5 ms·

About.me Buys Itself Back from AOL

98 points by speric 14y ago

danso 14y ago
> “People shouldn’t leave it to Google to define who they are based on an algorithm,” Mr. Conrad said, adding that there is not one place that defines a person’s identity online. I know this is just marketing speak, but it is still deliciously ironic...Isn't about.me's success dependent on Google rewarding it for its SEO friendly title,h1 tags and short links?
- sp332 14y ago
  The statement isn't anti-Google or anti-SEO for businesses or individual websites. It's just pointing out that googling someone isn't useful if their online identity is spread over a bunch of websites.
  - bks 14y ago
    The business of reputation management is becoming more and more challenging for regular folk, business owners and professional services providers. Site like about.me give people the opportunity to list their official profiles and places where the comments should be considered to be the true word of the author. I can't tell you how many times I have found either twitter accounts or facebook pages that are not the "official" version for a person or company. I still like the concept of saying - these site are directly connected to .me
jbail 14y ago
It was curious when AOL bought About.me four days after About.me launched. 4 days. That's insanely fast. Tony Conrad must have friends at AOL. What's curious is buying the company back. Maybe Conrad is returning a favor? In the end, what About.me brings to the table is pretty boring. You want a personal site? There are 10,000 ways to do that. I don't see the value in it personally...and maybe AOL doesn't either, but the host of VC's lining up for About.me's $5.7 million financing round must.
- dreadsword 14y ago
  Perhaps the VCs are investing in Conrad, not About.me as it exists today. I can't imagine a vanity site like About.me's current incarnation having a whole lot value; but perhaps it will get engineered into some sort of social aggregator or identity management service.
- MatthewPhillips 14y ago
  The concept was already "proven" by Flavors.me. About.me was a better domain name, and better marketed.
  - dangoldin 14y ago
    Flavors.me ended up being acquired by Moo.com though. I don't think they ever got "huge"
- kareemm 14y ago
  Conrad's company previous to About.me, Sphere, was purchased by AOL in 2008: http://techcrunch.com/2008/04/14/aol-buys-sphere-content-engine/ http://techcrunch.com/2008/04/14/aol-buys-sphere-content-eng...
  - mgarfias 14y ago
    And Tony stayed at AOL for something close to two years.
- eksith 14y ago
  In terms of just a personal page, you're right there many alternatives, but About.me brings its domain to the table. That's really the entire value of the company if you think about it. It's just the domain + mini-CMS for quick personal pages. Plus, I imagine, it couldn't hurt to have a simple profile page linked somewhere.
- eoghan 14y ago
  > In the end, what About.me brings to the table is pretty boring. I don't agree. If you start to think about what could disrupt LinkedIn, you realize that there's a good chance it could look like About.me. I bet in 12 months, About.me will find some direct competitors. This is a big opportunity IMO.
mattmanser 14y ago
Anyone interested what we had to say when it was purchased in the first place: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2025764 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2025764 Still, bubble's been going a while now hasn't it! I think this was when a lot of people here started saying 'bubble!'. Me included. If it's a bubble, it's becoming a big old one.
- adventured 14y ago
  A bubble can brew and stew for years, the original dotcom bubble did for example. No two bubbles ever act the same either of course. This one might rumble longer but be more shallow, and it might constantly shift focus as all the cheap money hops from hype to hype (until the cheap money goes away that is). Not to mention I think it's necessary to account for people jumping the gun early due to a reflex from fallout of the last bubble.
hkmurakami 14y ago
I still respect Conrad for making the initial sale (supposedly) for the benefit of his team, who, unlike Conrad himself, hadn't experienced a startup exit yet.
- itsprofitbaron 14y ago
  Before founding About.me he was a Co-Founder and CEO of Sphere, when it sold to Aol in 2008 for $25M[1] He's also a founding member and partner at True Ventures which he has seen exits such as: Oddpost (acquired by Yahoo!), Iconoculture (acquired by Corporate Executive Board), MusicNow (acquired by Circuit City), and Centive (acquired by Xactly)[2] [1] http://gigaom.com/2008/04/14/aol-buys-sphere/ http://gigaom.com/2008/04/14/aol-buys-sphere/ [2] http://www.trueventures.com/member/tony-conrad/ http://www.trueventures.com/member/tony-conrad/
  - mgarfias 14y ago
    It's not like we made all that much at sphere. Beats a kick in the ass tho, but none of us got rich.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
adventured 14y ago
I think About.me should go after the work networking space in some manner that gets them out of the 'personal page' business. It's a huge space that LinkedIn isn't going to own all of. Just like there's room for Pinterest and Twitter (among others) along with Facebook, there's room for other large LinkedIn variations.
fleaflicker 14y ago
Not the first time this has happened! Fleaflicker sold to AOL April 2008, bought back July 2011.
tokenadult 14y ago
From the co-founder quotation in the article: "There’s no obvious leverage in being part of the AOL media network, and there’s no synergy and integration." That's the rub. AOL used to have more "network effects" than everyone else in the online business, and that didn't help them figure out how to provide value for their business partners. My prediction for Facebook corresponds to this: "Facebook will go the way of AOL, still being a factor in the industry years from now, but also serving as an example of a company that could never monetize up to the level of the hype surrounding it." Gathering millions of pairs of eyeballs is a wonderful achievement, but helping business partners for your network find value by how they are able to reach users through your network is even more wonderful. AFTER EDIT: The submission of the story here did more to prompt me to interact with About.me than anything I've done on an AOL property in the last two years, so I guess it is a good move for About.me to go independent again.
paulbjensen 14y ago
Congratulations to Tony, he's managed to follow one of those rare startup journeys and buy-back his start-up at a profit, and escape the fate that Brizzly encountered.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
greghinch 14y ago
I find About.me interesting. It strikes the right balance of being easy to use, useful, and providing value. I certainly could build my own similar profile page, but it would not be nearly as simple. And it's something of a social network, one I could actually see paying (a small fee) for. As opposed to, say, App.net.
darushimo 14y ago
just want to mention that flavors.me, stared by a former Vimeo employee, does the same thing as about.me, has been around longer, and has a better UX. I'm not getting paid, I just like the service and get annoyed when it's not acknowledged as an obvious competitior to about.me
onlyup 14y ago
So who here uses about.me?
- pidg 14y ago
  I would have used it, but it always said the username I wanted was unavailable (despite the page saying "This name is available!"). Then last month it suddenly became the page of a SF-based developer, which seems to happen all the time for 'unavailable', but unused, names. Pretty annoying.
  - lauraglu 14y ago
    Hey pidg - sorry about that. It was probably an early reserved username. If anyone else runs into this we can help at help(@)about.me.
    - pidg 14y ago
      Hey, thanks for responding!
- Yhippa 14y ago
  I keep a page on there and I like how it gives me a quick way to link together my Internet credentials (so-to-speak) without much clutter. As for whether people actually check it out, that's another story. I tend to keep it listed as my "homepage" though for sites that list that information on my profile.
msh 14y ago
What do you guys think about using about.me as a personal business card? My personal homepage design is getting really long in the tooth and don't really have time for at redesign. Would you prefer the about page at about.me or using your own domain and design?
- dublinben 14y ago
  If you're not a web designer, I don't really care that you've designed your own webpage. If an about.me page (or similar template profile) presents you better, then absolutely rely on that for your first impression.

