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57 Comments
- nullptr, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10I'll preface my comment with an acknowledgment that I actually work
for Blue Dot, so you can flame accordingly.
I'll start with the easy flamebait -- the site took 2 days to
implement? Hmm ... interesting. Let's assume we started with the
so-called 90%, and evaluate the 10% gap:
Authoring - With no install required, we are able to layer a rich
authoring experience atop virtually any page on the Web. We
intelligently utilize information from the page you're on to make the
authoring experience rich while still being extraordinarily simple
(our goal is "click-click" authoring, Dot This!-publish). This is a
real step forward from the "pop-up" or "separate page" authoring
experience other sites are using, and is not without significant
development complexity (~= time). This isn't some half-a-day evolution
of an online AJAX tutorial -- in fact, there is no AJAX (cross-domain
boundaries). Framesets, varied DOCTYPE behaviors and no small amount
of browser quirkiness adds to the fun.
Permissions - Blue Dot supports extremely rich permissions. This
doesn't mean public or private. This means public, private, community,
and any combination of sub-community (think family, co-workers,
college buddies, etc.). This is significantly more complicated than it
sounds. Even something as simple as showing a user's total Dot count
is challenging, as there could be hundreds of different answers to the
same question. Don't even get me started on the caching implications
(I develop strange body aches every time I think about it).
Images - It may seem rather simple to thumbnail an image from a page
and associated it with a Dot, until you consider the small issue of
scale. Sorry, a shell script atop wget and ImageMagick on ain't gonna
cut it long term. Processing, storing _and_ serving images all need to
be distributed at scale (not to mention intelligent -- a single 5MB
JPEG can hurt the processing queue pretty bad if it isn't).
Search - Our search looks simple, but there's a lot going on behind
the scenes (believe it or not, this isn't a giant LIKE query). I can
pretty easily ask our system to show me all of my 5-star rated music
from amazon.com[1], while we're getting front page Digg traffic (did I
mention that all the aforementioned permission complexity is being
applied for every search?), and the site hasn't toppled over yet. The
search can be expanded to your community as well: too many results
from Derek? You can switch to an intelligent merged friend
view. Easy, right? Not really.
1. http://bluedot.us/users/derek?st=site%3Awww.amazon.com tag%3Amusic rating%3A5
I won't even bother talking about comments, friend management, RSS,
site syndication, email management, API features, ...
I can understand how a brief glance at Blue Dot might lead to a
"del.icio.us with pictures!" conclusion, but I'd encourage you to give
it a more thorough look.
When we started the company, we weren't setting out to be "social
bookmarking like you know it, but with __more features__!!!". We
thought about real problems, asked ourselves real questions, and did
our best to answer them with our (real) software.
I'm personally proud of what we've been able to do in a short amount
of time (yes, more than 2 days). We have a lot of work left, and we're
certainly aware of some of our site's shortcomings, but we're excited
about where we're going.
-Derek (http://bluedot.us/users/derek) - jiminoc, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9can you really get 1.5 million bucks to start a ***** 2 day mysql driven website that copies 90% of the features from other sites? wow, we're in another bubble
- dankoleary, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9I signed up to see what my friends were surfing, and all they bookmarked was porn and warcraft.
- esteban, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I am striving to think how clever business minds can think that there is more room in an already crowded social bookmarking scene. Surely between del.icio.us, rojo, furl and the other 100 sites out there this market is pretty much sewn up one way or another.
- Kamikid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"blue host"
- uday0210, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1well said, Derek!
- lerchmo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Yeah, morons have NO idea what it takes. They made their first form and all of a sudden are able to do any application faster than teams of highly experienced developers.
Living in your parents basement is far more valuable than 10 years of application development experience I guess. - dovodovo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3What's really cool and innovative about this company, so I've heard, is that they will also give away little mouse-like "scanners" that will plug into your usb drive. You can use then to read barcodes on products and advertisements and go to the various products' websites! I think this type of innovation is a clear sign that there's no possible way that we're experiencing anything like a "bubble".
- gamekid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Just don't agitate the dots.
- DrinkPaint, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Do they really need 10 people and $1.5 million to create and run a site like that?
- lerchmo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Im pretty sure thats just the current design, minus the css.
- nullptr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Are you sure you talked to developers? I've never heard any resistance to APIs here. Anyways, on 1/2, those are tough issues on many sites (this one included). 3/4 are coming VERY soon ... bi-directional, as you wish. Here's the result of a test app I wrote to transfer my BD content to del.icio.us (all open, this will be available to everyone soon).
http://del.icio.us/nullptr - nullptr, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3@dovodovo - Ha! I still have a CueCat, so don't rule it out ;)
- majorbabu, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3okay, i really like the effort put into it and all, and i don't want to sound mean or disrespecting in any way.... but if one can't explain why this service is better than any other existing ones in a few short blurbs, then don't expect others to be able (or willing) to do so. respect the 3-second rule.
maybe if it was called delicious.on.crack.us then i'd be more appreciative of the hard work involved in this. - SorenG, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Thanks for the explaination, Derek. I actually think the site is pretty cool, and easier to use than other sites.
