5 ms·

Color: Breathlessly Overhyped Piece of Crap

36 points by danilocampos 16y ago

zoowar 16y ago
If you invited me over for diner and then pulled out a photo album, I would leave. The concept is cool, but photo sharing is over hyped.
- wallflower 16y ago
  Is photo sharing this generation's equivalent of the mandatory family Kodachrome slide show?
  - zachrose 16y ago
    It's not a wheel. It's a carousel.
    - BoppreH 16y ago
      Quote from the scene http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2bLNkCqpuY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2bLNkCqpuY An example of perfect marketing.
- mhb 16y ago
  That's what also struck me. I already have thousands of photos that I don't look at - both hardcopy and on a hard drive.
danilocampos 16y ago
I'm reminded of the nerd response to iPad. I don't have a dog in the hunt, but the idea behind Color is interesting. It could crash and burn but I'll reserve judgment until I see normal people (non-nerds) engaging with it. Meanwhile, the vehemence is weird from everyone, especially Gruber. I wonder if he would have posted the same entry if Color had a Lonely Sandwich video.
- tptacek 16y ago
  The iPad is a computer that, as far as my mom is concerned, you never have to boot, don't have to think about the operating system on, don't require peripherals for, can stick in your purse, can tap 3-4 times to get install any of 10's of thousands of applications, can tap 3-4 times to install any of thousands of movies and TV shows on, and costs half of what a cheap laptop cost only recently. Can you inform me of the obvious potential of "Color" that I'm missing? Because I also seriously don't get it. And: I like Instagram. But I don't think it's the future or anything. (Yes. They would have dodged this Daring Fireball post if Adam Lisagor had done a video for them.)
  - ghshephard 16y ago
    It took me over a year before I "got" twitter. Now it would be hard to see how I could replace it - tracking outages, ongoing event updates, what my friends are up to, revolutions in Egypt - Heck, our company's public feed is actually the best way for me to track what's happening at our company than our internal mailing lists. Of course, it remains to be seen whether there's any money in it. Everyone I know uses AIM - but I don't know if AOL has ever been able to monetize that. Regarding Color - I'll give it a bit of time, and see what I think after I go to an event with groups of friends, and see what happens when we (and others) are taking pictures.
    - tptacek 16y ago
      "Sounds like the nerd response to Twitter" is a pretty compelling restatement of the parent's point. Thanks.
    - Lewisham 16y ago
      This is a fair point, and one I hadn't considered. Bravo! But, getting Twitter doesn't mean Twitter pre-any-users-at-all was worth investing $41m at a possible $80m valuation. It might still not be, as it has no business plan to speak of. I guess I'm naive, but I usually apply the "can (Facebook|Google|Big Company of the Decade) copy this quickly?" as a measure for the value of a service, but then again, it doesn't seem to apply for Place checkins (neither Facebook nor Google seem to have made too much traction against FourSquare) nor GroupOn. I guess that's why I'm not an investor :)
wallflower 16y ago
I'm fascinated by this Photo-Sharing-is-tip-of-the-iceberg tidbit: "A few feats of engineering brilliance hide under Color's slick surface. How does the app determine who's in the same room with you? Not with GPS, which is flummoxed by floors because it can't distinguish vertical distances between people. So Nguyen's team taught Color to use a phone's lighting and audio sensors, stitching their signals together with the sound and light environments of nearby devices to determine which user is where--it's almost like a bat's senses." http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0411/technology-photo-app-nguyen-color-sequoia-eyes-of-world.html http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0411/technology-photo-app-...
- tptacek 16y ago
  So... it's the great photo sharing app of all time, then? Um, ok? $41MM? When's the last time you had even the faintest urge to share a photo? I'm a geek, and that urge hits maybe once every other week.
  - neutronicus 16y ago
    It's like Foursquare/Facebook where you have to opt out of publicizing your entire life. I suppose advertisers (the FBI?) are drooling over the possibilities, and that's probably what fuels the investment more than user excitement. Also, "everyone who was at the bar last night automatically sees the pictures (without any pesky 'publish' button or other form of 'opting in')" may be a more compelling user story than you give it credit for.
    - ZeroGravitas 16y ago
      I'm looking forward to all the "Fired/Divorced for Facebook/Twitter comments" equivalents that result from photos taken by other people you were in the same bar as turning up in your friends, family, spouses and bosses photostreams.
  - haploid 16y ago
    I think you vastly underestimate the driving compulsion of millions of attention whores to get random men to tell them how hot they are by virtue of myspace angles and flattering lighting.
joezydeco 16y ago
So let's call Color the Rebecca Black of Web 2.0. Too immature, too early to tell, too much attention out of nowhere, too much momentum for too little effort. But it looks good, right?
- Darryl_Sirt 16y ago
  Rebecca Black has waaay more traction
- konop 16y ago
  Rebecca Black is already profitable...
  - joezydeco 16y ago
    Nice one.
- kgptv22 16y ago
  Or the Miami Heat of Web 2.0...
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- GregKrajewski 16y ago
  I am betting money there will be a "Double Rainbow" parody video made with Sequoia execs seeing "color" for the 1st time.
mc2k 16y ago
Could this be an "old boys' network" type of deal? Investing in it because one of their other established investments is in line to purchase it? Is something like that allowed? If it is, presumably it happens regularly.
vamsee 16y ago
And his opinion is important why?