98 points by speric 14y ago

danso 14y ago

> “People shouldn’t leave it to Google to define who they are based on an algorithm,” Mr. Conrad said, adding that there is not one place that defines a person’s identity online. I know this is just marketing speak, but it is still deliciously ironic...Isn't about.me's success dependent on Google rewarding it for its SEO friendly title,h1 tags and short links?

sp332 14y ago
The statement isn't anti-Google or anti-SEO for businesses or individual websites. It's just pointing out that googling someone isn't useful if their online identity is spread over a bunch of websites.
- bks 14y ago
  The business of reputation management is becoming more and more challenging for regular folk, business owners and professional services providers. Site like about.me give people the opportunity to list their official profiles and places where the comments should be considered to be the true word of the author. I can't tell you how many times I have found either twitter accounts or facebook pages that are not the "official" version for a person or company. I still like the concept of saying - these site are directly connected to .me

jbail 14y ago

It was curious when AOL bought About.me four days after About.me launched. 4 days. That's insanely fast. Tony Conrad must have friends at AOL. What's curious is buying the company back. Maybe Conrad is returning a favor? In the end, what About.me brings to the table is pretty boring. You want a personal site? There are 10,000 ways to do that. I don't see the value in it personally...and maybe AOL doesn't either, but the host of VC's lining up for About.me's $5.7 million financing round must.

dreadsword 14y ago
Perhaps the VCs are investing in Conrad, not About.me as it exists today. I can't imagine a vanity site like About.me's current incarnation having a whole lot value; but perhaps it will get engineered into some sort of social aggregator or identity management service.
MatthewPhillips 14y ago
The concept was already "proven" by Flavors.me. About.me was a better domain name, and better marketed.
- dangoldin 14y ago
  Flavors.me ended up being acquired by Moo.com though. I don't think they ever got "huge"
kareemm 14y ago
Conrad's company previous to About.me, Sphere, was purchased by AOL in 2008: http://techcrunch.com/2008/04/14/aol-buys-sphere-content-engine/ http://techcrunch.com/2008/04/14/aol-buys-sphere-content-eng...
- mgarfias 14y ago
  And Tony stayed at AOL for something close to two years.
eksith 14y ago
In terms of just a personal page, you're right there many alternatives, but About.me brings its domain to the table. That's really the entire value of the company if you think about it. It's just the domain + mini-CMS for quick personal pages. Plus, I imagine, it couldn't hurt to have a simple profile page linked somewhere.
eoghan 14y ago
> In the end, what About.me brings to the table is pretty boring. I don't agree. If you start to think about what could disrupt LinkedIn, you realize that there's a good chance it could look like About.me. I bet in 12 months, About.me will find some direct competitors. This is a big opportunity IMO.

