Google’s dominance in online search hasn’t stopped hundreds of startups from trying to build a better mousetrap. Each is trying a new twist on search: geography, crowdsourcing, tags, user annotations, learned hierarchies and timelines. With $20 billion spent on online advertising every year, a killer search application can make a lot of money.

But will new types of search catch on? A recent study of the Google Generation, conducted by University College London, found that “users make very little use of advanced search facilities, assuming that search engines ‘understand’ their queries.” Many of today’s Internet users still don’t know how to use a search engine, preferring instead to type a domain name into the search box (which is why Yahoo is a top search on Google and vice-versa.) The reverse, known as type-in traffic, involves typing a search topic into the address bar to find results.

Alistair Croll’s opinion

If the flurry of search startups can tie into the social graph of Google, Facebook and others without biting the hands that feed them, then they have a chance of succeeding. But if they’re betting their business on changing the way people search, they have a lot of work ahead of them.

I totally agree with Alistair. We don’t need more search engines. What we need is for the current search engines to do all they can to enable more relevance and trust. Battling against Google is mad to say the least. This is why Segala has been working on Content Labels for the past two and a half years. This blog is attracting new readers all the time so I won’t assume you know what I’m talking about. So, I’ve published below, an old post which explains what Content Labels are, how they work and importantly, why I think they will see mass adoption within the next 24 months.

How to enable current search engines provide more trust

Before I explain how Content Labels enable more reliable and relevant search results, I will first use an analogy to help explain in plain English, what a Content Label is. This will help you to visualise yourself making use of a label, whether you are an end user, developer, Web site owner, search provider, browser vendor or trustmark provider.

Think of Content Labels on the back of food packaging

Jackie goes to the supermarket to buy the weekly shopping. Amongst other things, her shopping list includes a tin of baked beans. Most of the time, Jackie is happy to buy Heinz without hesitation.

Adrian goes to the supermarket with a similar shopping list. He however, has dietary requirements to consider. Adrian likes to check the Content Label on the back of the beans tin (irrespective of how much he trusts the brand) to ensure he’s happy with the contents before making a purchase.

Joanna is pregnant and although she should be taking it easy, decides to do the weekly shopping. She’s aware that eating any form of cream cheese is dangerous for the unborn. To ensure she doesn’t endanger her baby’s health, she checks the Content Labels on items that may contain cream cheese before making her purchasing decisions.

The moral of the story

People have different needs, some will only buy products that are low in fat, low in calories, high in protein or have some other dietary consideration.

Some brands will do more than provide a Content Label to promote the contents of their products. Brands such as Weight Watchers, for example, will promote specific aspects of their labels as a unique selling point to differentiate them from competitors. This allows buyers to look specifically for Weight Watchers without searching for any other brand to make a purchase, even though other brands may be trusted. Other brands are simply not ‘relevant’ (at this time).

So, there are numerous reasons why people check the Content Label on food packaging. The main point to highlight is that we are all different, with different needs and preferences when searching for and buying products.

If it wasn’t for the Content Labels on the back of food packaging, we would end up having to search and buy lots of products in order to taste and discover the ones that meet our dietary requirements. Some people may even die if they eat something they’re allergic to (such a nuts) - this may seem like an exaggeration, but the analogy does apply to the Web - consider a user who buys medication online.

If you’re the type of person that doesn’t care to read Content Labels on packaging, at least keep in mind that a lot of people do.

The problem today

The only information search engines provide today is the title and description of each Web site, nothing more. How do you know which Web sites are trustworthy?

A range of trustmark (visual badges) schemes exist around the world. In each case, a Web site is awarded the right to display a seal of approval or trustmark following a review by an independent authority or internal assessor. Trustmarks normally hyperlink to a certificate page provided by the labeling scheme provider to authenticate its claims.

However, trustmarks are invisible to search engines which limit their value. A user must already be on a Web site before they know it meets a labeling provider’s claims. Moreover, the logo is often displayed on just a single page and therefore invisible to visitors who are viewing other pages on the site.

The solution

Taking the food analogy to the Web, wouldn’t it be beneficial if Web site owners could provide more information about their content before users hit their site? In other words, allowing users to read specific information about the suitability of their content from search results. Well, this is now possible using Web Content Labels.

• It’s now possible for site owners to provide more information about their content from search results.
• It’s now possible for search engines to provide more reliable and relevant search results.
• It’s now possible for users to read Content Labels and make informed decisions about the suitability of content before entering Web sites.

Content Labels are files used to classify content in the form of metadata. The information contained within a Content Label is not generally found on the Web site, unless it’s in the form or a Trustmark. Content Labels not only contain information about the content, they also contain information such as the company name, asserter, creation date and expiration date.

The type of information contained in a Content Label very much depends on what the site owner wants to make claims about. It’s important to note that Content Labels have a very specific use. They’re used to make assertions about conformance to industry standards and codes of conduct. They’re not used to make assertions that are ambiguous. Although it’s debatable that most standards and codes of conduct are open to interpretation.

