Comments on: Sink or Swim: Six Companies that Might Make It

By: Chris Ross

Chris Ross — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 02:24:35 +0000

I agree with everything but Twitter. I give them another two years unless they add something BIG other then what they have now.

I have always felt that Mahalo could make it, but the time that would have to be put into a site like that to make it work is hard to grasp. I’m curious how long Jason thinks it will take before its a force.

By: Ilya @ Neo Meme

Ilya @ Neo Meme — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 23:52:03 +0000

MySpace can’t sink- they’ve got a massive userbase that’s going to stick around. Look at the recent Simpsons movie marketing blitz on MySpace to see how useful it can be to Fox.

Besides, they already got acquired- they won the rat race. They’re done.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 19:51:28 +0000

Definitely some predictions that I agree with.

Myspace is done, Facebook already won.

Yahoo! [and MSN] are dead in search, Google won that.

Social networking is still emerging, I’m slow to attack the industry yet.

By: Carol

Carol — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 20:58:55 +0000

Okay, so I did a search for “Sex Offenders Maryland”, thinking that would result in something better than Aaron’s search on Mahalo.

Um, the first result was “Maryland Terrapins Football.” Giggle-worthy, yes, and I did indeed chortle and point at the screen…but not what I wanted from a search. And the fact that it brings up Google results…well, who cares? I could (and will) use Google.

By: kevin

kevin — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:26:53 +0000

Man I was just going to come in here and give Aaron a hard time about his myspace comments like usual but this went in another direction.

By the way I would just like to claim a few things myself… I invented drinking water and breathing air, so in all your faces.

By: Bret

Bret — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 11:42:47 +0000

Couldn’t resist posting my thoughts and personal assessment of each company mentioned…so here goes.

Yahoo – Agree…it’s gonna sink. Trim it down. Give a fresh coat of paint and throw it out on Craig’s List.

Twitter – Disagree…it’s a fad appealing to earlier adopters which in turn peaks the interest of everyone else. Once everyone else arrives, they’ll wonder, “What’s the big deal?” Twitter has a Second Life quality about it — meaningful to a small group of people it’s AMAZING, but the masses just don’t care.

MySpace – Agree 100%. Too much bad press has labeled it as a place for perverts and child molesters.

FaceBook – Undecided but I am certainly going to take a closer look. I think it will swim…at least for the next year.

Mahalo – Agree…one quick visit and the first impression is overwhelming, “What? Another one of these things?” Doesn’t instantly differentiate itself from everything else out there.

ConceptShare – First I’ve heard of it, but it sounds very promising. I’ll have to take a closer look. Thanks for the tip.

By: Steve James

Steve James — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 17:54:16 +0000

So is this the point where someone channels Al Gore and claims to invent the internet, superseding any comeback the other may be dreaming up? Maybe one can take it down a notch and just lay claim to inventing blogging?

By: Jeremy Wright

Jeremy Wright — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:59:16 +0000

Jason, I’ll let the down-to-the-pixel comment slide. I’ll also ignore the columns issue, because there are only a couple of options design-wise for mass-market blogs.

The footers, though, are nothing at all alike. Yours show 12 blogs with the 5 most recent posts. All SEO’d and all that jazz. Ours is an AJAX-driven footer that lets you explore the entire network, see all the blogs, explore the most recent content, etc.

I’ll give you that the designs are similar. I’ll even give you the header bar (even though it was something I’ve been using for a decade). Because to visually look at them that’s easy to see.

But the footers are totally different. Honestly, feel free to click through to http://www.ensight.org (my site, so I’m not promoting something off topic) and look at the footer. Then look at http://www.joystiq.com (a site I’m a daily reader of) and feel free to illuminate me on the similarities.

The only ones I can see are “shows other content” and “is square”.

;-)

Anyways, as I said you can say you inspired the early versions of b5, but “carbon copy” is just too much of a stretch even for you mate :)

By: Aaron Brazell

Aaron Brazell — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:57:08 +0000

Jason: There’s no irony in me sticking it to Mahalo and my thoughts have nothing to do with b5media and WIN. As I said in my post, if this has any chance of succeeding it’s because you’re a smart guy. Other than that, the concept makes no sense to me.

I don’t mind you two duking it out here but please don’t bring me into a WIN-b5media skirmish as that has nothing to do with my post or anything I’ve said up to this time.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:52:28 +0000

1. You guys took those three features *EXACTLY*… i wouldn’t bring it up if you didn’t. I mean, down to the pixel exact.

2. You’re right there are only so many ways to design something… so, again, I don’t have a problem with you guys copying what we’re doing.. i just find it ironic that Aaron is sticking it to Mahalo when he works for a company that is a photocopy of the one we did in 2003.

3. I am already very impressed with what B5 has done. I think you guys are in the top 10 blog networks after Weblogs, Inc. and Gawker and that’s significant.