Down the Pub with : Brett
Tabke WebmasterWorld
Thanks
for talking with me today,
Brett. Been a good year
since I talked
to you last?
Thanks for
having me in Peter.
It was our best year in business ever. In the last year, WebmasterWorld traffic
increased ten fold at times and we briefly entered the Alexa Top 100 english
sites on the web. That meant a fundamental shift in the way we do business.
We went from competing with other mom and pops to competing multinational corporations.
We went from being a little blog site on the corner, to a worldwide source
of news that is read daily by every major press outlet.
You
must face some organizational
headaches. Do you think there
is a maximum workable size
for internet discussion forums?
How do you handle this growth
in terms of organizing information
effectively?
According to Alexa, WebmasterWorld is the largest interactive forum on the
web today. That has happened in the last year. Since then, we have had to completely
re-evaluate how the discussions are presented and formulated.
I think sites such as SlashDot.org have shown you can hone the discussions
to a finer point and still put in processes that maintain quality.
That is part of the reason we moved away from the pure forum model in 2002
to something a bit closer to an interactive blog. We now link directly down
into content. We tweaking to find that sweet spot somewhere between a forum
and the mega-Usenet.
The
Webmasterworld forum has
been more than an virtual
meeting place, there is also
the success of PubCon. I
recall when I chatted with
you last year that you felt
very gratified that people
would travel round the world
to meet up in a pub to discuss
webmaster issues. Now it's
become a regular fixture.
What are your thoughts on
PubCon? How do you see it
developing?
The conferences
rose up organically out of
the WebmasterWorld community.
We didn't have much to say
about it until they got out
of control with numbers and
sponsors. Now we are to the
point that we just want to
address the needs of the community
and let the conference go where
they may.
The recent ones have taken on a bit more of the commercial flavor as well as
the unstructured flavor. It was clear that many did want something a bit more
formal to discuss and make deals around. So the next one we are going to tack
a big time two day Publishers conference on the front end, while still retaining
the backend networking and deal making at The Pub.
What
has been your best PubCon
moment?
When I found out that you can squeeze 325 webmasters into a Pub slated for
299. (whew)
The
past year has largely been
about search engines positioning
themselves in the market,
as opposed to delivering
much new in the way of technical
innovation. What do you think
the most important things
were that happened this year
as far as webmasters and
search engines are concerned?
The
biggest thing for webmasters
this last year, was the realization
that it was really down to
one and one only engine worth
even considering for traffic.
That in turn has led many
site owners to start persuing
alternative avenues of traffic.
Newsletters, Blogs, partnerships,
and even old fashioned classified
ads have had a whole new
resurgence on the web and
off as traffic generators.
How
do you see the search engine
landscape changing next year?
Do you think Microsoft will
be the threat it would have
us think it is?
The
problem with a microsoft
search engine, is much like
JFK once said in private
about Nixon, "the trouble
with being such a well known
liar is no one believes you
when you tell the truth".
Microsoft very well could
have a engine under works,
but unfortunately, they have
talked about it so many times
over the last few years,
that no one believes them.
Microsoft,
is not a risk or a threat
in the search business for
at least 4 years. Like all
things Microsoft, their first
two versions will be laughable,
and finally a third version
may have some promise. On
the other hand, I have watched
microsoft for 25 years, and
when it comes to do something
as big as a search engine,
Microsoft is out of their
technological element. Asking
Microsoft to build a search
engine is like asking Ford
to build a space shuttle.
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Thanks Brett.
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