In concept, Content Labels act in a similar fashion to SSL Certificates. SSL Certificates are used so browsers can tell if a site is secure for credit card transactions. However, Content Labels are much more flexible. They can be used to make claims about a specific URI without the restriction of having to make a claim about an entire domain.

Content Labels are a lower cost solution than SSL Certificates as sold by companies such as VeriSign and GeoTrust. Oh wait, VeriSign bought GeoTrust which was their biggest competitor, so that provides them with a monopoly using proprietary technology. This is something we intend to disrupt!

We’re also helping to build other elements of the ecosystem. We have instigation the creation of ContentLabel.org. Contentlabel.org facilitates the creation and harmonization of new codes of conduct for which Segala will create new Content Labels. The idea is for any organisation or association worldwide to create a code of conduct and then have it reviewed in an open forum, formalised, endorsed and promoted.

It’s also possible for organisations and associations that already have a code of conduct (even if they have a trustmark) to have it recognised by industry and promoted to encourage mass adoption.

We intend to start with a new code of conduct for blogs as it appears to go down well with the bloggers we’ve spoken to. Anyone can participate so get in touch if you would like to get involved.

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I stated recently that I wasn’t go to Chair or speak at conferences this year as I had my fill of them last year. I’ve already had to decline 2 kind offers to Chair very good conferences. So I’m being very picky about the events I attend this year. If I’m to Chair or speak, it must be directly related to Segala’s business, be beneficial to the community (i.e. it’s no more than £40 to attend and not the typical £750+), or be in a sunny location Don’t get me wrong, I love to be asked. I just don’t have the time these days.

The Irish Web Technology Conference is my first speaking slot of the year.

What I’m going to talk about

I’m going to deliver a presentation on how Content Labels (AKA POWDER) will enable more trust on the Web. I’ll have with me, a tin of Heinze Baked Beans to help me demonstrate how Content Labels help consumers make better informed decisions about the suitability of products before making a purchase.

Sound interesting? Well, why not come along. As with every conference, you’re likely to get most value by hanging out in the hallway chatting to others and with around 500 delegates expected, you’re likely to meet some very interesting people. I might give away a prize as a means of keeping everyone awake. I’ve done this before and it seems to work well.

Oh by the way, all of this Content Labels malarkey is based on the Semantic Web. Don’t tell anyone though as they might assume it’s academic, boring or a nice concept.

About the conference

WHY?

This event’s aim is to showcase the sheer brilliance of the Irish Web Industry. It’s a four day, 10 track, 50 session web extravaganza.

WHAT?

The inaugural IWTC 2008 organised by IrishDev.com in association with the Dublin Java User Group and First Port Jobs, is the first of seven major technology conference in our Series 2008.

IWTC 2008 is an event by the Irish Java community for the Irish Java community and will bring many experts and internationally renowned speakers together to discuss latest trends and emerging technologies.

With almost 50 expert technology sessions to choose from, covering a breadth of Web technologies, this is yet another tech conference you can’t afford to miss!

When?

Begins Tuesday 26th February, Ends Friday 29th.

Where?

Cineworld Complex Parnell Street, Dublin 1

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As a way of thanking everyone for their contribution, I decided to give away the iPod anyway. So, tonight I pasted everyone’s name into a word document and assigned a number to each one. I then asked my Twitter friends to suggest a number so I could choose the winner. I’m extremely lucky because Pat Phelan picked Mike Butcher’s number.

That’s the good news for Mike. The lucky news for me is that one of Mike’s suggestions was powdrr.com Given that Aido and I came up with POWDR, I think Mike should have won anyway.

Talk about being lucky! And I’m referring to me being lucky, not Mike. Reading back on this post, I’m wondering if we should go with powdrr instead of POWDR. Argh!

Weird huh?

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I recently solicited your help with the renaming of our browser extension as Search Thresher is too much of a mouthful. 88 comments and dozens of suggestions later and we still didn’t manage to choose a winning name. I’m sorry (really I am) to say that nobody has won the iPod Touch.

Aido and I came up with the name in under 10 minutes. It just made sense to call it POWDR.

Why POWDR?

Well, our browser reads Content Labels (files that contain Metadata) in order to display more information about Web sites from search results. Content Labels will be a ratified W3C standard very soon but before it was accepted to move onto a Full Recommendation track, the W3C felt the name ‘Content Label’ gave the perception that we wanted to police the Web instead of enabling ‘better content discovery’. So members of the W3C team, including Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the Web) suggested POWDER. It stands or Protocol for Web Description Resources, obviously.

Powder is also a term used by snowboarders. Riding powder is the ultimate in snowboard experiences - like surfing clouds.

Rise and steer, rise and steer, until you are carving smoothly back and forth

So, using POWDR will be like carving smoothly through the Web.

We decided to drop the e as it seemed to be the right Web 2.0 thing to do

Hope you like it. Thank you so much for taking the time to enter our competition. It’s very much appreciated.

