5 ms·

The Internet now has three phases: Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Skittles.

unalone 18y ago
I don't know how citation works in these cases, but I think you should get credit for bringing this story to everybody's attention on IRC before it got submitted.
- alaskamiller 18y ago
  HN user Mazy actually pinged me about it first and based on the Twitter search results it seems quite a few figured it out a couple minutes prior. Overall, awesome news is awesome news.
  - axod 18y ago
    I'm really not seeing why it's awesome. Would it have been awesome if they just redirected to a google search for 'skittles'?
- jaaron 18y ago
  Which IRC channel?
  - zain 18y ago
    #startups on freenode.
alaskamiller 18y ago
Just an FYI: Agency.com is the team behind this: http://www.clickz.com/3632968 http://www.clickz.com/3632968 This is a powerful idea in that they've directly inserted themselves into the online conversation. That Twitter search stream aside, the rest of the content they have are pretty much regulated and closed despite being owned by a third party. YouTube has moderator tools, Flickr has moderator tools, Facebook fan pages have moderator tools. And Wikipedia is pretty darn hard to fuck with. So, really, the only thing they don't have a direct control of is that Twitter search stream. However, Twitter is spending a lot of time right now deleting Skittles spam--I know this from personal experience!--and non-relevant tweets. I'm sure for Ev and team, Skittles is yet another big deal and they wouldn't want to fuck it up. All in all, I really think this is genius and they're quite safe at protecting their brand's value.
patio11 18y ago
Can we arrange for you to come back in a week and give us an update on the state of the Skittle era? I think it will be instructive, in much the same fashion as I think anybody trying to make money on the Internet should be willing to give the Pets.com marketing plan a few minutes of their time. I'm sure when some marketers saw the $1.2 million sock puppet Superbowl ad they were convinced a new era had dawned, a cult hero had been born, and they were about to sell a lot of dog food. Two out of three ain't bad.
- unalone 18y ago
  Usually I agree with the cynical stuff you say, but in this case the hype is warranted. No, it's not going to change things forever, but it's an incredible leap for a company that very few people would have seen this coming from, and the fact that a company is giving themselves up to the cloud is pretty damn impressive.
moe 18y ago
Hm. I guess there must be something wrong with me because I'm so utterly not impressed. Why would I go to the skittles homepage in first place? Why would I more likely go there when they have a twittr stream of the #skittles tag? I don't get it. Why on earth do you guys get so excited over this?
- unalone 18y ago
  Because it's all they have going. Anybody who wants to find out about Skittles has to go to these pages, which means that the public controls Skittle's web site, to some degree. That's a ballsy move.
  - moe 18y ago
    That's a ballsy move. Not at all, it's just plain old PR. Any PR is good PR, remember? Okay, it's a fun campaign and kudos to the agency for talking them into it - but I don't see anything earth shattering behind the smoke and mirrors. the public controls Skittle's web site, to some degree. Well, if that's what gets you guys so worked up then you'll be in for a disappointment. The flickr and youtube streams are owned by skittles - no public control. The wikipedia page is (predictably) already protected and will probably stay that way for the time being. So what's left is the twitter stream, which is basically an animated wallpaper with the occassional bit of foul language. Hm. Sorry, as said, nice little PR stunt and reasonably executed - but I don't see anyone talking about this in 4 weeks. In fact, expect skittles.com to change back to the classic marketing look once the little hype has worn off.
    - dreish 18y ago
      I think you're missing how clever this is. #skittles is the #1 trending topic on search.twitter.com. If you're at all plugged in, you can't get away from this. Just how many bags of candy do you think they'll have to sell for this idea to pay for itself? I don't think it's earth-shattering, either, but what does that have to do with anything?
      - 18y ago

I don't know how citation works in these cases, but I think you should get credit for bringing this story to everybody's attention on IRC before it got submitted.

alaskamiller 18y ago
HN user Mazy actually pinged me about it first and based on the Twitter search results it seems quite a few figured it out a couple minutes prior. Overall, awesome news is awesome news.
- axod 18y ago
  I'm really not seeing why it's awesome. Would it have been awesome if they just redirected to a google search for 'skittles'?
jaaron 18y ago
Which IRC channel?
- zain 18y ago
  #startups on freenode.

alaskamiller 18y ago

Just an FYI: Agency.com is the team behind this: http://www.clickz.com/3632968 http://www.clickz.com/3632968 This is a powerful idea in that they've directly inserted themselves into the online conversation. That Twitter search stream aside, the rest of the content they have are pretty much regulated and closed despite being owned by a third party. YouTube has moderator tools, Flickr has moderator tools, Facebook fan pages have moderator tools. And Wikipedia is pretty darn hard to fuck with. So, really, the only thing they don't have a direct control of is that Twitter search stream. However, Twitter is spending a lot of time right now deleting Skittles spam--I know this from personal experience!--and non-relevant tweets. I'm sure for Ev and team, Skittles is yet another big deal and they wouldn't want to fuck it up. All in all, I really think this is genius and they're quite safe at protecting their brand's value.

patio11 18y ago

Can we arrange for you to come back in a week and give us an update on the state of the Skittle era? I think it will be instructive, in much the same fashion as I think anybody trying to make money on the Internet should be willing to give the Pets.com marketing plan a few minutes of their time. I'm sure when some marketers saw the $1.2 million sock puppet Superbowl ad they were convinced a new era had dawned, a cult hero had been born, and they were about to sell a lot of dog food. Two out of three ain't bad.

unalone 18y ago
Usually I agree with the cynical stuff you say, but in this case the hype is warranted. No, it's not going to change things forever, but it's an incredible leap for a company that very few people would have seen this coming from, and the fact that a company is giving themselves up to the cloud is pretty damn impressive.

moe 18y ago

Hm. I guess there must be something wrong with me because I'm so utterly not impressed. Why would I go to the skittles homepage in first place? Why would I more likely go there when they have a twittr stream of the #skittles tag? I don't get it. Why on earth do you guys get so excited over this?

unalone 18y ago
Because it's all they have going. Anybody who wants to find out about Skittles has to go to these pages, which means that the public controls Skittle's web site, to some degree. That's a ballsy move.
- moe 18y ago
  That's a ballsy move. Not at all, it's just plain old PR. Any PR is good PR, remember? Okay, it's a fun campaign and kudos to the agency for talking them into it - but I don't see anything earth shattering behind the smoke and mirrors. the public controls Skittle's web site, to some degree. Well, if that's what gets you guys so worked up then you'll be in for a disappointment. The flickr and youtube streams are owned by skittles - no public control. The wikipedia page is (predictably) already protected and will probably stay that way for the time being. So what's left is the twitter stream, which is basically an animated wallpaper with the occassional bit of foul language. Hm. Sorry, as said, nice little PR stunt and reasonably executed - but I don't see anyone talking about this in 4 weeks. In fact, expect skittles.com to change back to the classic marketing look once the little hype has worn off.
  - dreish 18y ago
    I think you're missing how clever this is. #skittles is the #1 trending topic on search.twitter.com. If you're at all plugged in, you can't get away from this. Just how many bags of candy do you think they'll have to sell for this idea to pay for itself? I don't think it's earth-shattering, either, but what does that have to do with anything?
    - 18y ago