Monkey on Wordpress

Pretty sweet to see Scopetech get a mention on a Techcrunch post.

I received a great comment and just had to reply to it in a post. Here’s the comment in question, quoted below in full.

I understand that Edgeio has a cool solution with this Marketplaces application, but what problem are they solving? I’ve never heard anyone complain that Craigslist doesn’t do X very well, or it does too much of Y which nobody likes, Craigslist is an elegant, free solution to many of the things that it seems Edgeio is out to solve. Maybe since I haven’t used it yet I’m not able to see the big picture, but I’d like to hear about the specific problems with Craigslist that Edgeio now feels they need to address and “fix”.

Mike, that’s a great point, but I don’t agree with what you’re saying. First and foremost, let’s look at search engines - Yahoo! launched in March, 1998 while Google came out in September 1998. I suppose when Yahoo! was first unleashed, people may have been more than satisfied with this site that offers them the ability to find what they want, but something happened: competition. Let’s get to the bottom line, just because something is out first doesn’t make it the best. Yes, it functions, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved upon. Just as you’ve stated, you haven’t used the marketplace tool, therefore you can’t see the need for such a product. There are quite a few reasons for edgeio to exist. Here’s my reasoning at least.

First Impression

It may seem superficial, but looks are everything when it comes to the Internet. This wasn’t always the case. Before you could have an ugly site that functioned and it was okay. It wouldn’t matter what your site looked like, but if it did what we needed it would be successful. Things are different now because there are a many sites that do the same thing - what is going to make your site stand out? Aesthetics. Today’s web users are fickle and decide if they’re staying with a site in no time at all. Obviously there are other factors such as brand loyalty to look at - if you’ve been used to craigslist all the time you may not want to deviate what you’re accustomed to. What needs to be taken into consideration is the new breed, the users with no loyalty yet, who now have to decide. So you, the reader, decide, as a new Internet user, what seems more appealing?

Features and Reach

Just as you’re notbig on edgeio, i’m not that big of a user of craigslist, meaning I don’t use it at all. Why I think edgeio has the edge here so to speak, is because of features such as tagging, the geographical refining “slide” tool on the site and RSS feeds. The main reason that edgeio can more than make it in this market is that it is not only a place to put your listings, but an aggregator as well. Search results bring up ebay and amazon listings in addition to the ability to add a listing directly into the site. Another innovative feature is making a post on your own blog and tagging it accordingly so it will end up on the site. All of this is part of the reach, which goes into what we’re really focusing on...

Marketplaces

What is the big draw of marketplaces? From what I’ve gathered, marketplaces will be more than one tool, this listing feature is simply one of these tools. Recently there’s been an upsurge in the “board” and “listing” markets. It’s safe to say that this may have started with the 37 signals job board, but the real rabid popularity started with the advent of Michael Arrington’s crunchboard. The success of this made people realize how easy it could be to make revenue or offer a service with this formula. Fast forward today and you have various job board services, such as Krop, Job Thread and Job-a-matic. This just shows that there is a want and need for boards to look for jobs. With these tools, people generate revenue through job search in the same way they would with Google’s Adsense.

Now with edgeio, you can do this and a whole lot more. Create your own listing service for your demographic. You run a blog about the housing market? Create a board for people to post houses for sale or rent. You do reviews of electronics? Make a board for people to post any electronics they have for sale or want to buy. Run a site all about prestigious blogs? Then why not make a board for people to post jobs for bloggers? It’s all about the niche right now. People may still be intimidated by these large sites, be it craigslist or edgeio or anything in between. But with people able to make these micro sites, we have the ability for people to get more users of these services without them knowing since everything posted on a marketplace powered board will be listed by edgeio.com

I personally could care less about using a large site, I like the idea of doing my own site. I also like the idea that anything posted on my site will also be listed on edgio.com and those that will use the larger site can also find my stuff. It’s all about reach. If there’s anything else, I’d like to invite anyone else to give their thoughts on this.

Not much apparently. Tell me, what’s all this about? Does a name matter much? If it’s an actual name, then no, I don’t think so. If the content is good, people will come, they will make to remember the name, provided it’s not something overly ridiculous. Your content is going to be syndicated in any case, so it wouldn’t matter much. You’re syndicating your content, right?

This post on techcrunch points out that there is reason to believe that a PowerPoint-like product will soon come out from Google. Um, duh? It’s safe to say that Google is on-track to do a web based competitor to Microsoft Office. Why all the hoopla? Isn’t it just a question of “when ?”rather than “if?”?