36 points by danilocampos 16y ago

If you invited me over for diner and then pulled out a photo album, I would leave. The concept is cool, but photo sharing is over hyped.

wallflower 16y ago
Is photo sharing this generation's equivalent of the mandatory family Kodachrome slide show?
- zachrose 16y ago
  It's not a wheel. It's a carousel.
  - BoppreH 16y ago
    Quote from the scene http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2bLNkCqpuY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2bLNkCqpuY An example of perfect marketing.
mhb 16y ago
That's what also struck me. I already have thousands of photos that I don't look at - both hardcopy and on a hard drive.

danilocampos 16y ago

I'm reminded of the nerd response to iPad. I don't have a dog in the hunt, but the idea behind Color is interesting. It could crash and burn but I'll reserve judgment until I see normal people (non-nerds) engaging with it. Meanwhile, the vehemence is weird from everyone, especially Gruber. I wonder if he would have posted the same entry if Color had a Lonely Sandwich video.

tptacek 16y ago
The iPad is a computer that, as far as my mom is concerned, you never have to boot, don't have to think about the operating system on, don't require peripherals for, can stick in your purse, can tap 3-4 times to get install any of 10's of thousands of applications, can tap 3-4 times to install any of thousands of movies and TV shows on, and costs half of what a cheap laptop cost only recently. Can you inform me of the obvious potential of "Color" that I'm missing? Because I also seriously don't get it. And: I like Instagram. But I don't think it's the future or anything. (Yes. They would have dodged this Daring Fireball post if Adam Lisagor had done a video for them.)
- ghshephard 16y ago
  It took me over a year before I "got" twitter. Now it would be hard to see how I could replace it - tracking outages, ongoing event updates, what my friends are up to, revolutions in Egypt - Heck, our company's public feed is actually the best way for me to track what's happening at our company than our internal mailing lists. Of course, it remains to be seen whether there's any money in it. Everyone I know uses AIM - but I don't know if AOL has ever been able to monetize that. Regarding Color - I'll give it a bit of time, and see what I think after I go to an event with groups of friends, and see what happens when we (and others) are taking pictures.
  - tptacek 16y ago
    "Sounds like the nerd response to Twitter" is a pretty compelling restatement of the parent's point. Thanks.
  - Lewisham 16y ago
    This is a fair point, and one I hadn't considered. Bravo! But, getting Twitter doesn't mean Twitter pre-any-users-at-all was worth investing $41m at a possible $80m valuation. It might still not be, as it has no business plan to speak of. I guess I'm naive, but I usually apply the "can (Facebook|Google|Big Company of the Decade) copy this quickly?" as a measure for the value of a service, but then again, it doesn't seem to apply for Place checkins (neither Facebook nor Google seem to have made too much traction against FourSquare) nor GroupOn. I guess that's why I'm not an investor :)

wallflower 16y ago

I'm fascinated by this Photo-Sharing-is-tip-of-the-iceberg tidbit: "A few feats of engineering brilliance hide under Color's slick surface. How does the app determine who's in the same room with you? Not with GPS, which is flummoxed by floors because it can't distinguish vertical distances between people. So Nguyen's team taught Color to use a phone's lighting and audio sensors, stitching their signals together with the sound and light environments of nearby devices to determine which user is where--it's almost like a bat's senses." http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0411/technology-photo-app-nguyen-color-sequoia-eyes-of-world.html http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0411/technology-photo-app-...

tptacek 16y ago
So... it's the great photo sharing app of all time, then? Um, ok? $41MM? When's the last time you had even the faintest urge to share a photo? I'm a geek, and that urge hits maybe once every other week.
- neutronicus 16y ago
  It's like Foursquare/Facebook where you have to opt out of publicizing your entire life. I suppose advertisers (the FBI?) are drooling over the possibilities, and that's probably what fuels the investment more than user excitement. Also, "everyone who was at the bar last night automatically sees the pictures (without any pesky 'publish' button or other form of 'opting in')" may be a more compelling user story than you give it credit for.
  - ZeroGravitas 16y ago
    I'm looking forward to all the "Fired/Divorced for Facebook/Twitter comments" equivalents that result from photos taken by other people you were in the same bar as turning up in your friends, family, spouses and bosses photostreams.
- haploid 16y ago
  I think you vastly underestimate the driving compulsion of millions of attention whores to get random men to tell them how hot they are by virtue of myspace angles and flattering lighting.

joezydeco 16y ago

So let's call Color the Rebecca Black of Web 2.0. Too immature, too early to tell, too much attention out of nowhere, too much momentum for too little effort. But it looks good, right?

Darryl_Sirt 16y ago
Rebecca Black has waaay more traction
konop 16y ago
Rebecca Black is already profitable...
- joezydeco 16y ago
  Nice one.
kgptv22 16y ago
Or the Miami Heat of Web 2.0...
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
GregKrajewski 16y ago
I am betting money there will be a "Double Rainbow" parody video made with Sequoia execs seeing "color" for the 1st time.

mc2k 16y ago

Could this be an "old boys' network" type of deal? Investing in it because one of their other established investments is in line to purchase it? Is something like that allowed? If it is, presumably it happens regularly.

vamsee 16y ago

And his opinion is important why?