Tony Gentile | buzzhit! blog

Grandma and JC sound off on Virgina Tech

2007-04-21T14:22:00.000-07:00

A brief break from the daily grind for a couple of interesting (to me at least) shoutouts...

My Grandmother is featured on Page 10 of the Chicago Sun Times today, writing about the Virgina Tech tragedy.

JC Jones, a RN and member of the Informatics team at Healthline, shares similar thoughts on the incident in a post on Healthline Connects.

I find myself in agreement with both perspectives, while of course worrying about the civil rights we all know and cherish. Moreso though, I fear that the argument about impairing civil rights of the one will come at the expense of the civil rights of the many (or really, that "playing the CR card" will prevent a meaningful dialog).

While I have no desire to live in a real life Gattaca, one wonders how many more Virgina Tech's we'll need to experience before we collectively come to terms with the fact that we're not all created exactly equal, and that those who are unfortunate enough to have disorders that limit their judgement or self-control must either be treated or have their rights (to certain things, e.g., weapons) restricted sufficiently to protect society, especially if they are given special benefits in defense of the crimes they commit.

I shudder that I'm typing such thoughts; it's not what I was raised to believe... but it has been my experience. Your thoughts?

Chris Pirillo saves a life with a link

2007-03-02T14:43:00.000-08:00

Ok, that might be a bit of hyperbole, but this is pretty cool...

Chris Pirillo mentioned Healthline's Symptom Search as one of his picks of the day yesterday.

Shortly thereafter, he added the following to his post:

"Hours after sending these links to subscribers, I received a note from Kaywin Davis:
"You just did me a great service: I�m 72 and probably one of your oldest subscribers. I�ve not been feeling well and assumed it was just part of getting old. When I saw your health link I decided to check it out (Symptom Search). I typed in my symptoms and received a diagnosis. I called my doctor and he ordered a blood test. The prognosis is I have pernicious anemia. The doctor stated it was treatable and prescribed ferrous sulfate and vitamin C. Thank you for the wonderful and timely link. "
Dude. That�s awesome!"

Awesome indeed! As I mentioned when I joined Healthline and implied when we launched Symptom Search, being able to work on a product that truly makes a difference in people's lives is a core part of Valley culture and my personal passion. I'm grateful to Chris for sharing this with others (and posting a testimonial, something we should probably do with the feedback we get every day!) because through his simple gift of a link he was able to help someone live a healthier and happier life. That feels great!

Must Read Me!

2007-02-13T11:18:00.000-08:00

As long as I'm breaking my four month hiatus, I figured I'd take a second to give a hat tip back to Lee Odden, who was both kind and delirious enough to name buzzhit! a must read SEM blog.

Thanks so much for the nod Lee; I'll see what I can do about earning that title in 2007 without violating NDAs and what not (life was so much simpler before)!

Symptom Search

2007-02-13T09:54:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe it's been a little over four months since my last post. So much has happened personally and professionally during that time... though as I reflect back on it now as I sit down to write this post, it seems little more than a blur.

Nonetheless, I'm very excited to share a bit of news about a new development at Healthline. As you all know, I've done my best to not use buzzhit! as a platform exclusively for Healthline (ie, not mentioning the launch of our Health Blogs, HealthLinks, our deal with USNews & World Report and others, etc)... but on this occasion, I think it's worth a few words...

Healthline has just released a new product named Symptom Search. Very simply, this is the most comprehensive (and I personally would argue, relevant) consumer symptom research tool on the web today. More importantly, it's data driven, with a search interface, which means it's quick and easy to use for anyone that knows how to search (and thankfully, that's pretty much everyone).

Using Symptom Search is easy. Simply start typing in your symptom and Symptom Search will start recommending symptoms that match. Add one and get results. Add another, and narrow your results. (Extra cool -- once you've added your first symptom, you can use the Add Related Symptoms feature, which automatically calculates the most likely co-occuring symptoms based on those you've added so far.)

The results are ranked based on CDC data, data mining and input from our team of clinicians. Results are actually articles, so you can read further about the disease and conditions that might be causing your symptoms. And of course, each of those result articles include HealthLinks, which means you can dig deeper into any of the concepts you might not understand within the article.

