GigaOM

[...] in December 2006, we asked for your feedback, suggestions and what you would like to see improved on the site. Many of you [...]

Print! That’s the one thing missing from the equation.

ah… that is easily doable. ;-)

My suggestions are:

1. The posts ought to be more verbose. sometimes they seem to be too abbreviated

2. Post links to related materials would help

I will think and post other suggestions…

My suggestion: keep rocking!

Love this blog, and the new ones you’ve added. Have a great holiday.

I prefer posts to be kept as short as possible; this doesn’t mean posts should be short because some may be full of information thus need to be long, that’s OK; but this is a stop for most readers to get latest information and your thoughtful arguments - under high pressure..

As others say, keep rocking! Happy holidays!

For some reason your readers don’t tend to comment as much as on other blogs. I’m not sure what you can do about it, but just a thought.

Maybe more information coming from European and Asian markets. Fortunately or unfortunately the world is flat and competition is coming from anywhere !

indian startups in startup du jour.

You guys are covering too much. Expansion too early. Quality has gone down. There’s just too much going on and it would be better if you have nore focus.

Also, you should remove the crap from the right side of pages. No polls, the personal bee and sponsor links by Business.com. Again, there’s just too much going with the homepage. The GigaOm network should also be removed and put across teh top of page near over tabs.

Keep on rocking! You have one of the best layouts in blogoshpere. GigaOM should be a template for asipiring bloggers. And for those who woke up on the wrong side of the bed and started putting up baseless comments - Chill baby - have an herbal tea. This is real news - and it has to fund a real operation.

You guys are doing a great job with the website… and posting all the lastest tech news.

But one thing I have noticed that much of your readers don’t comment on the different topics. Maybe the writers should invite reader comments on certain topics…keep rocking Om & all the guys…can’t wait for 2007:)

add a forum :D

I personally enjoy all of the networks on GigaOM (although NewTeeVee seems hit or miss solely because of the massive space they’re stuck covering), but I’d like to see a more functional sidebar. The ‘Recent/Popular/Featured’ doesn’t do much for me as I’ve generally scrolled through all the posts on my RSS. How about a laundry list of the last 15 posts across the network?

Definitely an improved sidebar design. I am not sure, but it doesn’t quite work for me.

An integrated feed from the entire network would be nice too.

Personally I read GigaOM and WWD all the time, the others not so much. I would suggest not adding any more blogs, but focusing on content in the coming year. GigaOM has the potential to be the top “reporting” blog, but hasn’t quite reached that.

guys,

thanks is excellent feedback, especially about the sidebar and we will work on making it more streamlined and more effective. I will put up a few mock ups on the blog and you folks can decide which one tickles your fancy the most.

on the content side of things, we will be working hard to increase the quality and quantity. I think one of the big challenges has been to go beyond the narrow confines of broadband, the premise with which the blog started. I think as we all grow comfortable with new areas of coverage, you will see the impact.

let us know what areas we should cover/not cover. that is very important. on asian and european coverage, stay tuned. it is one of the big areas of focus for 2007.

and as far as the network expansion: it is complete. now it is time to execute.

Good things :
The blog layout is sweet.
Gigaom i have noticed stays away from controversy. Which is good, respect the readers and the blogosphere.
Getting on Techmeme is not the driving force.

Improvements:
Please review new services/companies more. Would prefer reading a review here than on TC
More action from OM. Going solo I thought, would mean Om would write more. ITs the reverse.
Engage the readers. What happened to responding to peoples comments ? plz do more. Comments section is for readers and bloggers as well

I love the GigaOm blog but I exclusively access it via RSS. Given what Google did with its API recently, I guess we will soon see restrictions on RSS feeds, or perhaps RSS feeds will be replaced by AJAX feeds. This would suck, especially for mobile readers who will have to download some slow clunky app on their mobile devices, full of ads.

Well Om, if you need continuous improvement, have a look at our Feedback2.0 online service. Your community may be worth it.

