Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Gigaom Closes Shop

Posted by timothy on from the that's-a-shame dept.

Presto Vivace writes "What a loss for the tech community," linking to this announcement at Gigaom that the site is shutting down: Gigaom recently became unable to pay its creditors in full at this time. As a result, the company is working with its creditors that have rights to all of the company's assets as their collateral. All operations have ceased. We do not know at this time what the lenders intend to do with the assets or if there will be any future operations using those assets. The company does not currently intend to file bankruptcy. We would like to take a moment and thank our readers and our community for supporting us all along. — Gigaom management Reader bizwriter adds a link to this story on the shutdown.

101 comments

  1. The tech site of my dreams by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Tech is escapism. I want the tech site that doesn't preach political bullshit of any persuasion, yet still isn't a tech industry PR news feed.

    1. Re:The tech site of my dreams by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 0

      Views that are worth having are worth defending against opposing ones.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    2. Re:The tech site of my dreams by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't seem to grasp "escapism."

    3. Re:The tech site of my dreams by Rob+Riggs · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Views that are worth having are worth defending against opposing ones.

      Why exactly? They are your views. Why do you need to defend them? Either they hold up on their own, or they don't.

      In fact, I would argue that the exact opposite is true. The only views worth having are those that need no defense. They are well-supported by established evidence. All views should be treated with a commensurate level of skepticism based on the evidence available to support them.

      --
      the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
    4. Re:The tech site of my dreams by geminidomino · · Score: 2

      They are well-supported by established evidence

      You might have a point, if the internet ^Wworld didn't have an abundant supply of nitwits willing to ignore any and all evidence that might conflict with their "individual" world view.

    5. Re:The tech site of my dreams by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's kinda funny that you spend the latter part of your post defending your view.

    6. Re:The tech site of my dreams by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      well then certainly you will not miss gigaom that would write about any startup with an app that has 10 downloads.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    7. Re:The tech site of my dreams by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Views that are worth having are worth defending against opposing ones.

      If you manage to reach a certain level of intellectual maturity in your life, you may come to realize that it doesn't matter what other people think.

    8. Re:The tech site of my dreams by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You might have a point, if the internet ^Wworld didn't have an abundant supply of nitwits willing to ignore any and all evidence that might conflict with their "individual" world view.

      Amen. I mean, there are even some poor deluded souls who even think there will be a year of Linux on the desktop!

    9. Re:The tech site of my dreams by mi · · Score: 1

      Why exactly? They are your views. Why do you need to defend them?

      You don't have to defend them. But they better be worth defending...

      Either they hold up on their own, or they don't.

      Opinions don't — can not — "hold up on their own". They need to be expressed — verbally, in writing, or in some form of art...

      The only views worth having are those that need no defense. They are well-supported by established evidence.

      Would care to defend this view? How about a Periklynian dialog?

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    10. Re:The tech site of my dreams by Rob+Riggs · · Score: 1

      The only views worth having are those that need no defense. They are well-supported by established evidence.

      Would care to defend this view? How about a Periklynian dialog?

      Nope. I have no need to. And certainly not in public, on the internet, with a stranger. That sort of activity is, like sex, best done in private and with people I know and trust.

      There is a subtle difference between expressing ones views and defending them that you (and others) may have missed.

      --
      the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
    11. Re:The tech site of my dreams by vux984 · · Score: 1

      Why exactly? They are your views. Why do you need to defend them? Either they hold up on their own, or they don't.

      Why are you arguing with him about whether views worth having are worth defending? Clearly you don't need to respond. Either his view on that subject holds up or it doesn't. Right?

      They are well-supported by established evidence. All views should be treated with a commensurate level of skepticism based on the evidence available to support them.

      Presenting evidence to support a view is defending that view. So we shouldn't defend point of view; because the evidence (that nobody would now be gathering and presenting) should speak for itself?

