Gabor Cselle

Hmm, Pascal-Louis is there too, right? You guys will be a JS compiler power-house :) - Mihai Parparita

I've decided that I prefer small companies, and this one sounded exciting. - Jared Jacobs

I'm guessing that the iPhone was under development for at least several years before 1.0 was released. FriendFeed is less than a year old -- I bet that it will be a lot better when it is two years old. - Paul Buchheit

But as you know well, Gmail have got quite many updates after that (but most of them could be counted as minor fixes probably). Just saying that product is good only if it's been maintained. ;) - Daniel Schildt

Does good mean, good enough to go live? I'm a little confused by how good is evaluated. Our hotels meta-search product (wego.com/hotels) has been around for about 2 years now, but we did a re-write a couple of months and it's much much better than before, but still don't know whether it compares to GMail's 2004 level of goodness, or Google's 1999 level of goodness. - arunthampi

Yes, of course good products must continue to improve. The Google of 1999 wasn't very good by today's standards either. It only searched about 70 million pages, for example (vs maybe 20 billion now). - Paul Buchheit

arunthampi, I'm thinking of products that will stand out and have significant impact on the world. - Paul Buchheit

FriendFeed have been under development for just little bit of time but considering that amount it has gone greatly forward. I wish it will develop to even more advanced (but still usable) tool for keeping persons updated without too much of information flow. I wish there would be more features for filtering of information that user could set and control from settings. - Daniel Schildt

Not sure how long Evan was working on identica prior to launch but I am absolutely staggered and amazed how far identi.ca has come in what must be less than 6 months.” - Andy C

2-3 years. Based on Moore's law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M... - Igor Poltavskiy

I started eventseer.net 9 years ago, but it wasn´t until recently it became good (after Thomas took over 3 years ago). - Amund Tveit

Habari has been in development for about 18 months. It's a "good product" now (though with pretty low market penetration :) but it will be a lot better in a year. - Michael C. Harris

I think the iPhone was under (serious) development for 3 years prior to its launch last June. - Jamie

@Paul, ah in terms of significant impact, maybe we don't measure up (as yet) but im guessing that will happen very soon :) - arunthampi

It depends on what you mean by "good product". Good for lead users? Good for a distinct social milieu? Good for the masses? Also I believe it is very hard to tell when a product has been finished. Gmail 2010 won't be the same as Gmail 2008. - Benedikt Koehler

"Good to use" is not universal since different people have different need and for some of them, tool can be always difficult to use. - Daniel Schildt

Software is generally asymptotic to good, (isn't it?) because as software gets better it attracts more users, each of whom has a slightly different definition of "good". But some more random examples: Windows 1 -> Windows 3 == 5 years; Unix 1969 -> 1985 (by which time it was clear it was dominating workstations except for DEC); Linux on the desktop 1991 -> 2007 (Ubuntu 7); Mozilla/Firefox 1998->2005. It's pretty clear that web software matures quicker than desktop. - Nick Lothian

if you write software you should consider your users as BORC, not those weak dumb individualistic humans. that way you write software that fulfills needs. the more streamlined your BORG can do it the better. leave the task to make pretty buttons to the designers. the last step would be to imagine a human again and make your software human/error-proof. - krz9000

It looks like the incandescent light bulb was around for 75 years before it was commercialize-able: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I... - Clare Dibble

Game development is about 2-3 years but not sure if there's much correlation of development time to quality. - Chris Bentzel

Human brain software takes 2–3 years before it is able to reasonably control its host human. - Amit Patel

how long does it take for a good product to go bad or rot? Why do some products still remain relevant after many years? - Shakeel Mahate

The first fax machine was sold in 1861. - seth

I heard Writely was built and sold (to Google) in 10 months - Stewart Rogers

Interesting question, but I can't answer it because I can't figure out how long anything has been in development other than by the community of people who are working on it, but then I can't correct for the bakedness of ideas when a community starts. And then I'm not sure which of the ideas in the bundle that is a product was really important to its success. Hmm. - Daniel Dulitz

