Today MySpace announced that the shift to OpenSocial 0.7 is completed and now they’re actively debugging it. The problem is, that most of the critical components, such as the ability to make AJAX requests, for any company looking to more widely leverage their existing databases are unable to do any testing at all! After setting aside my fears that OAuth wouldn’t be implemented in time, MySpace delivered yesterday OAuth signed requests. I’m really thankful that we can now use OpenSocial 0.7 within their container, but I’d be much happier if it all was working more than 48 hours before the soft launch. Their relay proxy machines have been down for nearly 12 hours now, putting a great crimp in development time. Does Rupert Murdoch own a pizza delivery chain or a significant interest in Red Bull?

Compete, one of my favorite website metric tools, shows an interesting trend between three bloggers, two of whom I have met (Rodney Rumford and Nick O’Neill) and have a great deal of respect for. But neither the merits of these individuals or their websites, is the point of this discussion. What concerns me is the lack of quality metrics for this type of comparison. Google Analytics may have the best approach to solving this problem yet. With their new data sharing options, it will be possible for website owners to more accurately track their performance against other websites, including their perceived competitors (assuming they’re running Google Analytics too).

Alexa also offers online metrics and shows some similar trends but neither get the whole picture because the technology used to capture the data is browser based - ie, you install a plugin/toolbar and away you go. This doesn’t accurately capture many devices, including the quickly growing mobile device market, game consoles and non-plugable browsers (Safari anyone?).

Google’s AdSense tool has some drawbacks as well because JavaScript is device dependent - but over time that will become less of an issue as devices become more and more robust. Full integration of plugin enabled browsers on the phones seems much MUCH further away.

Michael Arrington pointed out on TechCrunch, that a share “With Everyone” option was needed. While we can certainly create accounts that have read access to our data and publish that information on our sites - it might be nice to get a 30,000 foot view of multiple sites without needing to authenticate to each and compare the numbers manually. I suggest a full Compete / Alexa type interface allowing users to explore not only a single site, but trends within a vertical, industry or even across industries is where the real data is.

Does the slow and steady decline of these three sites over the last few months indicate burn out on Facebook or is their user audience switching to MySpace centric blogs and news sources? I want to know and quite frankly, I don’t have a good way to find out.

This is a repost of an entry I initially made on my personal blog. As my new repository for all things technology related, I’m reposting it here.

Yesterday I had the need to host a conference call. Being a one person shop, it’s cost prohibitive for me to pay money to have an on demand conference bridge (especially when most of my clients have their own.) Back to my problem, I needed to speak with another small company yesterday and there were four of us that needed to be on the call. I can bridge two calls together with my Vonage service, or even just using my cellphone, but four - that’s one too many. So I tried FreeConference.com and was very pleased with the results. The base offering is free (you’ll pay toll charges to the dial-in line, MN for me - go figure) and they have a $0.10/minute plan for toll free numbers and will even record the call. After the call ended, I received a report of who was on the call and for how long, even what numbers they called in from.