    12. Re:The tech site of my dreams by mi · · Score: 1

      There is a subtle difference between expressing ones views and defending them

      I'd argue, that the difference is merely quantitative — as in, how much you are willing to say (or do) in support of your opinion before shrugging and walking away. As opposite to qualitative — as in whether you are willing to say (or do) anything at all.

      Though we all have some threshold, that quantity for each individual depends more on each personality and priorities (both lifetime and minute) than any kind of principled attitude.

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    13. Re:The tech site of my dreams by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What you say makes sense on the surface. But in the past some pretty horrible views for taken for granted as the gospel. For instance Mormons' belief that Native American Indians and other people of color were cursed by God because of their inherent evil. The belief that the Emperor of Japan was a direct descendant of a god. The belief that Native American Indians were inferior savages to American colonists and even up to President Andrew Jackson. The belief that blacks were inferior to whites in early United States history or in South Africa by the Dutch, in the Congo by the Belgians, in Brazil by the Portuguese etc... The belief that $Religion is better than $SomeOtherReligion by their adherents. Liberals and Conservatives believe that it is clear as day that the other is corrupt.

    14. Re:The tech site of my dreams by Rob+Riggs · · Score: 1

      There is a subtle difference between expressing ones views and defending them

      I'd argue, that the difference is merely quantitative — as in, how much you are willing to say (or do) in support of your opinion before shrugging and walking away. As opposite to qualitative — as in whether you are willing to say (or do) anything at all.

      Defending one's view presupposes that the view has come under attack. Expressing one's view does not.

      --
      the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
    15. Re:The tech site of my dreams by mi · · Score: 1

      Defending one's view presupposes that the view has come under attack.

      An "attack" can be subtle — like what I managed in this very subthread. You've now responded twice to defend your view from it...

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    16. Re:The tech site of my dreams by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "In fact, I would argue that the exact opposite is true. The only views worth having are those that need no defense."

      But OF COURSE the earth is flat. EVERYone can see that!

      You seem to know very little about how human brains operate or why science works.

  2. Never heard of it by rbanzai · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Can someone summarize what it's value was to the tech community?

    1. Re:Never heard of it by Culture20 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Exactly. Seems like there was a reason they closed shop.

    2. Re:Never heard of it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just another shitty tech news aggregator, pandering to those overly attached to the usual brands. Nothing of value was lost.

    3. Re:Never heard of it by Isca · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The sad part is that I went to their main page and scrolled back the last few weeks of stories. It seems to have an Ars Technica feel to it, which is a good thing. I may have even bookmarked it and read it on occasion had I known it existed...

    4. Re:Never heard of it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah I haven't heard of it either. Apropos I remember when Digg was the Slashdot killer. I'm glad /. is still here.

    5. Re:Never heard of it by alen · · Score: 2

      most likely they wrote the truth instead of the click bait crap of BGR, Ars and The Verge

    6. Re:Never heard of it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Can someone summarize what it's value was to the tech community?

      The proprietor was a self-styled tech elite asshat. He impressed some people, but not enough apparently. He always struck me as a phony. Gigaom as a site had enough insider scoops that they were useful for breaking news in the actual tech industry (not the consumer tech industry that gets hashed and rehashed by Engadget, Slashdot, and a dozen others) so it had a little value, but it was never the tech thought leadership paragon that it pretended to be.

    7. Re:Never heard of it by jandrese · · Score: 1

      With one exception their articles never garnered more than 15 comments. It's clear that they had utterly failed to get their name out.

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
    8. Re:Never heard of it by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      they were useful for breaking news in the actual tech industry

      This. If you cared more about big transit than trends in cellphone style, Gigaom was worth having in your Google News feed. I'm not sure what the alternative is right now. Back in the day ComputerWorld (in print) used to carry this kind of stuff.

      Hopefully the writers (what, the content doesn't auto-generate?) will find a home at other outlets.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    9. Re:Never heard of it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Typo-squating GigaCom best I can tell.

