7 ms·

This seems like a great opportunity for Google to "donate" some senior talent to the project, blow this up into a fully functioning platform (optionally backed

by andreyf 16y ago

This seems like a great opportunity for Google to "donate" some senior talent to the project, blow this up into a fully functioning platform (optionally backed up on Google's servers), and one-punch KO Facebook.

hyperbovine 16y ago
and one-punch KO Facebook Wha? A bunch of geeks living in the echo chamber are pissed about a privacy issue, so they all cruise over to a geeky website, and toss in $20 of their geek-inflated disposable income, to a vaporware project whose popularity is mostly due to politics. Meanwhile, in the time it took me to write this, ten million people logged in to Facebook. Methinks a little perspective is in order here.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  Exactly. All this amounts to at this stage is a signal to facebook. A powerful signal, absolutely. But not by any stretch of the imagination a threat. If they deliver somewhere in the fall and if it starts to draw significant traffic and if they don't have a big security breach themselves, and if there is no falling out between the four founders then they might be a contender. But that's a lot of ifs.
  - rick_2047 16y ago
    I was just wondering is the 100k worth the powerful signal.
    - jacquesm 16y ago
      > I was just wondering is the 100k worth the powerful signal. Don't you mean the opposite?
      - rick_2047 16y ago
        No I don't. Not many people care about there privacy (otherwise facebook would have been bust). And even if they had pledged 200% or 300% that would have been enough to send a strong signal but 1088% of pledging is just not right. There could have been so much more done with the other 80k. So many other things need money.
        jacquesm 16y ago
        Ah, I get you now, sorry. I don't know if it is not 'right', the signal function would have been just as strong if they would have set their original goal at $100K and people would have sent them that much $. In some ways the $amount is a value that collapses a number of underlying elements to a single number, the amount of frustration around facebook privacy, the people that simply wish these kids luck and there are a number of people that hate facebook enough to put up a substantial amount of $. Which portion of that $100K ($109K already, $4500 per hour right now) comes from the 'signal' portion is hard to tell.
derwiki 16y ago
I really doubt it would be that easy to KO Facebook. Remember Orkut? Google is great at a lot of things, but building online communities is not one of them. Also, as has been pointed out in other discussions: most Facebook users don't care and aren't going to leave unless there's a compelling reason. A lot of their photos are already locked into Facebook -- it's going to take a lot to show them a greener pasture, and I doubt "better privacy" is going to be one of them.
- BoppreH 16y ago
  Orkut is just not popular in your country. Here in Brazil it wasn't until last year that people started even knowing what Facebook/Myspace is. The social rule around here is Orkut + MSN Messenger. Unfortunately it led to a wave of "@hotmail" emails, but that's another thing.
  - derwiki 16y ago
    I'm not saying Orkut isn't popular anywhere, but by any metric it's not as popular as Facebook is globally.
    - BoppreH 16y ago
      It's just that your "Remember Orkut?" remark made it sound like it wasn't even around anymore.
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    Here in the Netherlands we have 'hyves', and until last year 'hyves' was pretty much 'it'. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/hyves.nl http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/hyves.nl says it all.
nirai 16y ago
Why would Google "donate" senior talent to a project which at this point is basically just some videos and badly designed logos for download? Comments here are as insane as the amount of money these guys collected.
- canadaduane 16y ago
  Success is an outlier outcome achieved by people who are initially indistinguishable from the insane.
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    That is just plain poetic. Did you come up with that yourself ?
    - canadaduane 16y ago
      I'm glad it's "plain poetic" and not "plain pathetic" (as I initially read that sentence!) Thanks. Yes, it's my own.
      - jacquesm 16y ago
        Ok, neat. I've passed it on to DanielBMarkham for inclusion in his quotes library.
ErrantX 16y ago
Google provides for consumers. From the spec of this project it is an interesting idea - but I don't think it will be a consumer project/site/resource like Facebook is (i.e. it won't pass the "dumb blonde" test). (on the other hand there may be some interesting technical ideas they would find useful - so perhaps from that perspective...)

