Would like to see a comparison from today's companies, to two years from now, and see how places like Twitter And FriendFeed stack up....
- Mike Shields
It's a pity that, while aggregating the demise of named Web 2.0 companies, the authors elected to illustrate it using static graphics, rather than making it a clickable (Web1.5?) image map, at least the second part <http://img.labnol.org/di...>.With granular links pointing to, I don't know, perhaps the TechCrunch Deadpool, or the Crunchbase?
- ianf ⌘
what's odd is how many of the acquired companies are still searching for revenue. it's not just the dead companies that fail to meet the first rule of a company. be inherently profitable.
- Spotcher
If I understand this correctly, most prevalent post-dotcom-bust dotcom model is to build up a respectable client base assisted by press buzz and faves, then sell out to a media giant that has the financial muscle and managerial competence to turn our cottage into a true industry.
- ianf ⌘
you're right, ianf, but that's not a sustainable model. the media giants will one day have to start consolidating, and then the sell it to google concept will wither on the vine, along with the venture capital lottery.
- Spotcher
from twhirl
plus i neglected to mention the small matter of the worst recession in over half a century. that's enough to get everyone focusing on the missing piece of the web 2.0 puzzle. profit.
- Spotcher
No, on paper it's definitely not sustainable, but then strange things have happened in the past. First, there's P.T. Barnum's golden rule; second, there's far too much free capital in the industrialized world chasing after the same few viable business ideas. Neither of which looks like it'll become obsolete in this our life, or next.
- ianf ⌘
y, there's always the barnum bandwagon effect. but as far as reponsible capital is concerned, a healthy balance sheet is likely to mean a whole lot more. that won't end frivolous investments and acquisitions based on nothing but it will certainly dent the market for them considerably, and choke off the sense of possibility of both entrepreneurs, private investors and vc's.
- Spotcher
from twhirl
All I know is future generations will look down on us as unimaginative country bumpkins, while simultaneously investing in resurrection of dead souls on Krypton (I hear it's near break even point as we speak, wanna join?)
- ianf ⌘
Most of them shouldn't have existed in the first place
- LANjackal
You really can't say that. Couple of guys have this bright idea of making Blue Boxes for controlling long-distance telephone relays, sell them to friends for a while, next decide to go legit and make a "computer on a single PCB" in a garage. Fast-forward a couple of decades and next we know one of them dances with the stars on a Seqway, while the other is a brooding multibillionaire in a Xanadu-like fortress somewhere forever waiting for his Orson Welles.
- ianf ⌘
CK, baratunde: essentially, its capacity to extend Twitter in very useful ways. Creating small friend lists here (to track separately from your main feed) is easier here than with Twitter desktop apps, and the results come in in real time. I also turned on IM notifications for select friends. Remember Twitter had IM? They took the feature away.
- Gabe Rivera
The last couple days on Twitter have brought me back to FF as well
- Costa Walcott
Gabe - any plans to add services like FriendFeed/Backtype/Reddit etc to Link Search option in Techmeme. Tried Link Search on top headline i.e. http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL... and got zero results from Google Blog Search/Ask and IceRocket returned 5.
- Atul Arora
Atul: huh, putting a URL in FF search does come up with useful results, so I think I'll add FF to the link search list. If those other services have backlink search currently available, please list sample query urls here and I'll take a look. (BTW, to see what Atul's talking about, click "Preferences" on Techmeme, then click "Show Link Search".)
- Gabe Rivera
Gabe bit.ly also does link search and returns FriendFeed, Twitter and Backtype results for all bit.ly version of that URLs e.g. http://bit.ly/info/8XNa4. Since @TechmemeFH and @Techmeme are both using bit.ly the link search is simply adding the + after the URL i.e. http://bit.ly/8XNa4+ for the bit.ly based link search.
- Atul Arora
Gabe, here's a link to our connect feature which shows all the conversation around a link (digg, reddit, twitter, friendfeed, hacker news, and posts that link in): http://www.backtype.com/connect...
- Mike Montano
Mike - so what is bit.ly using to show comments from backtype. It shows zero comments. Is it filtering comments so that it only shows comments from the blog page?
