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TC40 Sounds Like a Joke

No offence to all of those who busted their asses to present at TC40 (or the demo pit, or whatever), or to those who worked hard behind the scenes to pull it all together. At the end of the day, though, TC40 sounds more and more like a TC insider-club joke, mainly because the winner - “Mint”:

1. Mint had ties to TechCrunch (old TC writer working there).;
2. Mint had two investors on the TC40 voting panel (nice edge).
3. Mint is a branded version of white label financial app Yodlee with some sketchy, poorly working functionality hastily tacked on top. (see Yodlee MoneyCenter).
4. Mint had already taken $5M in funding.

So - from a field of hungry startups, TC40 chose the one heavily connected to the panel, with a marginal value proposition, little innovation (their business model is freaking credit card referrals), and little need for $50k. I can see why TechCrunch has a small but vocal crowd of detractors - the choice of Mint as a winner is - from where I’m seated - a credibility hit against Calacanis, Arrington, and TC.

arrington, calacanis, mint, tc20, tc40, techcrunch, uncov yodlee

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#3 Deconstructing the TC40: GotStatus

#3 in my “deconstructing the TC40″ series (see #1, #2).

GotStatus. Analytics for back-end, server-side stuff.

Summary: Gets a “hold” rating from me. Tech sounds good, value is there, but target market is too small.

The Proposition: GotStatus claims to be the “Google Analytics” of the server-side. The goal is to make gather statistics (about your database performance, for example) as simple and as powerful as Google has made gather stats about your user’s experiences.

Value Add: Monitoring site health is an often complex process. GotStatus wants to make it simple.

Warning Bells: Sites that are big enough to need serious-server side metrics are already getting them through professional IT shops, packages like WebTrends, and built-in transaction logging systems. Sites small enough to not have access to these resources I’d say are generally small enough to not need server side metrics in any serious way at all. In other words, GotStatus is targeting a very small middle ground: companies that are big enough to need server metrics but small enough to not have “professional” means of accessing them. How big is this market?

analytics, gotstatus, tc20, tc40 techcrunch

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#2 Deconstructing the TC40: Faroo

#2 in my “deconstructing the TC40″ series (see #1).

Faroo. P2P search.

Summary: DO NOT WANT.

The Proposition: No crawler, no centralized index. Instead, Faroo relies on users (presumably with a browser toolbar); each page a user visits is added to the Faroo distributed index. Visitor metrics gathered across the Faroo network drive rankings in search results.

Value Add: Better search. Advertising revenue shared with users.

Warning Bells: Revenue sharing is commonly a prop to support a core business that doesn’t have the strength to stand on its own. Faroo results will be based on popularity - a poor proxy for either quality or relevance. Similarly, Faroo’s results will be a thin slice of the net. Finally: Faroo’s website talks about Faroo as an alternative to [Google’s] “info monopoly” - mixing “information wants to be free!!1!” politics with business is a warning sign about the company’s readiness to compete on the main stage. Basically no barriers to entry.

Death Knell: Both del.icio.us and StumbleUpon could build out similar “social search” functionality around their indexes very quickly if the concept got any traction.

faroo, google, search, tc20, tc40 techcrunch

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For love of money: the death of the blogosphere

Scobleizer chimes in after the Federated Media / Microsoft dustup over the weekend, asking why its “ok” for some tech-pundit types to sell their voices and not for others. Roberts asks the key question: would Leo Laporte be talking about GoToMyPC if they weren’t paying him? Likely not.

Blogging and the blogosphere began with an implicit promise: that those who participated did so for the love of their community and interests, not for a paycheck, and that what they wrote was an honest snapshot of their opinions.

That promise defined the blogosphere: it created a fifth estate characterized by passion, opinions, and a chorus of overlapping, contradictory views - all in marked contrast to the dry, “objective,” produced mainstream media. That promise has encouraged millions to join “the” conversation as authors, free to be honest to themselves; those honest author’s personalities, opinions, and insights have created the world’s biggest reader base.

