SQUIDOO see slideshow
- 10 ‘Net services that will:
- Succeed
- Trulia | SceneCaster | CafeScribe OverlayTV | Fav.or.it | Hulu
Huddle | Kaltura | ModiFace Cognitive Code
Service: Squidoo
What it is: A platform which gives members the ability to establish themselves as authorities on any topic, using "lenses" -- tools that layer in content and let members promote themselves.
Failings: Lenses are a mess, in terms of organization. For example, different lenses created by a single member are not clearly grouped, and an increasing number of goal-oriented lenses are making it difficult for visitors to browse through lenses in a fluid manner. Search needs work, and self-promotion is difficult. The service also has some strong competition, including various Google-owned services and Wikipedia.
Turnaround potential: Cleaning up the lens options and navigation will let visitors and members use the site more effectively. Squidoo has launched some great lenses that offer prominent, central resources which users can read and contribute to. For example, the Monkeybrain lens prompts members to list pros and cons of certain issues, and includes related Web resources such as links, images and videos.
'Net views:
Jason Calcanis: "Frankly, I think Seth [Godin] has fallen to the dark side and has become a Sith Lord of SEO, deceptive affiliate links, and page-view gaming."
Netvestor: "After some time using it, I learned that squidoo is a bad development platform. It is convenient for making mini niche sites, which a lot of people misused to create spam. … Google realized that and heavily penalized squidoo rankings."
monosodium: "[Promotion] should be squidoo's job! if you have to work your butt off to promote a lens, then you might as well get your own site."
Management: Seth Godin, Founder; Megan Casey, Editor-in-Chief; Corey Brown, Vice President and Managing Director; and Gil Hidebrand, Jr., Chief Engineer.
Other related content:
- Slideshow home: Opinion: 10 'Net services that will succeed (and 10 that will probably fail)
- Ian Lamont: 10 'Net services that will succeed (and 10 that will probably fail)
- Prediction: eCirkit will shut down its social networking service by Jan. 1, 2009
- Prediction: Chumby Industries announces it will discontinue alarm clock line by February 1, 2009
- Prediction: Cognitive Code's Pocket SILVIA technology will appear in mass-market consumer electronics by end of 2008
- Prediction: Hulu will announce 200 full-length feature movies by May 15, 2008
- Prediction: Overlay.TV comes out of beta on or before June 30
- Prediction: CafeScribe acquired by October 2009
- Prediction: SceneCaster will come out of beta by June 1, 2008
- Prediction: Second Life usage will not break 40 million user hours per month by the end of 2008
- Prediction: Joost will announce a Web-based viewer by November 1, 2008
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Comments
Great ideas for using Squidoo and making it better! I was a user for about a year before I started working for them, and as a former web developer, I believe Squidoo's platform presents a much appreciated opportunity to thousands of users who wouldn't otherwise be able to so easily write, promote, and share of themselves and their businesses. Not to mention the perk of donating to deserving charities!
Any web site is only as good as its developers, and we have thousands of dedicated lensmasters working hard to be the best they can. I guarantee Squidoo is going somewhere, and it's all good!
Great ideas for using Squidoo and making it better! I was a user for about a year before I started working for them, and as a former web developer, I believe Squidoo's platform presents a much appreciated opportunity to thousands of users who wouldn't otherwise be able to so easily write, promote, and share of themselves and their businesses. Not to mention the perk of donating to deserving charities!
Any web site is only as good as its developers, and we have thousands of dedicated lensmasters working hard to be the best they can. I guarantee Squidoo is going somewhere, and it's all good!
~Kimberly
Squidoo's Community Organizer
Great ideas for using Squidoo and making it better! I was a user for about a year before I started working for them, and as a former web developer, I believe Squidoo's platform presents a much appreciated opportunity to thousands of users who wouldn't otherwise be able to so easily write, promote, and share of themselves and their businesses. Not to mention the perk of donating to deserving charities!
Any web site is only as good as its developers, and we have thousands of dedicated lensmasters working hard to be the best they can. I guarantee Squidoo is going somewhere, and it's all good!
~Kimberly
Squidoo's Community Organizer
Hi.
In time it'll work itself out. Won't it? After all bad lenses should, in theory, fall to the bottom and good lenses rise to the top. For someone like me - think luddite - the ability to quickly make a lens which then will raise $ for a charity I like is fascinating. The very first two lens I created have been on Google's first page for the past year. It's enabled me to generate a wee bit more $ for kiva and countless people have know learned about kiva and that's all I was trying to do in the first place.
If social networking is where it's at, then maybe Squidoo is all that and a box of chocolates. It certainly has helped this introverted extrovert (or is that extroverted introvert - no matter) to "easily write, promote, and share of themselves". If nothing else it's fascinating and it's fun!
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