I’d like to know what you think…

the one suggestion that comes to mind is to have your writers respond/reply/interact more frequently to users msg postings. you do a good job of it most of the time and so does Robert. i think it would help drive more activity on the msg boards which is good for everyone…

one more, you have too many sites and that is only getting bigger so it would be cool to have an aggregate site that pulls the headlines from the om network sites…kinda like spokeo but just for you.

On responding to comments, I would make it my mission to do that more often. Unfortunately sometimes when reporting the stories, we do get distracted, but that’s not an excuse. We will all work hard to make that top priority for 2007.

On the “all headlines in one place” blog: consider it done. We will be working on an official corporate site, and hopefully will be able to include all the headlines.

I agree, we need to streamline stuff, and will be working on that. I am using this low-intensity week to think exclusively about this.

Hi Om,

Any plans to resurrect IPNetworked? I was disappointed that you discontinued it after a handful of posts. The “Carriers” section on NewTeeVee does cover some related issues, but I think the Internet infrastructure space should provide some interesting material in 2007.

For instance, will Amazon be able to make a profitable business out of S3/EC2? Might Microsoft’s rumored $900 million Texas data center and Google’s rumored $750 South Carolina facility come to pass? Could startup CDNs like Cachefly and BitGravity succeed in peeling customers away from traditional hosting providers. Or will VeriSign/Kontiki’s P2P CDN gain traction?

Would love to hear your insights on such issues, which might be of interest to many Web 2.0 and NewTeeVee startups.

Thanks for all the great content, BTW. And Merry Christmas!

Isabel,

we are retweaking it and that site should be back soon. I am in the process of doing that. It is one of those sites if not done properly, it could turn into a disaster. so being careful with that.

Venkatesh,

Yes, you got me on that one, but if you have followed over last two weeks, I am writing more. I think it has been tough to balance writing with managing and building a company. So as we put final pieces in place, you would definitely see more output from me.

On the reviews of products and services, can you be more specific as to what kind. I do it selectively because I just think there is a lot of stuff out there, and I tend of ignore stuff I don’t feel too strongly about it. Of course, there is the whole thing - why say anything, when you don’t have anything nice to say. sometimes I fall victim to that ;-)

best

Om–you and your team are doing a great job…I don’t know how you’re even able to consistently pump out so much worthwhile original content in the first place.

Sure; you receive suggestions to add, change, modify, or drop this or that feature, approach, specific industry focus, etc; but the bottom line is that your site/s are a wonderful resource regardless to those of us wise enough to use it…and; thanks to ad support; it’s all free to us.

Thank you, and best wishes for an even better 2007.

All in all I am a fan of your site.

The Good:
+The content
+The site design
+Om

The Bad:
-The Right side is too busy

I take back my earlier comment. I just got the latest post via my RSS reader with an Intel UMPC ad nicely embedded in it. Duh!

shadilac says: For some reason your readoers don’t tend to comment as much…”

Here’s one reason: Some design and U-I choices that hide the fact that the site even supports comments. There’s no design element that draws a connection between main article and the comments. They appear in separate, spaced boxes with an intervening ad.

Here’s a minimalist suggestion: Add a link to comments inside the box with the main post. Use the area under the dotted line that now has links to topic, tags, sphere, and share/send. Put the comments link at the lower right.

Better suggestion: Tell your designer you want it easier for your readers to comment, and ask the designer for a solution.

The blog takes way too long to show up on my cell phone. It would be great if there is a light version of the blog that gets picked automatically if the user is using a mobile device. Keep up the good work!

Enjoy the site. The randomness seems like a plus and a minus. Never know what the next item will be on, or where. Maybe the team could start a “Metro” beat, with a Bay Area focus that cuts across the other topics. That might giver you a reason to cover the Bay Area better than everybody else.

Gotta agree with the rest, the right side with the polls and jobs are quite distracting.

I miss out on the scoops that the old Gigaom used to uncover..The juicy insider info and what not.