There are successful bloggers out there, however, that seem to have lost sight of what it means to be a blogger - presumably swept up in the opportunities of success. Can Leo Laporte sell his voice? Sure - I consider him MSM, living principally in TV and Radio, and thus compromised by the very nature of those industries. Can Michael A. and Om Malik shill whatever they want? Sure - go ahead. But when you do, your failing yourself and your readers, breaking the promise that you made to the blogosphere to speak your mind - not advertiser’s. Its disappointing to see.

blogging, blogosphere, blogs, federated+media, fm, gigaom techcrunch

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Google Buying Feedburner; Feeds are another media like Radio, Print, or WWW

TC breaks it: GOOG is buying Feedburner for 100M. WatchMojo covers the origins of FB’s 10 million in VC funding, DeepJive says it only makes sense, and SEW sums up some good advantages for Google.

Holistic Analytics and Advertising

From where I’m sitting, it make sense. Feeds have been out in left field for a long time in terms of a consistent means of measuring their audience and impact on site traffic; with this acquisition and their existing analytics portfolio, Google has a means to connect all of the dots and create a truly holistic means of looking at sites.

Of course this also means that Google can expand their ad inventory as well, offering feeds as another media channel to advertisers. Feeds have evolved into another “media,” so to speak, and as Google has tried to expand into print and radio, so they are taking a stab at RSS.

Creepy

One final thought: as is mentioned more and more, Google’s reach is sort of creeping me out. The Internet is increasingly at the mercy of Google’s “Don’t be Evil” motto - here’s hoping they stick to it.

analytics, feedburner, google, news, rss, stats techcrunch

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You Have the Choice

The granddaddies of the tech blogosphere are lamenting both the pressure of their success, and that of the whole 2.0 scene - both Michael A. and the Scobleizer have disillusioned navel-gazing posts up this AM, wishing for the simple, post-dot-com-boom days of 2001 and 2002 when Web2.0 was a valley cafe phenomenon and the bust had cleansed the valley of much of the Type-A ambitious personalities that make the current boom feel corrosive.

To Michael and Robert, I’d offer simple advice: Success (or failure) are what you make it; each day you live is a choice.

1. Don’t be afraid to let go: I wouldn’t want to be in Michael’s shoes, having the power of life or death over startups, and getting despondent phonecalls from people desperate for coverage. Talk about pressure. Its not a fair position to be put in by startups, and I can’t imagine dealing with those calls - but it goes with the territory when you reach a certain size. So - they (Michael, Robert) have a choice: embrace the challenge, and look to traditional and innovative ways to manage these relationships, or walk away: there is no shame in saying “this is no longer for me” and moving on to something new. I envy the professionals in music, acting, and sports that know when they’ve had enough and exit the mainstream: its classy and respectable.
2. Find the Next Cafe Scene: Web2.0 is not the terminal endpoint for the technology world, the web-tech is only one facet anyway. The next iteration is brewing right now in a cafe somewhere, or a University lecture hall, or a computer-strewn basement. Is it the “semantic web?” Is it some type of biotech? Is it GMO crops? Or some type of new economics, like micro-lending, that can change the world? If you want a break from the mainstream, find the fringe again and be there.
3. Change It: Robert and Michael have the collective power to influence the valley environment; if its pernicious and poisoned, perhaps they should be asking again how to bring it back? You’re both awash in choices: finances, influence, relationships, and audiences - how can you use all of that to either change the valley environment back to “friendly,” or create your own friendly microclimate in the next silicon valley? Can you “wag the dog” so to speak?
4. Embrace It: Frantic Industries points out that the valley is a little pocket universe all to itself, which doesn’t extend very far beyond its walls. Remember this fact: the garbage that you may be exposed to there, however disheartening it may be, is only the tiniest slice of the wider internet and technology world. Any community that you are a part of will have its ups and downs as it grows and changes over time; the most dedicated members of that community will maintain their poise through-out and enrichen it the whole way through, taking the good with the bad, and paying attention to the best. OMC suggests that the real 2.0 movement is bypassing the valley craziness anyway.

