveBlue push their offering to new heights. Check out our previous AdaptiveBlue coverage including my interview with Alex Iskold, founder.

Editor's note: AdaptiveBlue is a current advertiser on CenterNetworks.

Thanks for another great week, I sure do appreciate all the emails and comments about our posts and the tips and post ideas! Keep 'em coming! Keep 'em and your ideas coming! Here are some updates from our sponsors who help keep the rabbits spinning the wheels here! Seems we have a bit of widget news today.

We've got news on Rootly, WingSix, AdaptiveBlue and yourminis. They are our awesome sponsors. Come inside and learn about their latest releases and updates.