dot

Dodge every black dot and do not leave the playing area

Oh thank god that Petsmooch.com and ICanHasCheezburger.com have competition.

Quoted: Dognamic is a full featured social networking site in the likes of MySpace and Facebook. Members create their “dog” member profile and put in various aspects of their dogs’ lives. Dognamic members can enter their dog’s lifestyles, eating habits, pictures, videos and yes blogs as well. All these for the love of our pet dogs.

Blue Dot's new world headquarters in the Colman Building.

Quoted: In 1890, the two-story Colman Building was constructed on the site of the old Colman Block, a wooden building that burned in the fire of 1889. The Colman Block had been built on the remains of the ship Winward, which had wrecked near Whidbey Island. Intending to salvage the boat, James Colman bought it and towed it to his dock in Seattle. When the Colman Block was constructed the ship was surrounded by land and buried under the foundation of the Colman Block.

The "CEO Spotlight" radio interview ran this morning on KIRO. Jason Brooks interviewed me for this about a month ago.

My only regret ... the story doesn't include our domain WWW.BLUEDOT.US. Hopefully people will be able to find us via a Google seach.

Quoted: Transcript:
Intro: Well, the Internet continues to grow as a way for people to connect with each other. In this morning's CEO Spotlight, Jason Brooks talks with the CEO of a local startup that has a very unique take on the idea.
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Jason: Everyone has pretty much heard of MySpace by now, but there's another way to connect with friends, Blue Dot, a Seattle startup run by Head Cheerleader Mike Koss.
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Mike: It's basically a new way for people to exchange information with their friends and family; keep in touch with their friends by sharing the most interesting web content that they're finding on the Internet.
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Jason: That's the difference compared to other social sites. It's not about describing yourself, but connecting with others the things you find interesting on the net.
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It works like this: You download a Dot This! button toolbar and click on stuff you like.
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Mike: Whenever you publish something, you can share that with your friends so they see it as well. So, now, not only are you saving for yourself, so you can remember something interesting that you've read in the past, but your friends can also see "what is Mike doing today, what is he finding interesting on the web". So it's a great way to learn both from your friends and about your friends.
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Jason: So, how did they come up with the name Blue Dot?
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Mike: There's a saying about the planet Earth from space looks like a blue dot and we think of connecting the whole world and all the people in the world through our service.
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Jason: Blue Dot's basic service is free so the company is relying on advertising that's not "in your face".
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Mike: When they are looking at a Dot that someone created, we will have a very discrete ad that adds value to that. It might be about the same topic that the Dot was about itself.
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Jason: A 19 year veteran of Microsoft who was with the original Excel team, Koss has lofty goals for Blue Dot.
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Mike: Just like "Googling" is equivalent to searching for something, we want "Dotting" to mean sharing something with your friends and family that you found interesting on the Internet.

We just passed a milestone in Blue Dot's history. I thought it a good time to share some of what we're learning about our user base.

Looking for help on the Google Webmasters discussion group (per Rand Fishkin's suggestion).

click to play

Here's a copy of the KOMO TV spot that was recorded directly off the air. It has a higher-resolution than the KOMO-hosted video, and it also includes the teaser by Kathi Goertzen before the commercial preceeding the spot.

The Clark and Michael site (featuring Michael Cera) features a Blue Dot link!!! Awesome!