TechCrunch Censors Alltop Post

03.11.08 | Category: Breaking News, Interaction Design, Simplicity

Minutes ago, TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington posted a less than flattering post on Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop. (To learn more about Alltop, check out the video interview I did with Guy on the eve of the launch of Alltop beta.) TechCrunch has removed the post, as twitterers and bloggers responded quickly and en masse in disagreement to its claims. “The boards” pretty much lit up!  ”Calm down everyone. don’t start a twitter mob over this,” advised TechCrunch’s twitter.

Clearly Alltop has already developed a great following. If you haven’t taken Alltop out for a spin, refresh, reload and try it today. Empty your mind of web clutter, and enjoy the Zen of RSS.Guy Kawasaki - Covered! 

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15 Comments so far

  1. NEENZ 03.11.08 at 12:59 pm

    Drue:

    Interestingly enough they put it back up:

    http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/11/guy-kawasaki-launches-alltop/

    It’s more of a matter of “they don’t get” it’s not marketed to those already savvy with an RSS reader. Believe it or not, there’s a whole ‘nother world that still hasn’t embraced RSS and Alltop.com helps in the masses.

    As I mentioned to Guy, I use Alltop.com and feed the sites I enjoy reading that didn’t make it onto Alltop.com into my NetVibes.

    I appreciate you Drue.

    Aloha!
    NEENZ

  2. Drue 03.11.08 at 1:21 pm

    Thanx for your comment Neenz.
    Indeed the post is back up and running. This story is moving fast.

    That’s a good point. Alltop is a great for those are not familiar with RSS.

  3. Thomas Han 03.11.08 at 1:27 pm

    Funny the timing of this. I was just listening to one of Dave Winer’s latest Skype-less-than-20-mins-interviews. And one of them was on Guy (http://www.scripting.com/stories/2008/03/10/interviewWithGuyKawasaki.html)

    Guy described use of RSS in AllTop.com as “Aggregation without Aggrevation”. Love that phrase! :-)

  4. Drue 03.11.08 at 1:40 pm

    Yes the blogosphere is lit up with this story today.
    Thanks for sharing this alliterative phrase.

  5. evolution 03.11.08 at 2:20 pm

    Hi Drue,

    I think people are sort of missing the point. When you work in tech, you’re kind of in a bubble, but Alltop is not intended for use by tech people. Rather, Alltop brings the convenience of RSS to the masses.

    Having said that, I’m a complete info junkie, and I use a combination of NetNewsWire, NetVibes, and Alltop. Alltop is great when you want to go somewhere for a source of new information whereas I use NetVibes for sites I check on a regular basis. Plus my NetVibes page is very unique to me – one of my tabs is grammar for example, and I highly doubt that would work in general for a single feed aggregator :-) So, Alltop is not a substitute for customised home pages. It’s for the people who won’t use a personalized aggregator.

    I surround myself with a majority of non-tech people, non of whom have ever heard of RSS or NetVibes and the like. They will never bother to aggregate their own feeds or build their own page.

    Personally, I don’t think it matters that it has been done before- first mover advantage is over-rated – it’s the quality of execution that will make Alltop stand out from other single feed aggregators. Alltop is one of the few aggregators that include such a breadth of different topics. And it’s been collected by lead users via Twitter.

    On the subject of Zen, one of the positive things from the TC article was the (albeit) reluctant admission that Truemors is doing well (“which is at least pointing the right way on Compete.com”). People said that it would fail, whereas in fact, traffic is steadily increasing.

    If they can be wrong about Truemors, chances are, they might just be wrong about Alltop too. :-)

  6. Drue 03.11.08 at 2:55 pm

    Just added a banner image that should be titled “We’ve got Guy covered” …

    Aliya thanks for your thoughtful response and for returning to a Zen theme, in the ValleyZen spirit.

  7. evolution 03.11.08 at 4:01 pm

    Drue,
    That’s hilarious! Please add the title! :-D

  8. Varun Mathur 03.11.08 at 5:25 pm

    I had a quick look at Alltop and I just re-realized that the box-model of displaying news simply doesn’t work. Look at it, its got 3 columns of headlines in little boxes. It is not convenient to scan through the headlines from left to right. Netvibes, Pageflakes make this same mistake.