- Atul Arora
Thanks Mike, Atul. I will take a close look at this later and probably add some more link search links.
- Gabe Rivera
Atul, yes they're using a method that only fetches comments from the page being queried, though full connect functionality would be a nice addition imo.
- Mike Montano
I agree, except that it should be easier to add an external feed other than through the cumbersome creation of an "Imaginary Friend".
- Derek Mahar
My mustache is more lustrous and thick after switching to FriendFeed. I have a lot more energy. Even my wife has noticed certain improvements in my usefulness around the house. Thanks FriendFeed! [I BLUSH]
- Jay Cuthrell
I'm still going to say that I think links to friendfeed discussions on blog posts belong on Techmeme. ;)
- Thomas Hawk
Wait, is this sarcastic Twitter Gabe or normal Gabe? What persona have you decided to adopt on FF? :)
- Matt Cutts
@mattcutts: hah, no I'm serious here. FF's current feature set now offers great value to me. I suspect FF still has a major challenge offering a compelling and differentiated product to the Oprah crowd, but that doesn't concern me (and FF may nail that eventually).
- Gabe Rivera
I have already noticed a massive increase in followers on friendfeed recently. Anecdotal evidence indicates friendfeed is growing (I find it has a higher utility as well)
- Jordan Willms
I'm LOLing at Scoble, who told several bloggesr last night during dinner "Don't break the news about me leaving" I don't want anyone to know, then he talks to Techcrunch on phone a few hours later. Ya big goof you. :)
Let's see what Scoble says, I have no idea, he may have done it himself.
- Jeremiah Owyang
Cool. No matter what -- the info came from him originally. I knew about it a couple of weeks ago, and suggested he hold onto it as long as possible, but Scoble is Scoble, a force of nature -- and nothing can stop him, not even Scoble. :-)
- Dave Winer
It was not. Last night he told me Mike already knew and was getting more detail.
- Louis Gray
Ah thanks Louis, so Robert is his own leak?
- Jeremiah Owyang
Well, Jeremiah, he promised me the exclusive on this, so we are all in the same boat. :)
- Alex Scoble
To be fair, he probably specified an embargo.
- Richard Lawler
Me.. I think Calacanis should thank Scoble for making it a good day to make public that he employed a felon... now everyone is going to talk about what Scoble is going to do next :-)
- Ian D. Nock
I've never really understood why Robert didn't go solo. He doesn't need to stand under the umbrella of another organization, he can make it rain on his own.
- Todd Hoff
Todd its easier to do the job when you don't have to do the business end. Only person that I know of that has taken the show on his own and is doing ok is Laporte.
- Uncle CW™
Now Scoble in the Leo Laporte Network would be interesting.
- Uncle CW™
Lets see another possible place... GigaOm...
- Uncle CW™
Good point Just CW. I meant more leveraging his own brand for his own greater reward. Work with others on the business side and video editing :-) Maybe something like ScobleCrunchOm :-)
- Todd Hoff
JustCW - ooh I like the partnership Leo Laporte idea... GigaOm is good too
- Susan Beebe
I think Robert should be CMO for Friendfeed :) If not Robert, then Louis ! hehehee
- Susan Beebe
I don't think he could work for a particular company like FF because he has to surf the trends to stay current. An explorer always looks to the next horizon.
- Todd Hoff
Robert likes playing too much with other services and software to stick with one web service.
- Uncle CW™
Robert could be a sub contractor of the Leo Laporte Network. Just providing the content and Leo doing everything else. Same for GigaOm. Both of these companies are up and coming Internet Media companies. Based on the internet for the internet. The only other company that I would think Robert would jump for is Facebook, but that would be short lived due to the AOL/MySpace issues that occur with fast building Closed community Internet Services.
- Uncle CW™
We will know it is the end if FF ever has a position such as CMO.
- coldbrew
Jeremiah: Arrington called me. He already had the news.