by andreyf 16y ago

hyperbovine 16y ago

and one-punch KO Facebook Wha? A bunch of geeks living in the echo chamber are pissed about a privacy issue, so they all cruise over to a geeky website, and toss in $20 of their geek-inflated disposable income, to a vaporware project whose popularity is mostly due to politics. Meanwhile, in the time it took me to write this, ten million people logged in to Facebook. Methinks a little perspective is in order here.

jacquesm 16y ago
Exactly. All this amounts to at this stage is a signal to facebook. A powerful signal, absolutely. But not by any stretch of the imagination a threat. If they deliver somewhere in the fall and if it starts to draw significant traffic and if they don't have a big security breach themselves, and if there is no falling out between the four founders then they might be a contender. But that's a lot of ifs.
- rick_2047 16y ago
  I was just wondering is the 100k worth the powerful signal.
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    > I was just wondering is the 100k worth the powerful signal. Don't you mean the opposite?
    - rick_2047 16y ago
      No I don't. Not many people care about there privacy (otherwise facebook would have been bust). And even if they had pledged 200% or 300% that would have been enough to send a strong signal but 1088% of pledging is just not right. There could have been so much more done with the other 80k. So many other things need money.
      - jacquesm 16y ago
        Ah, I get you now, sorry. I don't know if it is not 'right', the signal function would have been just as strong if they would have set their original goal at $100K and people would have sent them that much $. In some ways the $amount is a value that collapses a number of underlying elements to a single number, the amount of frustration around facebook privacy, the people that simply wish these kids luck and there are a number of people that hate facebook enough to put up a substantial amount of $. Which portion of that $100K ($109K already, $4500 per hour right now) comes from the 'signal' portion is hard to tell.

derwiki 16y ago

I really doubt it would be that easy to KO Facebook. Remember Orkut? Google is great at a lot of things, but building online communities is not one of them. Also, as has been pointed out in other discussions: most Facebook users don't care and aren't going to leave unless there's a compelling reason. A lot of their photos are already locked into Facebook -- it's going to take a lot to show them a greener pasture, and I doubt "better privacy" is going to be one of them.

BoppreH 16y ago
Orkut is just not popular in your country. Here in Brazil it wasn't until last year that people started even knowing what Facebook/Myspace is. The social rule around here is Orkut + MSN Messenger. Unfortunately it led to a wave of "@hotmail" emails, but that's another thing.
- derwiki 16y ago
  I'm not saying Orkut isn't popular anywhere, but by any metric it's not as popular as Facebook is globally.
  - BoppreH 16y ago
    It's just that your "Remember Orkut?" remark made it sound like it wasn't even around anymore.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  Here in the Netherlands we have 'hyves', and until last year 'hyves' was pretty much 'it'. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/hyves.nl http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/hyves.nl says it all.

nirai 16y ago

Why would Google "donate" senior talent to a project which at this point is basically just some videos and badly designed logos for download? Comments here are as insane as the amount of money these guys collected.

canadaduane 16y ago
Success is an outlier outcome achieved by people who are initially indistinguishable from the insane.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  That is just plain poetic. Did you come up with that yourself ?
  - canadaduane 16y ago
    I'm glad it's "plain poetic" and not "plain pathetic" (as I initially read that sentence!) Thanks. Yes, it's my own.
    - jacquesm 16y ago
      Ok, neat. I've passed it on to DanielBMarkham for inclusion in his quotes library.

ErrantX 16y ago

Google provides for consumers. From the spec of this project it is an interesting idea - but I don't think it will be a consumer project/site/resource like Facebook is (i.e. it won't pass the "dumb blonde" test). (on the other hand there may be some interesting technical ideas they would find useful - so perhaps from that perspective...)