Mark Evans

The Pain of Being Down and Out

A necessary evil for many online businesses is having service outages so they can perform scheduled maintenance. For most companies, this is pretty dull stuff that few, if anyone, notices.

There are times, however, when routine maintenance is far from routine. Twitter discovered this the hard way earlier this week when scheduled maintenance to upgrade its infrastructure went terribly astray. In the process, Twitter’s goodwill took a major hit at a time when it is starting to be embraced as the hot new communications tool.

Whether Twitter fell victim to its own success or simply was unprepared is neither here nor there, although Twitter’s hosting provider, Joyent, has been released of its duties.

More important is how Twitter handled the maintenance crisis. Truth be told, it didn’t do well - leaving many users extremely, well, pissed. (Here’s a we’re-really-sorry blog post by Twitter’s Evan Williams.)

Twitter may have failed another major goodwill test but few companies really handle unexpected service outages well. Another example is Performancing Metrics, which saw a 24-hour maintenance cycle last nearly four days.

It wasn’t so much that the online statistics service was down as much as the cavalier attitude the company seemed to have for its customers. After the 24 hour-perod expired, there were no apologies, no offers to make up for it in some way, no detailed explanation about what happened. Not impressive.

There’s no lack of competition in every online market. Customers can empathize when things stop working. But if they happen too often or without a company being straightforward about what’s happening, you can lose goodwill and customers pretty quickly.

More: VentureBeat talks about how Twitter’s problems are impacting other Twitter-related companies, while Dave Winer wonders why Twitter keeps going down. TechCrunch has an intriguing post that Twitter’s problems may be linked to a move to a new host called Verio, which is owned by Japan’s NTT, which could be making an investment in Twitter.

Technorati Tags: Performancing, Twitter

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InstaPaper: A Stroke of Bookmarking Brilliance

It’s not that often these days that an online service jumps out and demands to be embraced but Instapaper is a pleasant exception to the rule.

Instapaper is a simple tool that lets you “bookmark” articles, blog posts, etc. that you find interesting but want to read later. After dragging a booklet widget to your browser, you simply hit the “Read Later” button when you run across something good, and a link gets sent to your Instapaper home.

Before installing Instapaper a couple of days ago, I used two methods to handle things that I wanted to read later - I would either bookmark them in del.icio.us or save multiple tabs in Firefox. The problem with del.icio.us is I never actually went back to read any of the articles, while keeping 20 Firefox tabs open all the time is a waste of resources.

Instapaper is one of those online services that should be enthusiastically adopted because it fills a need in a simple, elegant way. Congrats to developer Marco Arment, who works at Tumblr, for this stroke of brilliance.

For more views on Instapaper, check out Paris Lemon, who calls it a “beautifully simple bookmarking tool”, while TechCrunch describes it as a “cool new service taking bookmarks back to basics”.

Technorati Tags: Bookmarks, Instapaper, Marco Arment, puppy

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Taking Twitter Seriously

Twitter can be easily dismissed as IM-Lite or a tool for people with short attention spans but, interestingly enough, it is also starting to gain traction as a serious communications tool for people to communicate about serious stuff…like politics.

ReadWriteWrite’s Josh Catone has a great post looking at Twitter’s pros and cons, and how it is started to be used even by the mainstream media to distribute content in a quick and efficient manner.

There’s no doubt Twitter has come a long way in a short period of time while its status and image has been upgraded from toy to tool.

The next interesting development will be whether Twitter can take the leap from being a tool used by a small, enthusiastic group of tech-savvy people to the mainstream. At some point will Twitter become as ubiquitous as blogging? Remember, it was only a couple of years ago that blogging was a pretty niche-y activity, while today everyone’s got one.

Another thing to look for is how the Twitter ecosystem will follow in the wake of Twitter’s growing popularity. There’s already demand for plug-ins that will make Twitter more effective and useful. If this area flourishes, it will provide Twitter will another push into the mainstream.

For more, check out techPresident, which suggests “Twitter could be the breakout technology tool of Election 2008″.

More: Speaking of Twitter and politics, the next big test for the platform (technology as opposed to political) is Feb. 5 when Super Tuesday happens. Let’s see how Twitter fares with all the political types pounding out messages as 24 U.S. states hold presidential primaries.