So, I still have an iPod Touch to give away. I don’t want to be perceived as link baiting so I’m not sure what to do. Suggestions welcome. Should I give it to a member of staff, or give it away on this blog, my personal blog or on Twitter?

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We’re changing the name of our Firefox extension and we’d like to solicit your help in return for the opportunity to feel good and win an iPod Touch at the same time.

The current working name is ‘Search Thresher’ which I’m sure you’ll agree, is too much of a mouthful.

In order for you to win, your nomination must be used in full. Even if we decide to use your nomination in part, you won’t win. This is mainly because we’ve already thought of lots of names using terms you’re likely to think of, but perhaps in a different combination. If you come up with a name that we’ve already thought of and we decide to go with it, then obviously you’ll win.

So, we need to ensure this little competition is transparent and in no way, open to interpretation. This is especially important because bloggers are a sceptical lot and I’m certain some of you already think that this is rigged in some way

How to enter

Either drop us a comment on this post, or write a blog post of your own. If you decide to write your own post, please ensure to use a trackback so we get to see it. That’s it.

Closing date

25th January 2008 – so get moving.

Some background to help you out

Today, search engines provide the title and description of Web sites in search results, with prominence given to the highest bidder, not the most relevant or most trusted. Wouldn’t it be useful to know, which Web sites conform to industry standards and best practices without having to visit each site to find out? Wouldn’t you sometimes like to know which Web sites are accessible, child friendly, mobile friendly, endorsed by a qualified medical authority, or follow best practices for privacy and copyright?

Millions of Web site owners already demonstrate their conformance and commitment to standards and best practices by displaying a Trustmark on their Web site. However, search engines don’t provide this valuable information in search results.

Consumers have come to expect content labels on the back of products in the supermarket, as they provide information about the suitability of their contents. Sometimes the labels are relevant and sometimes they’re not, but everyone at some point uses them. Some people use them all of the time.

Segala is helping to bring the same concept to the Web using a new method of classifying and labelling content. Funnily enough, the method is called Content Labels.

A Content Label is a file that contains Metadata on steroids. It’s this Metadata that search engines and browsers can now use to provide more meaningful information in search results.

So, now about the Firefox extension

Segala owns a Firefox extension that reads Content Labels and does exactly what I’ve explained above. The screen shot below should give you an idea for how it annotates Google to highlight Web sites that have a Content Label. In short, red x means there is no additional information. An amber tick means the Web site owner is making a claim about their own Web site. A green tick means a trusted third party has independently verified the Web site owner’s claim.

There’s plenty more that the extension can and will do as we launch monthly builds from next month, but that should be enough information to get you thinking about a new name.

The extension is being endorsed by the W3C and is one of four applications used by the W3C Semantic Web Education and Outreach Special (SWEO) Interest group, to help demonstrate a real implementation of the Semantic Web.

Hint

Here are some keywords to consider: Trust, Security, Reliable, Relevant, Suitable, Appropriate, Semantic Web, Better Discovery.

Keywords you should not consider: censorship and filter.

Ideally the name will contain one word and a maximum of two.

You can make as many suggestions as you like. So, get going and suggest some names now. Good luck and thanks for helping out

Check out the early-stage concept browser and have a play.

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I’ll continue to post about the Semantic Web, Accessibility, Mobile Web, Standards, W3C, Content Labels, Trust, Search and anything else that’s relevant to Segala on this blog. This should make what we’re launching in 2008 much more prominent.

On my personal blog, I intend to cover everything else that I used to cover on here, such as Social Media, Web 2.0, Web and Mobile Trends, Twitter, Facebook, Networking, Events, Connecting People and anything else that I have an opinion on. I might even write about some personal stuff.

So, check out my personal blog and of course, feel free to subscribe to the feed and drop by to comment from time to time.

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… Having said all that, I’m typing this comment through a proxy service, because this blog has now been blocked by the Great Firewall of China for covering this story…

I suppose it was just a matter of time

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The killing of a Chinese blogger has sparked outrage in China, with thousands expressing outrage in Chinese Internet chat rooms, often the only outlet for public criticism of the government.

The incident has also alarmed advocates of press freedom, who say municipal authorities had no right to attack a man for simply filming them.

Police have detained 24 municipal inspectors and are investigating more than 100 in the death of Wei Wenhua, a 41-year-old construction company executive, Xinhua reported on Friday.

The swift action by officials reflects concerns that the incident could spark larger protests against authorities, whose heavy-handed approach often arouses resentment.

This is the type of disgraceful behaviour should encourage Google to do what’s right. That is, stop supporting the Chinese Government by filtering search results based on what it deems appropriate for its people. So, Google is in no way ‘evil’?

Source CNN via TechCrunch, thanks to Jeremiah Owyang via Twitter.

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During our debate, Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the Web) made a brilliant observation which was totally marketing driven and not at all technical.

Tim Berners-Lee’s response

People are used to seeing WWW on business cards so it’s expected.