Products are so different from each other, it doesn't always make sense to compare them. Products that are built on existing technology usually take less time than those built from scratch. The reality is usually a gradient between the two extremes. Consumer electronics often take longer than other products because of the difficulty developing, testing, and certification of hardware, as well as having physical alpha and beta testing of the software. - Chris White

@ seth Sadly, the first fax spam came in 8 minutes later from a travel agent offering a package to Hawaii. - Brian Norwood

The original version of WebTV was built within one year. I refuse to ever work that hard again. :) - Chris White

I think it's a question that can be answered historically, if you look at the time from when a group of people commit themselves to the realization of some idea, to the time when a similar group with a similar idea make an impact on the world. The answer for software *seems* to be 2-3 years, much of which is spent fumbling around in an unfamiliar space. For new drugs or new modes of transportation or new paradigms in visual art or whatever the time is different, and there's a lot of variance in any case. - ⓞnor

based on the startups i've seen over the years, 1 yr to prove the concept and 2 yrs to fully launch first "stable" iteration, then improvements from there on out to succeed (definition of success differs based on model/plan) - that'd be my swag of it... - mike "glemak" dunn

I like this topic Paul -- don't see it delved into all that much, at least in places that I tend to keep my eyes on - Eric Berlin

great topic.. longevity is key to successful product. if you are working on something new (not a copy of something else), you got to factor in some iteration time as well. It's interesting that many here are coming out at the same 2-3 year time frame - i agree also - Travis Parsons

I've been PM for an enterprise software suite for 8+ years now and it's taken that long for it to mature to the point where large corporate customers around the globe are deploying it for mission critical applications. We've gone through 4 major releases and countless minor/dot releases in that time. This is technology that originally was developed by a startup back in the 1996-2000 timeframe that was bought and sold via M&A activity 3 times in just over 8 years. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg

“software is lettuce, not gold” (Brian Behlendorf) so perhaps it's never good.. particularly if you are marketing guy facing ever-changing competition - Travis Parsons

I'd say 2-3 years easily, just to get real traction and work out the kinks before the product really starts to mature (if it's any good to start with). If you're out too early and it stinks and everyone bails on it, what's the point? (Case study: Friendster.) - Brandon Uttley

somewhere between 3 days and 3 years - Gabe Ragland

Varies. You can nail it first time (rare) or you can work toward it from a decent base. The latter generally happens in the 2-3 year range. If it takes longer nobody adopts it unless they have to (or if they can change it). - xero

it depends on the company ( big, small or a startup) usually when big/established companies trie to build a product in a market which already has competitors, they try to make it game-changing (a.l.a iphone), or differntiate it ( gmail ) and this means spending sometime on the product to get it right and better. Also, big companies have the advantage of scale means they will have a user base that's willing to try their product out... This could also be a disadvantage, as they would need to worry about all the issues beforehand. That's the reason Google worries about scalability, Microsoft spends months to years testing their operating systems... I guess its different with startups.. how long did it take to build a youtube or a flickr or even a friendfeed ? Months ? Most of the consumer software startups work on their product for a few months and then put it out and iterate over it. - Krishna Gade

Until it's ready. Sort of like toasting a piece of bread. - Ryan Massie

Congrats! - Benjamin Golub

Congrats!!! - Dan Hsiao

Wow! This is like baby overload all of a sudden. - Brandon Titus

Congratulations! Why do I have the opening from the Six-Million Dollar Man playing in my head? - Mark Trapp

that really was fast. Congrats! - Robert Seidman

Congrats Paul and April! - Hutch Carpenter

Congrats! Second delivery this week on Friendfeed! Just plain awesome. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg

@Mark because you're old? Congrats, Paul! - Zach Landes

Congrats! Now we need baby pics. - Tad - the Meme Maker via fftogo

Congrats! All these babies are making me feel domestic and stuff. I should go do some manly stuff like change my oil. - ha3rvey

That *was* fast. Congrats and hope everyone's doing well! - Carla Thompson

@harveysimmons Typical guy comment ;) Congrats. I want a baby damn it! - Michelle Marie Miller

