Meme Tracking Winners and Losers
The meme tracking space is really heating up. There are established players like Memeorandum, Technorati, TailRank, and Blogniscient. And, there are some new entrants like Megite, Chuquet, Newsbump, and IT Blogwatch. Then there are the user voting players like Digg, Reddit, Slashdot, and others. The search engines are also getting into the game but from a search ranking algorithm perspective. Findory, Jookster, Wink, and others are emerging in this space.
It is not clear which approach will work best. Each will attract a loyal user base who likes the feature set, UI, and model.
I expect the big players will make some acquisitions this year. The rest will need to get their revenue models in place to generate cash flow for the long run as independent companies.
This technology is not that complicated. It is more art than science. The User Interface and the way the results are displayed, categorized, and aged, are as important as the underlying algorithms. The barrier to entry for new players is very low. So there will be a shake out. There will be a few winners who make a lot of money, and a lot of "also rans" who will fade away. That is the nature of the fast paced high tech game.
I think 2006 will be the year when winners and "also rans" will be decided. The user community votes with their clicks and ultimately decides who wins. This will be fun to watch.
I'm beginning to believe that features, UI and model are probably the least important considerations for these sites. I've started thinking of them like nightclubs - you don't choose the spot with the nicest toilets, you go where your friends go. Digg's user community has a very particular social feel to it, different from Slashdot or Metafilter. This vibe is what attracts (or repels) my involvement.
Posted by: Michal Migurski | February 05, 2006 at 04:12 PM
"The barrier to entry for new players is very low", I don't think this is true if want to create a high quality one.
Posted by: Matthew | February 06, 2006 at 01:33 PM
Tracking memes is definitely an interesting space. Thanks for this post, I blogged about it and linked to you. http://reblogger.wordpress.com/2006/02/08/tracking-memes-and-our-world-views/
Posted by: Mark Wilson | February 08, 2006 at 02:40 AM
We have recently started exploring this space and are excited by the significance that an influx of VC has for the development of the semantic web. Meme momentum is hot.
Posted by: Philosophian | August 24, 2006 at 05:00 PM