      Next we'll hear that Slashsot.org (Mews for Berds, Dtuff that Katterz) and Dixe.com (Hobs Search for Technolgh) are closing shop.

    10. Re:Never heard of it by LordThyGod · · Score: 1

      The proprietor was a self-styled tech elite asshat. He impressed some people, but not enough apparently. He always struck me as a phony. Gigaom as a site had enough insider scoops that they were useful for breaking news in the actual tech industry (not the consumer tech industry that gets hashed and rehashed by Engadget, Slashdot, and a dozen others) so it had a little value, but it was never the tech thought leadership paragon that it pretended to be.

      If you are referring to Om, he's sold out a year ago. So it could be said he did have enough, and his successors did not. (I don't know / don't care which .... I've read some of their stuff but not enough to have an opinion on the quality).

    11. Re:Never heard of it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Commenters make up a tiny fraction of the entire audience.

      Slashdot gets a lot of comments because you don't even have to go through the trouble of signing up.

    12. Re:Never heard of it by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 1

      I'm as much "in the tech community" as anybody I know and I'd never heard of them. Browsing their web site and reading about the apple watch, well, I don't know. I still don't know what they were doing.

      --
      Do you have ESP?
    13. Re:Never heard of it by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 1

      Can someone summarize what it's [sic] value was

      Om Malik is a first-rate tech writer/reporter. Though I'm sure he'll land somewhere.

    14. Re:Never heard of it by Terry95 · · Score: 2

      The proprietor was a self-styled tech elite asshat.

      This summary deserves some sort of internet fame.

    15. Re:Never heard of it by Minwee · · Score: 3, Informative

      Though I'm sure he'll land somewhere.

      I'm sure he landed somewhere else about a year ago.

    16. Re:Never heard of it by mwvdlee · · Score: 1

      Before today, I have never heard of Gigaom.
      Looking at the content on their frontpage, I doubt I will ever hear of them again.

      --
      Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
    17. Re:Never heard of it by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      Commenters make up a tiny fraction of the entire audience

      True, but when your commenter community is microscopic, it's unlikely that your audience is large.

      Slashdot gets a lot of comments because you don't even have to go through the trouble of signing up.

      Slashdot gets a lot of comments mainly because they have massive reader base. I haven't made a study of it, but my impression is that Anonymous Coward comments are only about half the comments, if that (though I note that you're one), though I will admit that the addition of AC comments stimulates post from logged-in readers (like yours has elicited my reply).

    18. Re:Never heard of it by azav · · Score: 1

      > what it's value was

      what its* value was

              it's = it is

      Learn this.

      --
      - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
    19. Re:Never heard of it by jandrese · · Score: 1

      True, but as long as that fraction is relatively consistent across similar websites it can give you a general idea of how big the audience is. They got a level of comments one might see on a local news station's website, suggesting probably only a few thousand regular readers on the site.

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
    20. Re:Never heard of it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > The proprietor was a self-styled tech elite asshat. He impressed some people, but not enough apparently. He always struck me as a phony.

      The 'proprietor' Om Malik is the nicest guy you will meet in the tech journalism industry. His fault is that he is from India. Am I right? Please keep your racism inspired views to yourself. Thanks.

    21. Re:Never heard of it by bev_tech_rob · · Score: 1

      I knew of Om Malik due to him dropping in on Twit.TV once in awhile to chat with Leo Laporte on This Week In Tech, but never followed his site.

      --
      You're messin' with my Zen Thing, man.....
    22. Re:Never heard of it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is never good to have a feel for a site (Ars, Consumerist) ran by druggies and drunks.

      Never, ever good.

    23. Re:Never heard of it by skegg · · Score: 1

      The proprietor was a self-styled tech elite asshat

      Aside from Gigaom, my knowledge of Om comes from watching him many times on Twit, and he seemed like a very genial, knowledgeable individual.