I hope more Myspacers move over.
However, clicking the link of your link next to your name brought me this:
Page Not Found. We're sorry, the page you were looking for is not available on Blue Dot. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3What? They decided to stop developing car audio equipment for THIS!?
(This joke is somewhat obscure and requires knowledge of the German language. Let's see how fast people who don't know any German will mod me down!) - isleshocky77, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Once I can import from del.icio.us I'll take a look at it merely for the permissions. I like the idea of setting up permission groups to give to only certain people.
Another point, has anyone been anle to get an rss feed of just tags, and all the "dots" of a specific tag like del.icio.us? - Kebert, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Can't import my del.icio.us, not interested.
- MortisTortis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I've been a fan of BlueDot.Us for a while now (have been a beta tester). The site gets continually better all the time as they work really hard at taking suggestions and improving it.
The ability to instantly and effortlessly socially blog something for myself or for my friends (targeted with sub groups even) has proven to be quite useful and fun. It works great for remote friends/family as well as for friends/family that are local. The 'no software' install and ability to work on almost all browsers and opertating systems is brilliant and well done.
There are some problem with the site, but what site is perfect? I would say that they are responsive and working hard to make it the best out there. The pictures functionality isn't perfect.. but it adds a powerful dimension to social blogging and will continually get better I'm sure.
I find that it fills a nitch for me in my life with my friends and I hope that others give it a try.
http://bluedot.us/users/matthallett - mannkind, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1As a fellow Informatics student I applaud the hard work that the BlueDot team has done.
Back about 6 months or so ago I was part of a group that met with the developers. We were asked us to take a look at it, use it for awhile, and give feedback. A couple things struck me right away and still do:
1. Yet Another Login: Please, for the love of god, can we get some single sign on stuff working? Instead of making users sign up for Yet Another Service, allow them to sign in with services they may already use. Like Google, Yahoo/Flickr, LiveJournal/OpenID. People are getting tired of signing up for new services, so why not make it easier for them to use yours?
2. Yet Another Friends List: Maybe it is just me, but I am *so* tried of setting up friends lists. Now there isn't a single 'friends' service like OpenID (to my knowledge) but setting up friends all over again just annoys me and makes me not want to use the service.
3. No exporting: So you get all of my information, my tags, my favorite spots, my friends. But yet I am not even allow me the flexibility of getting my bookmarks into an open format (xml or html, csv). In fact, it wasn't understood why I would want to do that. Well, what happens when del.icio.us goes down? What happens when bluedot.us goes down? That's right, I lose all my data, and you have it. At least let me have it too.
4 No importing: There was no importing from the current social bookmarking scenes. I was promised a del.icio.us bookmark importer for months. Nothing. Now I see another 'coming soon' from whom I can only guess is one of the authors. Too little, too late.
On top of those complaints there is the always big: Some people bookmark some things I really think are dumb, only 1% of what they bookmark interests me because A) What was posted is stupid or B) I've already been to the website.
BlueDots is a really cool idea, but not something I can ever see myself actually using. I think it's most usful function is mining and selling data. *sigh* - chris900, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Here's something to think about. This market isn't sewn up, the battle has just begun! If there were a site like Blue Dot out there that has as many users as MySpace, well, then maybe you'd have a point. But, there aren't, so you don't. Competition is what makes things interesting and better for users. Also, many markets can support multiple flavors of the same product. When I go to the hardware store to buy a drill, why are there multiple types of drills for me to choose from? Why are there competing manufacturers? When drills first came out, did one manufacturer lock up the drill market, and everyone else who made a drill was wasting their time?
Creating a service that has learned from the best elements of other services and then added some innovation of its own to the mix is what developing new products is all about.
And to the guy that thinks that these web sites are 2 day mysql driven websites that copy 90% of the features from other sites, I challenge you to build your own copy of any of these sites in 2 days using mysql. Please. Try it. Blog about your progress and your success. And then, please send me your resume, because oh my god, you're the most l33t developer in the universe. You are God. I bow to you.
If you can't, though, then please, shut up. I once had a manager who asked me how long a project would take, I told him a week, and he said "a week? I could do that in like 3 hours!" To him I replied, "ok, you build it then". He never did build it, and I did it in about 3 days. - wassim2k, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Does every name of every company have to begin with the word "blue"? blue bunny, blue hippo, blue mountain, jet blue, blue's news, blue microphones, blue man group, blue book value, blue cross, blue shield, blue highway, blue jackets, blue genes, blue magazine, blue nile, blue coat systems, blue note, blue squirrel, blue martini software, blue robot, blue corn music, blue cafe, blue nomad, blue chicago, blue origin. Only to name a few.
- kshahani, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0you didnt talk to developers - i know b/c it was me :) and i was clear about not being a developer :)
but thanks for your feedback - it was useful then and it is now as well! - philbrewer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1http://www.bluedotmi.com/
- nullptr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1No, everybody I know at Blue Dot loves Digg ... we're really a very different kind of site.
