Oct. 1, 2007
No Revenues; no problems
Wired
Julie Sloane interviewed companies that are launching without attempting to make money.
”I spoke with Wikinvest, which wants to hold off on monetizing their financial wiki until it builds up significant traffic. Today I spoke with Vancouver-based Ziigo, whose newly community prediction site Ziitrend has a similar philosophy. While I find both sites fun places to click around, a faint buzz rings in the back of my mind: Launch now, make money later? Is the bottom line-focused discipline of post-2001 startups eroding? ”
Searching with a learning curve
News.com
An Oakland, Calif. start-up is launching new search technology that lets you easily narrow Web queries and learns about your preferences based on what results you choose to view.
”Surf Canyon offers up a list of Web results to queries and if you hover over a particular link or click on a target icon next to a link, more results that are related to that particular page are displayed underneath it.”
85 unsolved Vista problems
IT Wire
Angus Kidman learned two things about Vista recently: even senior citizens think that it’s a rip-off, and its problem-reporting capabilities are yet another example of its ‘lipstick on a pig’ approach to life.
”First, the senior citizen tale. Queuing in my local Officeworks, I found myself behind two older PC users whose eye had been caught by the display of funky-looking (albeit hard to open) Vista cases near the counter. $459 dollars was a lot to pay for Home Premium, the man observed. Yes, but Home Basic was cheaper at $199, his female companion replied.”