- Robert Scoble
It's all because Arrington just got back from vacation and was hungry to scoop everyone. Granted he also has warned people in the past that Techcrunch will break embargoes ;)
- Devlin Dunsmore
from twhirl
On my first day visiting India, I volunteered at a school for underprivileged kids. My friends and I bought the kids some educational gifts, read to 'em, and -- most of all -- even we macho guys had our hearts melt seeing how curious and excited and happy they were. Here's a sample :)
One of the most rewarding experiences of my life was passing out toys, coloring books and clothing with a bunch of friends in Tulum, MX. The smiles on both the childrens and parents faces were priceless.
- jcunwired
What's amazing to me is just how universal (across India) a love-of-camera has been for kids. I'm not sure if it's an issue of rarely seeing digital cameras, rarely seeing non-Indians in person, or something else... but kids in India have just gone wild (with big smiles or more) when I point my camera at them. Will share more photos later :-)
- Adam Lasnik
Has nothing to do with you being white - kids were all over me when I was there and had my camera out. Something magical about being able to turn it around and show them the picture.
- Rocky
yeah, always surprised me the lack of comments and discussion for his videos on fastcompany. I think you're right regarding the text element but also frankly videoson the web (at least for me) just a) you never know what ur going to get b) it's not skimmable as u said c) playback on nearly all browsers is never smooth. One final point though is the length of the interviews...I always feel like I have to reserve time for them and by the time I do, it feels too late.
- Zee.
i could do a video :) too bad the bloggerking is on a tour of australia right now - he'd be perfect for this
- Allen Stern
@Allen only if it has trains. More trains please. I watch those.
- Steve Rubel
when are we meeting - it's been too long!
- Allen Stern
Allen: Bribe with NBA or NFL tickets. Didn't you learn ANYTHING from Robert's thread? SHEESH!
- Mona Nomura
Allen we need to, I agree. But only if I get to be in a video. It's king of the web ya know?
- Steve Rubel
from IM
@Mona Too late for NFL tix. Unless someone gets me into the Super Bowl (us lowly PR people don't go - only the ad guys/gals).
- Steve Rubel
Steve: you're right but doing video was the best thing I've ever done for my career.
- Robert Scoble
This is so on the money. Just left a comment on the blog, but my reason is that I can read it a heck of a lot faster than I can watch it.
- Karoli
@Scoble, I don't doubt it. And I love what you're doing and it's where the ad money is flowing too - but I do wonder about the attention issues.
- Steve Rubel
Wish I could post this comment in audio or video but text still remains the king of the web.
- Sweyn Venderbush
steve - i'd totally love to come by and do a video interview with you - and @mona - i didn't read any of robert's silly booster threads this weekend :)
- Allen Stern
Allen, in the video do I get to say "Ronk-onk-oma. The next stop is Ronk-onk-oma followed by Spe-onk." Then I am there.
- Steve Rubel
from IM
wait - let's do it ON the LIRR! off-peak of course
- Allen Stern
And, purely from a user's point of view... text is extremely efficient to consume (even for a visual person like me). Audio requires more effort. Video monopolizes several senses, and several distinct chunks of the brain. Videos need to be occasional, short, and impactful.
- LogEx
Great post and text is certainly king and in some ways I hope it stays that way.
- AJ Kohn
It think it should be an integration of different tools. The written word is always on the top and will stay so. A real hard-cover book is hard to beat. Online text is easy to scan, using different tools like RSS feeds, and then to decided to read more about. I am using a video email tool there you could see the response rate and follow the statistics in a neat way. Who has read it, how...
more...
- Martin Lindeskog
Video always feels like too much of a commitment to me. It's supposed to grab your attention for some length of time. Text is just faster, easier, simpler.
- Nathan Howell
Nathan: do you watch the Superbowl in ASCII? You must be very fun to take on a movie date "no, dear, I would rather just read the Amazon movie reviews."
- Robert Scoble
When I want to be entertained, I watch video—movies, TV, YouTube, whatever. But when I want something explained to me, if it's not face-to-face, then it's gotta be text. I don't have time otherwise.
