Blogging | Cheryl Waller

Find Your Klout

December 9, 2011 By Klout.com Leave a Comment

At Klout, we love data and as Dave Mariani, Klout’s VP of Engineering, stated in his latest blog post, we’ve got lots of it! Klout currently uses Hadoop to crunch large volumes of data but what do we do with that data? You already know about the Klout score, but I want to talk about a new feature I’m extremely excited about — search!

Problem at Hand
I just want to start off by saying, search is hard! Yet, the requirements were pretty simple: we needed to create a robust solution that would allow us to search across all scored Klout users. Did I mention it had to be fast? Everyone likes to go fast! The problem is that 100 Million People have Klout (and that was this past September—an eternity in Social Media time) which means our search solution had to scale, scale horizontally.

So how did we accomplish that?

Share Nothing and Don’t Block
We use Node.js in our front end to help scale to thousands of concurrent users. We follow the same philosophy in our backend for search. Given the size of our dataset and its substantial growth rate, we needed to choose a search solution which would allow us to scale horizontally; On the application side we wanted to have a stateless Web layer, not only for performance, but also for manageability. So share nothing and block as little as possible!

Let’s Play! and be “cool, bonsai cool”
The technology stack chosen to address the problem was ElasticSearch and the Play! Framework. Why did we choose that stack? At Klout, we like to choose the right tool for the job, regardless of the platform it runs under or the company that’s behind it. We chose ElasticSearch and Play! because both of these were designed to use fast, non-blocking IO, both of these provide powerful infrastructure, and both of these were designed to be easy to extend. These tools help us build powerful search now, and continue improving search to give you more relevant results.

ElasticSearch is a powerful, scalable and distributed search solution built on strong foundations like JBoss Netty and Apache Lucene. ElasticSearch builds off of Apache Lucene, a personal favorite of mine, created by Doug Cutting. Doug Cutting has had a huge impact on many tools we use at Klout; He is also the creator of Hadoop (and Nutch for that matter!). Lucene is a search library—more than 10 years old—that provides powerful search capabilities such as relevancy ranking, fuzzy matching, wildcard, proximity operators, fielded searching, spell-checking, multi-lingual and all that jazz—all while still being completely portable since it’s a JVM-based solution; most important, it’s blazing fast!

ElasticSearch uses JBoss Netty as its network library for async/non-blocking IO. In a traditional blocking IO model, performing a search across multiple shards would be extremely expensive. We could retrieve results serially, meaning that our search would become slower as our data size increased, or execute results in parallel threads, which would require ever increasing processing resources. Netty allows ElasticSearch to retrieve results from multiple search nodes in parallel; there are no blocking threads waiting for it to finish.

We used Play! Framework for the Web layer, which also uses JBoss Netty as its network library. Why? To find out more about this great framework, watch my Dreamforce presentation from this past September here in San Francisco, CA: “Introducing Play! Framework: Painless Java and Scala Web Applications”. Just recently, Play! has joined Typesafe, the creators of Scala, as an official part of its Scala-based technology stack and providers of the Web solution for Scala.

Akka is also part of Typesafe’s stack and provides an event-driven and self-healing concurrency platform based on an Erlang-style, actor-based concurrency model for the JVM. In summary, Akka helps Klout’s search go fast! We have actors for the different searches we support, messages are dispatched to their mailboxes as Play’s controller actions are invoked. Akka actors, which are pretty similar to Scala actors, allow us to effortlessly execute parallel searches to minimize overall response time to provide our users the best experience possible.

If you are down to Play! come join us and follow us on Twitter as @_felipera and @dwollen.

Happy Searching!

Filed Under: Facebook, Search Engine Marketing, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Blogging, engineering, Facebook, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking

Find Your Klout

December 9, 2011 By Klout.com Leave a Comment

So how did we accomplish that?

If you are down to Play! come join us and follow us on Twitter as @_felipera and @dwollen.

