“User” Rehab:
A story of redemption
Bradley Horowitz
bradleyh@yahoo-inc.com
VP Advanced Development Division
Yahoo!, Inc.
Q1 2007

User - Wiktionary Defn.
2

Turning “users” into People…
Moving beyond “users”…
2
1 creators
10
4 synthesizers
8
100 consumers
3

Web 2.0 Community Dynamics
100% creators
100% synthesizers
100% consumers
4

Happenstance artistes…
Anyone with a ________ is now a ________
author
keyboard
photographer
camera
deejay
iPod
publisher
browser
5

Where is this leading?
6

Turning “users” into Editors
Interestingness…
• Based on implicit,
organic measures
• Retroactive
• Less susceptible
to “gaming” or
agendas
• Works!
7

Turning “users” into Taggers
Another form is "throw-
ups" which are normally
quickly done pieces
featuring very simple
pieces using few colors,
sacrificing aesthetics for
speed. - wikipedia
8

Tagging
People Organized Content
Content is tagged, described, organized, discovered, etc. not by “editors” but by the
“users” themselves.
9

A Digression:
Computer Vision is hard
10

FOWALONDON07 @yahoo.com?
Phone can provide context
- time
- place (GPS, CPT)
- identity
- copresence (Bluetooth)
- crowd effects
- ancillary database
11

Emergent knowledge
12

Mental maps: TagMaps
13

Jaguar Clusters
14

Love Clusters
15

Lotsa tags!
• Low barriers to participation
• Messy / easy at data entry time…
but lots of data helps to make sense of it later
16

Turning “users” into neighbors
17

Publisher’s reln. to her audience
211.43.201.11 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:00:42 -0800] "GET /blog/?feed=rss HTTP/1.0" 200 4865 "-" "openmaru feed aggregator 0.1"
222.231.15.180 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:01:21 -0800] "GET /blog/?feed=rss HTTP/1.0" 200 4865 "-" "HanRSS/1.0 (http://www.hanrss.com; 1 subscriber)"
64.4.8.131 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:03:23 -0800] "GET /blog/ HTTP/1.0" 200 56366 "-" "msnbot/1.0 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
207.126.230.225 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:03:30 -0800] "GET /favicon.ico HTTP/1.1" 304 - "http://dial.sbc.yahoo.com/p/d.html" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1)
Gecko/20061204 Firefox/2.0.0.1"
72.237.73.67 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:03:36 -0800] "GET /blog/?cat=10 HTTP/1.1" 200 16415 "-" "Mozilla/5.0"
72.237.73.67 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:03:38 -0800] "GET /blog/?p=10 HTTP/1.1" 200 13794 "-" "Mozilla/5.0"
207.126.230.225 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:03:47 -0800] "GET /favicon.ico?.yslowt=1169726627372 HTTP/1.1" 200 1406 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1)
Gecko/20061204 Firefox/2.0.0.1"
24.138.234.251 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:03:55 -0800] "GET /blog/?feed=rss2&p=8 HTTP/1.0" 200 5128 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)"
193.49.124.107 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:04:27 -0800] "GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.1" 304 - "-" "NG/2.0"
212.134.155.210 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:04:40 -0800] "GET /blog/?feed=atom HTTP/1.0" 200 50697 "-" "AppleSyndication/54"
72.30.216.107 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:06:24 -0800] "GET /blog/?m=200602 HTTP/1.0" 200 18512 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Yahoo! Slurp; http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp)"
74.52.87.85 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:09:43 -0800] "GET /blog/?p=64 HTTP/1.1" 200 12273 "" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows 98; Win 9x 4.90)"
Oh! I got a visit from 18.85.225.206 at 12:31 today!
74. 69.180.26.237 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:10:34 -0800] "GET /favicon.ico HTTP/1.1" 304 - "http://my.yahoo.com/p/d.html" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1)
Gecko/20061204 Firefox/2.0.0.1"
74.6.67.123 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:11:16 -0800] "GET /blog/?m=20060624 HTTP/1.0" 200 16536 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Yahoo! Slurp; http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp)"
66.150.96.118 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:13:28 -0800] "GET /blog/index.php?&feed=rss2 HTTP/1.1" 304 - "-" "FeedBurner/1.0 (http://www.FeedBurner.com)"
65.214.44.29 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:14:09 -0800] "GET /blog/?feed=rss2 HTTP/1.1" 200 50314 "-" "Bloglines/3.1 (http://www.bloglines.com; 6 subscribers)"
72.30.216.88 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:18:16 -0800] "GET /blog/?p=62 HTTP/1.0" 200 23205 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Yahoo! Slurp; http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp)"
70.87.56.46 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:18:21 -0800] "GET /blog/?p=24 HTTP/1.1" 200 8882 "" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows 98; Win 9x 4.90)"
61.17.229.126 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:19:08 -0800] "POST /blog/wp-trackback.php?p=24 HTTP/1.1" 200 94 "" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows 98; Win 9x 4.90)"
72.14.199.3 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:20:17 -0800] "GET /blog/?feed=rss HTTP/1.1" 200 4881 "-" "Feedfetcher-Google; (+http://www.google.com/feedfetcher.html)"
72.14.199.8 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:20:38 -0800] "GET /blog/?feed=atom HTTP/1.1" 200 50713 "-" "Feedfetcher-Google; (+http://www.google.com/feedfetcher.html)"
38.102.128.140 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:21:50 -0800] "GET /blog/?feed=rss2&p=5 HTTP/1.1" 200 6939 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.2.1; Rojo 1.0;
http://www.rojo.com/corporate/help/agg/; Aggregating on behalf of 1 subscriber(s) online at http://www.rojo.com/?feed-id=2587649) Gecko/20021130"
64.78.155.100 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:23:03 -0800] "GET /blog/?feed=rss2 HTTP/1.1" 200 50314 "-" "NewsGatorOnline/2.0 (http://www.newsgator.com; 4 subscribers)"
65.55.208.92 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:23:37 -0800] "GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.0" 200 50 "-" "msnbot/1.0 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
65.55.208.92 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:23:38 -0800] "GET /blog/?cat=5 HTTP/1.0" 200 22429 "-" "msnbot/1.0 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
72.237.73.67 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:23:50 -0800] "GET /blog/?p=5 HTTP/1.1" 200 110865 "-" "Mozilla/5.0"
69.180.26.237 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:25:50 -0800] "GET /favicon.ico HTTP/1.1" 304 - "http://my.yahoo.com/p/d.html" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20061204
Firefox/2.0.0.1"
74.6.74.226 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:27:50 -0800] "GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.0" 200 50 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Yahoo! Slurp; http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp)"
74.6.73.231 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:27:51 -0800] "GET /blog/?feed=rss2&p=56 HTTP/1.0" 304 - "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Yahoo! Slurp; http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp)"
64.4.8.131 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:28:12 -0800] "GET /blog/?cat=4 HTTP/1.0" 200 27144 "-" "msnbot/1.0 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
64.4.8.131 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:28:25 -0800] "GET /blog/?cat=1 HTTP/1.0" 200 25546 "-" "msnbot/1.0 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
64.4.8.131 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:28:37 -0800] "GET /blog/?cat=2 HTTP/1.0" 200 26949 "-" "msnbot/1.0 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
200.87.117.58 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:28:55 -0800] "POST /blog/wp-comments-post.php HTTP/1.0" 302 0 "http://www.elatable.com/blog/?p=59" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows NT)"
64.34.176.164 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:29:22 -0800] "GET /blog/?feed=atom HTTP/1.1" 200 50713 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.2.1; aggregator:Tailrank; http://tailrank.com/robot)
Gecko/20021130"
66.150.96.118 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:29:44 -0800] "GET /blog/index.php?&feed=rss2 HTTP/1.1" 304 - "-" "FeedBurner/1.0 (http://www.FeedBurner.com)"
64.4.8.131 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:30:18 -0800] "GET /blog/?cat=7 HTTP/1.0" 200 16739 "-" "msnbot/1.0 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
64.4.8.131 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:30:18 -0800] "GET /blog/?cat=8 HTTP/1.0" 200 16745 "-" "msnbot/1.0 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
64.4.8.131 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:30:23 -0800] "GET /blog/?cat=20 HTTP/1.0" 200 17358 "-" "msnbot/1.0 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
72.14.199.8 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:30:52 -0800] "GET /blog/?feed=rss2 HTTP/1.1" 200 50314 "-" "Feedfetcher-Google; (+http://www.google.com/feedfetcher.html)"
202.162.230.107 - - [25/Jan/2007:04:31:23 -0800] "GET /blog/?feed=rss HTTP/1.1" 200 4881 "-" "Java/1.5.0_05"
18

