5 Questions with Bloglines CEO Mark Fletcher
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Written By Reprise Media | July 5, 2005 | Share This
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I recently talked to Mark Fletcher, Bloglines CEO, author of WingedPig.com, and self-proclaimed cat person about blog search, the Jeeves acquisition, and where Bloglines is going next.
1. You recently said your firm will be releasing a “world class” blog search engine that will blow the others out of the water. When’s that going to happen? What’s going to make it different than what’s currently available?
Well that’s a bit of an exaggeration - I said that world-class blog search doesn’t exist today, and we are working to bring that to market. Blog search is a difficult technical challenge and I’m not going to take anything away from the people who are out there trying to tackle the problem. Bloglines has had blog search capabilities from day one and we know first hand that it’s a complicated puzzle. But I think all of us can do better, and I believe Bloglines has the elements to get it right.
There are 3 key components required to deliver world-class blog search: a deep index of blog and news feed content, the capability to find and index new content quickly, and world-class search technology that brings relevant search results to users. Bloglines is the only service that has all three elements. We have the largest documented index of blog and feed articles (well over a half billion articles). We also index more new blog and feed content than anybody else (2-3 million new articles every day). And as part of Ask Jeeves, Bloglines has access to world-class search technologies. Bring those all together, and we’ll elevate the blog search game to a new level.
2. Your service has made it possible for people to become their own news editors, assuming control over the types of information they are exposed to and eventually consume. Do you think this type of technology comes with a risk of myopia (best) or ignorance (at worst)? Does the lack of a universal news source help foster more disjointed, disconnected communities?
Wow - that’s a dark scenario. Are you suggesting it would be better to have a central news bureau that protects us all from “dangerous” opinions? Blog creation is pure freedom of expression. Sure not everybody makes sense, but we all have the right to speak our minds.
Bloglines is all about freedom of choice: if you’re really into sports, you can subscribe to specialty sports blogs and news feeds from all over the world. If you’re interested in global news, you can subscribe to news feeds from the finest newspapers in many languages. Your local paper or TV news can give you an overview of the day’s events. But if you want to go deeper, reading blogs and news feeds in Bloglines is an amazing tool. If anything, Bloglines helps people become better informed about topics that interest them.
And our users tell us Bloglines helps create communities around specialty interests. You hear a lot of hype about technology bloggers and political bloggers, but the blogging and blog-reading phenomenon is much broader than that. For example, knitters are tremendous Bloglines fans. They create blogs and post pictures of their projects and to compare notes on everything from techniques to exotic yarn resources - and they use Bloglines to keep up to date on what everybody’s doing. Lots of people who have never met in person are connecting through Bloglines.
3. How has the Ask Jeeves acquisition affected your business? What has been most beneficial? What has been most challenging?
Joining Ask Jeeves gives us the opportunity to run with the big dogs. The benefits include access to more resources, access to amazing brainpower, and access to world-class search technologies. The challenge has been hiring as quickly as we want to grow.
4. Some have criticized Bloglines in past, citing issues with usability - the process of arranging subscriptions into folders is one example. What has Bloglines done in the past few months to improve usability? What will it do in the future?
We get lots of compliments about Bloglines usability, so that negative characterization surprises me. We’ll take another look at the folder processes and see what we can do to improve them.
My mission in starting Bloglines was making it easy to subscribe to blogs and news feeds. I want my parents and non-geek friends to use it. Our members have been a great source for ideas for new features and improvements, and we take those suggestions to heart. We’re constantly tweaking the ways users can access and explore the service. At the moment we’re working on making it easier for newbies to get started with Bloglines.
5. Bloglines just celebrated its two-year birthday (June 30th). What was your most memorable birthday, and why?
Let’s just say that you never forget a birthday that involves the Tijuana police.
Topics: Interviews |