@Harvey, change a diaper instead. It's a safe middle ground. - Louis Gray

How is the baby? Everything OK? - RAPatton

Congratulations :) - kbourke

Felecitations les Buchheits! :) - directeur

Congrats! - Michelle Martinez

Congrats Paul we all welcome the newest FriendFeeder! - Mark Krynsky

wow! Congrats - Bindu Reddy

Congratulations! - Cyndy

congrats! hope everybody is healthy and happy - David Vasileff

Whole-hearted congrats and hope the baby is well...... - Chris Reed

Congrats! A brand new social media user. :) - Dana Franks via twhirl

Congratulations:) - Zahra HB

Congrats! - Shey

Congratulations April and Paul! How is little Beavis doing? - Jim Norris

woo-hoo! Congratulations Mr. Paul! - JA Castillo

wonderful news! congrats - Peter Fenton

Fantastic! - Mitchell Tsai

Congratulations! - Benedikt Koehler

So great - Christopher Sacca

:) - edythe

Welcome Baby Buchheit! I hope mom and baby are both doing well. - Clare Dibble

Mazel Tov! Welcome, Beavis. - Gabe

Congrats! - Erica Baker

Congrats! - Steve Rubel

I'm happy to see the extraction was successful. Congratulations, - Robert Felty

Congrats! Mabrook! - Mo J.

Congratulations! - Anne Bouey

Congratulations!! - Gabor Cselle

Awesome! - Thomas Hawk

con'grats!! - Peter Dawson

Congrats! - Mike Doeff

Hey Paul, congrats! - dario

congratulations! - Sarah Perez

that's awesome :) congratulations!!! - Georges Harik

congrats! - Derek Collison

Conga-rats! Yay!!! - Lisa L. Seifert

Congratulations! - Sam Harmon

Congratulations ;) - Alejandro S.

Fantastic! - Capn' "One-Eye" Longman ☠

Congrats! - Igor Poltavskiy

WOW... a BABY Buchheit entered the world while I wasn't looking...amazing! great secret there Paul!! Congratulations on your new addition to your family!! :-) - Susan Beebe

Congrats! :) - Aviv

Thanks everyone! - Paul Buchheit

I wish all good things for the new life. - Daniel Schildt

Go FriendFeed!!!! EPIC WIN! - Steve Isaacs

FriendFeed was rock solid throughout. Way to go Bret, Paul, and the rest of the FriendFeed team. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg

I never had any doubts. Nice job, guys. - Louis Gray

Love Ya Friendfeed! - Parth Awasthi via twhirl

Indeed ! that's was very nice! Have you done anything special about this Bret? (Like twitter's folks) - directeur

very nice. anyone could guess Friendfeed would make it. - Josh via twhirl

way to keep the fail whales away - Jeremy Raines

We did move a few things around, but nothing temporary - the event inspired us to optimize a few things we had been meaning to optimize anyway. - Bret Taylor

yay scalability! - Neha Narula

Bret: Big! Congrats! You've done a very nice job ! :) - directeur

I guess that I will be hanging out with ya'll for the rest of the day. :) - Mathew A. Koeneker

FriendFeed FTW! - mathew ingram

unlike the oh so much stress Twitter will be having FriendFeed will be up and running - Outsanity

I'd like to second this notion: well done Friendfeed, you guys have your shit together and I respect that. - ryangraves

Rob (Radez) actually just said the same thing. Good work, guys! - Gabor Cselle

Even wordpress hosted sites are down! FF is well hosted and manged! - Lakshman Prasad via twhirl

well done you guys. - Tsega Dinka

Me think FriendFeed cousin Googawl... - directeur

It rocked... simply the best place for live updates. - Vince DeGeorge

FF rox! - anna awesomesauce

This was great! FF had updates faster than the folks liveblogging the event. - Jennifer Dittrich

ya, man, FriendFeed Rocks! - Ralph Poole via twhirl

Kudos..It was your stress test - Varun Mahajan

nothing beats FF! - Dieter Schwarz

FriendFeed triumphs yet again - Shey

can we have some traffic stats please? - Ivan Pope via twhirl

well done! friendfeed deserves all the hype it can get! - krz9000

Does it count as hype if it's true? - Amit Patel