Happy Searching!

Filed Under: Facebook, Search Engine Marketing, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Blogging, engineering, Facebook, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking

Mark It Down: June 6, 2012

December 8, 2011 By MG Siegler Leave a Comment

“Six months from now you’ll say the opposite. Because ultimately applications vendors are driven by volume. And the volume is favored by the open approach that Google is taking.”

That was Google Chairman Eric Schmidt speaking at LeWeb a couple days ago. Specifically, he was addressing a question from the audience wondering why most big application developers are still choosing to develop for the iOS platform first instead of Android.

First of all, if you haven’t watched Schmidt’s entire talk with Loic Le Meur yet, you really should. They cover a range of topics important to both Google and the broader tech space. Plus, it will avoid the small situation that arose yesterday when Schmidt was misquoted, making him sound much more arrogant about the Android platform than he actually was.

While Schmidt was misquoted, the core of this latest debate around iOS and Android remains very much intact. Schmidt predicted that 6 months from now, most app developers will choose to make their app work on Android before iOS. This statement gives us an actual date that we can mark down to see if he’s right or not: June 6, 2012.

Of course, my stance is going to be that there’s no way he’s going to be right about that. Not a chance.

In fact, I’m not even sure he would say the same thing again if pressed. Because while the way he answered the question may have sounded reasonable, history has already given us plenty of guidance as to why he’ll be wrong.

The audience member who asked the question clearly did so because Android already is the dominant player in the space. And it has been for quite some time now. Schmidt brushes that fact (a fact which he so often states when it’s advantageous to an argument) aside completely and instead implies that the only reason developers aren’t rushing to Android is because the software hasn’t been good enough until now.

Of course, that goes against basically everything Google has been saying for the past couple of years. In that time, it was always been that Android was ahead of iOS when it came to software. Last year at Google I/O, for example, the knives were out for Apple’s platform. At one point, they showed Android 2.2 (Froyo) literally running laps around iOS.

So when Schmidt says: “It’s taken us a while to get software that really is capable of delivering on the promise that you’ve just articulated.” to the audience member, you have to wonder why then such a software comparison was a focal point of previous Google I/Os?

That’s not to say Android Ice Cream Sandwich isn’t good (I happen to be testing it out right now, and it is quite good — more on that in another column soon), it’s just that Google has consistently said the newest version of Android is the one that will blow the doors off the iOS house. It just hasn’t happened yet. And I see no reason why we should believe that the situation will be different this time.

Further, Schmidt goes on to imply that another reason why ICS will bring all the developers over to Android is that Google has now gotten better at working with their carrier and OEM partners to ensure the latest software is available to customers. “With the ICS release our core objective as a company is to get all of the hardware vendors onto that platform,” was his actual quote.

Yes, that has been a problem — a huge one. But again, I see no reason why it’s going to be solved here. At Google I/O this past summer, Google went on and on about their new “Android Update Initiative”. It sounded great. Google was going to get all the OEMs and carriers in line and make sure that Android updates came to all in a timely manner. “Over the next few weeks, we’ll figure it all out,” Android chief Android chief Andy Rubin said at the time.

That was seven months ago. Guess how much we’ve heard about the plan since then?

*Crickets*

Worse, just yesterday, Motorola — the hardware company Google is buying, mind you — took to their blog to dampen expectations about when their users may seen ICS on their wide variety of phones. They don’t come out and give a date, but putting two-and-two together, it sure sounds like it’s going to be many months at the earliest. Hell, they aren’t going to even finalize which devices they want to and can update until a month from now.

Here’s my favorite bit:

3. Submit the upgrade to the carriers for certification

This is the point in the process where the carrier’s lab qualifies and tests the upgrade. Each carrier has different requirements for phases 2 and 3. There may be a two-month preparation cycle to enter a carrier lab cycle of one to three months.

I’m starting to wonder if sure any Android device besides the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is going to have ICS by June 6, 2012. That doesn’t bode well for Schmdit’s prediction.

