Calendar
Network
Feeds
- 40
- Sphinn It!
Went Hot: February 1, 2008 - 5:34 am
Posted By: CarrieHill 159 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://blog.searchenginewatch.com)
Category: Web Analytics
I'm not getting paid to say that by the way - I just love it and so do our clients - a great tool for helping us get sites revamped or changed around to best fit our market's needs.
23 Comments
Comments
Sorry, but that's just a short note which sounds like an ad. Only beacuse it's on Search Engine Watch doesn't make it worthy of being on Sphinn's frontpage.
Seconded - there's no content in the submission or the article. It's just an advert for crazy egg, which may indeed by great but I don't think we should be encouraging such weak articles onto the homepage.
I also believe the post did sound a bit too much like a commercial for the Home Shopping Network as well as did the submission blurb...That said though...
The actual product seems to be something of interest, so I Sphunn it for the shear fact that tools as this one can add value to our endeavors...
Crazy Egg is great but it's not even new, it's been there for at least half a year.
I too agree that this is not a trend I'd like to see continued as a top story on Sphinn. Crazy Egg does have a useful product but let's keep useful stories on the top.
"Yesterday I was tipped off to one that almost literally knocked me out of my chair."
I hate to say it but it seems like a pretty poor start to Davids column. Nothing against him but people read SEW for news and experience and this shows neither. I qould equate web technology with dog years.
I love crazyegg, I really do but it is anything but new. Fair enough if there are those who are not aware of it but I completely agree... bring on the desphinn button.
Seconded on the idea that Crazy Egg is hardly new; I wrote a Crazy Egg review back in November, and that had been on my to-do list for 3-6 months even then. It doesn't mean we can't continue to review it, but I was hoping for an article that was more than just an endorsement.
Is this a really new service from Crazy Egg, or has SEW only just discovered CrazyEgg exists??
Crazy Egg has been around for like two years already. I've been using it for about a year and a half.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/03/13/see-what-your-website-visitors-are-doing-with-crazy-egg/
http://www.stuntdubl.com/2006/08/25/crazyegg/
Hey guys...no harm no foul. Go a little easy. David's a good guy.
If it took SEW two years to notice CrazyEgg, at least they saw the value in it once they saw it. I've been using it for almost two years.
@ all ... Wow. That's a savage attack on David Szetela. Welcome, David, to Sphinn.
A few clarifications: David Szetela posted this as a guest blogger on SEW Blog, run by my news editor and sphinner Kevin Newcomb. Glad it generated lots of discussion. What gets on the front page of Sphinn? Whatever the wisdom of the crowd thinks.
I personally appreciate the feedback on what you'd like to see -- or not see -- in the SEW blog.
I'm sure David does, too. But don't judge him by one short blog post.
One of the Search Engine Watch Experts, Ron Jones, ran into a similar problem: people didn't read his series in SEM.edu, but blasted him for things he didn't write.
Read David Szetela's "Content Advertising" in SEW Experts and judge them for yourself.
We're bringing new voices to the blog -- including guest bloggers. You're all welcome to submit posts, which if they run, run unedited.
@martinibuster -- so what do you think of CrazyEgg? Let the sphinn community know. I'm sure everyone will benefit.
Hey, folks - sorry if my exuberance came across as too promotional and light on content. I really am a big fan of good software, and as a former programmer I really was blown away by the excellence in form and function that CrazyEgg represents. The spirit of the post was simply "Hey, friends and colleagues, take a look and you'll probably enjoy and benefit from it as much as I have."
I sphunn the article for the same reason David wrote it - I dont hear a lot about CrazyEgg on the blogs and thought some people would benefit from knowing it exists. I've been using it for about 6-months - I have no idea how old the program is - I just know I like it and it works.
=
This is a fascinating thread on a few levels.
First, to those whose comments run along the lines of "let's keep useful stories on top:" please pay closer attention to the fact that, like Digg etc., stories are ranked by the collective readership, not by the site owner's editorial policies or judgment. "Let's keep useful stories on top" seems to me to be similar to "Let's insist teenagers think about someting other than sex."