One of the things I'm particularly pleased with is how well the feature integrates with our site, in particular our core web SERP. Here's an example for the symptom wheezing. Yes, like every other search engine on the planet, we can give you a list of articles about wheezing; but now, we can give you clinical guidance based on actual evidence (vs., say, statistical clustering of a web corpus) on what might be causing your wheezing.

Symptoms are a huge area of interest for health consumers... but this only one type of vertical search within the vertical of Health that we can improve upon. I can't wait to share more with you throughout the remainder of 2007!

(One quick sad note; Symptom Search launches in beta without full support for Mac OS X, so please test it on a Windoze platform. And yes, we do plan on fully supporting the Mac. )

Press release follows for those who might be interested in a more detailed walkthrough of features and what not.

Updated with early coverage:

Kevin Maney, USA Today, Symptom Search
Jason Lee Miller, WebProNews, Healthline Launches Symptom Search
Marshall Kirkpatrick, TechCrunch, Healthline Symptom Search
Gwen Harris, Internet News, Healthline's Symptom Search

NEW HEALTHLINE SYMPTOM SEARCH DRAMATICALLY IMPROVES ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR ONLINE HEALTH RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

First �Search-driven� Symptom Tool Gives Consumers the Ability to Research
the Most Comprehensive List of Symptoms and Possible Causes Currently Available

SAN FRANCISCO � February 13, 2007 � Healthline Networks (www.healthline.com), the leading provider of intelligent health information services, today unveiled Symptom Search, the first search-driven symptom exploration tool. Symptom Search is the only Internet symptom tool to use a semantic medical taxonomy � a relational database of over 1 million diseases, symptoms and their synonyms � to analyze queries and produce ranked results. The latest extension of Healthline�s Medically Guided Search� platform, Symptom Search provides consumers with more relevant, accurate, and faster results than competing symptom research products.

Symptom Search includes My Symptoms List�, an entirely new way for consumers to create a personalized combination of symptoms to refine their search results and narrow the list of possible causes. Healthline then ranks Symptom Search results using proprietary search algorithms that incorporate five years of current and historical Centers for Disease Control (CDC) incidence data, input from multiple authoritative medical reference libraries, and oversight from Healthline�s team of doctors and nurses. This data analysis, and thousands of hours of clinician review, ensures that the SymptomRank� search algorithms cover the broadest range of conditions with the greatest accuracy.

�As a physician and heavy Internet user, I know that my patients are increasingly using the Web to research symptoms � it�s a great way, in the privacy of your own home, to explore topics you think you may want to talk to your doctor about,� said Enoch Choi, M.D., a family practice physician based in Palo Alto, Calif. �Healthline�s Symptom Search makes this task quicker and more relevant than ever before � and empowers patients to have better doctor interactions.�

Many existing consumer symptom research tools use static �interview� formats that do not have the flexibility, breadth of information, or relevance of a search-driven resource. As a result, current symptom checkers offer a limited ability to combine symptoms and can only research one-tenth the number of symptoms and one-fifth the number of possible causes currently covered by Healthline�s Symptom Search product. Symptom Search is fully integrated into Healthline.com, giving health information seekers the ability to research their condition through authoritative, doctor-reviewed articles from the world�s foremost medical information publishers.

Other features and benefits of Symptom Search include:

� GUIDED RESEARCH: The Symptom Search �type-ahead� feature allows users to start with the general terms that are frequently top of mind and suggests additional terms to help quickly narrow their search for symptoms. For example, if a user begins to type in �c-o-u-g-h,� they will not only see �cough,� but a medically-reviewed list of 20 other types of coughs such as painful cough, hacking cough, night cough, and so on, to guide and refine the symptom search.

� SEARCH ON RELATED SYMPTOMS: The Related Symptoms feature recognizes user inputs, like �fever� and �muscle aches,� and suggests symptoms that frequently occur in health articles mapped to these symptoms � complete with definitions and illustrations.

