TailRank testing
A little over two weeks ago I got an invite to beta-test TailRank, a site which promises to give you recommendations on blogs and other web content based on your personal interests. I suppose the idea is to turn it into something like Last.fm for blogs.
As soon as I got the invite I registered, and share a couple of links. But I found it difficult to understand how was I supposed to use the site, and what should I do in order to get better recommendations. Also, it seemed to me at most recommended items had been shared by Kevin Burton, the creator of TailRank himself, who seems to be the most active user, as well. It didn’t seem too interesting to read items shared by the same person, so seeing no clear value in spending more time playing around, I decided to wait a bit and try it some time later.
This morning I decided to give it another try. First, I couldn’t log in because I couldn’t remember the username I had chosen. So I used the ‘remind password’ form, twice, but with no luck: no e-mail came, and no message on the site. Frustrated, I registered again, with same e-mail and different handle. So now I have two accounts, but the profiles seem to be somehow mixed up, presumably because of the identical e-mails. Clearly something that needs fixing. At least now I have two working TailRank accounts.
Next I explored the site a bit more again. To my great surprise, one of the links I shared in my first round of the site now appears as shared by Burton, and not as shared by me. Weird.
Then I tried to upload the OPML from my Bloglines subscription, but no luck. Got a Java error. Thrice.
I tried to get some recommendations, but once more, the content seems to be monopolized by Burton, and the recommendations don’t seem enticing.
The idea behind the site is a good one, but it still needs some work. There seem to be a few bugs, and the interface could use some refining. For example, there is no clear link to update your profile, and the ‘logout’ link does not appear on all pages, just on some.
In general, I would enjoy a cleaner interface that made it easier to use the site. As I see it now, it is difficult to understand what is going on and how are you supposed to use it. And the ‘home’ page is way too overloaded with text; it makes my brain ache when I look at it. A logo would be cool as well.
It would also be nice if TailRank incorporated some kind of ‘automatic’ harvesting of what a user is interested in, so that you don’t need to go through the tedious process of inputing links manually. For example, it would be nice if TailRank could pick up automagically my del.icio.us subscriptions and ’share’ them in my TailRank account. It would be something like an Audioscrobbler plugin, but for web-surfing instead of for music. That would be great.
A very nice feature of TailRank is the possibility of include in your own website the results of TailRank recommendation. I suppose that can be a very cool thing to have, say, on the sidebar of a group blog that keeps a TailRank account.
Summarizing, I think that the TailRank idea is cool, but it still needs some polishing (but hey, that is what a beta is about, isn’t it?). I think it has lots of potential, if only it would become a bit more user-friendly. Keep up the good work!
UPDATE 2005/10/25 The OPML bug seems to be fixed, but for some reason TailRank only imported 37 feeds from my 63-feed OPML. No reasons given. I am still finding it difficult to understand how to use the site. For example, it took me a lot of clicking around to find out how could I tag the feeds I just imported. Read Kevin’s comment below for some more information about TailRank development. If TailRank is the result of just five weeks of work, I am impressed! 
October 24, 2005 Filed under: blogs, internet, technology
4 comments
First off, thanks for the feedback.
> As soon as I got the invite I registered, and share a couple of links. But I
> found it difficult to understand how was I supposed to use the site, and what
> should I do in order to get better recommendations.
Yes. The ‘bootstrap’ problem is one that I still feel we have to solve. Having
a ‘getting started’ page would be nice. I’d also like to have fresh and
compelling content to start off with so that its obvious why you’d want to use
TailRank.
We just deployed our robot today which is going through and aggregating blogs.
This should increase the productivity of the site a great deal.
> Also, it seemed to me at most recommended items had been shared by Kevin Burton,
> the creator of TailRank himself, who seems to be the most active user, as
> well. It didn’t seem too interesting to read items shared by the same person, so
> seeing no clear value in spending more time playing around, I decided to wait a
> bit and try it some time later.
Yes.. this is because we had only invited 50 people. Now that the site is
farther along we should be getting more content. As soon as I get the robot
working reliably (almost there.. in fact I think it’s done) I’ll invite another
large batch of people.
I’d also like to get more OPPML too which will help our robot discover cool
content.