      Now if AC has personal experience with Om, that's another story.

    24. Re:Never heard of it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How things have changed on /. Commenters justifying their own ignorance while rationalizing their preference to live inside an information bubble.

    25. Re:Never heard of it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Aside from Gigaom, my knowledge of Om comes from watching him many times on Twit, and he seemed like a very genial, knowledgeable individual.

      Hmm, that's the only place I have ever seen him too. Although he did seem genial, he seemed like he was wrong about most things.

    26. Re:Never heard of it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WTF are you on about. Most of my friends are druggies and drunks and they're good people.

    27. Re:Never heard of it by Anubis+IV · · Score: 1

      The proprietor was a self-styled tech elite asshat. He impressed some people, but not enough apparently.

      He actually left the site over a year ago, which, according to at least one other site, was about the time that it seemed to began its decline.

    28. Re:Never heard of it by Thumper_SVX · · Score: 1

      The only reason I even knew it existed was because of This Week In Tech podcast that I've listened to for years. They often had Om Malik (the founder) on the show and he was entertaining enough to listen to. However, I didn't go to the site more than two or three times because they offered me nothing new. I get all my tech news from Slashdot (though less and less these days), ArsTechnica and Reddit. I don't need another news site... in fact I often think I need to trim down that list. Oh, you can probably add Gizmodo to that, though I am not sure I've been there in a while.

      I think their problem was lack of advertising, and lack of a really compelling reason to go there. No-one knew about them and those who did had little reason to return because they offered nothing new.

    29. Re:Never heard of it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      +1 I don't really recall hearing of gigaom, and given it's inception date it's hardly early OR pioneering... /. is already undead mostly, and there are no /. gloom and doom stories...

  3. Who or what is Gigaom? by Nighttime · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Until this story, I'd never heard of them. Would it have hurt to included a brief sentence or two in the summary as to why it's "a loss for the tech community"?

    --
    I've got a fever and the only prescription is more COBOL.
    1. Re:Who or what is Gigaom? by CaptainDork · · Score: 2

      Yes. I am waxing and waning on this news.

      On the one hand I am at a loss because something is no longer available to me as a resource and on the other, I never used them as a resource because I was never exposed to them.

      Damn life's bitchery and stuff.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    2. Re:Who or what is Gigaom? by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1

      A tech blog, apparently. And no, I haven't heard of them before either.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    3. Re:Who or what is Gigaom? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I, for one, had it bookmarked. Although it was on a menu called Tech News with about 20 others; some like phys.org and dzone, are not direct competitors.

      There are a bunch of sites providing general consumer tech news and evidently not enough ad dollars to sustain them all. Many of them even look alike, with the big colorful square icon format with teaser headlines and pics.

    4. Re:Who or what is Gigaom? by jeffmeden · · Score: 3, Informative

      Until this story, I'd never heard of them. Would it have hurt to included a brief sentence or two in the summary as to why it's "a loss for the tech community"?

      Gigaom is a media company (mostly news aggregation and blogging) founded by writer/journalist Om Malik, who turned out to be the company's only asset. After he left for greener pastures in 2014, the site slid quickly into obscurity.

    5. Re:Who or what is Gigaom? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

      Gigaom is a media company (mostly news aggregation and blogging) founded by writer/journalist Om Malik, who turned out to be the company's only asset. After he left for greener pastures in 2014, the site slid quickly into obscurity.

      Mr. Malik followed the typical Internet business model, in other words. I feel bad for anyone working for the site; however I'm not going to shed tears for the foolish investors who bought it.