� COMPREHENSIVENESS: Symptom Search covers more than 3,500 symptoms and 900 diseases � more than ten times the number of symptoms covered by WebMD, MayoClinic or any major consumer symptom research tool.

� INTERACTIVE, SEARCH DRIVEN APPROACH: To offer the ability to explore possible causes and learn as they go, Symptom Search allows consumers to enter any combination of symptoms they choose. They can also quickly remove a symptom or clear their Symptom List to start again. Other tools don�t allow for the same experimentation and exploration; typically, symptom combinations are very limited, if they are available at all.

� QUALITY/CONFIDENCE: In order to design the best search algorithms and provide consumers with relevant, high quality results, Healthline analyzed raw data from multiple years of CDC surveys to rank the likelihood that a health condition would be detected. This is unique among both clinical and consumer symptom research resources.

�Symptom Search offers a much more interactive, useful way for individuals to research health concerns, helping prepare them for conversations with their physicians,� said Paul Auerbach, M.D., clinical professor of Emergency Medicine at Stanford University and chair of Healthline�s Medical Advisory Board. �Through the unmatched breadth of data to which it has access, Symptom Search provides consumers with a comprehensive tool that helps them more quickly navigate through the discovery process, whether they are dealing with a potential medical emergency or simply trying to distinguish between influenza and viral gastroenteritis.�

About Healthline

Healthline Networks offers an innovative approach to meeting the needs of today�s health information seeker. The company�s unique consumer healthcare taxonomy, begun in 1999 in collaboration with 1,100 medical specialists, powers a suite of intelligent health search, navigation and content services. Combining advanced search technology with deep medical expertise, Healthline and its business partners � a network of trusted destination sites that include publishers, portals, search engines, employers and health plans � help consumers navigate the complex world of healthcare information, empowering them to make more confident, informed decisions. Headquartered in San Francisco, Healthline is backed by VantagePoint Venture Partners, Reed Elsevier Ventures, Mitsui & Co., Ltd., and JHK Investments, LLC.

A chat with Guidewire Group

2006-10-05T14:52:00.000-07:00

I got an invite out of the blue to sit down with Charlotte Ziems of the Guidewire Group a couple of weeks ago. Basically, it was a chance to offer "perspective" on an "effort" (no NDA, but why be rude) they have underway, as well as their approach to said.

Meeting Charlotte was fantastic. Eminently personable (and obviously smart and experienced), we hit it off quickly. I looked down to check the time only once during the conversation (a rarity these days given everything going down), and found that our hour had elapsed before I could finish my coffee (surely a sign I was talking too much!). Hopefully it won't be the last meet-up.

Guidewire's got a lot going on, not the least of which is an upcoming Leadership Forum, which looks excellent, not only for its beautiful location, but also because friend and fellow PointCast alum Don Albert will be speaking in his new role as GM Sky, North America. Congrats Don!

Lots of hiring going on out there...

2006-10-05T14:40:00.000-07:00

Contents of this post have been removed at the company's request (no drama, they're just uncomfortable announcing their investors broadly at this stage).

NFLX releases recommendations, but not for SEO

2006-10-02T11:43:00.000-07:00

I noted Dave's post link to an NYTimes story about NFLX publishing 100MM movie ratings, and thought to myself, "they finally listened... can't wait to see how SEO effects their acquisition numbers".

Instead, it turns out they're publishing a huge dataset (not SEOed pages) for all takers to play with (and for which someone can win a $1MM prize). I immediately thought of Pandora, Aggregate Knowledge and StumbleUpon (and, if I read the tea leaves correctly from the takeaways from a recent "Social Search" conference, perhaps Digg too...); could any of these guys walk away with a cool million and some great publicity for work they've already got (largely or in partly) in the bag? Hmm...

Hacking Netflix (truly living up to its name in this instance!) has more, as does TechMeme.

Director/Sr. Product Manager at Healthline

2006-09-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

I have one (perhaps two if I'm blessed to find two seriously stellar folks) product management opening(s) on my team at Healthline. If you, or someone you know, is a fit, please email me at moreinfo AT buzzhit DOT com. (Recruiters welcome, but please be sure to send sanitized resumes.)