- Victor Ganata
Video, podcasts and text all have their advantages and disadvantages. The problem arises when either of them is used for something for which there's a better match (e.g. reviewing a phone in video form - would be better if done in text with some pics and perhaps an embedded video of something specific). Another thing you might not be aware of: text is much easier to deal with for us people for whom english is a second language.
- karchesky
:D (PS Andrew, if you keep saying 'nope, not ____' and people keep guessing, when you don't say 'nope not ___,' they'll know)
- Ronen
Ronen, that was one of the first things I figured out, I think I was about 3 years old at the time. :D Anyway, I forgot, so thanks. I'll stop confirming or denying but I will finally say this. A much bigger company than anyone has suggested yet.
- Andrew Baron
Same here. Evernote is definitely good but slow (especially on Vista).
- Amit Agarwal
Evernote great, bit also very slow on the iPhone... I am an Evernote bliever, so Iwill give it a few more months on my systems
- Alexander Schek
from twhirl
hmmm wow, i use OneNote occasionally and was about to jump back over to Evernote b/c of the iPhone app...
- Susan Beebe
Was surprised to see my lifestream make Amit's list of favorite sites based on attention data. Wish Google Reader had this info. - http://www.labnol.org/interne...
If you're not going to sue and protect your TM, then what's the point of having one? You can't expect people to respect a TM of their own accord.
- Matthew DeVries
It prevents others from suing to protect it, so you're essentially taking that copyright/trademark out of the protectionist game. That's my take on it anyhow YMMV.
- Eric Rost
I actually thought about you when I saw these words trending on Twitter last evening. I feel your pain. :)
- Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
I know that, but I was hoping the (empty) threat of a lawsuit would deter. I think any kind of a suit would have a pretty negative impact on my brand. More so than losing the trademark. In effect, Twitter has cost me my trademark. The real risk now is that someone will do a tech news roundtable podcast and call it TWiT. I guess I'd have to sue then, but I think I've weakened my defense.
- Leo Laporte
At least everyone who knows TWiT will forever associate those sites more with This Week in Tech than with Twitter.. a bit of reverse karma?
- Eric Rost
@Eric - I guess that makes sense, but it still doesn't open the door for Leo to lament it's use by others though (I'm not trying to offend or take the piss out of you Leo, you and Patrick are among my favorite people in all of media, not just for your takes on tech, but on just academia in general)
- Matthew DeVries
@Matt - Luckily (as the No Rights Reserved movement seems to be embracing as well) its a free country where we can piss and moan about whatever we wish! With no penalties even. :)
- Eric Rost
We all know what the real TWiT is... accept no substitutes. ;)
- John Denver
We all know but what about the uninitiated?
- Bob Maltais
I assume asking them nicely to change to "tweet" instead of "twit" wouldn't work?
- Robin
You have to sue leo, if twitter goes mainstream, you will see hundreds of 3rd party services with twit*.com names like twit_this.com and twit_that.com and you will suffer. I actually thought twit_or_fit was one of your sites for a few seconds.
- David Lloyd
@Leo - "I know that, but I was hoping the (empty) threat of a lawsuit would deter." You'd be in a better position that I to know, but are you sure these other places know you exist? TWiT is the Meet The Press of the tech/Gadget/Web2.0 world, but it's not quite the same as me opening a short order burger window and calling it McDonal's. I think you'd be within your rights and remain "not a jerk" just to write a personal note "hey, you know I'm here right?"
- Matthew DeVries
Yeah, twit_or_fit is a direct challenge to TwitFit.
- Martin Johnson
at least a change to their logo/presence to not look so similar would be a plus
- Bob Maltais
Remember too the longer you leave it, the less protection you have. Imagine if twitter sold to facebook or something, and you had ot protect your name, the courts would say "why didn't you protect it when the company was worth nothing?"
- David Lloyd
Send them all a strongly worded memo. Large fonts. CAPS. Oughtta do the trick...
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
You could go all Web 1.0 on their ass have your minions spam their boards and email their users and sign them up for porn and stuff, I mean since we're being all reactionary and brave with not-our-money.
- Matthew DeVries
I say send them a passive aggressive note too.
- Robin
There is only one TWiT and long may it stand!!
