I generally like your blog, but shudder when you stray into pretentious rants like this. Please do criticize on the basis of the product but don’t whine because a company isn’t following your narrow script.

“How dare they not involve the Web 2.0 intelligentia!?”

“You mean viral blogging isn’t the end all and be all of new product introduction?”

“We were all good little soldiers. Where’s our candy? What no reward? But we played the game! Burn 1.0 company, burn.”

I think it’s time you stray from the teleprompter Mike: Web 2.0 is not utopia, deal with that. A little reality check every now and then does everyone some good.

Hey Mat - ok, point taken. But I did try to balance the story…and I do think a blog is a must have for any web company today.

Web 2.0 is not uptopia?

Mat - I think the criticism is more than fair. Mike did say “looks to be a killer productivity tool”. I think his advice is dead on.

Seriously, I agree with Mat. Are you trying to give up smoking, or has someone replaced your regular coffee with decaf? You’ve got a good gig going here, but too much more of this whiff of ‘I can make em and break em’ that I’m catching and I’ll unsubscribe.

And Richard: a company whose product is aimed squarely at business is not going to catch any wind in their sails from the early adopter crowd.

Since all of these comments are anonymous, I don’t know if “real” people are saying this or not. I certainly don’t think I can “make or break” companies (did I say or imply that?), but I’m also not going to just write fluffy stuff like the NYT seems to these days. I say what I think. And in this case I think Tello has wrapped what looks to be a killer product with a really dumb website and communications strategy.

James, on your second paragraph, I think I would have agreed with you a few months ago. But after reading an early version of Scoble and Israel’s Naked Conversations, and seeing how big, non web companies are using blogs to really connect with customers, I now disagree. An informal communication channel, like a blog, is an important way to talk to customers and potential customers.

Mike, I agree. Tello Rocks. You suck and your writing is terribel (sorry, someone had to tell you). click…unsubscribed.

Has it ever occured to you that Om Malik, Alec Saunders, and Mobilecrunch don’t actually matter much. I mean come on, they’ve got press from Business Week, eWeek, and Silicon Beat. Why would they want to clutter that up with with links to bloggers?

Also, if the bloggers are pissed that they didn’t get their “kickback” then I’d say they’re blogging for all the wrong reasons. So much for writing for passion and not reward.

Your post is by definition “fluff” since you don’t actually add any value and just bash a product that’s not even released yet. Maybe the NYT isn’t the greatest source of news, but this doesn’t even pass for semi-informative.

- unsubscribed

Grey, I don’t think I am going to address most of your points but I will say that the bloggers I mentioned don’t need the links and may not have even noticed. But other bloggers will, and so my recommendations to companies has always been to have a blog, and if you can to point to people who review your product.

I also think it’s worth pointing out that people like Om are actually bigger than some of these cited publications:

http://www.alexa.com/data/deta.....at.com#top

And, I did not bash the product. I can’t because I haven’t seen it yet. It looks like it addresses a real need though.

I think the comments from Mat, James, Kevin and Grey might all be the same person slamming you. Have you checked the IPs?

Gee Bill, what insight. Is it that hard to believe that Arrington on his high horse irritated several readers? I don’t know about the other posts, but these are mine alone. Yes, I will post anonymously because for all the hot air, Techcrunch has a large reader base and I’m not interested in putting a bull’s eye on for the author who obviously has no issue with leveraging his popularity to push his rhetoric (totally within his rights btw).

Michael, you actually addressed all of my points (except for the fluffy writing, but that’s to be expected) so thank you. I think this graph illustrates my original point better:

http://www.alexa.com/data/deta.....at.com#top

And that’s just the online version!

When push comes to shove, no one in middle management is going know/care who Om is (yes I know he writes for some glossies), but you can bet they’ll know Business Week.

I think you need to stop huffing the Web 2.0 paint.

My bad, this is the link:

http://www.alexa.com/data/deta.....ek.com#top

Connecting with customers and prospective customers is wonderful, but the percentage of microsoft customers who know who Scoble is will always be insignificant. Corporate blogs will always be about niche conversations for non web companies.

