Lijit – This Guys Are Different !
Not sure how many of you have already heard of Lijit or tried using it but for those who have not, here’s an introduction. Over the last few years we have seen the rise of numerous Web 2.0 products and services while some of them went on to be very big some just disappeared. Though Lijit has not become very big yet, I think they really have the potential to be and I simply love the product.
Lijit is actually much more than just another search feature. It is common human nature that when we need to find some information we ask our friends or sources they trust. Lijit just creates a web version of this process and when a visitor does a search on Lijit, it shows results from your trusted sources that include blog posts, bookmarks, photos & videos, your friends in social networks etc. So you are basically serving a much more useful search result to your visitors through Lijit than just a few blog posts.
I was really happy about the functionality of Lijit but there was more to come. I have never seen a company that offers such a fantastic free product and then actively follows up with the users to find their feedback and help them as required – and these guys at Lijit does just that!
The other day I received an email from Jacqueline where she enquired about why I removed lijt from my blog and offered me help. They call themselves “Community catalyst” and I believe that’s the perfect designation for her work. We exchanged a few mails and I am sure if the Lijit team continues to proactively follow up with their users and foster such community feeling, there is every possibility that Lijit can be the next big thing.
To my limited understanding Web2.0 is all about people, all about both way communication and participation. The Lijit guys are doing just that – they are actively working to build the community and work with people to help spread this fantastic tool.
Honestly, I am highly impressed by the proactive, user/community focused approach that Lijit guys have adopted to make the product a success.
The only reason I removed Lijit from my blog was because I saw less number of people were using it which I presume is because people are not yet familiar with the name and functionality of Lijit and having an option of Google search, people preferred it over Lijit. I have added it back now and if you are reading this post try using the Lijit search on my side bar, I am sure you will find it to be really cool.
If you want to get a Lijit bar for your blog you can do it at http://www.lijit.com/
And yes, Jacqueline and you guys at Lijit , if you are reading this.. thanks for the great work you are doing . Keep up the good work and feel free to contact me if there is something that I can do for you !
Saptarishi,
Thank you for your wonderful post.
Lijit wants to be an advocate for you, the publisher, and provide as much value possible with our widget. That being said, we believe customer service and feedback are two of the most important tools as we continue to develop our product and value proposition.
Thanks again and feel free to reach out to me in the future.
Have a wonderful day!
-Jacqueline Malan
Whoa: Is Lijit different when it comes to corporate greed and actual revenue?: how does the widget make its money, and of this revenue stream, what % is available for the actual Publisher?. Along with the ability to search data is the VALUE of this data. Who owns it? What about each individual blogger’s data and the critical sanctity of Publishers private statistics. We at P.U.B. consider the safety of the information any app or widget(s) may be gathering, unbeknownst to the unwitting Publisher who installs them.
P.U.B. [Publishers Union of Bloggers] has pending inquires to Widget Providers concerning how they generate their income and what percentage of this income goes to the Blog Publisher making the critical decision to allow a Widget on their site for their readers. In addition we are requesting transparency on the critical issue of how the private statistic from Publishers Blogs are being used, hopefully with the Publisher’s permission!
P.U.B. expected to hear back from Lijit on these financial and private statistics issues from P.U.B’s inquiry we sent to Lijit in mid April 2008. So far all we’ve read is a public blog response from a Lijit employee advising Lijit has no money, and more recently, we received an email from Lijit’s CEO, Todd Vernon, attacking P.U.B. and falsely accusing we are writing fictitious emails. Any actual answers to our questions about the use of Publisher’s stats, or revenue as it applies to Lijit? Nada. Nothing. P.U.B.’s job is to fight for Publishers by asking the hard questions and demanding answers. If all Widget companies respond as Lijit’s done up to this point, P.U.B. has a big workload for our Publishers, and your membership and support helps us all as Publishers, thanks.
If P.U.B. gets a straight answer on topic from Lijit, not smoke and mirrors, we will let great Blog Publishers like you know their exact revenue/statistics use/sharing deal. Currently we are also working with Blog Publishers to track performance hit evaluations of Widgets, and the actual ownership of content pulled by widgets from our blogs.
Will publish these results to keep the community of Blog Publishers informed on this critical component of Widgets on our Blogs.
Sincerely,
Barney Moran
Founder, P.U.B.