Hmm quickies #23 |
Every once in awhile, I have a little to say about a lot and thus Hmm Quickies was born and makes appearance #23 today:
- Microsoft makes Express versions of Visual Studio free forever, or at least until they obsolete the product line.
- allegations are being made that Digg is corrupted by an editor bias it isn’t supposed to have. Of course the one making allegations seems to admit that if you get enough people together there will always be a popuarlity bias. Darkmoon offer his take on the situation.
- Sony cuts price of PS2 down from $149 to $130. Anybody that might care already owns a PS2, now what about PS3 pricing?
- Opera 9.0 beta is now available for download and includes widgets. The widget-o-rama continues. CNET has a video review.
- Google opened their calendar API.
Did this post make you go hmm?
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You read my blog? wow. I’m impressed. *laugh* Everything in the end = following the money. Being an aspiring entrepeneur and reading Guy Kawasaki and Joi Ito, it’s pretty obvious how to watch for the money trail. In the end, no matter how good the cause, how great the source, everyone (when you incorporate) is out for one thing: $$$.
I don’t understand why people don’t see it that way. If these guys were just out for a good time, it would be an OSS project sitting on SourceForge and being one of biggest OSS sites.
Comment by darkmoon — April 20, 2006 @ 2:05 pm PST
It seems to me their goals in the beginning might not have been as business-focused as they are now and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Financial situations can change in a hurry if a site becomes really, really popular. I’m not completely sure they thought the digg concept would take off like it has, but it doesn’t surprise me that it has. Some folks apparently were annoyed that they couldn’t get past Slashdot editors and digg promises a system, even if it has flaws, where really interesting, useful and/or entertaining content can rise to the front page.
As for people who get all up in arms about commercial activity? They need to remember that nothing on the web is free and somebody has to pay for it somewhere. I keep this in mind and it’s the reason I don’t use ad filtering. If I see something that interests me on a third party site that I enjoy then I’ll click through and check it out … and maybe even buy.
Comment by TDavid — April 20, 2006 @ 2:26 pm PST
I don’t think people are up and arms about the commercialization. There are two things involved. 1) They claimed to not pull Slashdot editing. Fine. But in accordance to this incidence, it seems like they do. 2) They point fingers at FG for articifically inflating their digg scores. But wait! Kevin Rose was part of the inflation for these certain stories that FG did investigative reporting on!
What’s most amusing to me is the PR spin from the Kevin Rose response. I think the response did more damage to them than anything. They would have been better with being silent and letting it blow over.
Again, I think the issue is more of how to run a business versus a “great project”. Having done the latter on smaller scales, and currently in the middle of doing the former, I can say that running a business has a lot more width that you have to think about and how to spin everything. It helps that I have business advisors that have made it. But if he doesn’t have one of those, I would seriously have them consider finding someone with a bit more business tact on how to defend from fires. Jobs was that guy for Apple while Woz was the guy behind the projects. I think they want to be the “Woz” of Digg, but they really need to find their “Jobs”.
Comment by darkmoon — April 20, 2006 @ 3:25 pm PST
I remember an interview with Kevin where he admitted they didn’t think it would take off for them like it has. Compare that to say the business plan of Skype where they clearly wanted to and were disruptive in their space. Two entirely different strategies. I guess what I’m saying is I don’t believe Digg had any strategy originally besides make something cool and then they started having scaling issues and bandwidth concerns and that’s where the “commercialization” comes in with some of the things like editorial boosting of certain posts.
And Kevin is still a Digg user too. He dugg one of the Hmm posts to the front page, so he doesn’t only digg friends and secret club posts. I know that for a fact.
Comment by TDavid — April 20, 2006 @ 3:33 pm PST
And BTW, I should mention, I’m not a big Rose fan. I think the guy has gotten behind some pretty lame stuff like those get five of your friends behind this and get a free iPod deal (cough, cough scam cough).
I take Digg for what it is and isn’t. It tends to get stories at about the same time or earlier than Slashdot but there are far too many Rose/TechTV fanboys in the comments area. Slashdot has more intelligent commentary on the whole, but is a bit slower to the punch on stories. Both sites can send a bunch of traffic. Well over 10,000 uniques the first day a site is listed.
As a user I don’t mind if some of their stories are getting preferential treatment or there are kickbacks coming from the “editors.” I’ve assumed this was happening for awhile anyway due to similar clues already cited. So long as other good content that is also being front page elevated, it’s just like running paid listings inside RSS feeds, really it’s fine with me.
If Digg starts sucking too much then somebody else will create an alternative to Digg and off I’ll be there. Perhaps in addition or instead, it just depends on the content.
Comment by TDavid — April 20, 2006 @ 3:41 pm PST
That’s very true. My theory however is: having known many Angel and VC investors, you don’t get VC without promising something or some type of return. VC’s are a lot more grueling in the timing for return also which is why they fund in the 1+ mil.
Being such, I don’t see why it wasn’t scripted virile marketing. If Digg was my company, I would also run diggs on any stories that were “customer driven”. But my thoughts were that to get those stories to the front page, it took at least 15-20 users in quick succession to dump it to the front page. Once it’s there, it’s up to the users. But it also gives those stories a unfair advantage for front page access unlike what Digg is marketed as. If there is editorial review or marketing type pushes, that’s fine. And from my perspective, it’s very… well.. interesting.
I understand that they didn’t have a business plan starting out. But being that they “have a business now” they better know how to run a business. The biggest factor here is that whether or not they started out with different strategies, they are still well-known and thereby their PR has to be very carefully said. Note that Google handles their press very carefully and they get into all sorts of PR fiascos. Believe me, my current venture took a good four months to solidify a plan. And it’s always in motion and changing. I believe that’s where Kevin is. Unfortunately, when you have Wired and BusinessWeek and other such magazines writing about you, you have to capitalize on it. They have all the good PR, but when they get some bad.. the handling is well..par at best.
Personally, I still think there is more than meets the eye. Especially with the latest KR response. But you know me, and my conspiracy theories.
Comment by darkmoon — April 20, 2006 @ 3:47 pm PST
I’m exactly with you. Not a huge Rose fan also. From the things you mentioned along with some other things from TechTV days. I take Digg for what it’s worth… a new story site. It gives me good info for the most part as long as you fact check what’s been dugg.
I know there’s been evidence cited before. This is just one of the more … hmm.. prominent that has gotten more attention.
Between the two, I prefer Slashdot’s commentary. Digg gives me new material to work with. And as a bonafide tech news junkie, it’s all good. I see where this is going though. If you acknowledge the preferential treatment for Digg, then it goes against everything that you’ve advertised as not being. And boy would that throw a wrench in things. I think this has them caught between a rock and a hard place. Best way to end this? Just shut up and let it blow over. We’ll see what happens.
There will always be Rose fanboys/girls anyhow. I won’t ever be one of them, but then again, I’d much rather be a TDavid fanboy. lol.
Comment by darkmoon — April 20, 2006 @ 3:52 pm PST