All that aside, let’s just think about what Schmidt is saying for a second. He’s saying that developers are just months — and maybe even weeks — away from changing their current line of thinking. Are there some developers out there that do Android first right now? Sure. Has that number been growing? I think that’s fair to say (though I have no data to point to either way). But it’s also fair to say that the vast majority of the key mobile software developers are still focusing on iOS first. The audience member cited Flipboard, everyone else can probably rattle off a dozen big names.

Again, Android is already the biggest smartphone platform out there. And again, that has been the case for a long time now. So when Schmidt says “ultimately applications vendors are driven by volume”, Android should already be dominating in the race for getting the best apps. But they aren’t.

I’ve spoken to many mobile developers over the years about this issue. There are a few refrains, but they’re all largely the same.

First, many of them still seem to prefer to use iOS as their own primary device. The likelihood is greater that they’re going to develop for a platform they actually know and use.

Second, most developers are still unconvinced that you can make any meaningful amount of money trying to sell an Android app (Schmidt hit on this quickly in his remarks, saying that the Market is now better, but doesn’t really address the issue). Instapaper creator Marco Arment is going to put his money where his mouth is in this regard by offering to split the revenue with any developer who can make a decent Android port of his app and sell it in the Android Market. If he thought it would be a huge money maker, obviously he would do it himself.

Third, the Android Market is still no App Store when it comes to both distribution and discovery. Again, Schmidt sort of alluded to this being fixed, but it’s not yet clear if the changes made are actually working.

Fourth, if volume was all that mattered, everyone would still be developing for Symbian, as Anil Dash pointed out earlier. Or they might even still be focusing on Windows, as John Gruber pointed out yesterday.

Fifth, while eventually Android volume may be a boon to apps largely based around advertising, many app developers don’t want to move in this direction. Most still want to make something and get paid directly for it (imagine that) — see: argument number two.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Android development itself remains a huge pain in the ass. I hear this again, and again, and again — just as much today as I did two years ago. Android has what are widely considered to be vastly inferior development tools when it comes to making apps for Android versus what Apple gives you to make apps for iOS. Many refer to them as a joke. Or a nightmare. Or the bane of their existence. Or all of the above.

And you have to use them to ensure that your app will work on the huge number of devices in the Android ecosystem. Very few developers even bother to actually test on the majority of them, and it’s still a pain. It makes IE6-specific development look like a cakewalk.

I actually brought this up on stage with SoundTracking creator Steve Jang at LeWeb on Wednesday. They were at the conference to launch their Android app after finding some success going iOS first. When asked what the Android development process was like, he admitted it was long and painful. Pretty much every app developer going from iOS to Android will tell you the same thing — and if they don’t happen to be on stage, they’ll use many more expletives.

So you’ll forgive me if I laugh when Eric Schmidt says that by June of 2012, all of this is going to change. Suddenly, the Flipboards, Instapapers, Soundtrackings, Instagrams, etc, are going to launch on Android first. It’s like saying that by the middle of next year, the majority of all TVs are going to be running on the Google TV platform.

Oh, wait.

[image: flickr/LeWeb11]

Filed Under: Google, Search Engine Marketing Tagged With: android, apple, Blogging, Eric Schmidt, Facebook, Google, iOS, iphone, mobile, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking, TC

How To Communicate Effectively

December 8, 2011 By OPEN Forum - Topic: Marketing Leave a Comment

From Kentin Waits:

In a world filled with so many ways to communicate, it’s easy to offer too much communication. E-mail, voicemail, text, instant message, cellphones, laptops and tablets all conspire to make 24-hour communication instantaneous and multimedia.

But what gets lost in translation? How do we know when to communicate, what to communicate and how often? Whether you’re messaging employees or customers, there’s a fine line between saying too little and saying too much.

Here are some tips to make sure you’re being heard and not tuned out.