Second, social media has attracted attention and capital partially because, unlike "traditional media," the content is diverse, unstructured and un-moderated - like conversations at a block party in a demographically-mixed neighborhood - and a wide variety of styles and messages sweetens the pot. Sphinn benefits rom a rich range of writing styles, from first person to third person, from the very personal "Dudes, I just found something you gotta see!" to the more deliberately-constructed "Here's the result of our multi-year analysis of online buying trends."
David is indeed a good guy and I don't think that anyone in this story commented otherwise. I can't see a single "savage attack" in the comments, just constructive critism about a story that some Sphinners feel is outdated and maybe promotional (whether intentional or not).
I understand that some people have yet to hear about CrazyEgg, which makes it a valid subject to write about at SEW. Sphinn is focussed on the latest industry news and discussion, and I personally wouldn't call the blog post topic "current" unless substantial new information was introduced in the story.
As suggested above, the introduction of "DeSphinn" later this month will help the community to decide what does and doesn't deserve to be on the front page.
Rob,
Get serious. "Savage attack" is hyperbole. When I wrote my comment, there was no "constructive criticism" of David's post. Constructive criticism is "here's what would make your post better."
Tad's "Sorry, but that's just a short note which sounds like an ad. Only beacuse it's on Search Engine Watch doesn't make it worthy of being on Sphinn's frontpage." How is that "constructive?" Criticism, yes. Constructive, no.
Don't forget, Rob -- as a Search Engine Watch Forums member, you never commented on Crazy Egg, posted a thread, or replied to a thread about Crazy Egg.
@ martinibuster: Search Engine Watch wrote about Crazy Egg in July of 2006 in the forums.
@ ibrian: slam Danny Sullivan's tenure at Search Engine Watch if you'd like to. I don't. Two years ago, Danny didn't review it either.
The community already decides what deserves to be on the front page.
One person, one vote.
There's no criteria for Sphinning a blog post. There's no criteria for getting on the front page. What will the criteria be, then, for desphinning a post?
Send comment HTML is disabled
iBrian wasn't slamming my tenure at SEW, Kevin. I certainly didn't take it as such. Seems to me, he was asking why SEW let an article go through with a headline calling this a "new" tool when it clearly was not. That's your watch, not mine.
It's an easy fix. You just use qualifiers. "Crazy Egg might not be new to some people, but I've just come across it and love it." There, done.
As the author of the post, I accept the criticism as constructive and warranted. I wrote it while in my usual "multitasking at warp speed" mode, and I jumped to the conclusion that such a useful, well-constructed tool would have caught my attention previously, and therefore it was probably new.
But I don't think criticism of SEW is warranted. Blogs that accept posts from multiple authors rarely have the time and bandwidth to fact-check every nuance of every post.
May I please go back in time and take the word "New" out of the headline? ;-)
Go for it David...too bad there's not strikethrough in headlines. :) Yay for the evolving civility of this thread.
I hadn't heard of Crazy Egg before, and only read the blog post as a result of seeing this discussion here.
The word "new" in the post strengthened my belief that this was a promotional post. Had it been a longer review of the facilities it offers, and/or a mini-tutorial on how to get started I wouldn't have come away with that taste. The review doesn't even say whether it uses a third-party website, or the software goes on your own site, or runs from your PC.
After seeing the discussion here, I now understand the intention was a quick heads up saying "this is great, check it out", but to me that usually looks like hype and promotion. I would like to have seen a post perhaps triple the length, with a bit more meat.
In any case, since other people here endorse it, and have been using it for a while, it is something I will be checking out in due course.
One thing that is apparent, is that many of the people over here don't just read the stories. They also attempt to discover the intent behind the post, and some are quite reactionary in being "blatently marketed to". It is hard when you're writing to an audience that is already tuned to "marketing attempts".
Isn't crazyegg.com just the old egg.com, which was the old egghead.com?
i love the heatmap that they offer, is that available in the free version?