I want to be able to segment RSS readers, to be able to see the different browsing behavior of new visitors versus my loyal visitors.

Getting to the point where I actually can acquire that data has been a pretty long ride. I first had to create a way to change the URL’s used in RSS feeds, so I could detect this different URL, 301 redirect it to the right URL, and set a cookie while doing that. To do that I filed a bug in WordPress’ Trac, which I wrote a fix for as well, someone else improved on it, and it was committed into the WordPress core. As of WordPress 2.3, you can apply a filter to the_permalink_rss, which allows me to add ?source=rss to any URL (or &source=rss when the blog uses the default ?p= permalinks).

The next step is detecting that parameter in the URL, and 301 redirecting to the original post URL. Before doing that 301 redirect however, I drop a cookie, which lasts for 30 days, identifying the user as an RSS reader. This allows me to, in the last step, add the following code to the Google Analytics script tag when the user has that cookie:

__utmSetVar("RSS");

I will know if this works tomorrow, and if it does, I’ll release a new version of my Google Analytics for WordPress plugin with this possibility in it. Since I can imagine other people want to identify RSS readers for other purposes, I’ll release that small bit of code as a single plugin as well.

Comments

What’s Microsoft’s Next Move?

Specifically, I have three problems in mind. Solving any one of them will make someone very, very rich and improve computing for the rest of us. Solving all of them will show the world who the top technology company is for the 21st century.

Web/Desktop Bridge
The way I see it, desktop applications are not going away. Web applications are not going away. But web applications are changing user expectations about how desktop applications should behave, be distributed, and be priced.

But there are very few desktop applications that work “natively” with the web. Applications are, for the most part, either desktop-centric or web-centric. I’ve seen few (if any) that were designed with both in mind.

Nobody has made it easy to bridge that gap. There’s little infrastructure or guidance in place today. Live Clipboard could be the beginning of that.

Device Bridge and Synchronization
We have desktops, laptops, palmtops, game consoles, PVRs, and “set tops” with Internet connections and useful data to share. But they’re all islands of different sorts. The devices often aren’t aware of each other. And even when they are, interoperability is a craps shoot.

We need a way for devices of all shapes and sizes to be able to speak and share/sync data in a meaningful fashion. And given that no one company (so far) dominates on all of these platforms, a real solution is likely to be comprised of open file formats and protocols.

A New OS
We need a new operating system. And I don’t mean the “Internet Operating system” that Tim O’Reilly often speaks of. I mean that someone needs to re-think what “personal computer operating system” should mean in an age when the vast majority of computers will be on the Internet most of the time.

We all need it but most of us don’t know that yet.

After all that thinking has been done, someone needs to build it and support it.

All Signs Point to Microsoft
I honestly can’t think of more than one company that has the assets necessary to do all three.

I can think of a lot of companies that could solve one of those problems–maybe two. But when you look at all three of them, only Microsoft seems to have what it takes.

The $60 billion question is whether or not they can pull it off. In my mind, all three of those are vital to the future of Microsoft.

What do you think?

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Jeremy Zawodny is the author of the popular Jeremy Zawodny’s blog. Jeremy is part of the Yahoo search team and frequently posts in the Yahoo! Search blog as well.

Visit Jeremy’s blog: Jeremy Zawodny’s blog.

Rumors are they would also include buying guides and links to articles and blog posts. If Microsoft’s truly smart, they’ll include Expo listings.

They’ve also recently written about Windows Live Academic Search, Windows Live Local being named best online mapping by PC World, Live Clipboard developments, sending Live Local results to your mobile device. LiveSide rocks, tis true.

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Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.

Visit the InsideGoogle blog.

Basically, its a little script that lets you copy structured data from website to another, like copying a contacts entry from your address book and pasting it in an ecommerce site, with the live clipboard, placing the data in the proper form fields. Take a bunch of friends from Facebook, paste them into Windows Live Local, and get all their locations mapped out.

Basically, if you have two sites that understand the same type of data, its annoying that you lose the data because you can only copy text. With the XML-based live clipboard, if things are set up properly, you retain the data and get to reuse it on the target website.

I love the idea of being able to move data as you please, and getting websites to act a little less like individual islands. Obviously, there are some issues, like getting websites to use the system, making sure it works in most browsers, various security issues (like sites accessing the data without your permission) and making it work with as many types of data as possible. Still, I think its a great start.

O’Reilly has a transcript of Ozzie’s speech. Ozzie’s blog has more elaboration, including a demo, a screencast, and explains the Creative Commons license.

Also:

Alex Barnett
Dave Winer

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Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.

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Dave Winer has the details. Ray Ozzie’s blog has more. I’m interviewing Sanaz Ahari of the Live.com team in an hour. It’ll be interesting to see what she has to show me. Ross Rader likes it.

What do you think?

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Robert Scoble is the founder of the Scobleizer blog. He works as PodTech.net’s Vice President of Media Development.

Go to Scobleizer …

Adding an Object to the Office XP Clipboard

The Clipboard Pane appears automatically after you have cut or copied more than one item without a corresponding paste in between. You can also open the Clipboard Pane manually by choosing Office Clipboard from the Edit menu. Each item on the Clipboard is represented by an icon depicting the application it was taken from, as well as a thumbnail view of the object.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Each time you add something to the Clipboard, the new item will appear at the top of the Clipboard list. Once you have 24 objects in the Clipboard, the oldest item in the Clipboard will be deleted to make room for the new object.

Pasting an Object from the Office XP Clipboard

1. Place your cursor where you want the object pasted.

2. If necessary, open the Clipboard Pane by choosing Office Clipboard from the Edit menu.

3. In the Clipboard Pane, click the object you wish to paste.

Deleting One Object from the Office XP Clipboard

1. If necessary, open the Clipboard Pane by choosing Office Clipboard from the Edit menu.

2. Click the arrow to the right of the item and choose Delete.

Clearing All Objects from the Office XP Clipboard

1. If necessary, open the Clipboard Pane by choosing Office Clipboard from the Edit menu.

2. Click the Clear All button (near the top of the pane).

Customizing the Office XP Clipboard

The Options button (near the bottom of the pane) lets you customize the Clipboard in a number of ways.

Show Office Clipboard Automatically, which is active by default, can be unchecked if you would prefer that the Clipboard Pane only be opened manually.

Collect without Showing Office Clipboard, which is not active by default, can be checked if you would prefer that the Clipboard Pane not automatically open when you are in the middle of collecting objects.
By default, when the Office Clipboard is open, a corresponding icon will appear in the system tray (lower right corner of your screen taskbar), and a brief message appears each time you copy an item. You can choose to hide either of these indicators by unchecking the corresponding commands in the Options menu (Show Office Clipboard Icon on Taskbar and Show Status Near Taskbar When Copying).
To stop the Office Clipboard from allowing any more objects to be placed on it, right-click on the Clipboard system tray icon and choose Stop Collecting from the shortcut menu. This will cause the Clipboard Pane to close and the system tray icon to disappear. When you are ready, view the Clipboard Pane (and system tray icon) manually by choosing Office Clipboard from the Edit menu.
Now YOU are in full control of the newly enhanced Office XP Clipboard!

Beth Sunny and Karin Rex share their extensive knowledge in IT and training as freelance writers for http://www.SharperTraining.com. Don’t miss their training tips along with insights from other experienced trainers in SharperTraining.com’s “Focus On Training” newsletter. To subscribe, visit http://lb.bcentral.com/ex/manage/subscriberprefs.aspx?customerid=1468