- Bill
I defy anyone to name a single person in tech who is loved by his fans more than Leo
- David Lloyd
I'd say one of the "girls" in tech, but (I just posted this in a TWiT forums thread) I'm starting to realize that backlash that often accompanies impact in the geek world is making "pretty" geek girls the most closeted subpopulation in the western world. More than furries, more than Perfect Strangers Fanfic/Cosplayers. It's harder for a "pretty" girl to make points/friends in a nerd population than it is for nerds to make in the "coolkid" cliques (jocks, preps, etc.).
- Matthew DeVries
Hey, just when I was thinking about getting all gussied up and making some new profile pics LOL
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
Cause you write Perfect Strangers fanfic? ;)
- Matthew DeVries
Me? I don't write any fanfic...and I can't for the life of me place Perfect Strangers, unless it's that Balki show (and why would anyone still be writing about that; it aint Star Trek!).
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
How do reserved rights work with a common dictionary word? I suppose one could easily go after TWiTorFit or TWiTBlogs, but those do not exist, or at least do not appear to be the issue.
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
To be fair, trying to build a brand around the word Twit made no sense to start with. Way too common. Further, Twit is a name of a specific show, and not very useful as a meta-brand anyway.
- Soulhuntre
from twhirl
A Google search seems to indicate a fair lot of businesses named "Apple Tree."
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
@Soulhuntre - If we were just talking about today, I'd have to agree with you, a better brand would have just been to start around Leo himself "Leo's Media", but I imagine he's looking to give it a non-leo name with the hopes that over the next 20 years it builds to include not just him, but other non-him talent, then what happens? You don't want to rename mid-stream. I used to be a fan of VirginRadio's music stream, then they for no logical reason changed their name to Absolute. It killed my love....
- Matthew DeVries
@dariusmdev - I agree not to use the name "Leo" in it, but essentially naming the network "this week in tech" was way, way too lomiting from the start and the term "twit" was never, ever goign to be really protectable.
- Soulhuntre
I vote that Leo changes the name of his space to Today In Tech, surely there's nothing on the internet that would want to occupy that name :)
- Matthew DeVries
But if I called my hamburger restaurant MacDonald's rather than McDonald's, I don't think I would be in business for very long.
- Barry Biddlecomb
from twhirl
@Barry that comparison is way off base. You are talking about two businesses in the same biz. What does Twitblogs, TwittoFit, twitlonger have in common with TWiT on any level? None of them are in the same biz, none of them use similar graphics, phrasing, placement, or association on their site. Additionally twit is a word like water, or hat and this means it is even more difficult to have broad protections against unrelated use.
- Roger Kondrat
Leo, You're getting some really bad advice on this thread. CAT and I have had some recent dealings with trademark issues but I can't go into it here on an open channel. Suffice it to say that the USPTO does not view trademarks the same as many of the good meaning people here. If you like, when you get back from France, send CAT and email (CAT at LetsKnit2gether.com) and we will forward our phone number to you so we can chat offline.
- eric susch
chicken feet are tasty, but annoying to eat.
- clarke thomas
I love the context that the censors are being more protectionist than nationalist (if there's a difference).
- Andrew
The censors are doing 1 other major thing....limiting the information to the public. If Chinese citizens truly knew how much in the dark ages they are, there'd be a revolt.
- clarke thomas
There isn't much meat on chicken feet. In that sense, those are as bad as wings.
- Morton Fox
Robert, Every time a coworker of mine travels to China, they come back a bit surprised. Was your trip what you expected? If so, how? If not, how was it different?
- Steve Olson
You only know few about China, 对于中国你了解甚少。
- Chris Qie
Steve: I was in China 12 years ago, so I already was prepared. I'm always blown away by rate of change here. It makes New York seem like a country village. Makes Vegas seem minor league.
- Robert Scoble
Very good entry. I especially liked #6 and #7. :)
- Daynah
Twhirl has one. But it would be nice if it was native to Twitter. For that matter, FriendFeed needs one, too.
- Josh Bancroft
you should try Tweenky. it's the best feature there. http://beta.tweenky.com/ and you'll like it anyway because the page refreshing itself.