    I love Guy Kawasaki and swear by his book (Art of the Start), but this doesn’t cut it. When the page loads, where is the user supposed to look ?

    I’m one of the geeks behind Alertle and frankly it is the only feed reader out there with a remarkably different, fresh and simple interface (http://www.alertle.com). Apart from that the choice is between a boxes model and a email-like model. Check out its 2 mt demo on YouTube and you might agree with me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztQJ4ec1aWs

  9. A Taylor 03.12.08 at 7:17 am

    Evolution,

    I fully agree with your post. End Users or Blog readers don’t care about the technology behind a solution…they just want an easy and convenient way to perform their tasks.

    On the consulting side of my business, I have always stayed away from financial, manufacturing or technical jargon when interfacing with clients. Likewise when explaining the ISV portion of the business, I always lead off with ROI and or how the solution will solve business pains.

    Part of this may be the fact that I have a educational background in Finance and started out as a accountant/finance professional many years before launching a technology firm. Having been on the other side of the fence you learn that to succeed (as Guy very well may with Alltop) you have to make solutions understandable by the majority. The majority won’t and can’t spend time learning about RSS or other tools when they have limited time to begin with and have more pressing day to day issues (think recession:) to contend with.

  10. Drue Kataoka 03.12.08 at 9:16 am

    Yes A Taylor–I believe understanding how an end user craves simplicity leads to great interaction design. And you’re right about how important it is to see from both sides of the fence, and why not take in an aerial view too!

  11. Jcyreus 03.14.08 at 12:38 pm

    Hi Drue – In the write up that I posted to Jcyreus dot Com earlier this week I used my wife as an example of someone who would appreciate what Alltop has to offer…as a follow up, my assumption was correct. She checked it out after reading my post and has become somewhat hooked. Since then she can’t stop telling her friends about it either. Next time you see GK, please tell him that it looks like he has a winner on his hands. :-)

  12. Jeff McNeill 04.16.08 at 11:56 pm

    Aloha,

    There unfortunately is an inherent conflict of interest for Drue and Neez on Alltop since they are actually members/components of this site. This is a an aspect that has not been sufficiently explained or discussed. If someone is to benefit from the activity of a third party, endorsement of that third party without proper disclosure is unfortunate at best.

  13. Drue Kataoka 04.17.08 at 12:12 pm

    Hi Jeff,

    I don’t understand why and guess I disagree with your claim that there is an inherent conflict of interest for ValleyZen to write about Alltop.

    There is no commercial relationship between ValleyZen and anybody, Alltop included.

    We simply wrote about Alltop because we thought it was a good site.

    We write about a number of issues and blogs with whom we have no relationship.

    We try to write about things that resonate with our audience and hope to be informative on those subjects.

    Perhaps you are not aware that we do not have any commercial relationship with Guy Kawasaki or Alltop.

    Thanks.

  14. NEENZ 04.17.08 at 2:30 pm

    Drue,

    Jeff made the same allegation in a comment on my site, and in both cases he failed to do his research before hitting “submit comment.” Had he done his research he would have discovered that ValleyZen has no commercial relationship with Guy Kawasaki or Alltop.com and that the first appearance of my site (From the Mind of NEENZ) on Life.alltop.com was followed by a blog post which in Jeff’s mind would constitute as “full disclosure.”

    He has yet to apologize to me for his mistake, but hopefully Drue you will receive a much deserved admission of error from Jeff.

    The only conflict I’ve found is Jeff’s use of the word “aloha” and that he continues to misspell my name, it’s NEENZ.

    Aloha,
    NEENZ.

    http://www.faleafine.com/?p=39

  15. NEENZ 04.17.08 at 4:40 pm

    Drue,

    After a discussion with a respected friend, I have come to see some validity in Jeff’s comment.

    First, my apologies for an emotional response.

    Second, at the time of my initial comment and post linked above I had no official affiliation with Alltop, however I did with Guy Kawasaki as a Truemorist. I should have disclosed that somewhere in my initial comment, and for that I stand corrected.

    Hopefully, bringing this site, blog, and comments back to Zen. :)

    Aloha,
    NEENZ

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