As many are aware, it’s hard to avoid personalities like Louis Gray and Robert Scoble on the internet these days. Chances are that if you belong to a social network, and have friended them, they have interacted with your updates on the particular networks you belong to in one way or another. Louis and Robert seem to have a particular “omnipresence” to them, and both have an amazing knack for tracking the latest news and updates, and most importantly staying up with the actual people they follow. If you mention one of their names anywhere on the internet, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll know and respond in some fashion or another.
Louis Gray is relatively new to this however. Scoble has touted him as being “the next Scoble“, but in reality he has only become popular in just the last year or so. Scoble has been pretty popular for several years now, and a lot of his ability to be in so many networks at a time comes from experience. I’ve witnessed both of their abilities to multi-task and share and follow activities of others they follow first-hand, and it’s quite amazing to watch! Both are just as good at actually listening to most of the people they follow on each network they belong to.
A great example of this is in a panel at BlogWorld Expo last week, Stowe Boyd (aka StoBo) said something which Drew Olanoff re-tweeted. Scoble just so happened to be driving back home, but next thing we know, Robert was joining the conversation through FriendFeed and Twitter, all from the wheel of his car! We hope that Maryame was the one driving. Both of their abilities to know what is being said that is important at any given time is amazing.
In doing some research today though, it appears that Louis Gray may have surpassed Robert Scoble in the number of networks he belongs to. Doing some research on the recently announced usernamecheck.com, the username, “scobleizer” is on 26 of the listed networks. I am unaware of any other username that Robert Scoble uses around the internet, so we have to assume this is all for him. “louisgray”, the main username for Louis Gray, is on 18 networks. However, if we take the username, “louismg”, another username he uses (taken from his FriendFeed shares), we get 15 more networks he belongs to. Add to that the username, “asypta”, which Louis uses on stumbleupon and delicious, we get 5 more. That would, assuming these are all his usernames, make Louis Gray involved in a total of 38 networks. This is why Louis Gray has been so successful over the last year. I believe Louis Gray has just become “omnipresent”.
Any other names you can think of that rival Louis Gray or Robert Scoble in network involvement? I believe these two are tops in my book.
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Oddly, you were able to track this before me. When I tried to use the product, it didn't work. And yes, I would easily argue that this is the wrong metric to compare. Scoble beats me in every category, period.
well I've got 23 under GeekMommy – but I'm not telling the other IDs I use! 😉
Still… what a neat little app!
Hey Lucretia!
@Jesse: I echo GeekMommy, that IS a neat app!
Now if only I can come up with a handle… lol
I think from my own experience Robert Scoble certainly (we met in Amsterdam in April at The Next Web Conference) and Louis Gray most probably (yet to meet) are both individuals who have an extraordinary level of curiosity, energy and enthusiasm, as well as the kind of intellects that allow them to be objective. That's why people follow them, and that's how they manage to engage across many platforms and networks.
They both work hard at being visible, and spend time engaging others – nobody would tolerate the noise if they had nothing of substance behind their 'omnipresence'. They are also both very good at developing and maintaining a consistent personal identity or brand online.
Although I don't think either of them really welcome (or merit) such a simplistic comparison, and would probably say it's no race, I am certain what they do have in common is that they probably both get through phone, PDA and laptop batteries with a fury.
David, I agree. Having spent time with both of them, it is quite
amazing to watch how both of them get things done. Both are amazing
at what they do, and I agree – it really isn't a race. It's fun to
pretend it is though. 😉
Jesse – I think you sent 50 or 100 (or 1000) people to usernamecheck. It's really slowwwww. Can just see a whole bunch of people grabbing their names all over the place. Funny 🙂
Webware and Lifehacker are featuring them as well, so it's not just me
I don't think.
Thanks for the reference. Louis Gray is definitely a name worth checking out.
Not only does he out-omnipotize Scoble, but he arrives here within minutes to post the first comment.
Impressive.
This is a self-imposed title and thus meaningless. Who cares how many networks they belong to? What do they do with those networks? Have they just logged in once? It's like measuring a twitter users popularity by how many people THEY follow.
A true measurement would be about *demand* and I'll bet the demand for either of these guys is smaller than they think.
Kevin, I agree, but I think if you look at the activity they have in
each of those networks, you'll see these two are some of the few
larger influentials that actually pay attention to the thousands that
follow them. Louis and Scoble really do listen to those that follow
them. They have an amazing ability to pay attention, unlike a lot of
the others out there (which there's nothing wrong with – these guys
are just really good!).
[…] so powerful resonated through the web, but today Robert Scoble has lost his web presence crown to Louis Gray. Cue ominous music and get your jaw off the floor. Ok, maybe it’s not that dramatic, […]
I find this a very odd post. I don't understand why would anyone write something like this, except for self serving reasons.
Idan, I have no reason to suck up to either of them. I'm friends with
both of them. I found a cool service and thought it would be
interesting to see how many services 2 bloggers known for their web
presence belong to. I thought it was an amusing topic. What do you
think is odd about it?
Can I be the next Jesse Stay?
Only if I can be the next Drew Olanoff
[…] if that one person is Guy Kawasaki? Or Robert Scoble? Or Louis Gray? Or Mike Fruchter? They each have thousands of people who read what they share. You don’t […]
thanks for sharing usernamecheck com url. It's powerfull tools to find our competitor profile
thanks for usernamecheck link, I think I'll use it to track my competitor 😀
Thanks for mentioning usernamecheck com, I will compare my name with my competitor too LOL
usernamecheck com, I think it will be great to use as a comparison tool for competitor
that works and its actually pretty cool
that works and its actually pretty cool
[…] there is no internet before Louis (and before you get all snarky thinking that I am waxing poetic, read this blog entry), there is even a FAQ on the Myth of Louis […]