Technically, we don’t need the WWW in our Web addresses. However, many Web masters are failing to park their domains properly. Could you be turning away potential visitors?

Does your Web site work when you remove WWW from the address?

Aidan explains how to ensure your site works with and without WWW.

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I’m a believer in looking forward and I’d like to think I’ve got good insight to the future of mobile technology and trends, so my thoughts and conversations are nine times out of ten, positive and forward thinking. However, the mobile industry is the least collaborative of all industries so before we can push forward, we need each stake holder to work together to enable interoperability.

I was reminded of the email thread when I read a note by Alexia Golez on Facebook. So, rather that write my predictions for the mobile industry, I’ve decided to paste my email below for your review.

Alexia’s note on Facebook

Time and time again, I read blogs and hear the tech industry talk up how convergence is the name of the game and that every gadget we will own in the future will do a hundred things. Why can’t we stop, take a breath and say, “I don’t want a hundred poorly-sketched features, I want ten well-thought out tasks that I can execute on”? Is it greed, advertising, company PR?

I just want a gadget that does things right. A phone with decent web browsing. Bin the camera. Go back to basics Gadget Industry.

My response on the Mobile Monday London forum

Could we start with some basics. For example, it would be nice if my mother could send me a picture message of her new puppy. She’s on Vodafone Ireland. I’m on O2 UK. Heaven forbid should I be able to view it on my phone. I’d almost be happy with an SMS containing a link to a site which contains the picture.

I received a link as predicted but when I visited the site it didn’t recognise my UK number. So, I didn’t get to see any fluffy pictures of her puppy - I was devastated as you can imagine.

Vodafone Ireland, please take note as I’m very confident it’s not a problem on the O2 network. At least print the picture and send it in the post.

MMS was 5 years old last year and we still can’t get the basics right.

Click here to leave a comment on Alexia’s Facebook note.

My mobile orientated posts appear to attract the most comments, so feel free to disagree with me.

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According to Technorati

Over the holiday break we found and fixed a bug that inflated authority counts for certain blogs. The blogs affected were those on domains that also have linked-to sub-domains. The links to the sub-domains were erroneously counting toward the blog authority of the blog on the parent domain. Since Technorati Authority is a calculation of how much attention is being paid to a blog and the posts beneath it, we do not include sub-domains. Sub-domains are treated as separate entitities and often are references to tools, utilities, features, and other non-blog resources.

Examples:

http://chinese.engadget.com
http://desktops.engadget.com
http://hdtv.engadget.com
http://storage.engadget.com

Well, we fixed the bug yesterday. The impact of this change is mostly limited to the Top 100 and the overwhelming majority of the blogosphere is unaffected. Thanks for bearing with us while the Top 100 experiences some turbulence.

We’re always thinking about how to improve and develop new meaningful metrics for the blogosphere and we welcome your feedback on these issues.

I’ve never had faith in Technorati. I’ve certainly never paid any attention to its ranking. That’s not to say that the top 100 don’t deserve to be there. They probably do.

Take Segala’s blog for example (trust me, I don’t keep an eye on figures, I don’t even know how many RSS subscribers we have). Our entire Web site, including this blog, is based on Wordpress. When a blogger references me, or a post that I’ve managed to slapped together, they tend to link to Segala.com, my profile page, or this blog. Technorati sees these as three separate ‘blogs’ and as such, doesn’t rank ‘the blog’ properly.

I don’t really care much for rating a blog based on inbound links alone anyway. Different types of blogs attract different types of people. For example, a blog which attracts a large non-blogging audience, will not rank as highly as a blog which attracts an early adopter type audience, of which many blog and link back.

Shouldn’t Technorati be intelligent enough to recognise everything after segala.com/ as one blog? I’m not entirely sure they’ve fixed a bug as many blog networks will have entirely different blogs on subdomains. One of the main benefits of a subdomain is to create separate sites.

Read what TechCrunch has to say.

Technorati blog.

Thanks to Chris Brogan for the link via Twitter.

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I was going to propose we call the Association ‘Irish Digital Media Association’ (IDMA). But I quickly realised it wouldn’t work for a very simple, non-technical reason. The acronym would conflict with the Irish Direct Marketing Association (IDMA). So, I’d like to propose the name ‘Irish Interactive Media Association’ (IIMA), similar to the British Interactive Media Association.

I need to reiterate that it’s not my intention to duplicate the efforts of other associations. I want to fill a void without overcharging for it. For example, mobile as a digital medium has little to no representation in Ireland, so this association would cover mobile.

I’d like to thank Blacknight for its sponsorship, with a special thanks to Michele for offering his support.

Venue Jaipur, 1 South Great George’s St, Dublin 2.
Date 29th January 2008
Time 7pm

The good news is that everyone who expressed their interest can come. There’s no reason to ‘invite’ specific people. The not-so good news is that we don’t have any representation from the big agencies or mobile companies. Truth be told, I never mentioned mobile until now, so perhaps that’s my fault for not providing examples of what the association could cover.