There’s a good parallel in music: Whenever a new genre gets “hot” - Rock & Roll, Hip Hop, Techno, whatever, there are the pioneers that founded it, and then the whole crazy scene that follows with glam, bling, money, whatever. There are pioneers that choose to walk away - that’s cool (Cat Stevens?). There are pioneers that just keep doing their thing without worrying about the scene - that’s cool too (Bob Dylan?). There are also those that get caught up in it and go nuts (Elvis?) - that’s cool too, if that’s what you want (hopefully without a lame, self-destructive finish).

So - at the end of the day, Robert and Michael, however dreary your poisitions may feel, you’ve got nothing but great options to choose from - so chin up, and make the most of it.

advice, arrington, boom, bust, michaelarrington, robertscoble, scoble, scobleizer, techcrunch valley

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The Techcrunch Circus: Losing Focus?

This blog, and many, many other “2.0 tech” blogs owe much of our inspiration and popularity to Techcrunch, who’s reporting popularized both the ethos of web 2.0, and the concept of writing about it. I’ve been a long-time TC reader and fan.

TC’s “obsessive profiling” of new companies was what made it an icon of the web 2.0 movement, but as of late, growth seems to be pushing TC into the territory of MSM “lifestyle” site, complete with circus tent celebrities, filler posts, and inoffensive reporting.

1. MC Hammer - a great buzz building mechanism around TC20 (it got my linkback, didn’t it?) but is a move like this turning tech into a circus?
2. Unopinonated reporting - many TC articles are now “just the news,” without the opinions and insight that used to make TC more than just a PR tool.
3. Focus Dilution - there’s been a number of Apple/iPod articles this week, which seemingly escaped from Crunchgear. Why?

Has TC gone mainstream? Should true 2.0′ers stick to reading Uncov? Probably not. There’ll always be a place in my blogroll for TC, but its starting to get pushed down the list.

arrington, mchammer, michaelarrington, tc20 techcrunch

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Still Light Posting - Truemors and more in the pipeline

Hey hey. Still posting light. My grandfather passed away late last night - sad, but a welcome release for him - and a chance to celebrate a long life well-lived.

Looking forward to getting back to regular posts; after TechCrunch started posting Truemors screenshots, I was sorely tempted to blow the embargo myself, but managed to restrain myself. I’ll have a full report on May 16th for those interested in Guy Kawasaki’s latest venture. I’ve been in the site and played around with it, and while I don’t think the 2.0 web elite will be drawn to it, that’s not the site’s primary audience anyway.

To TechCrunch: I still think this is lame:

We’ve now gotten into the private beta via some “borrowed” credentials and have had a look around for ourselves. The site, which is built on the Wordpress platform, is a category-based rumor site where anyone can phone, text or email in a rumor.

…and this is not an excuse:

# Michael Arrington
May 8th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
I just want to be clear on a point: I was not part of the private beta. if I was I certainly would have complied with any request not to post before a certain time. I also want to point out that I did not post the credentials that I received for the site. I also took other steps to protect the company that I won’t discuss here.

I suppose I’m annoyed at being scooped (per se), but as a q-lister I’m used to that anyway. I suppose it bugs me because its a disrespectful disregard for someone’s respectful request. Oh well - TC has star power, so post away.

Rock & roll,
-R

arrington, kawasaki, techcrunch, techfold truemores

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Yahoo in the News: Committing brand seppukku and Hooray for Flickr

Wow - this morning was an eye opener.

Yahoo is shutting down Yahoo Photos in to focus on Flickr. Yahoo’s gotten cut on repeatedly for having massive overlap and redundancy in its offerings, causing brand confusion, and diluting the value proposition of each; perhaps they’re finally starting to act on the Peanut Butter Manifesto or whatever it was. Question: Is it a good idea?