I'll skip the formal job description and keep it simple:

- You've done the strategic research, business modeling and functional design for consumer facing web offerings used by millions of consumers (or hundreds of thousands of hard core users)
- You understand the balance between getting stuff done and building process in a fluid, competitive, start-up environment
- You understand the balance between user experience and business objectives in designing compelling offerings

Ideal (any one or combination of the following):
- Search experience (web or any vertical)
- Medical degree (RN, MD, etc)
- Informatics experience (i.e., working with taxonomies/ontologies)
- Content experience (licensing, producing, monetizing, optimizing)

Director, Content Strategy and Production

2006-09-27T13:24:00.000-07:00

I have the following opening available on my team at Healthline. Please email me at moreinfo AT buzzhit DOT com if you, or someone you know, is a fit. (Recruiters welcome, but please email me a sanitized resume.)

And yes... I will eventually start posting things other than job listings... ;-)

- - -

Director, Content Strategy and Production

Reports to the Vice President, Product Management

Opportunity
The Director, Content Strategy and Production is responsible for developing and executing the company�s strategy for licensed and proprietary consumer health information, including: identification, acquisition, writing, reviewing, editing, search engine optimizing (SEO), online publishing and revenue generation. Further, the Director will oversee (and enhance) the company�s emerging blog network, from recruiting new bloggers, to maximizing revenue, to dealing with day-to-day operations and support issues. Finally, the Director will be a key member of the Product team, providing ideas and analysis in support of new product and service offerings.

Responsibilities

Build and manage a network of high-quality freelance medical editors, physician article authors and physician content reviewers
Develop and manage the process of creating, reviewing, editing, search engine optimizing and publishing Web content
Assume soft P&L responsibility for content creation, acquisition, licensing vs. monetization
Analyze and understand search, traffic, advertising and medical trends in order to prioritize content for acquisition, creation, etc
Identify, evaluate and negotiate with third-party sources of medical content
Work closely with VP, Product and Product Manager�s to support the information needs of new products and services

Requirements

Experience in a web production environment with HTML, XML and rich-media content systems.
Significant web publishing (process and systems) experience
Experience managing a large network of geographically-dispersed freelance writers or editors
Comprehensive understanding of content classification and categorization (i.e., taxonomies and ontologies)
Strong management skills and experience managing a team
Skills and experience in evaluating content, traffic and advertising from a financial perspective required
Experience with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a plus
A medical credential (MD, RN, etc) or advance degree preferred
Some business development exposure preferred

About Healthline (www.healthline.com)
Healthline offers an innovative approach to meeting the needs of health information seekers. Developed in collaboration with 1,100 medical specialists, Healthline�s powerful consumer healthcare taxonomy � the largest of its kind � drives its suite of medically guided search and navigation services. Healthline offers two primary routes to delivering its intelligent health information services to consumers and business partners: through its website, Healthline.com, or through a network of trusted destination sites that include publishers, employers and health plans. Headquartered in San Francisco, Healthline is backed by VantagePoint Venture Partners, Reed Elsevier Ventures, Mitsui & Co., Ltd., and JHK Investments, LLC.

Looking for a gig?

2006-09-25T17:04:00.000-07:00

What to do when you haven't blogged in so long that people introduce you with the caveat "yeah, he used to blog"? Post ANYTHING!

So, as a public service, here's a job opp that was presented to me the other day (it's feeling very 1999 again...) w/ permission to post from the recruiter. Enjoy. (And yes, this means free advertising for some start-up that I can't vouch for, so do your own homework!)

---
I am with a company by the name of MyThings, Inc., we are a unique B2B and B2C proposition that has recently expanded operations into the US. We have already built a successful, revenue generating business in Europe, and we now want to tackle the consumer market in the US and abroad. MyThings recently received funding from Accel Partners, a top-tier Silicon Valley VC firm, and we are now in the process of building up our core management team within the US. Currently we are looking to fill the role of Director of Product Management. This is a very strategic role within the organization and will report directly to the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).

