With chatter dating back to last Friday, the news was made official today — Twitter has acquired Summize, an interactive search tool which piggy backs on the Twitter API launched a couple months ago. For Twitter, this will mean an replacement for its underwhelming search tool, which has started to take shape.
While Twitter makes for a great “what’s happening around you?” tool, Summize has really filled the space of aggregating what’s happening on Twitter as whole and being able to search through real-time conversations. A popular section on their Google-reminiscent logo/box/button homepage has been ‘Trending Topics’, which shows five or six things/products/people being talked about most right now.
For Twitter, which has gone through a rough year, this seems like an act of recovery. And if this is how they keep going, with reducing down times and features that make the product more useful, there might still be some hope. Still, a bunch of top Twitter users have already started to make their way to FriendFeed, which seems like it can only grow. Personally, I don’t think FriendFeed is so much of a competitor than a complementary product, and surely I think their growth is going to be beneficial to both services.
Here’s why. Most users on FriendFeed are still very active Twitter users and their tweets are obviously automatically blasted in their FriendFeeds, and I think this will remain. What will change is the replies and community backchat. Much of this which has previously taken place in Twitter (with the @ command) will instead be on FriendFeed, a much better aggregator of conversations and comments and replies and the like. In other words, I think Twitter be used more for its original purpose, for users to answer what they’re doing and be informed of one and other, while the actual conversations happen on FriendFeed by a growing minority of its users.
As a frantic Twitter user, I hope they keep going in the direction they have.
I just finished reading an intriguing open letter from Steve Outing. The letter was addressed to Craig Newmark, who is the founder of Craigslist. Outing suggest that Craigslist considers four things that could help save Newspapers. Although he attributes the downturn of the newspaper industy on Craigslist, he also considers Craig Newmark a compassionate member of society. Here are his thoughts:
- Allow local newspapers to scrape Craigslist ads
- Allow consumers to place ads on Craigslist via newspaper websites
- Add links on Craigslist to newspaper website classified sections
- Add a news component to Craigslist
Let’s break these four suggestions up for a moment.
Allowing newspapers to scrape Craigslist ads seems simple enough, the technology is there. However, how would this benefit Craigslist? Will Craigslist have to raise their prices on the listings they charge for, since the poster “might” have greater viewership (doubt they can get better viewership anyways). Why would Newmark want to build up someone elses brand. The only benefit is for the newspapers to fluff up their own classifieds. If the newspapers were able to come up with a decent amount of money for the right to scrape Craigslist and make it worth it, perhpas Newmark would accept this. We all know that would take the their board of directors a year to decide.
Allowing consumers to place ads on Craigslist via newspaper websites wouldn’t be necessary and doesn’t seem to be an appetizing way to get Newmark to adhere to the above suggestions. Craigslist currently gets millions of postings a month, and the few that might eventually come from the newspapers wouldn’t really benefit the behemoth.
Adding links on Craigslist to newspaper classified sections……WHY? This is ZERO benefit to Craigslist.
Adding a news component to Craigslist. Although this would seem like a great way to get community editors, sometimes the community exaggerates news to make it beneficial for their services and/or products.
What many folks forget is that society slowly drifted from newspapers to get an unbiased view from user generated content sites like Blogs, and online News Letters. Outings open letter is excellently put, but he should consider that Craig Newmark has publicly stated that he feels Craigslist has had a minimal impact on newspaper classifieds. Classifieds do not kill newspapers. Poor reporting and journalists do. Give readers something of value and they will stay loyal. Craigslist provided millions of its users the ability to post free ads in most categories. Newspapers charge for these ads. The users posting the ads are not journalists, and mainly want to just post/sell their items and leave. Therefor it should be the responsibility of the Newspapers to provide better content and leave the free classifieds to Craigslist. Maybe this new trend of Media companies buying out independent bloggers is proof they need independent bloggers to write their stories!
Asking Craigslist to help save the newspapers classifieds business, is like asking the newspapers to go save the forests.
I am perplexed why people would waste their time waiting on lines to buy a new 3G iPhone. Yes, I happen to have an iPhone myself, and yes, I plan on getting the 3G version, however….you will not find me waiting in order to get one.
If the iPhone maniacs took a step back and calculated the amount of time they will waste waiting for their new iPhone on the first day, they might be surprised to find that the speed of the 3G isn’t fast enough to make up for all the lost time they wasted to get this faster phone. For example, I happen to have the original 4GB iPhone which I rushed out to get, because like every other gadget nerd, I needed something new to play with. Seems like a couple of weeks after I got my phone the better ones came out and they were less then what I paid for my original fossil! Now iPhone consumers are about to go through the craze yet again to pick up the first 3G version, which promises faster speed and longer battery time (which I wll have to see for myself).
My question to you is this: IS IT WORTH THE SPEED TO WASTE A DAY WAITING IN LINE? In the off chance you actually have a job and had to take the day off to wait in line to get the phone, is the speed of the 3G going to make up for lost work time?