      But remember - this isn't a bubble.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    6. Re:Who or what is Gigaom? by jhecht · · Score: 3, Informative

      Gigaom was a good site for tracking telecommunications news for several years, founded by Om Malik, who wrote a very good book on the 2000 Bubble called Broadbandits, which focused on telecomm giants -- including giant scams like MCI. Malik was a perceptive analyst and writer, and I read it frequently in the 2000s. Its demise reminds me that I hadn't visited it of late. It also reminds me there are a lot of tech websites out there, and a new wave of companies turning out what apparently are tech news apps specifically for mobile apps. As the Inc. article says, "Once again there's a bit of that old aroma of burning money in the air."

  4. I feel dumb... by jfbilodeau · · Score: 1

    I've never heard of the site...and I don't feel like RTFAing. What the heck was Gigaom and why should I care?

    --
    Goodbye Slashdot. You've changed.
    1. Re:I feel dumb... by jeremyp · · Score: 1

      I had a look at their home page and it looks like some sort of technical blogging and news site. The fact that nobody who has commented on this story seems to know who they are (or were) is probably a clue as to why they have gone tits up.

      --
      All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
  5. Probably because no one has heard of them... by turp182 · · Score: 1

    They appear to be a news site of some sort, nothing much on there I would read though (how many articles can be there about HBOGo before saturation?).

    --
    BlameBillCosby.com
    1. Re:Probably because no one has heard of them... by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      They appear to be a news site of some sort

      Folks used ta say that about Slashdot, back in the day... *cackle* *spit* *ding*

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  6. Oh no! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Wait, what in the fuck is Gigaom?

    1. Re:Oh no! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think they used to make motherboards.

  7. Great story, Slashdot by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Thanks very much for this story about a website no-one has heard of shutting down. Bonus points for not even telling us what the website's raison d'etre was in the first place, or why we should care that's it closing.

    As you can see it has stimulated much discussion, all of which is so far on the topic of "what the fuck was Gigaom?"

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    1. Re:Great story, Slashdot by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 2

      One wonders how this 'story' made it through the firehose.

    2. Re:Great story, Slashdot by Thanshin · · Score: 5, Funny

      Clearly the entire community of Gigaom upvoted the news piece.

      Apparently, on slow news days you can bypass the firehose with about 15 votes.

    3. Re:Great story, Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks very much for this story about a website no-one has heard of shutting down. Bonus points for not even telling us what the website's raison d'etre was in the first place, or why we should care that's it closing.

      As you can see it has stimulated much discussion, all of which is so far on the topic of "what the fuck was Gigaom?"

      If you came into this post alone, you'd guess the article was posted by "timothy". Guess what...

    4. Re:Great story, Slashdot by adolf · · Score: 1

      I couldn't even tell from TFS that it was a website, and not some other manner of site.

      --
      Kid-proof tablet..
  8. I only knew of them... by Red_Chaos1 · · Score: 2

    ...because of NoScript. I don't think I ever went to see who they were, I just knew I never needed to allow them to have a page work right.

  9. Not Enough Apple! by GNious · · Score: 4, Funny

    Clearly they didn't post enough Apple news, Apple reviews, Apple opinions or other Apple-related articles, since no-one here seems to have heard of them...

    1. Re:Not Enough Apple! by RPGonAS400 · · Score: 1

      And not enough cowbell! We need more cowbell!

    2. Re:Not Enough Apple! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I The Verge don't The Verge know The Verge what The Verge you're The Verge talking The Verge about The Verge.

      The Verge

    3. Re:Not Enough Apple! by freeze128 · · Score: 1

      Ironic since Giga-Om's founder now works for Apple.

    4. Re:Not Enough Apple! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A site dedicated to serving Apple fans Apple news when Apple want them to, hires someone from it to work in Apple's PR dept? WOW!

    5. Re:Not Enough Apple! by wannabgeek · · Score: 1

      No. He works for a VC firm. But to know that, you'd have to RTFA!

      --
      I'm much more funny, interesting and insightful than the moderators think
  10. And nothing of value was lost... by Rob+Riggs · · Score: 2

    I feel sorry for the creditors. Really, who the hell cares about this web site? Tag this story "slownewsday".