I am working side-by-side with Robin Reed at Reed Shay, the most prestigious executive search firm in the Silicon Valley (www.reedshay.com ), and our goal is to network with senior executives so we can find the highest caliber candidate possible. The Director of Product Management role will be filled by an entrepreneurial-minded individual, with considerable consumer Internet experience. If you would like to hear more about this company, I would love to talk with you. Whether you are interested in the position, have someone you want to refer, or you just want to learn more about the company, let's talk. I have added more detail below for your review, I look forward to speaking with you.

Take care,
Christy Reddy
HR Coordinator and Recruiting Czar
MyThings, Inc.
(650) 248-1174
cr AT mythings DOT com

Bong Su Industry Night

2006-05-17T10:43:00.000-07:00

A little off topic, but good experiences are always worth sharing...

My friend Louisa invited me to "industry night" at Bong Su, a new Vietnamese restaurant located at 311 3rd Street in San Francisco (basically the corner of 3rd and Folsom).

(If you're not familiar with "industry night" -- as I wasn't -- it's basically an opportunity for people in the restaurant industry, be they other owners, wine importers, chefs, etc., to come check-out a new place before it officially opens.)

Long story short... it was great! It's hard to believe that this space used to be Max's Diner; Anne, the owner, has been busy creating a warm (strike that... "lush" is probably better) environment to lounge and dine in over the last 15 months, and her attention to detail definitely shows.

On the lounge front, it just works... warm colors, good music, a wrap-around bar, glass windowed wine "cellar", comfy coaches, and terrific cocktails. (Okay, having a room full of attractive, flirty female patrons probably didn't hurt things...)

While we didn't get to try the entrees or salads (full dinner service starts today), the starters we had were solid. In particular, the 5-spice quail and shrimp cupcakes really stood out; sauces and seasonings were very flavorful, without being overpowering. We finished things off with some of the densest biscotti (ok, and a 20 yr tawny) I've ever had... yum!

Looking forward to giving the place a full trial over the next few weeks; hope you will too!

E! Online Interview on Star Wars, perpetual licensing

2006-05-05T12:51:00.000-07:00

Joal Ryan of E! Online was kind enough to contact me about participating in her piece about the re(re, re, re) release of Star Wars and the milking of consumers (many of whom are buying the same movie for the Nth time in order to get some incremental gain).

She pointed to my site instead of the piece I wrote about amporphous, perpetual content licensing, so I'm pointing to it here for those who might be visiting off of the E! article and want to read my original rant. Enjoy!

Vote for Healthline!

2006-04-14T16:04:00.000-07:00

Good grief, it's been some time since I've worked on a product that was eligible to win an industry award, but here we have it.

A few weeks back, Healthline was honored with a "Gold" (first place) World Wide Web Health Award. And, we're in the running for a Consumer Directed Health Care Award, to be announced in early May. Very cool.

I also just found out that we've been nominated for a Webby Award (for Best Health Site)! I spent the whole first wave of the dot-com scene building kickass products (if I say so myself, LOL!) and not once did our Marketing folks have the good sense to submit our site... thankfully the Healthline crew is quite a bit sharper.

We're nominated in the Living->Health category (makes sense). You can vote for Healthline after completing the registration process. (I hate to beg, but I'd definitely appreciate your support, be it voting yourself and/or sharing this post with your readers if you think they'd be interested.)

And while clearly it's nice to be recognized for one's work with awards and what not, the reality of what we're doing was never clearer to me than last Friday, when my step-dad was "unexpectedly" diagnosed with prostate cancer. I put "unexpectedly" in quotes... while he had (has) urinary hesitancy and his PSA was elevated, a) neither are unreasonable for his age, and b) I don't know that you ever really "expect" to hear that you or a loved one has cancer.

Interestingly, the doctors immediately wanted to do a radical prostatectomy (remove his prostate gland). After spending some time on Healthline, he and mom pushed the docs for a bone scan (to see if the cancer has spread). Hopefully that'll end up just being a "waste of time and money", but it's still amazing to me that their first reaction was to operate, rather than evaluate his whole situation...

Like it or not, no matter how well intentioned your doctor may be, your health is your own responsibility. Seems obvious, but I suspect it's only appreciated with a bit of age and experience. At least in my case.

