Toluu

Adam Ostrow

Just another WordPress weblog

Louis Gray Joins ReadBurner as an AdvisorAugust 13

This story is the definition of things coming full circle. I was first introduced to Louis Gray in not the friendliest of ways, when he blasted Mashable’s (the blog I edit) attribution policies. Ironically, the story that sparked that post was one about ReadBurner, a company where I’m now part owner!

While I won’t re-visit all the back and forth, Louis’ post actually became the impetus for what has become a great (and now official … keep reading) relationship.In the days that followed his post, we (at Mashable) updated our attribution policies, and in the months since, I think have generally moved in a very positive direction editorially, both in terms of how we source our stories and our overall quality, reader engagement, and relationships with other bloggers.I discussed these “lessons learned” in a post a couple weeks ago.

Moving onto the news of the day, I’m super excited to announce that Louis is joining ReadBurner in an official role as an advisor.Louis has followed the emerging RSS/aggregation space as close as anyone, and his daily insight into the products and innovations taking place there have been invaluable to us.Having him in our pocket now as we craft our product and test our ideas over the coming months will be a huge asset.

Louis has posted more details about the new relationship on

Introducing Fantasy Football 2.0 for the Social Media SetJuly 23

One of the things I miss about working in a physical office is the camaraderie and competition that forms around gambling predicting the outcome of sporting events like the Super Bowl, The Masters, and of course the NCAA Tournament.  Then there are the fantasy football leagues that introduce a whole new level of weekly banter and trash talking in the office.

This year, I’ve decided to do something for us virtual workers (or, really for anyone that wants to play, but this should guarantee I get to field a team!) that want to play fantasy football.  I’m starting at least one league (and however many more are required based on demand) for people to join.  The only (very loose) requirements are that you be in some way connected to the Web/social media space, ideally with a Twitter account (mine is here) so everyone can publicly talk trash on Sundays and Mondays when the week’s games are done.

Since I’m not going to go on the record for organizing gambling, but do want everyone to have some skin in the game so they’ll actively participate, the entry fee will be $20.  The winner of the league will donate the pot to the charity of their choice at the end of the season.

If you’re interested in playing, please drop me an email at ostrow [at] gmail [dot] com and let me know what you do, your Twitter URL, and what charity you would like to play for.�

I’ve Reached 1,000 “Professional” Blog Posts: 6 Things I’ve LearnedJuly 21

Last week I was poking around the WordPress admin for Mashable and noticed on our “users” panel that I was sitting on exactly 1,000 posts (I’m up to 1,007 now).   I thought it was kind of cool that my 1,000th post was about Twitter acquiring Summize, because it actually is a good illustration of what exactly my job entails: covering the lifecycle of companies and products in the Web space.

I was the first blogger (to my knowledge) to cover Summize’s re-launch as a Twitter search engine back in April, and low and behold, 3 months later they were acquired.  Along the way, I covered several additions to both the company’s product and its business strategy, and actually met a couple of the employees at an event in Washington DC.  Of course, the lifecycle for most companies is a lot longer than three months, but the Summize story was a nice microcosm of my blogging career.

That story aside, 1,000 posts is a good opportunity to reflect on what I’ve learned in the year and a half or so of “professional” blogging (getting paid to blog versus my much less frequent personal ramblings here and on MindSay).

1. You can never read enough – While people are often well-justified in complaining about information overload, if you’re looking to write for a l

Tonight’s ReadBurner Live Show is Gonna be GoodJune 18

I typically wouldn’t ask you to tune in to an hour long live podcast, but this tonight’s ReadBurner Weekly Live at 10pm ET/7pm PT is gonna be good. In addition to another awesome guest host - MG Siegler from VentureBeat and ParisLemon - we’re going to be making two big announcements, one of which will feature a special guest if all goes according to plan. Of course, if you can’t make it, we’ll put up a downloadable version shortly afterwards.

Follow the Steve Jobs Keynote on ReadBurnerJune 9

I’ll admit it: I’m not a huge Apple fanboy. For my money, I’d rather upgrade my PC every year than shell out the big bucks for a Mac, and unless the new iPhone comes with with a built-in coffee machine, I doubt it will lure me away from my Blackberry.

That said, tomorrow’s Steve Jobs keynote is one of the most watched technology events of the year, and I’m looking forward to tracking the news via my own site this year - ReadBurner. We’ve already got a category setup for Apple, and I imagine we’ll see a lot of news on it tomorrow as people start sharing stories coming out of the event being published live by bloggers and journalists.

Every site has its periodic “tests” of sorts - events that show how well a site does the job it was intended to do. For us, tomorrow’s keynote is one of those events, and we’re looking forward to seeing how our algorithms perform and tweaking accordingly should we not meet our own high expectations.