Sport
My Top 3 Posts in 2006 + Bonus Video
As a a father of a 6 week old baby I am fairly busy with little time to blog. However today I took the time to review my Blog statistics for 2006 (well I started this Blog in July 2006). The result is a bit surprising to me. I expected that the core topic I am writing about, Rich Internet Applications and the adoption in the enterprise software space and particularly SAP would be of most interest to my Blog readers. Turns out that the most read post on this topic ranks only number 3. It is my report on the SDN Day in Las Vegas and also benefited from the Scoble effect, since I met him for the first time at the show and he did a brief interview with me. Reminds me that I never saw a published version of that interview… well he has a lot of content and this probably fell through the grid 
Validating the long tail theory, number 2 is my posting featuring Trial Bike videos on YouTube. Bike Trial is certainly a sport not widely know around the world. Yet my post about it got significant views from Readers who were searching for keywords “Trial Bike Videos” on Google. Highly specialized content continues to rule the Internet. There is a sequel to this story. I sent a link of the posting to my friend Volker, who introduced my to Bike Trial back in 1988 and he just emailed me that for Christmas he got a new trial bike from Koxx. So he is ready for more action. He also sent me a link to this extreme trial bike video which clearly tops all my previous videos.
Coming to Number 1… Recently Shel Israel gave a number of tips on how to improve Blogs to make them more interesting. He states “It is better to be useful then boring”. While it seems obvious, it is easier said then done. My post on “How to embed YouTube videos into a WordPress blog” clearly hit a nerve with many people out there and based on the comments proved to be very useful. So maybe it is not a surprise after all that it received the most visits in 2006.
I am curious how Blog traffic will change in 2007 and what topics will be on this list in a year from now. Happy New Year!
Cool Trial Bike Videos – This is why I love YouTube
Karen mentioned to me the other day that she saw this really cool video on Yahoo! with a guy jumping multiple poles with his bike. Little did she know that my friend Volker, who is now one of the youngest executives at Siemens, used to be the Northern German champion in Bicycle Trial. That’s actually how I learned this sport exists. It is absolutely amazing and I am still suprised how few people know about it. The stunt of the guy in the Yahoo! video was small compared to tricks I have seen at Trial championships. The goal in Trial and Mountainbike Trial is to finish an obstacle course without having your feet touching the ground (the time you need is not that important).
So I went over to YouTube and searched for “Bike Trial” and sure enough I found a wealth of interesting videos. Here are my favorites:
Here is a short clip to wet your appetite. The Spanish have dominated traditional Trial, using specific bikes typically from Monty, for a long time.
But you can also use a regular Mountain Bike for Trial as these guys show us…
Well, you think you have seen it all? These kids from England defy gravity. Try at your own risk!
Talking about Internet Video… Robert Scoble is launching the Scobleshow tonight.
