Today I'm unveiling a new service that I put together over the last 48 hours. It's called hoosgot.com. Hoosgot (pronounced “who’s got...”) is a simple way to ask who’s got what you’re looking for. Just put “hoosgot” in a blog post or a Twitter tweet and it’ll show up on Hoosgot. Send a twitter to @hoosgot, it works as well. You can tag a post with hoosgot or lazyweb, and we'll pick it up as well, as long as your blog is indexed by Technorati. It’s meant to give you a place to send the requests for all of those things that you’ve wanted, but just can’t find - chances are, what you want already exists and someone else out there in the ether knows about it (or has built it!)
If someone’s got what you’re looking for, or a clue in that direction, they post a comment. RSS feeds flow from the posts and the comments.
For example, you might ask:
hoosgot an easy-to-use pencil sharpener that has suction cups on the bottom so I can stick it anywhere?
or:
hoosgot a simple camera bag that you can stick a laptop in, and still carry over your shoulder without knocking over pedestrians? Note I’m not looking for a knapsack or a backpack, I want it to act like a messenger bag…
And so on.
It works if you work it: Give back to the web
Of course, you should subscribe to hoosgot, it has RSS feeds (the main feed and the comments feed) so you can watch and participate - for Hoosgot only works if you comment on the questions posed. Happen to know where someone can find the information they seek? Interested in collaborating with them on creating that invention described when the person invoked hoosgot or the lazyweb? Leave a comment on the entry, and give back to the web that has given us so much.
The @hoosgot Twitter User
Along with hoosgot.com, you can also subscribe to updates by following the @hoosgot user on twitter. When you invoke hoosgot or the lazyweb, don't be surprised when you get a reply from @hoosgot! Tell your friends. Twitter away.
Hoosgot's Roots
Hoosgot humbly traces its roots to the wonderful lazyweb which unfortunately shut down in 2006. It was a glorious experiment in what the web could produce - co-creation on a global scale. Many many thanks to Ben Hammersley and team for setting it up, and running the original site.
Why did I do this?
I love the lazyweb. You know, the idea that if you had a need, a wish, an interesting "what-if" thought, you could make a suggestion on your blog, your community on Seesmic or Twitter, and every now and then, the gods of the interwebs would answer your prayers thrown out to the ether. It bummed me out that a central place for these requests was nowhere to be found, and all these great ideas (and pleas!) were being lost in the ether.
You gotta love Holiday Weekends
Friday night (the 28th) The lazyweb popped back into my mind. I missed it. I started asking myself the question, "Why hasn't anyone reconstituted the lazyweb?, What if we could rebuild the lazyweb for the 2008 web? What if we could take advantage of all the cool tools that have arrived in the last 5 years? Would it work?" Rather than wait around, I realized I could just build it, and maybe folks like me would use it. At about 5am on Saturday morning, the first prototype was up. I made some major changes, including twitter support Saturday night. And launch is today, on Sunday morning! Ain't working on the web fun?:-)
Many Thanks to the Lazyweb
On December 31, 2002, lazyweb.org was purchased by Pete Birkenshaw, and the first public post was on January 1, 2003. Parenthetically, it is an interesting coincidence that the first conversations about the Lazyweb were probably happening when the earth was right about in the same spatial plane as it was when I was coding it, only separated by 5 years of temporal difference. It ran for over 3 years before finally succumbing to trackback and comment spam, when Ben Hammersley shuttered it, with a simple message "The LazyWeb is now closed." The last post was made on April 25th, 2006. I wanted to bring it back.
What about spam?
I'm not sure. It's possible that hoosgot will suffer the same fate as lazyweb.org. After 5 years of running Technorati, which was constantly bombarded with spam (and not always getting things right), spam is definitely a real issue, especially if people like the service and use it a lot. We had to think through and build a bunch of services that didn't exist before - but some of those systems are now out there and available for regular folks to use, in tools like Wordpress. I've also installed a number of backend spam fighting tools and systems, which means that sometimes it'll miss a legitimate post or tweet. That doesn't mean you're a spammer, it just means I'm not a very good programmer. Drop me a line at david AT sifry DOT com and let me know. Chances are I'll figure out what's up. Sometimes I might be too busy to respond. Hoosgot is a labor of love, so I appreciate your patience. We're going to take this adventure together.
Acknowledgements
To start, many thanks to the folks behind the original Lazyweb site. Here's who they credited:
Who's Behind This? Primarily, you are. Since its launch you've given the LazyWeb over 100 ideas, and the LazyWeb only works when people give ideas and help each other to make the web a greater place. But, if we have to name names, Matt Jones had the original idea (and designed the logo), this site was built and is run by Ben Hammersley following a LazyWeb request from Clay Shirky. The domain name is owned and donated by Pete Birkenshaw. Wicked-cool Movable Type jiggerypokery is by David Raynes. The search box is magnificently awesome work by Maciej Ceglowski.
Many thanks, folks.
Doc Searls came up with the name Hoosgot, and Technorati and Tweet Scan help with the heavy lifting. Matt Mullenweg leads Wordpress, which much of this site is built upon. You guys rock! Many thanks as well to Liz Westover and Eric Willis.
What if my hoosgot doesn't show up?
There could be a few reasons for this. One is that we missed your twitter from the public timeline. First off, make sure that your twitter stream is public, not protected. Or if you are using your blog, make sure it pings Technorati. Give it about 15 minutes, check again, and if things still don't work, resend your tweet. Alternatively, go claim your blog (or twitter account) on Technorati - that'll make sure it gets indexed. If that still doesn't work, drop me a line (see below)...
Looking for bugs reports and feedback
Got feedback? Put "hoosgot" in the body of a blog post or a tweet, and chances are I'll see it. Email works as well, drop me a line at david AT sifry DOT com. If all else fails, you can call or SMS me at +14154122342.
Technorati Tags: announcement, blog, hoosgot, lazyweb, twitter