Communicating with employees

Be precise. Filter your message down to just the essentials. The key is stating those clearly, briefly and without room for interpretation. To find those essentials, ask yourself these questions:

What’s the core of my message?
What do all my employees need to know about it?
Is there a timing factor to communicate?
When can they expect more information?
Where should I lead them for more detailed information?
Am I prepared for questions?

Don’t sugar-coat it. We’re all called upon to deliver bad news from time to time. Employees respond best when they know the facts and understand the specific challenges the facts present. Trying to temper the negative only sends a mixed signal that dilutes your message and will eventually require more communication to clarify.

Employers can still be positive or upbeat about the future, even when they are delivering negative news. Your optimism motivates your listeners through clearly defined tough periods rather than muddying a negative message with a false spin.

Anticipate and invite questions. All good communication invites questions and follow-up. The key is to be ready for questions, but don’t lose your audience by trying to answer every possible question up front. Let your employees follow up one at a time or by department with questions that are relevant to them. Fielding a laundry list of general questions wastes everyone’s time and allows your audience to disengage.

Provide resources for more information. Not all of your employees are concerned about the same things. Sales wants to know about new product launches, HR wants to know whether to staff up or stay lean, customer service is concerned about catalog release dates and so on. Avoid hitting your audience with details they don’t need to know. Present the information that is universally needed and then provide resources for each team or individual to get more specifics.

Communicating with customers

Know your audience. A large technology firm I worked with recently spent nearly half of their marketing budget researching the correct “developer tone” to announce the launch of a new service. The company realized that developers and tech-savvy people would be the early-adopters. Hitting the right tone involved writing copy in the correct casual voice, matching the developers’ verbal shorthand, and communicating key pieces of information with just enough detail.

The campaign was a success because the company understood and respected its very distinct audience, and targeted them correctly. Smaller companies operating on a shoestring marketing budget have to assess their own voice to see if it matches real-world customers, but it's worth the effort.

Match the message to the media. The glut of ways to communicate hasn’t been matched with training on how to leverage the right tool for the right message. E-mail marketing is best for longer life-cycle messaging, specific campaigns or ongoing newsletter distribution. Facebook pages work well for building buzz, developing a loyal fan base or hosting surveys. Whatever the goal of your message, distribute content that’s relevant to your customers and appropriate to the medium.

Keep it brief. We know customers have notoriously brief attention spans. Today more than ever, customers are inundated with marketing messages and their filters are rightfully set high. Cut through the clutter by tailoring your message to answer the three questions customers are most concerned with.

What is the offer?
Why should I care?
What sets your service apart from the competition?

By following this formula, you’ll provide just the right level of information to get your customers’ attention without losing them in superfluous copy. If more information is necessary, provide a link or source where customers can go for further details.

Time it right. When contacting your customers with an e-mail campaign, timing can make all the difference. Getting your message noticed in the first place means communicating less frequently. There’s no hard and fast rule for frequency, but monitor your conversion and unsubscribe rates immediately after deployment to see what’s giving you the best results. The same holds true for what time of day you contact your opt-in customers.

New technology allows some e-mail service providers to deploy messages to individual addresses on your list based upon a user’s previous open and click activity. If this level of sophistication isn’t available to you, divide your distribution list based upon broader time ranges of your openers and clickers. Launch separate campaigns to those who opened previous e-mails between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. EST or between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. EST, for instance.

Clarify your call to action. Some companies still struggle with the right online call to action. Users click to buy a product and then are presented with more product information or asked to update their profiles or led in a different direction altogether.

Don’t forget that you want your users to experience clear communication delivered consistently and simply. Lead customers through the process of learning and buying online by focusing on the words you use and the paths you take them down. Segment users based on actions (register, learn more and contact customer service).

The goal should always be to reduce the number of clicks for your buyers.