Technorati Tags: Twitter

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Would You Pay for Online Applications?

A few days ago, CenterNetworks asked whether anyone would pay $1/month to subscribe to an RSS feed or, perhaps, $4.95 for a package of 10 feeds.

Not surprisingly, the response was unenthusiastic. With so much content being pumped out every day, how many blogs are worth $1 - especially when many people are reluctant to pay for “professional” editorial content from the New York Times, Wall St. Journal, et al.

But what about online applications, particularly those you use on a regular basis? Would you pay $1 to $2/month to use Google Reader, for example. What about Wordpress? After raising $29.5-million, Wordpress will probably be looking to create new sources of revenue, so would you balk if they instituted a $1/month service fee for something you use every day?

What about $3/month for a package that included Wordpress, Google Reader, del.icio.us, Google Docs, Facebook and Twitter?

And what about one-time fees? Earlier this week, I was looking for a way to convert a Word document into a PDF. After a quick search, I found PDFOnline, which offers a free conversion service. It worked so well that I would have gladly paid 50 cents or $1 if it was required.

Unfortunately, there are probably few people would actually pay for online applications, even if they really liked them. We live in a world of free with the idea of freemium (the concept of paying for premium services) looming in the background but sadly ignored.

At this point in the game, getting people to change their behavior would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, unless many of the major service providers (Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, etc.) got together and decided free wasn’t working any more. Of course, this scheme would quickly stop working as opportunistic players offered free services.

Still, you have to wonder an ad-supported service marketplace can continue to stay vibrant. Sure, development and server costs have dropped dramatically but there’s no such thing as a free lunch any more right?

Technorati Tags: del.icio.us, Facebook, Google Reader, Twitter, Wordpress

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DEMO, Alright Already

DEMO has barely started but the incessant coverage of every single development has already become aggravating - and there’s still another day to go.

It’s like the blogosphere feels compels to cover this conference the same way that reporters are covering the Super Bowl, which coincidently happens just 260 miles away this Sunday in Phoenix.

Don’t get me wrong, DEMO is a pretty impressive event and an even more impressive business but the coverage is heavily reactionary - e.g. “Oh my god, isn’t this service/product super-duper cool” - as opposed to offering some insight into what need the service/product is actually trying to meet, the competitive landscape, etc.

And let’s be honest, how many absolutely new stories are coming out of DEMO anyway? Sure, there’s some news (e.g. Standout Jobs announcing a $2-million financing) but most of the companies presenting have already been noticed and covered.

There, rant over. I feel much better.

Update: If you really need a DEMO fix, check out AppScout, which is rating the companies doing presentations.

Technorati Tags: DEMO

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Automattic’s Aggressive Ambitions

Hot on the heels of snagging $29.5-million in venture capital, Automattic made another announcement - this time unveiling a Twitter-like service called Prologue in which Wordpress users can exchange short, Twitter-like messages.

Matt Mullenweg claims Automattic isn’t going after Twitter but that’s just his Texas charm at work because it’s increasingly difficult not to get the idea Automattic has big strategic plans that are just starting to emerge.

For one, Wordpress has much more potential than just being a blog publishing tool or even a content management platform. There’s been a lot of talk about it becoming a social networking platform with all kinds of applications bolted on to it. Now, that’s a lot more exciting than being confined to blogging.

With 2.2 million blogs hosted on Wordpress.com, 114 million global uniques and 482 million page views overall, Wordpress has tremendous reach and a great brand, which sets the stage for Automattic to start leveraging its market position.

In the scheme of things, Prologue is a relatively minor strategic foray - call it a trial balloon to see if Automattic can gain some traction with developers. My sense is there’s much more ambitious and interesting things around the corner - maybe some acquisitions, maybe the launch of an advertising network, maybe some social networking tools. All I know is Automattic isn’t using the entire $29.5-million to buy servers.

More: Like me, CenterNetworks wonders if Prologue “could be a game changer”, while Venture Beat suggests Wordpress could become an open platform.

Technorati Tags: Automattic, Matt Mullenweg, Prologue, Twitter

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Congrats, Standout Jobs!

A quick congratulations to Montreal-based Standout Jobs, which just unveiled a $2-million financing from iNovia Capital.

