Your 3 Web Investments
Somehow you have come across a magical $1 million and the only way you can use it is by investing in 3 web properties. Who do you invest in, why did you invest in them and how do they use the money?
- Reddit: I like Social News, I really do and I love the community around this site. Seems a little more mature than the Digg one probably because it is smaller. The only problem that keeps me from going back? That hideous design. I put some money in to get a decent design up so I am actually enticed to go back.
- Solution Watch: I might be biased since they are 9rules Members, but the guys over at Solution Watch always seem to provide the most indepth reviews of Web applications anywhere on the web. My problem? They don’t do it enough because they have other responsibilities. I invest money so they can do it full-time and make it big.
- Habari: With 9rulers Chris Davis and Khaled Abou Alfa behind the project I have enough faith to “donate” some money to speed up the development process of this upcoming blog software.
And that’s what I came up with. Admittedly the original title was 5 web investments, but after struggling for over 30 minutes I couldn’t even get to that number so I am left with three. I would love to hear what your investments would be so please share.
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I agree: Habari looks like it might be a beautiful thing. The only thing is that PHP5 only requirement. A lot of host companies still haven’t upgraded yet and that could be a hinderance to adoption.
By Frank 'viperteq' Young on January 18, 2007 7:21 pm
I see that as a long term advantage though because they are taking advantage of the platform that will be used in the future and not restricting themselves to past or current technologies. Now if this was a commercial enterprise then yes going with PHP 4 or 5 (without the OO goodness) might be more appropriate, but for what they are doing I agree with their decision.
By Scrivs on January 18, 2007 7:24 pm
I see where you are coming from with the design on reddit but I think it is probably one of the features. It is like when delicious was new it had the worst design in the world. But because of that only the tech folk used it so it didn’t get over run with 12 year old girls. I think the same is true with reddit. With the current design everyone prefers digg as it looks nicer. This leaves reddit with the people that dont mind the design and cuts out lots of the 12 year old market.
Besides if you really don’t like the way it looks create your own style sheet for it and get your browser to call it when you look at it. The same way Jon Hicks did with bloglines.
By Eddie Sowden on January 19, 2007 7:25 am
Do you have a link to Habari’s Web site? I haven’t heard anything about them yet, but you’ve piqued my interest.
Your current link for Habari is to this entry.
By Patrick B on January 19, 2007 11:11 am
Sorry about that, the only site I know of is found on Google code.
By Scrivs on January 19, 2007 1:02 pm
[...] Scrivs from Wisdump asks what are your 3 Web Investments? [...]
By 1 million dollars on the web? at medecau on January 19, 2007 1:47 pm
RHEL5 is coming out pretty soon and it will support PHP5. I think that might give PHP5 the kick it needs.
By Alan on January 19, 2007 2:15 pm
Hey Scrivs. Thanks for the support! You know, I’ve heard this once before… ScrivsTyme Podcast, maybe? :-). But seriously, thank you. We aim for quality at Solution Watch and it’s always great to see it’s appreciated. I wish we could get reviews out quicker, and we’re definitely trying to, but I guess that’s what we get for owning a creative studio! Anyway, we’ll keep at it and see how things go.
Also, nice call on Habari. I’m excited for that as well. Patrick asked for the Habari website. Here you are: http://habariblog.com/
Thanks again!
By Brian Benzinger on January 19, 2007 5:01 pm
My 3?
9rules – I would invest in them so they could hire some more community/PR experts to expand the network while at the same time helping the individual bloggers be more involved and improve their sites.
bbpress – I think this software has a lot of potential and I would invest in them to bring it to a final release and provide better ways to integrate it with WordPress and other CMS’s.
cakePHP – My money would go towards more documentation and tutorials as well as sponsoring projects by cakePHP developers.
By Montoya on January 21, 2007 1:54 pm
Hey Scrivs thanks for the props, and the faith.
And believe me, we are going to bring the funk. Just keep watching.
By Chris J. Davis on January 22, 2007 3:46 pm
how should you invest in reddit? it’s already been acquired by condé nast / wired — :)
By alberto d'ottavi on February 6, 2007 10:43 am