Newroo to be acquired?

2006-03-14T15:05:00.000-08:00

I'll have more to say about this if/when it is publicly disclosed by Dan, Brian and/or Fox Interactive... If true, $5-10MM may turn out to be a steal, as I know of several major players who could put this tech to work in very interesting ways.

Rainmakers Live - March 11, 2006

2006-03-05T13:18:00.000-08:00

A friend emailed me to give me the heads-up on another great looking tech gathering going on this upcoming weekend (Sat, March 11) at Stanford. While I'll be sticking with my previous commitment (TechDirt's Greenhouse), if I weren't headed there, I'd definitely check this out. Importantly, it's free, open to the public, and has a great line-up of entreprenuers. Drop me a note if you attend and post about it.

Healthline partners with Info.com, OmniMedicalSearch

2006-02-28T08:37:00.000-08:00

Please see my Disclaimer [Healthline is my employer], right hand side.

Yet more good news for Healthline... we've partnered with Info.com to launch health.info.com, and, OmniMedicalSearch has announced the inclusion of our Health Channels and Doctor-Reviewed articles within their health meta-search results. Info.com press release. OmniMedicalSearch press release.

Info.com has a long history of partnerships; in fact, most of the companies they've partnered with have ended up being acquired (hmm... [grin]).

Meanwhile, the folks behind OmniMedicalSearch have done a tremendous job building an organic, loyal base of customers by providing an easy-to-use, filtered set of health search results for patients and doctors.

These two companies join Merck, PacifiCare, Dartmouth Hitchcock and other Healthline licensees; I doubt they'll be the last. ;-)

UPenn Annenberg: The Hyperlinked Society

2006-02-23T20:09:00.000-08:00

I can't begin to tell you how thrilled I am to participate in what now looks like an amazing show, Joseph Turow's "The Hyperlinked Society", at the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania!

My panel will be on Mainstream Linking, and will be moderated by Jay Rosen (how cool is that?!).

Here's the program and registration.

Note: that the University is offering room subsidies for those who are making a trip from out of town (how's that for the opposite of $3500 conference tickets?!).

Techdirt Greenhouse: An Idea Workshop

2006-02-23T15:09:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm a day or two late to the party, but...

Like Jeff, I'll note that:

1. TechDirt is one of my favorite blogs (I've written about it and the team's observations many times over the years)

2. They are having what looks like a very cool "un-conference-style-conference".

3. Mike Masnick, TechDirt's CEO, was kind enough to invite me to hang out, which makes an easy decision to attend even easier.

Sign-up here ($95.00 USD); looking forward to, uh, rubbing brain cells with you... ;-)

Niall's throwing an event

2006-02-22T15:06:00.000-08:00

No longer content to simply attend every hip event in the bay area, Niall Kennedy, late of Technorati, is throwing the first "SF Tech Sessions" event tomorrow (Thurs, 2/23/2006) night at CNET's HQs in SF. (More details on the dedicated site.)

While I have almost no interest in any of the presenting companies (not a diss on them at all, more a reflection on me), I plan to make it out to support Niall (and the notion of more SF vs. valley based events)...

100 person limit (room capacity, not exclusivity) w/ 72 sign-ups thus far. Hope to see you there.

Now I get it

2006-02-21T18:24:00.000-08:00

So that's why Mike is always smiling when I see him. ;-)

Ah, a good time was had by all... even if for some it was had at anothers expense.

Media, analysts grokking Healthline

2006-01-23T01:11:00.000-08:00

Wow, an amazing couple of days recently at the office.

We announced that PacifiCare was launching a site using our health search platform.

Forrester Research, dropped a very complimentary piece on us.

And just tonight, the New York Times' Bob Tedeschi wrote a great article on Healthline.

So much more to do, but it's great to get some validation on what we've accomplished so far!

Uh, Happy New Year!?

2006-01-22T23:17:00.000-08:00

Alright, this is a little embarrassing. 3 months until my fourth year of blogging, and I haven't written much more than a disclaimer in months.

Shameful!