Now that we have a confirmed date, please RSVP your place now, even if you previously expressed an interest. I’m sure we can accommodate everyone, but because I’m putting out another call to action, it’s possible we might attract more people. So, the first 33 people to RSVP get in.

This invitation is open to other associations too, as they can add great value to the discussion - we could probably squeeze a few more around the table. I’ll publish an agenda closer to the date.

Below is some of the stuff I published on my initial post.

If you’re interested in helping me improve the ecosystem for the Digital Industry in Ireland, please join me for dinner in January. This is not just about having a conversation over dinner, people will need to contribute in some way, even if only to help open doors.

I intend to setup a new non-profit independent association. I will propose 12 Executive Directors, 1 Chair and up to 5 Advisors. I will not automatically qualify for any of the seats. Everything will be open and transparent. I will of course, put myself forward for the position as Chair, so if you like what I do for BIMA then you’ll give me your vote

The invitation is open to Academia, Government, Investors, Lawyers, Entrepreneurs, Corporations such as Microsoft, Adobe and Google, and anyone else with a vested interest in helping improve the system. This invitation is only extended to Enterprise Ireland if its board commits to taking away action items.

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Thanks to Damien for suggesting the Clarion hotel and thanks to Pat for booking it (remember Pat, 20 quid budget).

We’ll be in Dublin on Tuesday 8th of January and you can probably guess where we’re going to eat that evening. You got it, Jaipur. So, if you’d like to hang out and watch me spill curry all over myself then drop a comment. Say 7pm in town.

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Thanks to Rebecca Caroe for the link.

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Do you read both blogs and if so, do you mind the duplication of stories covered on both? Are there specific topics you’d rather I covered, or didn’t cover on either of them? Any feedback you provide will be greatly appreciated. Until I received feedback, I’ll continue to post what I think is relevant, to both blogs. Thanks to Dennis Howlett for advice regarding this matter.

Now onto the article you came here for…

I picked up from TechCrunch this morning that Robert Scoble, one of the most influential bloggers in the world, has been banned from Facebook for breaking its terms and conditions.

Apparently, Robert tried to run a script over Facebook to export all of his contacts in one go. Those of us who know Facebook rather well, know that this will break their terms of use. He would have known that this was likely to end in tears. That said, perhaps Robert was pulling a PR stunt knowing that everyone would end up not only talking about it, but rallying behind him.

I must point out that I like Robert, a lot. I think what he does is brilliant and his contribution to industry is nothing short of fantastic. So, my post isn’t directed at Robert, but the Facebook conversation that’s taking place in the social arena that is Twitter.

If you break the rules, you should expect to be treated like everyone else. Just because Robert has thousands of connections and is very well known to millions, it doesn’t mean he should be treated any differently to anyone else. I have a friend who sent me a text message whilst I was on holiday as her account had been disabled. I just happen to know the VP of PR & Marketing and the VP of Sales so she thought I could exercise my connections in her favour. Her account was probably canned due to the number of event requests she sent out each week – there was a lot, but people signed up to her notifications. I must add that they were very exclusive events too.

Everyone who considers themselves as a ’social media’ guru should know that Facebook is closed and that you’re not permitted to use scripts to remove contacts. So, you should either join the club and abide by the rules, or leave. Right?

Well, yes and no. You shouldn’t break the rules and not expect to be punished. But, we should try to persuade Facebook that being closed isn’t good for industry as a whole. We should be able to retain ownership of our data. If you’re still unsure about what I’m talking about, try to export your friends’ email addresses. You’ll notice that it’s impossible because email addresses are made up of images. To comply with basic industry best practices, email addresses like everything else, should at least be text. To take this a step further, they should come in the form of a Microformat. You’d then be able to download email addresses automatically to a client such as Outlook.

Oh wait, making it easy for people to export hundreds, possibly thousands of email addresses… wouldn’t that make it easy for unscrupulous companies to harvest and then SPAM? You could argue that Facebook is helping to protect the vast majority whilst upsetting the minority. Personally, I think it’s just a matter of time. Facebook only opened it’s doors to non-universities a year ago. The business community has only started to flirt with it since the summer with London boasting the largest geographical network in the world.

What Facebook does well, is very small iterative changes to improve the user experience. You’ll notice that it’s not inclined to make huge changes to the platform - that’s probably because they’ll upset a lot of people if they get it wrong. Given that it’s still early days, getting major changes wrong is more likely. So, perhaps opening up email addresses is on the long ‘to-do’ list and will only be executed when they’ve figured out how to protect users from themselves.

I was one of the first employed by AOL in Europe in 1995, when it was a small startup, so I get the whole ‘walled garden’ thing. I don’t think it’s healthy for industry in the long term. But it is a necessary evil at the beginning to ensure users have a positive user experience within an environment where they are protected.