- Orli Yakuel
Twitter needs another button: "hide" because you want to get updates from your friends, but sometimes they don't know where to stop ;-)
- Orli Yakuel
ouriel: twhirl is nice, but I often don't want to start it for a variety of reasons not the least of which is I read Twitter on my iPhone a lot and switch back and forth between FF and Twitter a TON.
- Robert Scoble
TweetDeck, dude. Makes Twitter so much better.
- Jason Falls
Twitter doesn't care about their UI - their main API lead is writing a book right now so they'll get to that when he's done.
- Jesse Stay
Hiya Robert... I use Slandr on my E71. It has a re-tweet button. Massively useful. Nothing to stop you from using Slandr on your normal browser. Blue skies Love Roy
- Roy Blumenthal
from fftogo
Hey guys, if you haven't already looked at it, http://itweet.net has a retweet button. iTweet.net is what Twitter.com SHOULD be.
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
FriendFeed has that too - it's called "like" :-)
- Jesse Stay
from twhirl
Robert - Tweetdeck offers that feature, but you're wanting it on iPhone...soo that's a problem. Jesse LOL - good idea!
- Susan Beebe
Don't you think the easiest way to RT is from inside FF?
- Bernie Goldbach
Because when you RT from FF you get context and better meaning.
- Bernie Goldbach
I asked Ev about the ability to retweet. In his usual, highly productive mindset he asked "Why can't you retweet?" thinking there was a bug. I said I meant the lazy way, like Twhirl (main reason I use it + shortening). He replied "Oh". "Well maybe" :)
- Ed Shahzade /NextInstinct
I don't like re-tweeting except when other people are re-tweeting my tweets. However, I was also going to mention Slandr. thanks to Roy Blumenthal I'll check it out online too
- Cathleen Rittereiser
Bernie, that brings up an entirely different UI issue for Twitter. They have the capability to do threads on the backend. Another UI issue they're neglecting. FF is beating them to the punch on everything.
- Jesse Stay
from twhirl
Just use Twhirl, there is a retweet button. Comes in very handy.
- Tracy Lee Carroll
from twhirl
"Before Rackspace gets bought up there will be consolidation of several less-well-funded competitors. Rackspace is waiting for the economy to bash them against the rocks a little bit more before doing more acquisitions. After that happens then a bigger player like Google/Amazon/Microsoft might make a play for them."
- Robert Scoble
ah, the turning the corner comment on Steve Rubel's post makes more sense. Good post on the key elements of MSFT's latest announcements. I still think "turning the corner" is all still in the potential phase, they are still in tough competition when they enter the cloud business. It is the next phase but the barrier to entry (and/or vertical power) is a lot lower in the cloud.
- Lou Paglia
so true, ironically related links to this post includes top 10 list :)
- sean percival
Jeez, please don't show me that picture again. I'm for keeping guns few, far between, and safely locked up where most people can't get them, let alone kittens.
- Paola Bonomo
This is probably the best time for start-ups to introduce their products if they are not attending the TC50 or Demo.
- Amit Agarwal
I agree but most think they will get a bigger pop in September.
- Robert Scoble
It's August. No one wants to do anything in August as all the money men are asleep or on vacation. You get Sept and Oct to talk about new things, but come November all the new gadgets proposed for Christmas come out and that steals all the spotlight. Then December with more vacations. So if you are a startup, you have to aim for that window.
- Andrew Leyden
My hubby may have made similar comments about me, but he got me a tshirt that says "Wargame Widow: Time after time after time."
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
Yeah my wife is a WoW Widow and the iPhone doesn't help....
- Andy Lewandowski
I'm a wow widow to my wife, and I recently started up a relationship with my iphone, so we're even :)
- Nick
my girlfriend calls my iPhone my other girlfriend
- Brad Davis Seal
In the early days of the PC, didn't we hear complaints from Computer Widows. (A back formation from football widows). Plus ça change...
- Michael Markman
Gender confused. My boyfriend looks exactly like your girlfriends.
- Joey Lo