Although we’re still in Beta for a few more weeks — we have recently completed some major improvements to the back end and front end of BuzzTracker.com — we’re super excited about it and really want to hear from you on what you think.
When we initially launched our Beta at the end of August - we knew that our design as it stood then was not the final design - but our plan was to get the site launched, get feedback, and start learning. We used the first few months of the Beta launch to really hone our vision and get user feedback on the features, what worked and what didn’t. We then engaged with Rachel Cunliffe of cre8d design to work with us to re-design the site.
We think Rachel did a great job (thanks Rachel!) and has helped us accomplish our two major objectives for the re-design:
- It passes the “Mom Test” — ie, will your Mom, who knows how to Google but could care less about web 2.0, understand and be able to use the site
- Since BuzzTracker will always be about thousands of thousands of topics - can we devise an interface that allows for easy navigation and finding of topics of interest.
By focussing on the main articles found by our engine for a given topic, and de-emphasizing the blogs used to generate that result, we think we’re on the right track.
On the back-end, we completely swapped out our architecture to allow true scalability simply by adding more servers. We’re now using over 90,000 content sources (compared to 30,000 at launch). Without getting into too much detail — what this means from an end user is much faster and more timely results, our ability to publish more frequently, and ultimately enables our Create A Topic feature.
The Create A Topic feature will allow any end user to create and maintain a topic of their choice by essentially using all the back end levers at our disposal to fine tune their topic — including how far back in time does one want to search and test relevancy, the ability to apply boolean search terms, among other things.
We’ve really enjoyed using the new site and we hope you do to — one tip: if you have a hard time finding your topic in the navigation simply type it into the search box — it should come right up –
Look forward to hearing from you!
Many of our BuzzTracker readers have commented on the design� of the
site — and we hear your feedback!� From the time of launch, we realized that we would need to do a redesign shortly but we wanted to get the service out there, being used etc.
We have begun the process of redesigning the site;� both with some short term tweaks as well as a longer term re-haul.
Some of the ideas we are kicking around for the revised design include:
1)� A revised home page that shows all BuzzTracker categories, with emphasis on new and hot categories
2)� A “cleaner” representation of mostblogged and latest news
3)� A better way for the non-web2.0 audience to understand the site — we want the site to pass “the Mom” test — does your Mom understand it when she looks at it?
4)� More prominent ways for people to get involved — giving feedback, comments, taking BuzzTracker content for their own site via magnets, and the ability to suggest a topic
What do you think we should do?� What would you do differently?� What would you like to see?� How can we get you more excited about the site?
We’re extremely pleased to announce BuzzTracker Magnets are now available on the BuzzTracker site. Leveraging FeedBurner BuzzBoost, we are now able to allow any blogger or web site to grab one of our almost 200 topic feeds (and growing to 1,000 by Thanksgiving!) and display a text box on their site that automatically updates. As an example, if you have a NY Yankee blog, you can choose to show our Yankee category or our Joe Torre category as constantly updated content as a service to your readers. Below is a list of all current categories available; we think this is a great way to provide readers with dynamic content that will keep them coming back to your site and blog.
- Autos
- Business
- Companies
- Apple | eBay | Facebook | Google | Hewlett Packard | Microsoft | Myspace | Netflix | Palm | Payperpost | Powerset | Skype | Starbucks | TiVo | Walmart | Wikipedia | Yahoo | YouTube
- Oil and Gas
- Real Estate
- Stocks
- Venture Capital
- Entertainment
- Movies
- Music
- People
- Anna Nicole | Beckhams | Beyonce | Brangelina | Britney Spears | Jimmy Buffett Drug Bust | Justin Timberlake | Lindsay Lohan | Martha Stewart | Mel Gibson | Paris Hilton | Parkgoria | Seven Degrees of Britney | Simpson Sisters | Tom Cruise | Trumpsand | Vaughniston
- TV
- Health
- Cancer
- Breast Cancer | Prostate Cancer
- Diabetes
- Diet and Fitness
- Lifestyles
- Books
- Food
- Halloween
- Home and Garden
- Style
- News
- Amish Shooting
- Cities
- Chicago | Los Angeles | New York | San Francisco
- Education
- Environment
- Legal News
- Mark Foley
- Newsmakers
- Al Gore | Bill Clinton | Castro | Condoleeza Rice | Dennis Hastert | Hillary Clinton | John McCain | Oprah | Pervez Musharraf | Pope Benedict
- Nobel Prize
- North Korea
- Religion
- Science
- Sudan
- War on Terror
- Sports
- College Football
- Auburn | California | Florida | LSU | Michigan | Notre Dame | Ohio State | Oklahoma | Tennessee | Texas | USC
- Fantasy
- Golf
- MLB
- Anaheim Angels | Arizona Diamondbacks | Atlanta Braves | Baltimore Orioles | Boston Red Sox | Chicago Cubs | Chicago White Sox | Cincinatti Reds | Cleveland Indians | Colorado Rockies | Detroit Tigers | Florida Marlins | Houston Astros | Kansas City Royals | LA Dodgers | Milwaukee Brewers | Minnesota Twins | NY Mets | NY Yankees | Oakland Athletics | Philadelphia Phillies | Pittsburgh Pirates | San Diego Padres | San Francisco Giants | Seattle Mariners | St Louis Cardinals | Tampa Bay Devil Rays | Texas Rangers | Toronto Blue Jays | Washington Nationals
- NBA
- NFL
- Arizona Cardinals | Atlanta Falcons | Baltimore Ravens | Buffalo Bills | Carolina Panthers | Chicago Bears | Cincinnati Bengals | Cleveland Browns | Dallas Cowboys | Denver Broncos | Detroit Lions | Green Bay Packers | Houston Texans | Indianapolis Colts | Jacksonville Jaguars | Kansas City Chiefs | Miami Dolphins | Minnesota Vikings | New England Patriots | New Orleans Saints | NY Giants | NY Jets | Oakland Raiders | Philadelphia Eagles | Pittsburgh Steelers | San Diego Chargers | San Francisco 49ers | Seattle Seahawks | St Louis Rams | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Tennessee Titans | Washington Redskins
- NHL
- Soccer
- Tennis
- World Series
- Technology
- Ajax
- Blogging
- Cell Phones
- Google Youtube
- Home Audio and Video
- Open Source
- Portable Audio
- Software as a Service
- Video Games
- Travel
- World
- Africa
- Australia
- Canada
- China
- France
- India
- Iran
- Iraq
- Israel
- Japan
- Mexico
- Russia
- South America
- United Kingdom
- United Nations
We think BuzzTracker Magnets are a win-win for web sites as well as us — as it is an easy way to provide targeted, dynamic content to your audience.
What do you think?
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