mattmanser 14y ago

Anyone interested what we had to say when it was purchased in the first place: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2025764 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2025764 Still, bubble's been going a while now hasn't it! I think this was when a lot of people here started saying 'bubble!'. Me included. If it's a bubble, it's becoming a big old one.

adventured 14y ago
A bubble can brew and stew for years, the original dotcom bubble did for example. No two bubbles ever act the same either of course. This one might rumble longer but be more shallow, and it might constantly shift focus as all the cheap money hops from hype to hype (until the cheap money goes away that is). Not to mention I think it's necessary to account for people jumping the gun early due to a reflex from fallout of the last bubble.

hkmurakami 14y ago

I still respect Conrad for making the initial sale (supposedly) for the benefit of his team, who, unlike Conrad himself, hadn't experienced a startup exit yet.

itsprofitbaron 14y ago
Before founding About.me he was a Co-Founder and CEO of Sphere, when it sold to Aol in 2008 for $25M[1] He's also a founding member and partner at True Ventures which he has seen exits such as: Oddpost (acquired by Yahoo!), Iconoculture (acquired by Corporate Executive Board), MusicNow (acquired by Circuit City), and Centive (acquired by Xactly)[2] [1] http://gigaom.com/2008/04/14/aol-buys-sphere/ http://gigaom.com/2008/04/14/aol-buys-sphere/ [2] http://www.trueventures.com/member/tony-conrad/ http://www.trueventures.com/member/tony-conrad/
- mgarfias 14y ago
  It's not like we made all that much at sphere. Beats a kick in the ass tho, but none of us got rich.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]

adventured 14y ago

I think About.me should go after the work networking space in some manner that gets them out of the 'personal page' business. It's a huge space that LinkedIn isn't going to own all of. Just like there's room for Pinterest and Twitter (among others) along with Facebook, there's room for other large LinkedIn variations.

fleaflicker 14y ago

Not the first time this has happened! Fleaflicker sold to AOL April 2008, bought back July 2011.

tokenadult 14y ago

From the co-founder quotation in the article: "There’s no obvious leverage in being part of the AOL media network, and there’s no synergy and integration." That's the rub. AOL used to have more "network effects" than everyone else in the online business, and that didn't help them figure out how to provide value for their business partners. My prediction for Facebook corresponds to this: "Facebook will go the way of AOL, still being a factor in the industry years from now, but also serving as an example of a company that could never monetize up to the level of the hype surrounding it." Gathering millions of pairs of eyeballs is a wonderful achievement, but helping business partners for your network find value by how they are able to reach users through your network is even more wonderful. AFTER EDIT: The submission of the story here did more to prompt me to interact with About.me than anything I've done on an AOL property in the last two years, so I guess it is a good move for About.me to go independent again.

paulbjensen 14y ago

Congratulations to Tony, he's managed to follow one of those rare startup journeys and buy-back his start-up at a profit, and escape the fate that Brizzly encountered.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

greghinch 14y ago

I find About.me interesting. It strikes the right balance of being easy to use, useful, and providing value. I certainly could build my own similar profile page, but it would not be nearly as simple. And it's something of a social network, one I could actually see paying (a small fee) for. As opposed to, say, App.net.

darushimo 14y ago

just want to mention that flavors.me, stared by a former Vimeo employee, does the same thing as about.me, has been around longer, and has a better UX. I'm not getting paid, I just like the service and get annoyed when it's not acknowledged as an obvious competitior to about.me

onlyup 14y ago

So who here uses about.me?

pidg 14y ago
I would have used it, but it always said the username I wanted was unavailable (despite the page saying "This name is available!"). Then last month it suddenly became the page of a SF-based developer, which seems to happen all the time for 'unavailable', but unused, names. Pretty annoying.
- lauraglu 14y ago
  Hey pidg - sorry about that. It was probably an early reserved username. If anyone else runs into this we can help at help(@)about.me.
  - pidg 14y ago
    Hey, thanks for responding!
Yhippa 14y ago
I keep a page on there and I like how it gives me a quick way to link together my Internet credentials (so-to-speak) without much clutter. As for whether people actually check it out, that's another story. I tend to keep it listed as my "homepage" though for sites that list that information on my profile.

msh 14y ago

What do you guys think about using about.me as a personal business card? My personal homepage design is getting really long in the tooth and don't really have time for at redesign. Would you prefer the about page at about.me or using your own domain and design?

dublinben 14y ago
If you're not a web designer, I don't really care that you've designed your own webpage. If an about.me page (or similar template profile) presents you better, then absolutely rely on that for your first impression.