    --
    the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
  11. Who were they? What were there? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bad news when my first response is to wonder who they were, and why I should care.

  12. I have an idea by slashmydots · · Score: 3, Funny

    Good thing Slashdot posts slashvertisements, job leads from 1000 miles away, and show stupid bullshit spam ads to its 100% ad-blind readers. I guess that's how you stay afloat in this business.

  13. Oh, no...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Truly, they will be missed, whoever they were.

  14. Well there's your problem right there... by Dan+East · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Gigaom reaches over 6.5 million monthly unique readers and continues to be the leading independent voice that demystifies emerging technology through its news, events and research. We’re a new type of media company with a business model that leverages technology, transparency and access to information. The company’s growth has been propelled by great writers, journalistic integrity, industry depth and audience engagement.

    We offer integrated advertising programs across all of our channels: Cloud, Data, Media, Mobile, Science & Energy, Social & Web, and Podcasts. With a strong mobile reach of over 2 million monthly readers, our mobile advertising on Flipboard is highly targeted. With an array of podcasts, newsletters and other custom campaigns, we have a campaign offering to fit any client’s budget and marketing goals.

    I don't know who these "6.5 million monthly unique readers" are, but if the regular crowd at Slashdot has never even heard of their site, then they weren't really reaching 6.5 million people, or they were the wrong 6.5 million people. According to their careers page it looks like they had a lot of overhead and tried to run like an old fashioned news company with two offices in major cities. They certainly weren't lean-and-mean.

    https://about.gigaom.com/caree...

    --
    Better known as 318230.
    1. Re:Well there's your problem right there... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They also pay for VIP Wordpress, which costs $5000 a month starting with support starting over $1000 per month... to host wordpress. I guess their staff is all tech fluff writers and no actual tech. Figures

    2. Re:Well there's your problem right there... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The IT dweebs of Slashdot never cease to amaze me. So your 'starting over' $6000/month gets you a fully managed website. $6k/mo doesn't even get you a talented sysadmin when you factor in taxes, office space, benefits, etc; heck in some markets it doesn't get you half of a sysadmin all in. Not just some kid who can setup Ubuntu and Apache, anyone can do that. But someone who understands deliverability at scale (if they really had their claimed 6.5m unique monthly readers), high availability, someone who wants to maintain security updates on Wordpress, etc. Oh and what about another sysadmin when the first wants to go on vacation.

      And we haven't even discussed hosting costs beyond that.

    3. Re:Well there's your problem right there... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bullshit. Do you work for a web hoster by any chance?

      I've got 4m uniques a month who consume 120 million page views, as measured by Google Analytics. You really overestimate the complexity of this task in this day and age. Of my 3 IT resources, maybe 10% of our time is on CMS/server maintenance. The rest of our time is devoted to trialing new projects, which any media company needs to be doing anyway if they plan to be around in five years. We spend around 250EUR a month on AWS. We're even a Drupal shop, which is harder to maintain than WordPress in pretty much every way. So yeah, a tech media wasting an FTE on WP pro is idiotic.

  15. TechCrunch for Hipsters closes shop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hipsters are a very disloyal target audience, from one moment to another they jump to the other hype.

    1. Re:TechCrunch for Hipsters closes shop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hipsters are a very disloyal target audience, from one moment to another they jump to the other hype.

      And we already have BGR, Ars and The Verge

  16. John Gruber sums it up. by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 1

    This surprised me. Then I thought about it, searched my entries in Movable Type, and realized Iâ(TM)ve only linked to Gigaom once in the last six months, and four times in the last 12 months. I used to link to reporting at Gigaom a couple of times every month. Theyâ(TM)ve been going downhill for a while.

    Source

    Om Malik's a good writer. Looks like the site shit itself after he left to work for Apple

    --
    Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  17. Another Dice? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Were they another Dice? You know, a company that specialized in buying a much-loved internet property and then destroying it by alienating the community that had grown up around it?