- SorenG, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Here are some early shots of Digg http://web.archive.org/web/20050123043501/http://digg.com/
I would not take the critiscism too personally. The more you feed it, the bigger it gets. No doubt you all have put a ton of work into this. - Battlecry, on 10/12/2007, -6/+6It's sunny today, but hasn't been for the last several days. "It rains a lot in Seattle" is not a stereotype.
- nullptr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Are you sure you talked to developers? I've never heard any resistance to APIs here. Anyways, on 1/2, those are tough issues on many sites (this one included). 3/4 are coming VERY soon ... bi-directional, as you wish. Here's the result of a test app I wrote to transfer my BD content to del.icio.us (all open, this will be available to everyone soon).
http://del.icio.us/nullptr - nullptr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Check in a couple of days ;)
- mannkind, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'm positive. He came to an IUGA meeting. Although it was so long ago I cannot remember his name off the top of my head.
1 and 2 are only hard if you don't want to take the time to do them. I am the co-developer of Discovr (http://dis.covr.us) and we managed to have Discovr logins as well as OpenID,/LiveJournal, and Flickr/Yahoo logins. I wanted to do some work getting Google logins to work, but at the time of main development, the PHP version was < 5 and I couldn't use the jabber php library. It wasn't that hard at all.
As for 3 and 4, I'm glad to hear that they are coming. I realize it is a 'beta' and thus not everything is implemented, etc. it just seems like being able to input current data as well as export data should be high on the priority scale with a bookmarking site. - tastethevenom, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Today's trivia:
In how many ways can we manipulate restroom door sign characters for logos? - nullptr, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I had a Blaupunkt deck in my '86 Escort for years, and it _still_ took me 6 months of working for Blue Dot before I caught the meaning :)
- innerspirit, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Seems to work pretty fast... just wishing for an Opera or FF plugin now... I'm not a huge fan of activex.
- nullptr, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Hey there, we don't require ActiveX at all (even in IE) -- we install as bookmarks in FF/Gecko-based browsers (no plugin or browser restart required) or Safari (no plugin required). Opera support has been a bit back and forth, since Opera moves quickly, but it's on our radar (and chances are there won't be any plugin required there either).
- micklerlop, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2bluedots is fassssssssssst. i like delicious but its so slow.
- saturnring, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0this is plain BORING!
- lerchmo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2EVERYONE who makes these "2 day" Comments has Never developed a web application of any consequence or is a f*cking moron. Most likely they have 4 months of experience programming in php and look at something like this and say, ***** thats like 3 queries and some front page magic whats the big deal? Shut the F up and make your own application in 2 days, lets see how far that gets you.
- jojo77, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Kebert check out Jookster.com, you can import all your delicious bookmarks and search through all it's pages after. Jookster is not a social bookmarking site, it's a social search engine. Check it out.
- nullptr, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0That's because digg is generating the link with the trailing paren (they must have only taken 1.5 days to build it). Here's another try:
http://bluedot.us/users/derek - mrefranklin, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2You can get more than $1.5 million... if your name is MySpace or Facebook.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+110 people made it nice and easy for them - one page each.
- mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2No, they use segways.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Blaupunkt did make some kickass stereo equiment.. especially because they didnt abuse "RMS" readings
too bad the've hopped on the soc.net bandwagon. - isleshocky77, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1@nullptr I also still have a radioshack cuecat. I was just looking at another project, I believe being dugg, something like barcodepedia or something where they want everyone to start submitting barcodes of everything. The site asks for donations of cuecats. I couldn't stop laughing thinking about how old my cuecat is.
- majorbabu, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1sigh... another fancy twist to a service that already works well enough for everyone.
- JoeCastagna, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0So basicly this is Digg for the myspace genaration? I don't get it I don't see any good reason to swich from digg to this blue dot crap..
That images it is posting with every link are turning out to be realy bad. I'm geting a lot of webstat stuff and it basicly looks bad. - richardiscool, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Do they ride to work on folding scooters too?
- yellowdevil, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1bloodie great comment. especially enjoyed your insights into how long things take to build out.
- isdereks, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Dugg for local support ;) I checked the service out briefly. With so much attention to the aesthetics of the bookmark presentaiton and "social" aspect, it kind of takes away from the actual usefulness. I'm not sure about where others stand, but web based bookmarks serve on purpose and one purpose only, that is to archive my interests online to be accessed from anywhere. I rarely have time to browse through everything I collect, how am I supposed to have time to browse "contacts" dots?
I'll stick with del.icio.us, but in the comparison contest of ma.gnolia and Blue Dot, I'd side with Blue Dot. Those two service seem to have a lot in common. - jerrysizzler, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4hmm..Usually "comedy" involves something that's funny; generally, funny things are those that are new or innovative, so, unfortunately, you only solidify your state's own stereotype: not knowing how to keep an audience. Why don't you speak to a more current stereotype and tell us about all the casinos that are closed in your oil-smellin', urban-sprawlin', budget-crisis-havin' armpit of a state.
oh yeah, I'm in Seattle. It's sunny here and I haven't seen any flannels in months. -
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