One way to have the audience actively comment on the site - Make heavily opinionated and controversial posts — a ploy that Mike @ TC employs..If you track the # of comments TC has been getting recently, it has gone down…Once in a while, he tends to write up a post (like the recent Netflix one) which saw about 170 + comments..

hi Om,

Love you Team editorial skill. I agree with Linkip:

“Maybe more information coming from European and Asian markets. Fortunately or unfortunately the world is flat and competition is coming from anywhere !”

for sure the must be a great company out there. Try in-depth coverage Green Packet from Malaysia which offer next generation of mobile broadband. Disclosure: I’m from proud citizen of Malaysia :-) but not an employee of Green Packet.

Suggestion:

Design:

1. Maybe add a design digg-like module and digg-spy on the righthand corner. I love o see real-time interaction callobration between users of for best story of the hours, day, week, month, year, all-time) in the OM Network and off-course with rss feed.
2. Post us the your screenshot of your web designs, maybe readers can participate which is the best. keep us to date.. another one, do forget the holiday theme - your forgot about Christmas.

Content:

1. • a podcast (audio/video) interview such Scobleshow.
2. • Law section covering Technology. Need more coverage to compliment This Week In Law and Zdnet.
3. More posting indeed.
4. More picture and video either embedded or not.
5. Del.icio.us for OM Network?
6. RSS for comments??

Comment:

1. Support html. We want post video too (pls filter it - for god sake).

PS: Where is OMNetwork_myspace/facebook/ etc? network?

Love the sites and, more importantly, the content. My only suggestion is a rehaul of the design - sorry to say, but I really don’t like the colors, layout, etc… sorry!

Overall I would say 7/10. I visit the site 4 out of 5 business days. What I would like to see:

• lose the right hand side, completely distracting - doesn’t jive with the new look

• cover more outside of web 2.0 - gets tiring reading about all these companies gearing to sell out

• more verbose posts - more quality, less quantity - i really like your opinions…they just seem to stop early

There is a perfect example from today about quantity not quality. A story about a company laying off 4 and 8 people respectively???

(link)

I got to say I love your site. Here’s some ideas:

What I Love:
-Layout of the site. (I’m serious, this is probably the best layout for a blog that I’ve seen.)
-Your writing style

Some Possible Improvements
-Encourage more commenting by adding features such as threaded comments (see (link) ) Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want you guys switching to their layout, I would just love to see threaded comments here where you can reply to individual comments. That ends up encouraging more conversation.

I agree with one of the earlier comments. If you’ve got the funds, pick up a European and an Indian correspondent. Although the US has been the key innovator in the web thus far, broadband has really levelled the playing field.

It would also get your postings on a 24 hour cycle - anything to stay ahead of the competition.

Dear Om,

I started checking out your site recently. Now, I’m an everyday reader. I think you are doing a great job. I love the tone of the articles - perfect balance to the register.co.uk - my other favorite site.

The guys making all these suggestions should just go start their own sites as they seem to be so sure of what is better - maybe that will teach them what is actually involved!

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it - right?!

Keep on chooglin dude. I for one am highly entertained and informed by your site.

All the very best to you and your great team.

Beeba

Beeba,

Respectfully, keep in mind that Om -did- ask for feedback to make his site (business) even better.

Of course it is a great site…or none of us would be here reading nor commenting.

Dorian

Om,
yes, I have noticed the difference in your output. I love all the new writers too, not taking away anything from them. And Robert’s post are through and thoughtful.

Regarding reviews, I understand your focus is telecom etc, but there are lot of other development happening. Gigaom could definitely add value to the conversation. I mean new acquisitions or product launches in web2.0 space. Like the Google “Integrated Story” today, i would definitely like Gigaom’s take on that.

Venkatesh

Please add more concurrent items to your RSS feed. There’s only 8. 20 or 30 would be ideal.

Otherwise, the design of your blog is very good.

Hi.

Nice forum design. Okay, I need your advice.
So, I wanna make personal site, and I am looking for site template.
Can you suggest some online place or other resource where I can find many site templates?

It would be better if it will be free:)
I think many of us have personal sites, do you design it yourself?

Best regards, Bill.

So I was off work and surfing and found this place and thought I would join up. I don’t have much more to say right now except I need to start reading some of the older posts to get up to speed before I can start posting.

Em