However, there comes a point in time when you need to knock down the walls. I’m not sure when that time should be for Facebook but one thing is for sure, their decision is not going to be influenced by early adopters. They’ll most likely listen to audiences which include influencers with a lot of connections, who would follow them to a competitor.

I believe it’s a little harsh to automatically ban users from Facebook. This should be done manually after humans have first given a warning and second, made sure that they’re making the right decision. If AOL could do it more than 10 years ago with millions of users, I’m sure Facebook can today given the technology available to staff.

Read some interesting article on this topic

Hear what Robert Scoble has to say

Hear what CentreNetworks has to say

My source: TechCrunch

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Jason’s main point, with which Fred agrees

Business models!?!?! The business model comes AFTER you get to scale.

As an investor I’m sure (and hope that) Fred wouldn’t agree with this comment out of context. For me, scale is important for some business models but you certainly can’t state that all business models come after scale. That statement alone doesn’t make good business sense to me.

Mind you, it’s pretty easy for Jason to make such statements because he’s managing to get scale for Mahalo based on his personality. There’s no way in the world that Mahalo would get as much attention if it wasn’t for Jason.

Setting aside my opinion about Mahalo, as Jason and I have met twice to discuss possible collaboration. Hopfully we can both give it the thumbs up. In short, Mahalo would read our Content Labels to annotate each search result so users would get more information about the suitability of the content contained on each site. In return, our Firefox extension would have Mahalo as its default search engine. Mahalo wants to enable more relevance in search results. Segala wants to enable more trust based on Content Labels.

More about that another time if we decide to work together or not.

Why I don’t think scale comes before business model (for most)

Take Segala as an case in point.

Body shop, deploying contractors

In 2002, Segala was born as a body shop. This means we supplied contract mobile phone and software test engineers to clients based on project demand.

Building a brand

Still in our first year of trading, the company naturally evolved into a consultancy and later, a managed services provider. This meant we didn’t have to live hand to mouth and worry about the next project coming in. It also meant that clients were placing trust in our brand. Products tested by ‘Segala’ (as opposed to specific contractors) were deemed to be high quality and trusted to work. At our peak we employed 24 consultants and a handful of admin personnel.

In year one, our revenue was £1.6 million and all achieved without pitching for a project, well, with the exception of our very first project. (till date, 100% of our work has come from referral)

Had we decided to continue as a consultancy, we’d easily have an annual revenue somewhere between £10million and £15million today. However, that’s ‘ok’ if you want to run a small business that’s reliant upon it’s people and therefore not scalable.

Placing value in the brand, removing away from ‘people’ dependency

In 2003, we made a strategic decision to evolve the company into a Certificate Authority by productizing our testing services and offering a Certificate and visual Trustmark to Web sites so organisations could demonstrate their commitment and conformance to Web Accessibility standards and legislation. Our clients were already referring to Segala as their Certification Partner, mandating other suppliers to seek certification prior to releasing new mobile products and software applications, so the transition was both natural and managed.

Changing our business model to achieve global scale

In 2006 we decided to change our business model, even though it would have the expected impact of reducing revenue in the short term. We knew that it wouldn’t be possible to achieve mass scale worldwide as long as Segala had to hire more people to match demand for the Trustmark (Certificate). Productising services alone wasn’t enough.

So, similar to VeriSign’s business model for the resale of SSL Certificates, we decided to build a Partner Programme to sell our Web Accessibility (and now mobileOK) Compliance Certificates. After building the necessary process over a 9 month period, we tested the water in late 2006 by allowing companies to join our programme (we did no PR or marketing). We now have a few (50+) partners across 8 countries, of which, some are the biggest digital agencies in the world. They have started to certify Web sites (including banks) with Segala only required to spot-check to maintain quality. We’re aiming for a conservative figure of 7,000 Partners worldwide by end of 2011.

Creating vital answers for the ‘why Segala’ question

The vast majority of 2007 was dedicated to the creation of various W3C standards for which we provide certification. For example, we are co-author of the W3C Mobile Web Initiative conformance document called mobileOK with Google. We also invested quiet heavily in making sure that our Semantic Web method of classifying content (Content Labels) became a ratified W3C standard, to help ensure we gain mass adoption. This is expected to happen in the next 3 months and replace PICS; the old standard still used by Internet Explorer today for filtering content.

Currently partners consider their partnership with Segala as a unique selling point as accessibility standards compliance is now a legal requirement in countries such as the UK, US and Australia. However, if Content Labels gain mass adoption it will mean that the sites they certify will be more prominent in future search results. This will encourage more companies to become partners.

Other pieces of the ecosystem to help achieve scale

There are many other pieces to the puzzle but I’ll spare you the detail. I’ll save it for the Venture Capitalists so we can secure funding to grow the partnership worldwide and sell more certificates amongst other things.

The moral of the story

The point I’m trying to make is that all of this was managed because we generated revenue, reinvested profit and between my business partner and I, invested approximately £300k of our personal money.

