4 ms·

Guy Kawasaki launches Alltop, an "online magazine rack"

19 points by nonrecursive 19y ago

Announcement here http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/03/announcing-form.html

henning 19y ago
It looks like a made for adsense site created by a spammer who buys thousands of domains a day.
- nonrecursive 19y ago
  What do you think would help it look more legitimate? It seems to me like it would be hard to make a site like this - a collection of links - look otherwise while still keeping the simple, spare look.
  - henning 19y ago
    Having a non-generic slogan/tagline would help. MFA sites often have a meaningless slogan on them like "when you need it, you need it". Clearly identifying what the site is the way reddit does would also help. Make it look like it's not autogenerated by a script. How about a link to a blog or something?
  - foonamefoo 19y ago
    Oh I don't know, maybe abstain from having an SEO category right on the front page?
- hernan7 19y ago
  I wouldn't describe the site so harshly, but a little bit of the human touch would make a big improvement. Right now you have 40 or so links on the home page, each one leading to a sub-site with 50 sections or so, totaling ~300 links that look awfully machine-generated (scraped from RSS feeds?). When browsing a magazine rack each cover is a little work of (usually bad) art. The title tags in an RSS feed are nothing like that -- maybe RSS feeds should be more magazine cover-like?
- jsmcgd 19y ago
  If I stumbled across it on the net I wouldn't assume it was made by a spammer. I think form follows function beautifully.
- xirium 19y ago
  It looks really spammy, which is surprising because the site was designed by Electric Pulp, which was recommended on this forum ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=134715 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=134715 ).
daniel-cussen 19y ago
What happened to trumors? Is that still going?
andr 19y ago
This doesn't run on PHP, it runs on ego.
- nonrecursive 19y ago
  There's been plenty of valid criticism directed at Guy here at news.yc (for example, he gives startup advice but hasn't had a successful startup of his own), but I really don't think he has a large ego. In fact, what I like most about his presentations, interviews, and moderatorships is that he's always poking fun at himself. He always mentions his stupid mistakes in a way that's funny and endearing. I've also emailed him personally a couple times and he answered the email himself, which is not a characteristic of someone with a delusional sense of his own importance.
  - reitzensteinm 19y ago
    He's also quite up front about having no successful startup, at least in two interviews I've listened to (he brings it up without being asked directly).
stillmotion 19y ago
I thought he launched this months ago? Correct me if I'm wrong.
- nonrecursive 19y ago
  the "formal" announcement was today: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/03/announcing-form.html http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/03/announcing-form.html
redrory 19y ago
Am I the only one, that actually likes it :)
- pistoriusp 19y ago
  I like it too.
deleted 19y ago
[deleted]
kingkongrevenge 19y ago
A good idea: an index of RSS feeds cataloged by subject and selected by an editor with good taste. (The recommendation engines and delicious just can't substitute for an editor.) Too bad this site isn't about RSS feeds and it isn't discerning enough.
earle 19y ago
how is a random selection of links from categorized topics from Hacker News, or Digg, or Reddit, thrown on one page any different? this seems like a big waste of mind-ffff-space to me.
myoung8 19y ago
I gave the site a whirl, but my main problem is that it just aggravates information overload. There are way too many headlines to scan through and most of them don't appeal to me. I like the concept of an auto-generated RSS aggregator for the masses that can't create their own, but I think the user should have some input (i.e. ask them their preferences before-hand) in order to reduce the sheer number of articles on each page.
KB 19y ago
Its simply http://originalsignal.com http://originalsignal.com sans technology articles. Not that clever or ground breaking really.
deleted 19y ago
[deleted]
symptic 19y ago
I think once Sea Dragon becomes a viable technology to use on sites, something like AllTop might be of great value if it could directly display the content (each page) in the listings. Demo: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129 http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129
Goronmon 19y ago
I like the site. Requires no setup. No third-party tools to track feeds. Just go to the site, pick a topic and start browsing. Sure, it's not something built for tech-saavy users who want to customize their own RSS feeds, but the majority of internet users don't fall into this category anyways.
freikwcs 19y ago
I'll show you an online magazine rack