> This morning I decided to give it another try. First, I couldn’t log in because
> I couldn’t remember the username I had chosen. So I used the ?¢‚ǨÀúremind password’
> form, twice, but with no luck: no e-mail came, and no message on the
> site.
Ouch. Sorry. you’re the second person to report this bug. I’ll fix it
tomorrow.
> Next I explored the site a bit more again. To my great surprise, one of the
> links I shared in my first round of the site now appears as shared by Burton,
> and not as shared by me. Weird.
I’ve noticed this as well. It’s a bug. The second time someone comes around
they can overwrite the first person who shared the story.
> Then I tried to upload the OPML from my Bloglines subscription, but no
> luck. Got a Java error. Thrice.
I think this is fixed already.
> I tried to get some recommendations, but once more, the content seems to be
> monopolized by Burton, and the recommendations don’t seem enticing.
Now that we have our robot this should be less of a problem. I’m going to update
some of the pages to show fresher/cooler content so you might want to check
tomorrow or the next day.
> The idea behind the site is a good one, but it still needs some work.
Oh totally.. this is why we’re still in private beta. It’s not ready for prime
time but I think we’re making a lot of progress. I’ve only been at this for
five weeks now !
> There seem to be a few bugs, and the interface could use some refining. For
> example, there is no clear link to update your profile,
Oh.. interesting. You can just click on your image. I guess putting an “edit
your profile” link below your image wouldn’t hurt.
> and the ‘logout’ link does not appear on all pages, just on some.
Yeah.. this is a bug. I need to fix it.
> In general, I would enjoy a cleaner interface that made it easier to use the
> site.
Hm. I think the site is generally cleaner than most. Certainly can use some
improvement. Maybe when we get some more $ I can hire a designer to come in and
give it a fresh coat of paint.
> As I see it now, it is difficult to understand what is going on and how are
> you supposed to use it. And the ‘home’ page is way too overloaded with text;
> it makes my brain ache when I look at it.
Hm….. I’d like to clean up the home page a bit more. If you have any ideas
for improving it I’m certainly all ears.
> A logo would be cool as well.
I have some leads on a person who can help with our corporate identity. We
might have a decent logo soon enough.
> It would also be nice if TailRank incorporated some kind of ‘automatic’
> harvesting of what a user is interested in, so that you don’t need to go
> through the tedious process of inputing links manually.
Our robot is now taking care of this…
> For example, it would be nice if TailRank could pick up automagically my
> del.icio.us subscriptions and ’share’ them in my TailRank account. It would be
> something like an Audioscrobbler plugin, but for web-surfing instead of for
> music. That would be great.
Oh.. yes. A lot of people have suggested that. I already have the delicious
API implemented so now I just have to dock it into the UI. Not sure if it will
be a 1.0 feature becuase (as you can tell) I’m trying to stabilize our current
features.
> A very nice feature of TailRank is the possibility of include in your own
> website the results of TailRank recommendation. I suppose that can be a very
> cool thing to have, say, on the sidebar of a group blog that keeps a TailRank
> account.
Oh. You can do that right now actually! On the top right click “Include this
page on your blog” and you can have a one line javascript include you can put
on your site.
> Summarizing, I think that the TailRank idea is cool, but it still needs some
> polishing (but hey, that is what a beta is about, isn’t it?). I think it has
> lots of potential, if only it would become a bit more user-friendly. Keep up
> the good work!
We’re working HARD to get it user-friendly. 24/7 pretty much
. Thanks for
the feedback. I’ll try to incorporate this shortly.
Kevin
>> A very nice feature of TailRank is the possibility of include in your own
>> website the results of TailRank recommendation. I suppose that can be a very
>> cool thing to have, say, on the sidebar of a group blog that keeps a TailRank
>> account.
>Oh. You can do that right now actually! On the top right click ?¢‚Ǩ?ìInclude this
>page on your blog?¢‚Ǩ¬ù and you can have a one line javascript include you can put
>on your site.
Yes, that’s what I meant! I think it is a very interesting feature!
Thanks a bunch for your detailed answer. I am impressed to know that this is the result of just 5 weeks work! YGG!
Yeah… we’re moving along at a pretty good clip. Hopefully we’ll be public in just a few more weeks.
Could you email me your OPML file? I’d like to take a look and see what went wrong.
burtonator@gmail.com
OPML sent.
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