Soon I will find my way to the store to buy the new 3G iPhone myself. Unlike last time I will wait a few weeks before doing so, to see what changes and bugs are happening. Apple got me once with the original iPhone, and a second time with my Mac Air (which they lowered prices on) but they will not get me with the new 3G version.
Incidentally, if you upgraded to the latest version of iTunes, which is 7.7, you can see the new iPhone App Store. It is pretty evident that people with iPhones must loves games, based upon the amount of them available. You cannot purchase anything form the iPhone App Store yet, but at least you can see what you can wait in yet, another line to buy in advance.
Grooveshark Lite is a new ’sub-service’ launched by the innovative guys that brought us Grooveshark, a combination music store (iTunes) and music community (Last.fm), with elements drawn from each, billing itself as the world’s first ‘music library.’
One of Grooveshark’s main draws is the breadth of their library. They have over 6 million songs covering everything from obscure indies to major stars. With the launch of Grooveshark Lite, they have two major services running concurrently. The first, of course, is Grooveshark, which operates under a peer to peer model. You can stream songs from the web interface, but downloads are distributed across peers — in order to accomplish this you need to download a small desktop client.
On the other hand, Grooveshark Lite, developed on Adobe’s FLEX technology, is their latest application. It allows you to stream any song from the Grooveshark library without needing to run any external software. The product comes as a direct response from their user feedback. It is evident that they spent a lot of time creating an interface that users would find intuitive.
Another feature Grooveshark recently released is called tinysong (tinysong.com), which makes it even easier to search and share songs you love in Grooveshark Lite. Just type in the name of a song in the interface and you’re provided with a small url that you can paste into any of your favorite social media services.
I have been using Grooveshark for a few months now, and I am amazed at how easy the site is. There are few changes I find noticeable enough to suggest. The tinysong feature gives virtually anyone the ability to find the song they are looking for and play it on demand. Despite all the competition that is out there in the shared music space with sites like Imeem and Jango, Grooveshark proves to be a formidable player.
TripSay is a new travel social network that is currently in a private beta (the first 25 Rev2 readers who e-mail info@tripsay.com with “Rev2″ in the subject line will get be able to obtain an invitation.) Based in Finald, the service targets frequent travellers and enthusiasts alike who can share their experiences, plan their trips, group with their friends and make new ones, and do a number of things that are related to travel.
The signup proccess is a little different from most services, in that as opposed to just entering traditional things like your name and where you live, you’re asked to put on a scale what kind of a traveller you are and rate some of the places you’ve been to. It uses this information to recommend places and contribute to the system, gaining you points (each place you rate is worth some points, and the idea is to have a social competition/leaderboard around it.)
Apart from having a general traveller’s profile, you can also search and create groups with and for similar interests, and aggregate activity within TripSay and the whole network. Going under the ‘map’ tab lets you discover new places through its Flash-based interface, and as you’d guess, each place has its own page complete with pictures and everything.
TripSay is an interesting play, but I think there are number of travel social networks that are already at it and doing a far better job — which is owed mostly, of course, to their users. In such, Yahoo! Travel is one that I use frequently, and the Yahoo! brand being unanimous, one which some of my friends are on. I think travel is a more “personal” and “self-fulfilling” thing as opposed to something social, and this where TripSay will face its biggest challenge.
Awesome Rev2′ers,
Apologies for the lack of posting lately! I haven’t forgotten — my absence is the cause of one reason and one reason only: I’ve been truly, truly busy working on my new startup, Nincha, which is launching this fall. Most, if not all, of my spare time these days — which I would use otherwise to review “next Facebooks and Googles” — is occupied with building features, designing neat stuff, planning world domination,
and the other million or so nuggets that come with undertaking a startup.
Having written about 1000+ startups and services, it’s a little refreshing to be at the other side of the table. One thing’s for sure, the experience will definitely make me think once again before I call out a service because it doesn’t do something I want it to. Only after going through countless ‘overwhelmed-yet-excited’ late nights have I realized that there is a LOT of work that goes into building great services, and just like the scene in Ratatouille, it should remind us all that the critics are really close to nothing in value — it’s the people who do the work who are the real heroes.
Anyhow, I will of course be posting as regularly as I can in my on and off times — this week was kind of an exception since I’d dedicated most of it to what was due. I hope the next few weeks can be a little more mellow and in Rev2’s case, active. When you have two equally worthy passions — one that occupies the left brain, the other right, left, and center — it’s a tough balance to achieve what you intend to, but of course, I’m trying my best.
As for Nincha? I really want you all to see it for yourselves later this year, but for now, all I can say is that it makes sharing and accessing stuff in the web and beyond a really terrific and unique experience. I hope I can reveal more about it as we get closer to launch, and most definitely have some Rev2′ers come and help us test it in the later months before we deploy it out to the harsh, harsh world (is this where karma is supposed to get me? 
