Disqus - Latest Comments for Joel

Re: SquidWho - When A Product Becomes A Platform

Joel — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 22:42:13 -0000

The issue with this is what the goals are for the application you're developing. If you're looking to make a quick buck? Go with a "platform" that has eyeballs already (eg, Facebook). If you're looking to make an application that is built to last, you might be better server with a platform like Ning. *

First off, I hesitate to say Squidoo has eyeballs. Yes, I'm sure it has millions of users already or whatever, but so do many sites that we never hear about anymore (43things anyone?). Then it brings up the question of active users, good traffic vs garbage traffic, etc.

SquidWho is essentially an entirely new product that is tangentially related to the original one. It's definitely a good idea, but I don't think it quite validates Squidoo as a "platform" (the move does reflect well on them as a company though). For it to really be a platform I think it would have to be open for external developers (who are hopefully developing products related to the original one).

* = if you really want something that's built to last, take the time to develop it yourself from scratch. If your business is your application, you might as well make it properly and have full control over it.

Re: You don't own your social graph (Or, how not to solve 0.0003% of the world's problems.)

Joel — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:01:19 -0000

Charlie, you nailed it again. Couldn't agree with you more.

As to comment #1, it doesn't change the fact that the Terms of Service agreement says no scripts. Scoble has no recourse about being banned (and I don't think he's really seeking one). As far as what he did being "right", I don't know. I think that if there was already a facebook app that allows people to get the same data (and something tells me it wasn't the exact same data set...I would be surprised if Scoble hadn't tried to scrape more than the friendcsv app provided), then Scoble should have made his own php facebook app and gotten that data in a way that wouldn't have gotten his ass banned.

Re: Don't call it a comeback

Joel — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 11:02:56 -0000

Even if Edwards gives his support to Obama (and he will) the race will still be far from over. Kusinich and Biden already gave their support to Obama and Clinton was still able to edge a victory out in NH.

This whole race comes down to age. Old people are going to vote for Clinton, younger people are going to vote for Obama. Obama is gambling on young voter turnout...will this be the year where the college kids take it one step past facebook groups and actually go to the polls? I bet there are a lot of unfilled out voter registration forms on tables covered with beer cans and pizza boxes...

If the youth come out an vote, obama should ride easily into the nomination. If they don't, like they haven't in previous years, it's gonna go all the way down to the wire.

Re: The Five Kinds of Social Media Users

Joel — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:11:21 -0000

Wow! Now that's some good bloggin' right there.

Re: Fanboys Continue To Boggle Minds

Joel — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 06:00:51 -0000

For the record, at least one person got the Nader reference.

Re: iLike: Riding the Facebook tsunami

Joel — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 18:27:42 -0000

Bah, it seems like the popular thing here is iLike + Facebook. I'm curious whether iLike or Facebook are going to benefit individually. iLike got a TON of new users off this and greatly increased their exposure...but will this translate into people going to their site and providing them with non-Facebook users (and more importantly...will that even be necessary?). Though the fact that we are even talking about iLike right now is a huge win for them.

And while the iLike app is wildly popular, is it serving facebook by attracting people that weren't already using facebook? It's one thing to provide plugins to your members...but I think facebook will only really benefit if they can increase their share of the market. And I still can't think of any kind of app that anyone could make that will convince someone who uses myspace to switch to facebook or get someone like me who doesn't use any socnet services to start.

The amazing thing here would be if iLike could make money (or generate a lot of loyal users) JUST from the facebook platform. The day a facebook API app generates significant revenue off just the facebook market will be a big landmark in the evolution of internet applications.

Re: http://adam.blog.heroku.com/past/2008/3/26/y_combinator/

Joel — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:25:04 -0000

My two cents: PG speaks for us.

There are a lot of people who think like Paul Graham does, and I think there always have been/will be. I know that when I read his essays, I end up nodding my head for 20 or 30 minutes at a stretch. It's not that he's presenting radical new ideas...he's just providing a voice for ideas that a relatively small number of people have all the time.

I want to have my own company. I want to work on things that I think are innovative and ground breaking. I want to test my creativity and problem solving skills on a daily set of unsolvable problems. And I don't want to be made to feel that I'm wrong for doing it.

Outside of PG himself, I see YC founders as a group of people who are serious about doing something big. People like that are surrounded by people who just don't get it. When your life is dedicated to doing something incredible, it's hard to relate to people who just want to work 8 hours a day then go home and watch reality tv (not that there is anything wrong with that). It's good for anyone to find a community of people with similar motivations.

I hope to join your League of Extraordinary Gentlemen this summer. And if not, we'll be back in the winter.

Re: 2007/08/16/web2-marketplace/

Joel — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:38:47 -0000

I'm not going to lie, the price is prohibitive to most startups. Our company could definitely use your listings for the purpose of recruiting but we just can't afford $120 for any amount of time. Only funded startups can afford those kind of prices.

From a business perspective, you might do well to charge less. I was looking at the different boards the other day (before you started the Marketplace) and I saw GigaOm and Techcrunch charge $200 while R/W Web was around $100. If you have a slightly lower price you might be able to appeal to the pre-funding startup crowd (which looks like most of your base).

I do really like the idea of selling whole companies, technologies and services. There could definitely be a market for small scale acquisitions and mergers and mashable is definitely in the best position to do it. I'll definitely be checking, probably more often once we get our VC check.

Re: 2007/08/19/meebo-sponsors/

Joel — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 12:14:09 -0000

Two things:

1) where can we get pricing info?

2) mad props on getting Kweli

Re: Is FeedHub the answer to information overload?

Joel — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 03:23:26 -0000

I've been using FeedHub since yesterday. So far, it's doing a decent job of picking big stories. I don't think it has a chance of picking the stories I would want personally (I look for very specific things in my rss feeds) but I do like the idea of seeing what the "major" stories are for the day.

I still have to go through all my RSS feeds one by one to get the perspectives of different bloggers and find the specific information that I'm looking for. But if I miss a day or I don't have a lot of time, I can use FeedHub + TechMeme to catch up.

I think one of the best ways to use it is to exclude all of your non tech blogs, cause TechMeme is pretty good at that already.