  18. founder stepped away from the biz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the founder of gigaom has been a guest several times on Leo Laporte's This Week in Tech podcast. He seemed to be smart but I was never impressed enough to seek out his site. A few months ago he announced that he was stepping away from the site to pursue other interests. Not surprised they shut down.

  19. recently at this time by edittard · · Score: 1

    Recently or at this time? Make your mind up.

    --
    At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
    1. Re:recently at this time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No contradiction.

      Recently = "We were cruising along, everyone was happy, planning the next company outing, til suddenly a couple weeks ago..."

      At this time = "Keep wishing, and hoping, and keep your fingers crossed, and don't lose faith, 'cuz we're trying..."

  20. They're the makers of "Ghostery" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's a shame this submission is so poorly written. I use one of Gigaom's products every single day, and even *I* didn't know what the heck this article was talking about.

    Gigaom make (er, made) Ghostery. I know it as the free Firefox add-in for blocking cookies, 1x1 pixels, and miscellaneous trackers from known advertising sites. It had a feature in which its "evil advertiser" definitions were updated regularly just like antivirus definitions.

    I'll be sad to see it go, as I don't immediately know of a suitable replacement. "Disconnect" looks promising, but I haven't tried it.

    1. Re:They're the makers of "Ghostery" by Pope+Hagbard · · Score: 1

      I like Privacy Badger myself. Instead of having a blocklist it uses behavior-based heuristics.

    2. Re:They're the makers of "Ghostery" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Bullshit.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostery
      Ghostery is a proprietary (but free of charge) privacy-related browser extension for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Apple Safari owned by the advertising and privacy technology company Ghostery, Inc. (formerly Evidon).

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigaom
      Gigaom was a blog-related media company started by Om Malik in San Francisco, California. The blog offered news, analysis, and opinions on startups, emerging technologies, and other technology related topics. It is listed on CNET's Blog 100 list.

    3. Re:They're the makers of "Ghostery" by Cederic · · Score: 1

      plus, badgers.

  21. NOOOOO! by genner · · Score: 1

    ....wait what's a Gigaom anyway?

    1. Re:NOOOOO! by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      A really big resistance.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  22. Sad sate of things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    First, thanks Slashdot for doing your usual - I have no idea what this website is. I go to the Gigaom and see it's nothing but a ugly huge oversized content farm with your usual tech article fluff garbage like infoworld or the like. Good fucking riddance, when is the bubble gonna burst already. Who the fuck would "invest" in such a site as Gigaom. You write a bunch crap fluff tech articles, cram them into a huge bloated, clunky "tablet first" interface and surround them with clickbait and flash ads. That's a recipe for a success, yay!

    1. Re:Sad sate of things by azav · · Score: 1

      Agreed. It looked like shit and didn't feel legit.

      --
      - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
  23. Tech Bubble 2.0 is bursting! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sell your stocks now!

  24. The name by azav · · Score: 1

    The name, Gigaom, just seemed like another bullshit made up name just so that they could play in the market. It seemed disingenuous and shady from the get go and nothing I saw on it gave links to substantial reputable information to give it legitimacy.

    --
    - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
  25. What is GigaOm really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow, I didn't know there were so many uninformed opinionated idiots on Slashdot until right now. Having actually paid for and used the service, i can say it was worth it, but then again, I'm not 19 years old living at home and posting stupid shit I know nothing about on slashdot daily. *smh*

  26. $22M Raised. by enter+to+exit · · Score: 1

    This site that "no one has has ever heard of" managed to squeeze out $22M in VC money. It was a navel-gazing site for silicon valley that made it's money through subscriptions to exclusive content and ads.

  27. Blind Headlines by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 1

    In newspaper publishing, what Slashdot and Dice Holdings management writes are called "Blind Headlines". You can't know whether you want to read the story until you have read the story.