The tools available for individuals and companies to master effective communication strategies present limitless opportunities. Employees and customers are aware, tuned in and talking with each other now more than ever. The smartest companies have traded in the bullhorn for more tailored and targeted tools that reach the right audience at the right time in the right way.

Kentin Waits is a freelance writer and marketing specialist based in Portland, Oregon. His work has been featured in US Airways magazine and top-rated blogs such as Wise Bread, the Consumerist and MSN SmartMoney. When he's not writing, Kentin runs a small online antiques business.

Filed Under: Facebook, Idea Hub, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Article, Blogging, Facebook, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking

Infographic: Google Goes Wild With Android Market Stats

December 8, 2011 By Chris Velazco Leave a Comment

Google’s been celebrating their recent Android Market milestone with a string of discounted (and awesome) apps, but really — what’s a celebration without an infographic? Thankfully, Google has come through on that front with a slew of stats about the Android Market and the people who use it.

For example, despite Android being the most widely used smartphone OS in the United States, Americans are actually only the fourth most active app downloaders in the world. South Korea takes the top spot in this category, with Hong Kong and Taiwan coming in second and third respectively.

What’s more, the most popular time to download apps is 9PM on a Sunday, which certainly makes sense to me. After all, what better way to get pumped for a new week than to find apps that help kill time at work? Google also confirms that games are the most downloaded apps, although Android users don’t seem to be particularly big sports fans.

There’s a lot more to dig into, so take a few seconds and peruse — you know you’re dying to find out how many keystrokes people have collectively saved using SwiftKey.

Filed Under: Google, Search Engine Marketing Tagged With: Android Market, Blogging, Facebook, Google, infographic, mobile, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking, TC

Google Launches Schemer, An Activity Recommendation Engine To ‘Discover New Things To Do’

December 8, 2011 By Leena Rao Leave a Comment

We’ve been wondering exactly what Google Schemer is for some time now. Google has just officially launched Schemer, a new activity recommendations portal that allows people to ‘discover new things to do.’ Schemer basically helps people discover and share things to do in the offline world. Activities, or schemes, are recommended to you based on your location and interests.

From Google’s announcement of Schemer: Whether it’s exploring a new city, checking out a friend’s movie recommendation, or just finding new activities for your weekends, Schemer lets you discover new things to do, share schemes with friends, and make the most of your day.

There also seems to be a social component built around activities. You can find things to do, save ‘schemes for later’ and let friends know you are interested in specific schemes. The entire platform seems to be built around google+ as well.

Schemer will also record all your schemes in your list of accomplishments and other schemers will be able to learn from your experiences. Over time, Schemer will recommend new schemes tailored to your interests and help you do the things you want to do.

At launch, Google has teamed up with a number of media properties for schemes including Bravo, Entertainment Weeklym GeekDad / GeekMom, Idealist, IGN, Lifehacker, National Geographic, Outside, Parenting.com, Real Simple, Rolling Stone, Southern Living, Time Out, Thrillist, US Department of the Interior and Google-owned Zagat.

We’ll update this post if we scrounge up some invites.

Checkout Google’s video about Schemer below.

Filed Under: Google, Search Engine Marketing Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, Google, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking, TC

Holiday Tweet Drive

December 8, 2011 By Klout.com Leave a Comment

The holidays are a time for family, friends, and giving back. To celebrate this holiday season, the Klout team wanted to find a way where we could join our family and friends in giving back to those who need it most. This wasn’t about measurement or Klout scores, this was about influencing others to give back and be a positive change.

With that in mind, we have partnered with Tweet Drive, a global social good initiative that brings social media driven communities together to collect toys for under privileged children. In the midst of their second year, Tweet Drive is organizing events in over 50 cities and has already collected over 800 toys in their first 5 events.

We are happy to work with Tweet Drive through a Klout Perks campaign in order to bring more influencers to their events where they can use their voice and influence to bring real world change to the holiday season.

“Social Good is about using our voices, influence, and technology to create positive change in the communities that surround us” says Harrison Kratz, founder of Tweet Drive.