).
It’s been a interesting few last couple of years for Technorati. Despite being a fairly highly trafficked site, hiring an able CEO, and plowing through VC money round after round, it has failed to get anywhere. In its latest ploy, Technorati unveiled yesterday the launch of Technorati Media — a longtail ad network for bloggers and publishers.
Bloggers and publishers can apply to be a part of their network, and most blogs will be accepted. Like any other traditional blog network, they can then place the JavaScript code onto their websites and start serving ads. And again, like any other blog network, Technorati relies on their sales team to connected these blogs with the best advertisers.
It’s apparent by Technorati’s move that blog ad networks, not blog search engines, is where the money is. When it first launched, the idea of finding the conversation happening at this minute seemed whelming to a lot of people and it seemed this is where the industry was going. But soon, it became apparent: who else would possible have a use for a blog search engine than bloggers themselves? (a small minority of Internet users).
With Technorati Media, the still-fledgling startup aims to compete with established ad networks at AdBrite, BlogAds, and FederatedMedia. As their mission goes, “Technorati collects, organizes, and distributes the global online conversation.” What it leaves out is that to make their money, they look to providing small money-generating bloggers traditional ads for “social media”-buzzword-crazy advertisers. Will it work? We shall see.
Local search has been fairly traditional since it has been deemed the “next big thing” in search. Today, Google Maps is more or less the standard for most consumers — search for a business in a specific region or location and map it out. But there are surely a lot advanced techniques not implemented with today’s local search, and GeoSpot looks to fill the gap.
Better than I could describe the service is this statement on its homepage: “Search deeper than just business name and location. Search for bars and restaurants that are open now, or at a time you specify (i.e. after 10pm). Search for individual services and products offered (drive-thru, burger, onion rings, chicken salad, etc.).”
With GeoSpot, you’re able to search for businesses and shops that are open right now, as opposed to which just exist. This way, when you’re looking for a component cable at 6pm and don’t know which shops are open, or where you can get a meal at 4:00am, GeoSpot can help you find it. For example, here is a list of currently open coffee shops in San Francisco.
I think this is one of the many “frontiers” of local search — there are many ways to search, organize, and sort through data that have yet to even be thought of apart from the usual “business name and location” — and as we add mapping to equation, it’ll be only sometime before we’ll have to worry about where to eat or shop. While Geospot isn’t much different to many of the other utilities currently, I hope it is able to stay ahead and innovate in this space.
I like services which fulfill people’s curiosities and make information more widely accessible in the world, and that’s exactly what Glassdoor.com is — for salaries. Ever been curious about what people at Google, Microsoft or Apple make, or what Jerry Yang, Steve Ballmer, Eric Schmidt’s approval rating is? Your curiousity has now been fullfilled.
The philosophy of Glassdoor is simply to share a little, get a lot. The idea is to have people share their salary information, ratings, and reviews at their specific company, and in return, provide them to be able to access all the information that is available on the site — i.e. salary, review, ratings data for all the companies listed on the site. The process repeats itself, and the data on Glassdoor and gets richer and richer.
The service has so far had a great start and a lot of useful data has already been accumulated. For example, as part of the preview, you can already see substantial salary data for companies like Microsoft and Google. Case-in-point: a product manager at Google makes $30K more than a product manager at Microsoft.
For the first time, what has always been very sensitive, private data — personal salaries — is now public, and I think a lot of potential and current employees of the companies involved are going to be impacted. As the service gets richer, it’ll be interesting to check back six months later and get more accurate salary averages. Overall though, it does, indeed, fulfill your salariosity.
In my continuing covering of sites, services and startups that do more good for humanity than they do for Sand Hill Road, I was informed today about Changents — a site/social network/community that is focused on bringing change by having “change agents” (changents), or rather, superstars who are actively making the world a better place in seperate areas by doing radicle things, and getting a “backers” or “followers” (ordinary people) to do it with them.
The site features a variety of change agents — ranging from environmental issues to poverty, human rights, and politics. Each changent has his or her own set of backers. A backer can be a fan, a buzz builder, a first responder, or an advocate (ranging from passive to active). They also have different ways to browse through the change agents, including by cause area and by location. Members can nominate themselves or others as a change agent.
The service, of course, shines on the interaction between with the change agent the backer. When a member has decided who to back and at what level, Changents asks for some kind of contact information, which the change agent can use to get in touch personally if needed (of course, it’s at the backer’s discretion to supply whatever they’re most comfortable with.) Also, change agents can put out real “action requests,” describing and requesting for whatever they need, and members can respond directly to it with whatever they can help with.
Today, the service announced a set of five change agents titled “Earthkeeper Heroes.” The new changents include a bunch of university students who are crossing the country this summer in a tricked-out Harvester school bus that runs on waste vegetable oil, to a recent college grad and his scrappy team “in a mad-dash sprint to build a global online/offline climate action movement.”