After Google acquired Writely, did anyone really not think a PowerPoint-like product would be soon to follow? Be it home-grown or the acquisition of another company, let’s not get hyped for what we know is coming.

Try again, Techcrunch.

On february 1st, Kevin Rose announced on the Digg Blog that they would be removing the top users list for digg.com WHAT? Remove the top users list? But now what will the digg community have to show who is better than who? Nothing, that’s what and it’s great. When people start competing against each other, quality will dwindle and that’s a fact. What the digg community should be looking into doing is making the site the best, better than any competitors, even if they are just shameless clones.

The reason for this is clear, people in the top users list have the e-belly to get stories to the top. Even users who aren’t in the top 100 are being spammed with emails to digg stories for financial compensation. (I’m ranked in the second hundred and received such an email even though I think it was automatically generated.) The power of digg is great and people with products to peddle know this and will do anything to get their site to the front page. It’s gotten as far as organized sites, such as spikethevote. The removal of the list is just one of the measures to take place. I’ve spoken with Jay Adelson, digg’s CEO on this before and he explained to me that they just can’t game the system effectively, if at all. It’s not as simple as who gets the most stories to the front page. It’s a whole lot more complicated and we’ll leave it at that.

But the digg community is smart, or should we say, the competitors are. It appears that with the help of digg’s API, a new top users list rose from the ashes of the old one, thanks to Netscape. Okay, let’s back up a bit. While the man responsible for the list, Christopher Fink says that he made the new list of his own volition, even though he’s employed with Netscape. Conflict of interest? To an extent. I understand that people can more than work on projects on their own. Google employees do it, in fact, it’s part of their job. But even if he did it on his own, knowing who he works for, can you blame the backlash it’s causing?

The mere fact that Netscape exists in it’s current state is something people still seem to be displeased about. The “new” Netscape looks a lot like digg. That’s a fact. Jason Calacanis, as per usual, has his say on the issue, chiming in with:

Most of the top users I’ve talked to over the years are very, very driven by that top list. They want to climb higher, they talk about strategies to climb the rankings, they build tools to get to stories first, and they lament their inability to sustain their position when they fall.

Interesting. I recall reading in some comment on the issue where someone said they liked to think of digg as a game, using the list as a way to gauge your strength, not unlike a Role Playing Game. That’s all fine and dandy, but as stated before, this is not where the digg community needs to focus right now, but rather on the competition. I like to think of this issue not unlike post counts in forums. After time, the post counts seem to run the forum, with users of forums seeing persons with high post counts as more important. Do away with the post counts and suddenly, nobody cares, they focus on the quality of messages posted rather than the quantity.

In short, mister Fink should really just accept the backlash for what he did, not to say he did anything that anyone else may not have done.

Well, isn’t this great? We’re familiar with the amount of time and effort taken by the U.S media to report on the frivolous happenings in the lives of celebrities. I’m creeped out and could care less about Angelina Jolie’s fascination with blood. No, I don’t care about Star Jones*, I don’t want to know who’s responsible for all the wars in the world. One of my favourite shows on Television is The Soup. Why? Because they know just how idiotic it is that this stuff is going on and how much more idiotic it is that the media continues to feed us this drivel. What’s ironic is that it’s on E!, whose bread and butter is doing just this.

A common practice is to give one name to a celebrity couple, because it’s cool, apparently. It’s safe to say this all started to get popular when Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez became known as Bennifer. The Soup, being the trendsetters they are, decided to have a segment on their show called the “The Celebrity Hookup Nickname Generator” which is, coincidentally, the name of the machine that does what the name implies. The latest buzz is around musician John Mayer and Jessica Simpson (she’s blond). Their name: “messica”. The Soup was spot on with this segment, showing just how dumb this thing is, but Web 2.0, not to be outdone, has joined the fray.

Imagine how odd I felt having to read Michael Arrington’s usage of GooTube. We have so jumped the shark and I don’t think there’s any going back. This isn’t an isolated case by any means, it’s spreading. We need to do something. Alas, my blog doesn’t get to charge $10, 000 for 125×125 pixel ads, therefore, I am but a mere nobody. Since I can’t do anything, I can only contribute. But how? By getting in on the action before others take notice, that’s how. So, from now on:

Robert Scoble and Mariam Scoble = Scobiam

Chris Pirillo and Ponzi (real name Latthanapon Indharasophang) = Ponzillo

Jason Calacanis and Michael Arrington are doing conferences together, which is close enough to being married, please meet Calacangton.

Be sure to fight the good fight, and help make Web 2.0 greater by consolidating names. It makes you cool.

*until she returns my calls, I will just stop caring.