Blue Dot Interview on KOMO TV (Sept. 27, 2006)

Herb Weisbaum interviewed Blue Dot Connector, Kabir Shahani about Blue Dot yesterday. We're all really thrilled in the office (in fact, we watched it via SlingBox live while the segment aired). Even though it was the early edition of the news (4 to 5pm), we saw a significant spike in users visiting www.bluedot.us, and creating new accounts. I'm always amazed when people feel strongly enough to remember a web site address they see on TV, manage to walk over to their computer, and type it in to check it out themselves. But, it obviously does happen. After about an hour, the "blip" was over; but we ended up with a healthy batch of new users from all over western Washington (Welcome to Blue Dot!). Interestingly, I think the demographic of the people who watch this edition of the news, are a little bit different than most of our current users. We really tried to stress how Blue Dot is a) safe (permissions-based), and b) great for families. We are seeing some older users (Boomers) join Blue Dot ... and we hope to see their kids and grandkids joining them. We all know that Blue Dot is a great way to stay in touch with friends; but it's also a great way to stay in touch with your family (especially if you live in different cities across the country). Congratulations to Kabir for doing a great job representing the company (and thanks to Herb Weisbaum for being such a friendly host and inviting us to do the segment with him). P.S. We REALLY DID visit 3 of the 5 restaurants that Herb recommended to us on our recent trip to New York - and they were really great. You can find Herb's picks at: http://bluedot.us/users/kabir?st=tag%3anyc

First known usage of the API: Adam's Findory and Blue Dot mashup!

One of our early users (user:adam) has created a fun mashup of two Seattle startups, Blue Dot and Findory. Basically, you put in your Blue Dot username and password and he goes out and gets your top tags from Blue Dot. Clicking on any of those tags returns the Findory results. It's a compelling way to read news in your interest areas and find more stuff to Dot! Check it out via his blog post here: Adam's Blue Dot and Findory Mashup Thanks Adam! And for anyone else, let us know if you come up with any interesting API apps. We're excited to see whatever people come up with!

"Just Google Me"

Let's face it, there's nothing like that uplifting feeling you get when you google your name and get results that are, well, *you*. It's a guilty pleasure, but we all do it... It's been fun to see our users, and our Dots, show up so prominently when searching the web. For example, if you are a Blue Dot user, try searching your name on Google - you'll be surprised at what you get. The same happens with content, too - my girlfriend was looking for a new yoga studio, and found her Dots listed 4th on the results google returned. For those of you that have yet to take the plunge of joining Blue Dot, or creating some of your first Dots - give it a try and give yourself the butterflies :) - Kabir.

Wanna work at Blue Dot? Come to Startupalooza!

The folks at RedFin had a great idea - get a bunch of Seattle area startups together and have a recruiting fair. Blue Dot is looking to hire an experienced DBA with experience in data center operations. We're also looking for experienced applicants for business development and marketing. When: Thursday, Sept. 28, 5:30 – 8 p.m. Where: Redfin lobby, 308 Occidental Ave. S., Seattle If you'd like to attend, please see RSVP. We look forward to meeting you!

Blue Dot on the Radio

KIRO 710 Radio ran a feature story about Blue Dot this morning during the Seattle drive-time. Business Editor, Jason Brooks interviewed me a few weeks ago for his CEO Spotlight series. We chatted for half an hour, and he boiled our discussion down to 2 minutes. I really like the final story; he captured much of what we think is special about Blue Dot. You can hear it for yourself by downloading the podcast (or read this transcript).