Had we not generated £1.6 million in year one and continued to sustain relationships with key clients whilst building our brand, there’s no way we’d be able to act as an agile company evolving our business model to adapt and take advantage of new market trends.

There’s no way we’d have been able to build an entire ecosystem to help ensure we gain mass adoption for Content Labels in order to make it more compelling for Partners to certify Web sites for Accessibility and mobileOK compliance, through which, we intend to generate the vast majority of our revenue.

Had Segala gone for scale through a partner network on day one, there’s no way we would have been taken seriously. It has taken time and a lot of effort, to indirectly encourage design and build agencies, not to mention direct competitors (usability companies), to award our Trustmark and Certificate through the Partner Programme.

My advice to budding entreprurners

So, my advice to any startup is to strive towards generating revenue so you can sustain the business. Only then can you afford to change, adapt and modify your business strategy based on a changing market or new competitors coming to market. Only then will you last long enough to gain scale.

It might be that investors will only be interested in your company after you have achieved scale. But you’ll never get the opportunity to have that conversation if you go bust, or continue to sell a dead horse because you can’t afford to change direction. Generating revenue to help build a better strategy will probably help you gain greater scale in the end.

[Update: 3rd January 14:06] I later found a very interesting post by Dennis Howlett on this subject. I fully agree when he says

I lobbed a Tweet out that more or less said: Twitter is a feature, a gr8 feature but as such it should be built to scale and then flipped. This would be very much in the tradition of Skype. But, I argued, ignoring the building of a business where there is money involved is highly risky, leading as it does to models more aligned to consumer advertising which most folk I know hate.

Isn’t it obvious that ‘ignoring the building of a business where there is money involved is highly risky’? How on earth can Wilson disagree with that, as Dennis suggests in his post. Read Dennis’ full article.

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The most applicable point for me in Damien’s post, was

It was in a past blog post here where I said that if we controlled our activity data, we could actually make money from search engines and the likes of Microsoft HealthVault, so there’s potential there. So I was quite interested when Mozilla announced Weave, their system which will store your Firefox preferences on their servers and when you install a new Firefox on a new computer, it can go to the Mozilla servers and download all your preferences and bookmarks.

According to Mozilla

The idea behind Weave is that all your personal information — bookmarks, passwords and account names, for example — are synced to your Mozilla account via Firefox. If you lose your computer, you can download Firefox, log into your account and you can restore all that information. You can do some of this today if you use Google Browser Sync and Dot Mac services. You can start by creating an account with Mozilla Services. You will need Firefox 3.0 or higher to get this working.

This is relevant to me as the functionality behind the Mozilla Weave has been available in Glaxstar’s Firefox browser for more than 2 years. When I say available, I’m referring to every single last detail. Whilst Glaxtstar’s Glubble browser is new, I’ve had insight to their technology for quiet some time.

Glaxstar is possibly the only development company in the world that could build a competitive Firefox browser to Mozilla in my opinion (Flock is a 1.0 effort compared to what these guys can do!). That’s if Ian decided to take that route. As it happens, he’s just interested in helping guardians to protect their loved ones from inappropriate content.

Note that I didn’t say, help to protect minors, or help governments protect people. That’s not his job. It’s not Google’s job, it’s not Segala’s job and it’s not the Government’s job either. Ian’s job is to help guardians who are responsible for deciding what’s appropriate and inappropriate for the people they’re responsible for. Technology should be perceived and used as an enabler, not a prohibiter. Furthermore, what a guardian in Germany deems approproate is not likely to be the same as what a guardian thinks in the UK for example. This is why I’d like people to perceive Content Labels as an enabler to help mainstream search engines and browsers to provide better content discovery, not a method for policing the Web.

So, I wouldn’t be surprised if Glaxstar gave the Weave code to Mozilla given that they’ve had it for more than a couple of years and they built Mozilla’s mainstream browser extensions for companies such as Google, Yahoo!, PayPal and eBay. They also maintain spreadfirefox.com and are responsible for resolving defects in the mainstream Firefox browser. That makes Glaxstar the most qualified company in the world to build Firefox add-ons in my opinion.

Luckily for me, Ian Howard, Founder of Glaxstar, is a personal friend of mine. So, who better to build Segala’s Firefox trust extension (not plug-in, that’s something different) Search Thresher. Our extension really is based on The Semantic Web, unlike the claims made by many of the co-called Semantic Web search engines.

Sorting the wheat from the chaff

As I’ve said, Glaxstar and Segala have been working together for the past couple of years. Although, we haven’t updated our extension in over a year (I guess that demonstrates how ahead of the curve we’ve been). As of February though, you should expect to see regular updates for our Trust extension.

Search Thresher is just one of the pieces in our jigsaw to help demonstrate why and how we feel very confident that 2008 is the year to tell Segala’s story. You will notice me talking less about conferences that I host and Chair and more about our Semantic Web method of classifying content.

What’s with the name?