Publisher’s reln. to her audience
19

Instant community
20

Site owner owns the community
21

MyBlogLog connects people where
they are, all over the web
Since I joined MyBlogLog last month, I
have met some really incredible people
whom I doubt I would have met
otherwise.
I’d not done anything to build my
‘community’ except happen to be a
member - but now this site has 539
‘members’!
Reason No. 38 Why I’m Becoming A Huge “MyBlogLog” Fan
http://abowlofstupid.com/arts-entertainment/reason-no-38-why-im-becoming-a-huge-mybloglog-fan
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/01/23/problogger-mybloglog/
22

Turning the lights on…
23

MyBlogLog integration
Add this single line of javascript to a web page…
• <script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pub.mybloglog.com/comm2.php?mblID=2006111120453914&c_width=180&c_sn_
opt=y&c_rows=5&c_img_size=f&c_heading_text=Recent+Readers&c_color_heading_bg=00
< don’t blink! >
5A94&c_color_heading=ffffff&c_color_link_bg=E3E3E3&c_color_link=005A94&c_color_bott
om_bg=005A94"></script>
24

Pipes: Rewire the Web
25

Pushing HTML to the “users”
New York
Times
<HTML><HEAD>…
</BODY></HTML>
<HTML><HEAD>…
</BODY></HTML>
Flickr
26

Mashup’s for the masses: RSS!
New York
Times
<RSS version=“2.0”>
</RSS>
Flickr
27

A real-world task
Find an apartment for rent walking distance from a
daycare center…
28

Give the “users” (crack) Pipes!
29

Apartments Near Something
30

Sampling v. Synthesizing
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or
sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as
an instrument or element of a new recording.
31

Web 2.0 Community Dynamics
100% creators
100% synthesizers
100% consumers
32

Thank You!
Bradley Horowitz
VP of ADD
Yahoo, Inc.
bradleyh@yahoo-inc.com
33

200490966
3EiGUH7F37
unlimited minutes within 24 hours
from first log-in
31-12-2008
34