On a positive note, I've dropped 5% body fat and can once again fill out the top of a shirt more completely than the bottom.

So, there's that.

In my absence I see that Scoble has booted me off his short list, all of you got in a tizzy about "what web 2.0 means" (I was looking forward to some sort of existential enlightenment, but it didn't get there), things got wacky at wikipedia, Google foolishly didn't buy Riya, and MacWorld and CES were "really really big".

Did I miss anything else?

Oh yeah... Happy New Year! I hope it's a great one for you... it is so far for me!

Disclaimer

2005-12-16T14:16:00.000-08:00

Just tossing this out into the Ether to avoid/prevent future confusion. (I've not been asked to do this by anyone... just realized I should have done it during my consulting days, and certainly when I took a full-time job. Better late than never!)

Last Update
12/16/2005

Employer
I am employed full time by Healthline Networks Inc.

Financial
As of the Last Update date, I have no direct investments in any publicly-held high tech, consumer, media or health related entities.

Disclaimer
The opinions expressed on buzzhit! are those of the author, Tony Gentile, and not those of any other entity, including his employer, Healthline Networks Inc. buzzhit! is 100% owned and operated by its author. buzzhit! does not accept payment for content and/or editorial links that appear within the body of blog posts; all advertisements (e.g., Google AdSense ads) are clearly marked as such.

Google Analytics - worse than it appears?

2005-11-15T11:32:00.000-08:00

UPDATE:
Just got this email from Urchin, err, Google Analytics CS (emphasis mine):

"Thank you for your email. You do not have to change your pages or add new Google Analytics code. This is not causing your reporting delay. Large amounts of unprocessed data on our end is causing the delay. Your existing Urchin On Demand code will communicate with Google Analytics to collect your data flawlessly."

Well, the blogosphere is buzzing about the Google Analytics launch, and it's not, unfortunately, with joy.

For those of us who have been paying Urchin-On-Demand customers, the transition has been especially painful. In the run-up to the rebrand as Google Analytics, the performance of Urchin's "real-time" analysis has degraded from 4 hours of lag, to 8-12, including missing blocks of data that get filled in 24 hours later.

As of right now, I've not seen data since Sunday at 5PM.

But here's the part that worries me... while others, including Jeremy and Ethan (via) have commented as I did, above, about performance issues... I've yet to see anyone comment on the fact that Google Analytics prescribes a modified tagging methodology.

I've filed a support ticket w/ Google to verify that they are still supporting the __utm.js-only approach that we paying customers have been using, but given the way the transition has transpired (i.e., there was no warning of the methodology change), I'm very concerned about whether or not my data is being tracked at all... That, and the fact that it takes 48++ hours (normally) to get a CS response makes this experience rather disconcerting.

My fingers are crossed that Google didn't totally blow this and is in fact still capturing my data, and will support the __utm.js approach until all customers have had sufficient time to make the transition... but a little communication right about now would be most welcome.

Presenting at SDForum Search SIG

2005-11-04T21:26:00.000-08:00

I'm very pleased to have been asked to join a panel on vertical search (moderated by none other than John Battelle!) at this month's SD Forum Search SIG.

Panelists will be:
Adam Beguelin, Truveo
Pete Flint, Trulia
Gautam Godhwani, SimplyHired
Me! ;-)

Here is the agenda:
6:30-7:00pm - Getting your pre-registered badge, and mingling over food and drinks
7:00�7:05pm - Welcome
7:05-7:55pm - Act I: John Battelle on �The Search: A ten year perspective�
7:55-8:05pm - Intermission: Search Networking & Geeking Out
8:05-8:55pm - Act II: The vertical search market � a SWOT analysis
9:00�9:20pm - Act III: Demos from Truveo, Trulia, SimplyHired and Healthline
9:20-9:30pm - Open Mike Geek: Announcements (30 seconds of fame & fortune)

The charge? Free for SDForum members, $15 for non-members � paid at the door.

Please note that the event requires pre-registration and will be limited to 270 attendees, the capacity of the Conference Center of the Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus (Building 1, 1065 La Avenida St., Mountain View).