It’s great to see early-stage Canadian start-ups attract growth equity. Standout Jobs, which is developing a video-based recruiting tool, is having a big week as it’s also presenting at DEMO 08 on Wednesday.

Technorati Tags: Standout Jobs

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The Twitter Ecosystem’s Spark

For those of you into Twitter, Tweetmeme might become another must-use tool.

Much like Techmeme analyzes and aggregates the most popular/active blog conversation, Tweetmeme does the same for Twitter.

If it lives up to its potential, Tweetmeme might just be the service that single-handedly sparks an explosion in the Twitter development community.

This isn’t to diss the growing number of Twitter-related services out there but if something emerges that captures the attention of content consumers and the imagination of developers, Twitter could become a far more interesting landscape.

(Hat tip to TechCrunch).

More thoughts: It stuck me that one thing I don’t particularly like about Tweetmeme and Hashtags, for that matter, is they follow many conversations, which is the whole point. That said, I like Twitter because you can control the number and type of conversations.

Technorati Tags: Tweetmeme, Twitter

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How Important is Web Design?

Yet another way to ruin your productivity: Web Hot or Not - a place where you can judge the appearance of Web sites. If the concept sounds familiar, it’s similar to Hot or Not where you can vote on whether someone’s physical appearance appeals to your aesthetic criteria (or something like that).

WHON may be just for fun but an interesting aspect is how WHON will put the spotlight on Web design and what kind of feedback it will be able to offer.

Look at it this way: companies spend huge amounts of time and money working with designers to come up with a very subjective product - someone can love a design while others can hate it. If Web Hot or Not is more than just entertainment, it may be able to come up with rules on what the masses actually like when it comes to Web design. Maybe there’s an ancillary business here…or maybe not but it’s an interesting concept for a start-up that seems so simplistic.

The other question is whether Web design matters at all. At the end of the day, a Web site is going to be successful if it offers a product/service that people want. Aidan Henry had a good post recently looking at Craigslist, which features one of the worst designs in the world - yet people love the service. Even with a minor makeover - provided by a panel at SXSW 2006 - Craigslist would be a lot more user-friendly but would it really make a difference in its popularity?

Another example is Wikipedia, which has a sparse, no-frills design but has no lack of people who love it. What difference would it make it Wikipedia decided to embrace a new design? And why even do it given you don’t hear many people say “I love Wikipedia but the design sucks”. (Then again, there are rumors of a Wikipedia redesign based on what Allen Stern (aka CenterNetworks) saw last week.)

I’m clearly not a Web design expert but I do know that compelling looking Web sites are difficult to create….but not nearly as much of a challenge to build as compelling online services.

(Note: I would add that Web design is becoming increasingly irrelevant to many bloggers given the popularity of RSS means more people never visit a blog)

For more on Web Hot or Not, check out ParisLemon, who’s excited about the comment feature, and Mashable, which asks if Web Hot or Not’s ratings could someone be incorporated into Technorati. TechCrunch points out there are similar sites to Web Hot or Not already in existence, including CommandShift3.

Note: This post was updated after Martin Varsavsky made it clear that Web Hot or Not is a spoof site created by FON Labs following a conversation he and Sifry had.

Technorati Tags: David Sifry, Technorati

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Facebook’s Strategic Volatility

Isn’t it strange that Facebook can do something so smart (releasing a JavaScript client so you can host a FB application on other Web sites) yet stumble so badly with a key strategic initiative (Beacon).

I can understand all the excitement (Mr. Blodget describes it as “another brilliant move”) about the Javascript announcement but, frankly, Beacon is/was far more important because it was/is going to be a cornerstone of how Facebook makes revenue and, in the process, help justify its $15-billion valuation.

You really have to wonder how Facebook screwed up so badly with Beacon.

It may be that Facebook is still a technology-driven company trying to become a business. Or it could be that Facebook is still trying to find its way strategically as the social networking market evolves so strategic stumbles will happen along the way.

The big question is whether it can find a business model that works for users and advertisers. Clearly, the first iteration of Beacon missed the mark. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has admitted mistakes were made, so we’ll see if the company has learned its lessons and can reload successfully.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Web 2.0

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