We are also hosting the San Francisco Tweet Drive event at our headquarters and are very excited to be participating in the festivities! Our event is tonight, December 8^th, and here is the list of events we have partnered with as well.

Happy Holidays!

Filed Under: Facebook, Search Engine Marketing, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, Klout for good, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking

Marketing: It’s All About Mobile, Says A New Study

December 8, 2011 By OPEN Forum - Topic: Marketing Leave a Comment

From Courtney Rubin:

Small business interest in mobile marketing nearly has doubled in the past year, says a new report.

According to a survey by Ad-ology Research, 22 percent of small businesses say they plan to dedicate more resources to getting their message out on mobiles, up from the 12.6 percent who said so a year earlier. (In 2009, just two percent of small businesses surveyed planned to increase mobile resources.)

“Marketing opportunities using mobile devices are rapidly emerging just as they did for the Internet many years ago,” said C. Lee Smith, president and CEO of Ad-ology Research. “Small business owners are increasingly connected, themselves, and recognize mobile as a viable way to effectively and efficiently reach potential customers.” (The major reason cited for investing in mobile marketing: The ability to deliver a new ad message quickly.)

According to the study, more than 80 percent of U.S. small business owners have a smartphone—compared to less than half of the general population.

The study also found that social media has become a must-do for small business: Just 10 percent of firms say they won’t use social media in 2012, down from the 24 percent who said so in 2011 and 39 percent in 2010. Half of small businesses plan to pour more time and/or money into Facebook, Twitter, et al in 2012.

There’s been a shift in the way small businesses view social media: For the first time, “improving the customer experience” topped the list of the social media benefits list. Previously, social media was valued most highly for generating leads.

“Even the smallest businesses are putting more resources into online, and really see these newer ways of marketing as a way to reach new audiences. That said, many small businesses—even ones moving into or increasing plans for online—still rely on traditional media,” Smith said.

Other findings from the study: Use of online video is on the rise. Nearly a quarter of small businesses say they plan to invest in this medium in 2012, up from 18.4 percent in 2011.

Nearly a quarter of small firms plan to increase their budget for daily deals. The most popular providers: Groupon and Living Social.

And small businesses haven't given up on old-school ways of marketing: More than a quarter (29 percent) plan to increase budgets for direct mail.

Filed Under: Facebook, Idea Hub, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Article, Blogging, Facebook, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking

Google+ Introduces Automatic Face Recognition To Photo Tagging (But It’s Completely Opt-In)

December 8, 2011 By Jason Kincaid Leave a Comment

No, Google is not launching super-creepy facial recognition, so put those pitchforks down. But it is introducing a new feature to Google+’s photo app, which now makes it a bit easier to quickly tag your friends. It’s called ‘Find My Face’, and while the name leads me to recall scenes in the classic Nic Cage/John Travolta film Face/Off, it’s a feature that plenty of users will find handy.

It’s pretty straightforward: opt into Find My Face, and the next time one of your friends uploads a photo that you’re in, they’ll see your name as a suggested tag. It’s very similar to the semi-automated facial tagging that Facebook launched earlier this year, though with one key difference: unlike Facebook’s feature, which automatically opted users in, Google is asking for explicit permission before it turns it on.

Of course, the fact that the feature is opt-in means that fewer people are going to be using it. Google+ will be presenting a dialog to users the next time they visit any photo on Google+, and I’m guessing that they’ll continue to present similar reminders over the coming months for any users who haven’t chosen either to explicitly opt-in, or indicated that they don’t want to. The option will show up in this settings page.

Google’s history with facial recognition is interesting — Eric Schmidt, who at the time was the company’s CEO, previously disclosed that facial recognition was the only piece of software Google had ever held back, over concerns around privacy and potential for abuse. Because this feature is opt-in, though, and is only available to people who you know (either on Google+, or its other services like GChat), the potential for abuse is minimal.