The Naked Truth…
Went to a local meet up for people in the tech industry last night. It was a fun event, with lots of people, conversation, bbq, and a few drinks. Thanks for Redfin and everyone else who put this on…also if you were the person who Michael Arrington gave an Ooma too, he said that if I can connect with you, you owe me one of yours…so if you read this let me know.
It’s to late, and I can’t put together coherent sentences so I will link to a few roundups of the event.
Hopefully there will be another one of these, even if it’s smaller, before the end of the summer.
Social Network Overload?
I was anti social network for a very long time. I finally gave into Facebook a few months ago after realizing they have their stuff together and it looks like they’re going to be around for a long time. They seem to have a plan for connecting people and information and not just throwing up a bunch of crap (ie MySpace, which I think will fade, but it will obviously take awhile to fade as it is HUGE). Today, as I was looking around for something to write about on this site, I kept coming across social networking news. First on Tech Crunch this morning we find out that both Google and Yahoo are working on creating their own social networks. Now it looks like Facebook is quickly approaching an IPO, proving that in fact, they are not for sale. Then Ning secures a HUGE round of funding (Raised $44 million at a $170 million pre-money valuation). Next, SideStep acquires TripUp, which is a travel social network…and to close off the evening Bay Partners launches a Facebook Apps Fund.
I’m not just trying to link to a bunch of sites, but that is five stories on social networks, four of which seem to be very significant (TripUp doesn’t seem like a major move). How are all of these social networks going to function? I think Facebook is great, but there is no way that I will get onto MySpace or any other social network unless it reaches a very large critical mass of my friends or colleagues. Ning, which provides a very easy to use tool for creating your own mini social networks is a great tool (I’ve used it and love it), but how much can a bunch of social networks of only a few hundred people be worth? $214M? I have a hard time believing that they really can bring in that much revenue on what they currently have (although with $44M I’m sure there will be some changes coming down the pipe). Yahoo, I don’t think they’ll be able to provide anything to draw a large group of new users and they’re current users only use them for email, finance, and fantasy sports.
Google could potentially launch a very appealing social network for businesses. By tying together, gmail, gchat, spreadsheets, docs and their new powerpoint killer, it seems they could provide an open network for conducting business across offices or even companies. Ping someone in the network through your hosted email in gmail and setup a live conference demo through gchat and the powerpoint killer program. It sounds very appealing to me and I hope they go down this road. I think it’s the only play left for social networks, because really, how many places do people like to write their favorite songs and activities.
Can all of these companies be worth this much money and become sustainable products? Competition is great, but I think it will come down to Facebook, MySpace, Ning, and if Google goes after the business crowd with their integrated online applications they could take alot of customers away from Facebook and LinkedIn. It will be a fun next 18 months.
[Sorry if I got carried away, but that was 4 big stories on the same subject in the same day]
Gawker’s blind drive for page views.
I don’t know if Gawker is trying to be acquired or if they are just trying to drive up the page views (and ad revnue) on their sites. I read Deadspin, Valleywag, Lifehacker, and Gizmodo regularly and enjoy what they publish on the sites. However, over the past month they have been redesigning all of their sites in what looks to be a desperate attempt to draw page views. They are now requiring you to click on a more button on the majority of the stories.
Here are some sample stats from what I eyeballed today (I could be off by a few posts) and how many of the articles (real ones, not one line blog links) you need to click a “more” button to finish reading the post.
- Deadspin 8/11
- Valleywag 10/10 (one of which you had to view three pages to get the entire story)
- Gizmodo 34/42
- Lifehacker 2/15
Just eyeballing that, it’s about 80% of the stories that you need to view a second page on, meaning that when I went to Deadspin in the past I could view the front page and get all the info I wanted. Now I need to view close to 20 pages to read all the information. On Valleywag, thirty pages rather than one. However, Lifehacker seems to keep the “more” button in check. Why would that be? Because it’s a site that is about being proficient on the web and in your daily life. It’s not very proficient to have to view an exponentially larger number of pages than you have to now is it.
I wrote Will at Deadspin when they first changed the format and he said he didn’t like it and was trying to use the more button less. This changed for a few days, but I guess when Nick Denton finished up at Valleywag last week he decided to make drive the Deadspin pages through the roof. This is also very annoying when I am trying to browse on my EDGE enabled Blackberry, no fun at all.
Nick Denton, please stop driving your page views through the roof for your profit and at your loyal readers expenses. See, I like you stuff and I’m sending page views your way, I just don’t like how you’re going about it now.
Happy 4th of July
I was able to catch two fireworks shows tonight. One over Elliot Bay and the other on Lake Union. One being put on by Ivar’s (a chowder house) the other by Washington Mutual. Any guesses on which one was better?
The Lake Union show put on by Washington Mutual was GREAT. I’ve lived in Seattle for almost 3 years now and this is the first time I have seen either of the local shows. It was great. Now, I can’t get to bed because Alki is a hot spot for people coming for the 4th and there are still fireworks as well as sirens going on around here.
“The greatest moment in American sports history”…Really?
I woke up this wonderful 4th of July, and although I had to wait a few hours to watch a tape delayed Wimbledon, I was able to watch another early July “Sporting” event. Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest. For those of you that aren’t framiliar with the event, it’s the super bowl of competetive eating, and people see how many hot dogs and buns they can eat in 12 minutes. The event has really changed in the past six years as Takeru Kobayashi showed that being lean actually helps you fit more hot dogs into your stomach. Well Kobayashi has won the previous six Nathan’s events heading into today.
That changed when Joey Chestnut ate 66(!!!) hot dogs in 12 minutes today to outdo Kobayashi’s 63 (The previous Nathan’s record was 54). Since the event is on the Fourth of July many American’s have been upset about a Japanese contestant dominating the American’s and were very happy to see Joey Chestnut bring back the “Mustard Belt” to America.
The announcers today were taking themselves a little to serious though, here were a few of the quotes that had me wondering why I was watching this event.
“This could be what this country needs to get back on the right track: the mustard belt coming home to America.”
“Google the word “hero” tomorrow and you’ll get Abe Lincoln and Joey Chestnut.”
“This could be the greatest moment in American Sports history.”
About Otis
I live in Seattle, Washington. I am passionate about working with and interacting with others. My work experience includes marketing, account management, and sales.
I am a huge sports fan who on top of cheering for my favorite teams (Go Beavs!) also appreciates coaching strategy, as well as the marketing behind teams, players, and events.
Personally, I enjoys exploring new cities and areas (particularly small towns) and getting outside and playing.