19 points by nonrecursive 19y ago

Announcement here http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/03/announcing-form.html

henning 19y ago

It looks like a made for adsense site created by a spammer who buys thousands of domains a day.

nonrecursive 19y ago
What do you think would help it look more legitimate? It seems to me like it would be hard to make a site like this - a collection of links - look otherwise while still keeping the simple, spare look.
- henning 19y ago
  Having a non-generic slogan/tagline would help. MFA sites often have a meaningless slogan on them like "when you need it, you need it". Clearly identifying what the site is the way reddit does would also help. Make it look like it's not autogenerated by a script. How about a link to a blog or something?
- foonamefoo 19y ago
  Oh I don't know, maybe abstain from having an SEO category right on the front page?
hernan7 19y ago
I wouldn't describe the site so harshly, but a little bit of the human touch would make a big improvement. Right now you have 40 or so links on the home page, each one leading to a sub-site with 50 sections or so, totaling ~300 links that look awfully machine-generated (scraped from RSS feeds?). When browsing a magazine rack each cover is a little work of (usually bad) art. The title tags in an RSS feed are nothing like that -- maybe RSS feeds should be more magazine cover-like?
jsmcgd 19y ago
If I stumbled across it on the net I wouldn't assume it was made by a spammer. I think form follows function beautifully.
xirium 19y ago
It looks really spammy, which is surprising because the site was designed by Electric Pulp, which was recommended on this forum ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=134715 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=134715 ).

daniel-cussen 19y ago

What happened to trumors? Is that still going?

andr 19y ago

This doesn't run on PHP, it runs on ego.

nonrecursive 19y ago
There's been plenty of valid criticism directed at Guy here at news.yc (for example, he gives startup advice but hasn't had a successful startup of his own), but I really don't think he has a large ego. In fact, what I like most about his presentations, interviews, and moderatorships is that he's always poking fun at himself. He always mentions his stupid mistakes in a way that's funny and endearing. I've also emailed him personally a couple times and he answered the email himself, which is not a characteristic of someone with a delusional sense of his own importance.
- reitzensteinm 19y ago
  He's also quite up front about having no successful startup, at least in two interviews I've listened to (he brings it up without being asked directly).

stillmotion 19y ago

I thought he launched this months ago? Correct me if I'm wrong.

nonrecursive 19y ago
the "formal" announcement was today: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/03/announcing-form.html http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/03/announcing-form.html

redrory 19y ago

Am I the only one, that actually likes it :)

pistoriusp 19y ago
I like it too.

deleted 19y ago

[deleted]

kingkongrevenge 19y ago

A good idea: an index of RSS feeds cataloged by subject and selected by an editor with good taste. (The recommendation engines and delicious just can't substitute for an editor.) Too bad this site isn't about RSS feeds and it isn't discerning enough.

earle 19y ago

how is a random selection of links from categorized topics from Hacker News, or Digg, or Reddit, thrown on one page any different? this seems like a big waste of mind-ffff-space to me.

myoung8 19y ago

I gave the site a whirl, but my main problem is that it just aggravates information overload. There are way too many headlines to scan through and most of them don't appeal to me. I like the concept of an auto-generated RSS aggregator for the masses that can't create their own, but I think the user should have some input (i.e. ask them their preferences before-hand) in order to reduce the sheer number of articles on each page.

KB 19y ago

Its simply http://originalsignal.com http://originalsignal.com sans technology articles. Not that clever or ground breaking really.

deleted 19y ago

[deleted]

symptic 19y ago

I think once Sea Dragon becomes a viable technology to use on sites, something like AllTop might be of great value if it could directly display the content (each page) in the listings. Demo: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129 http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129

Goronmon 19y ago

I like the site. Requires no setup. No third-party tools to track feeds. Just go to the site, pick a topic and start browsing. Sure, it's not something built for tech-saavy users who want to customize their own RSS feeds, but the majority of internet users don't fall into this category anyways.

freikwcs 19y ago

I'll show you an online magazine rack