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I thought this post was great, and I cringe when I read the comments in this thread that are so negative about the product. Kudos to GW for tackling a massive,

I thought this post was great, and I cringe when I read the comments in this thread that are so negative about the product. Kudos to GW for tackling a massive, difficult problem in the most competitive space in software. Obviously there's still work to be done, but DDG has invested, what, 5 orders of magnitude less into search than Google? This is about as hard as it gets in startup land. I imagine there's a GW post yet to be written [1] on the related point that some problems are harder than others (e.g., search >>> picture-sharing-app), and the complete lack of correlation between effort and value (DDG <<< Instagram, at least so far) [2]. But line that I didn't fully understand was: I believe distribution is equally important as product. That means quite literally you should be spending 50% of your time on it. For tech people, you should probably bias it to 75% so you end up getting to equal in the end. What exactly does "distribution" mean in this context? [1] or maybe there already is such a post.. [2] yes, I know there are many reasons for this, search is valuable, etc.

shazow 14y ago
> "I believe distribution is equally important as product. That means quite literally you should be spending 50% of your time on it. For tech people, you should probably bias it to 75% so you end up getting to equal in the end." What exactly does "distribution" mean in this context? Distribution means a method for getting your product to the customers who need it. Imagine slaving away for years, building the perfect solution to the biggest problem, only to never have anyone discover it because you never put any effort in figuring out how to reach your customers. A distribution channel can be anything from the AppStore/Steam, to advertising, to door-to-door sales, to engaging users in a niche news forum, to referral/affiliate schemes, and so forth. Ideally, it's something that closely and effectively targets your ideal customer with the exact problem you're solving.
- shazow 14y ago
  The parent post is a perfect example: An informative comment that nearly no one will read because I posted it too late to catch the organic influx of readers, and I didn't invest in other means of distributing it to an audience.

shazow 14y ago

> "I believe distribution is equally important as product. That means quite literally you should be spending 50% of your time on it. For tech people, you should probably bias it to 75% so you end up getting to equal in the end." What exactly does "distribution" mean in this context? Distribution means a method for getting your product to the customers who need it. Imagine slaving away for years, building the perfect solution to the biggest problem, only to never have anyone discover it because you never put any effort in figuring out how to reach your customers. A distribution channel can be anything from the AppStore/Steam, to advertising, to door-to-door sales, to engaging users in a niche news forum, to referral/affiliate schemes, and so forth. Ideally, it's something that closely and effectively targets your ideal customer with the exact problem you're solving.

shazow 14y ago
The parent post is a perfect example: An informative comment that nearly no one will read because I posted it too late to catch the organic influx of readers, and I didn't invest in other means of distributing it to an audience.