Slashdot Mirror
Reddit and JotSpot Acquired
Two Web 2.0 companies' acquisitions were announced today: JotSpot by Google, and Reddit by Wired. hpcanswers writes, "Google has bought JotSpot, a maker of wiki software. From the linked FAQ: 'Google shares JotSpot's vision for helping people collaborate, share, and work together online. JotSpot's team and technology are a strong fit with existing Google products like Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Apps for Your Domain, and Google Groups.' The purchase price has not been disclosed." Coverage of the JotSpot deal is everywhere; Cnet's and the AP's are thorough. And MattSparkes writes, "The user-generated news site Reddit has been bought out by Wired's parent, Condé Nast, for an undisclosed sum. As the great big Web 2.0 bubble continues to inflate towards the popping point, and Boston sees a few more young millionaires move west, who will we see bought out next?"
I don't believe that we will approach a bubble like we did in the late 90's. The very fact that people are apprehensive about such evaluations is a good sign that hopefully things will stay in check.
v e_businessweeks_bubblemath.php
37 Signals wrote a good article a while back trying to keep this hype in check.
http://www.37signals.com/svn/archives2/dont_belie
Remember, part of an evaluation is function of current value vs. a projection of ROI. How will this investment in Reddit be returned? I have no clue, but the very fact that we're thinking about these issues (as opposed to an all-out buying frenzy in the early 90's) is a better sign.
Jim
http://www.runfatboy.net/ - Exercise for the rest of us.
However, if Steve Ballmer buys Slashdot, it might be shut down with the server boards & hard drives made into urinals in Ballmer's private bathroom. Oh, think of all the bright futures of the mighty Slashdot!
My work here is dung.
1. Make start-up company with an "innovative" idea, (i.e. ANYTHING considered Web 2.0)
2. Wait for Google to buy you
3. Retire and relax
In a world of acronyms, the words are the real victims.
Here's a screenshot of slashdot.org/firehose.pl which seems to be slashdot's take on digg and reddit (it seems you have to be a subscriber to view this page)
0 3/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37157043@N00/2847507
After YouTube a wiki version of the blogging service... how could we all have missed that great business opportunity? (Note: sarcasm).
Blogs, comments, threaded forums and wiki's are just different ways of organizing, collecting and storing information. Wouldn't a "create miniwiki" function in blogger make more sense or does "jotspot" have a more enterprisey feature set?
The Borg, she grows - resistance is futile.
No, jokes aside - I'm starting to have serious doubts about google's internal innovation engine. As someone recently pointed out, the reason startups are innovative are because they aren't constrained. From what I hear, google has retained a bit of the humility required to keep their startup ethos (to be a company of a hundred startups) for the last five years. To do this, they've had to do more subtle PR tricks than there is in the book and I can truly admire the way they haven't got themselves cutdown in the tall poppy meets rake approach, we techies apply to the big monoliths (AOL, MS etc...). But this recent trend of acquiring technology instead of building it in-house is a definite sign that the culture is starting to fade, at least in the management layers of the company. Instead of looking in-wards for innovation, they are going out & buying technology.
Anyway, I see the same sort of let startups experiment, let our business follow the successes (and $$$) attitudes elsewhere - and that leads into a different sort of hell altogether.
PS:Consider me even more scared if there was a master plan to all this than mere acquisitions.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
y'know, I really try to keep up with such things, but am I the only one here who hasn't heard of either of these companies before?
It wasn't that Google Video didn't have the capability - Youtube had the users. ... Rinse, repeat.
JotSpot
As much as I wish Google continued success, methinks that they are possibly spreading themselves a bit too thin and will eventually pay the price for doing so. Yahoo, Netscape did much the same thing in the 90s and they suffered because of it.
;-)
Considering that most everything they have is in 'Beta' stage, why not focus on delivering a solid final product -before- investing/purchasing everything else? Or is 'Beta' now defined as production-quality code?
I guess what I'm saying is, never under-estimate the MS's of the world. Spread yourself too thin and the competition -will- take advantage of the situation. Stay focused on what you're good at (or known for) and that will limit the risks.
What say you fine folks?
While their main page has been cleared out of any detailed info the tour is still there.
It seems when these "2.0" companies get bought out they really start to suck. So the user's and buyer's expectations pop like a favorite ballon who was just discovered by the cat.
This is why were seeing a new breed of mySpace and Facebooks evolve and next we'll start seeing something to replace youTube which thanks to removal of content due to litiginous bastards is now just a bunch of cat videos and bad Wendy's commercials.
The cycle will continue as these albatrosses will bring down the purchasing companies allowing for newcomers with real innovation to take their place. And if they can avoid their predecessor's error will go on to great things.
I really think they would be more like this:
Sponsored Links:
Have a Craving for Hot Grits?
Satisfy your craving and check
out other people's craves.
crave.honda.com
Essays on Beowulf
Search our database of 101,000
essays for papers on Beowulf
ExampleEssays.com
Warm Basement Floors
A Smart Solution to Control Molds
& Eliminate Moisture from the Slab
www.WarmlyYours.com
More about...
Free Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman Linux
Linux Portman
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
... is focused towards buyouts of non-profitable companies by other companies instead of IPO offerings, hurting individuals who invest. What web 2.0 companies have gone public without a profitable business plan lately? None? This may be a bubble, but it is a much better one that will not set the industry back if it bursts. Instead, those companies who bought out others, and their investors/shareholders will feel the hit, but not the tune of a bankrupt company. Instead of hurting our precious industry and job security, other companies will turn their bad choices into opportunity to gain ground and emerge as the new leader.
Invexi - a Phoenix, AZ based web design and web development company.
"You can't edit this comment using wiki markup because it's been edited in WYSIWYG mode"
Most non-Slashdot readers would probably know them more from their ownership of The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Vogue.
Michel
Fedora Project Contribut
I've heard of people who met actual jotspot users. No kidding.
JotSpot is actually a pretty great wiki. It's not as widely-used as mediawiki, of course (since mediawiki is an application, not a service), but it has a lot of powerful features. The most notable feature is forms.
Forms allow you to tag a page as a particular type, and each type has some meta data associated with it, as well as a view. So it's like a database and a wiki in one, but much easier. It allows an admin user to set up data types and what fields should be included, and then the actual content writers can just fill in the fields to create the data. We used it last year for MIT Mystery Hunt. We had a form defined for "Puzzle" to include the name of the puzzle, a URL if appropriate, the category, type of puzzle, a text field for the solution and a bool to indicate that it was solved, in addition to a "wiki" space to put any notes about the solution and work in progress, like a normal wiki. JotSpot has scripting built in so that you can easily create dynamic pages that list off (for example): Puzzles completed, puzzles not-completed, all puzzles of a particular type, puzzles in a certain category, etc. It makes it really easy to keep track of what is done and what still needs doing. I'm sure this logic can apply to plenty of other applications as well. Try doing that with mediawiki!
Here's the juicy excerpt from the article:
A witty signature proves nothing