The thrashing machine, or, in modern spelling, threshing machine (or simply thresher), was a machine first invented by Scottish mechanical engineer Andrew Meikle for use in agriculture. It was invented (c.1784) for the separation of grain from stalks and husks.

For thousands of years, grain was separated by hand with flails, and was very laborious and time consuming. Mechanization of this process took the drudgery out of farm labour.

Today, searching the Web is equally laborious. You may or may not find what you’re ’searching’ for and even when you do find what you want, can you trust what you find?

Think of Search Thresher as a threshing machine. It’s a Firefox extension used to demonstrate to search engines and mainstream browsers, how they can (and should!) provide users with more trust on the Web using a method called Content Labelling.

We haven’t touched the extension for over a year as we’ve been focused on other stuff that I’ll tell you about soon. If you’re a designer and would like to be recognized for your work, please feel free to volunteer your services to rebrand the Web site. Search Thresher is a non-profit standards based browser, so this may be of interest if you’re a standards enthusiasts.

We’re not emotionally attached to the name Search Thresher. What do you think of it? We’re open to suggestions if you can propose something better.

Read more about Content Labels - this post also includes sample use cases.

Watch a quick video about Content Labels

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Damien, a name that would appear on the list if it was for the fact that it’s his list, was recently awarded ‘Technology Journalist’ of the year and is Ireland’s number 1 blogger. So, he holds a very qualified opinion given that his finger is firmly on the digital pulse. More so, than any newspaper or magazine. I was tipped as ‘One to watch out for in 2007′ by Revolution Magazine, but truth be told, I’m more flattered to have appeared on Damien’s list.

I’m so flattered about making the list myself that I decided to write a post to draw your attention to it. I didn’t write a post when Revolution Magazine listed me, probably because I knew that most of last year was going to be about laying foundations, for both Segala and BIMA, the two organisations with which I can be measured.

I’m looking forward to 2008 because it’s the year for us to open our doors to show the world exactly what we’ve been working on for the past couple of years. If you’re interested in seeing more trust enabled in search results then watch this space.

Well done to the rest of the guys on the list, make sure to show your mothers

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Earlier this evening I came across a post on TechCrunch about data privacy, in which garlick got a mention. I was delighted to see that Mike decided not to use the term ‘identity’ in the title.

I was on one of the Essential Web panels during the summer. Although companies such as Jaiku gave a pitch to my panel (it’s hardly surprising that it was bought given that Google’s Head of Acquisition was on a panel after me). I was disappointed not to have been given the opportunity to quiz garlik and its hijacking of the term identity during its pitch. When I say hijacking, I mean, they pitched their company as a means of resolving the issue of identity online. I have a problem with their pitch because they’re confusing people with their use of terminology. I’ll expand on this in a separate post if asked to do so specifically.

On the plus side for the UK, it is one of the most advanced countries in the world when it comes to helping protect minors from inappropriate content online.

The Internet Trust Watch Foundation (IWF) in the UK, is one of the most impressive if not the most impressive organisation within the entire membership of inhope. In short, the IWF share a list of IP addresses that belong to Web sites which provide illegal content such as child pornography. I’m pretty sure that any decent human being will find it difficult to argue that child pornography isn’t worng and illegal.

A friend of mine once debated with me that blacklisting any type of IP addresses, irrespective of what they’re used for, is wrong as it infringes ‘freedom of speech’. Ok. so he has a point. But, shouldn’t our moral obligation to protect children from harm come first?

Inhope

INHOPE is the International Association of Internet Hotlines and was founded in 1999 under the EC Safer Internet Action Plan.

When a user tries to visit a Web site which has been banned by the ISP, they’ll simply receive a 404 error message, or something similar.

Whilst I’m on the subject, I might as well point out that Ireland is probably one of the worst countries within the inhope membership. Ireland doesn’t share known IP address of illegal Web sites amongst all its members (ISPs etc.). If memory serves me right, the CEO of the UK’s IWF told me that its Irish counterpart is more interested in data protection, or some other scruffy form of do-gooder legislation that does more harm than good.

Reading back, I’ve noticed that this post covers a jolly mixture of things. As I’ve said, I’ll write a more detailed post about censorship later this week.

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This the best version I’ve read to date. My favourite quote is ‘think Hollywood for geeks’.

Why is anybody comparing an entire continent to a specific metropolitan area?

Silicon Valley is a geographically proximate group of related tech industries, and the institutions that support them. It includes a large pool of entrepreneurs and engineers with many different technical and business skills, along with investors, law firms, accounting firms. Also, big tech companies who buy startups.

Silicon Valley works because everyone is so close together, and because everyone shares the core sense of entrepreneurialism. The place feeds on itself. Think: Hollywood for geeks.

Europe is a continent. It is comparable to “the US” or “North America.”

If you want to compare something to Silicon Valley, you need to compare a city or region.

That said, I don’t think Europe is comparable with North America as Eirc suggests. Europe also has borders, language barriers and of course, cultural differences. Oh and different laws and taxation systems for different countries.

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