I have to say: It seems bizarre. Yahoo has a massive installed user base with Yahoo Photos. To shut that down - instead of (as Danny suggests) just maintaining it and focusing investment on Flickr, seems bizarre. Add in the “user export” options and its becomes a macabre version of service suicide.

Why force members out into the cold? Why not gradually transition them over time by making it easy and advantageous to switch to Flickr? This move means nothing to Flickr users, and will piss of Yahoo Photos users, so what’s the upside here from a user standpoint? Nothing, as far as I can see. Yahoo needs to put users back into their business decisions.

While I applaud service openness and the ability to export photos to competitors is clearly designed to create warm & fuzzies, it just seems misplaced. Is Yahoo Photos hemmoraghing cash or something? I wonder if there’s more backstory to this.

1. Scobleizer tells us how Arrignton posted the news from a dinner (cool).
2. Mathew Ingram wraps up comments to the effect that the move may backfire given that Yahoo Photos hosts 2 billion pictures, and that Flickr uses a paid premium membership model.
3. Danny Sullivan focuses on the fact that Yahoo will offer to transition users to other services other than Flickr, and wonders what the hell Yahoo is doing disassembling a successful service and shunting users elsewhere.

EDIT: Zoli has a great summation of the Peanut Butter manifesto context:

A key idea in Brad Garlinghouse’s Peanut Butter Manifesto was to eliminate redundancy within Yahoo, kill overlapping products that compete with each other. Yesterday Mr. Peanut-Butter himself, along with Flickr Co-Founder Stewart Butterfield broke the news to TechCrunch: Yahoo will shut down Photos, in favor of Flickr.

flickr, techcrunch yahoo

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CastTV - is there room between verticals and gootube?

I got into a little back and forth on Mike’s post on TechCrunch about CastTV (see the original TechCrunch CastTV post too). CastTV is a video search engine - indexing video from top video sites (YouTube, etc, etc), as well as across the Internet.

CastTV brings some unique twists to the table with their indexing system - it accumulates index data about a video across the internet, for instance - i.e.: if the video is posted in 15 different places, CastTV will treat the video as a single, indexed entity, with fifteen logical locations, as opposed to 15 different entities with different keywords, etc. According to TechCrunch, CastTV also allows for comparison shopping between download sites.

Anyway - my basic conjecture is that CastTV is another Riya - a cool technology in search of a business in a hype-heavy segment. Riya went from a buzz superstar facial recognition technology powerhouse to a marginal “visual search” tool (at Like.com) that let’s you search the internet for handbags you might like or rugs with nice patterns.

My conjecture is based on the fact that between YouTube/GVid and iTunes, most video on the web is well indexed, and keyword, tag, and genre searches, as well as social recommendations, meet most everyone’s search needs. Perhaps if the user-submitted video market becomes more fragmented over time (with an ascendant MySpace video or Photobucket), there may be a case for CastTV. Similarly, if CastTV wanted to delve into the grey market waters of torrents and P2P, it might have more appeal. But as a largely meta-search engine for the top video sites, I question why I would go to CastTV instead of the site where I know CastTV is going to return its listings from anyway.

My other thought is that the specialized searches for which CastTV will have the most appeal will be better executed by vertical sites such as SuTree.com that specialize in a particular video niche.

So - for mainstream searches, I’m seeing CastTV as redundant, and for specialized searches, I see it outgunned by dedicated vertical sites. That being said, I’m very willing to be proven wrong, and happily requested a preview invitation. The other suggestion I made in the TechCrunch comment thread was that CastTV deploy its unique indexing technology elsewhere - using the cross-internet-meta-index for keywords and phrases would at the very least provide a hype alternative to Powerset for the google-pundits.

Note: Here’s what I mean about being proven wrong. Maybe Like.com and the Riya team are finding their footing?

bittorrent, casttv, google, like, p2p, powerset, riya, techcrunch, video, visualsearch youtube

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