I’m not saying they’re not valuable, but suggesting that they’ve somehow made a mistake by not having a blog is silly. Clearly their communications strategy is working well if they’re getting the positive press they are; and I think it’s kind of petty of you to try to bitch-slap them because they’re not playing in your sandbox.

I agree with you about the stock photography though.

I don’t see why Mike should keep his mouth shut unless he’s got something nice to say, what’s the point in that?

Mary-Ann, it’s not that he’s being critical; it’s that his criticism isn’t relevant, and it smacks of too much time spent in the echo chamber.

Wow this is sounding like an AOL message board.

First of all, bloggers are a great way to reach a certain kind of audience. If you’re trying to reach mid to senior level IT guys, bloggers are the way to go. If you’re trying to sell to CEO’s of companies that are not in the technology space, bloggers don’t matter so much. Given who is mixed up in this, I’d say their sales strategy is top down not bottom up. They want 20 HUGE clients not 25,000 small clients.

Finally. John Sculley? In a tech start up? That’s clever idea…

Ditto the stock photography.

James, I found the criticism relevant. I know a few guys in that target market because I write about stuff that some of them do at the weekend. Just because they are used to brochureware and confusing copywriting doesn’t mean that’s what they want.

Show them a Web 2.0 style site with big writing and simple and intelligent explanations and most of the time they’ll breathe a sigh of relief.

There are better stock photos and ways of merging images out there too…

I think the reason that TechCrunch is so successful is that it usually reads more like journalism than a chatty, meandering blog.

However, I’d rather read your take on sites that you find interesting and working, than critique of sites that you don’t, like the posts on Ning and Tello.

I do believe the *press* is increasingly reading blogs, so I agree that a blog is a useful comm line…

Mike I dont think your criticism was that bad. I’ve seen moer lethal than that and deservedly so. Sounds like the comments are from Tello employees…What are they going to do next, steal newspapers that write up bad pieces on them?

The stock photography is old looking. I wouldn’t say that Om Malik is not important though. After all he is a senior writer at Business 2.0 which is my favorite business magazine, and I’m sure many other peoples as well. So if they get in good with Om they might just get in good with B2. Also you have to realize that even small blogs can make a big difference in how many users, and interested parties you will recieve to your site.

Early adapters read blogs and drive markets. Therefore reaching out to blogs should be a top priority of any new tech company. It’s not only smart but it’s also cheap press and the links you get are better than any paid banner ad ever would be. They also help increase your google pagerank quite a bit.

Would I click on a banner ad for Tello? No. Did I just visit their website after reading about it here? Yes.

Michael,

I don’t think you need to really worry about a few unsubscribers. From your feedburner count you have a greater “true” subscribers than most trade magazines and general newspapers.

I’m surprised at the aggressiveness of the comments. Alex Popov is probably right about them being empolyees of Tello. Has Jeff Pulver made any comments about virulent negative comments yet? I notice from his post about Tello he is saying that the sceptical posts are good as it provides balance.

The orignial commentators are off based regarding the importance of blogs for marketing. Hugh Macleod http://www.gapingvoid.com, Tara Hunt http://www.horsepigcow.com, Steve Rubel http://www.micropersuasion.com to name a few can give very detail accounts of the importance of the blogsphere in marketing. While many in the blogsphere do over estimate their importance, the blogsphere is growing in importance for corporate communication. Why else would companies exist just to track opinion in the blogsphere.

All criticism is relevant as long as it is presented constructively as Michael did.

//Early adapters read blogs and drive markets//

I had to spit out my tea and laugh at that pompous statement! You got the first part right but the second part..that’s funny!

Demand drive markets, not a bunch of self-pompous, self-appointed people that think they are on the cutting edge.

Good grief!

Mike,

My gut tells me that the people writing flames work for Tello or their PR agency and they’re shaking in their boots because they think they screwed up.

Here’s why I think that: These same people that ignored bloggers and failed to create a blog for Tello (probably their traditionaal PR flacks) think that bashing you is some how going to help? It just proves they are clueless. If they had a clue, they’d have a blog and point people there to address what you say! It would drive traffic to their site and create a dialog with potential customers. That’s blogging 101.

Don’t let them bother you Mike. You made reasonable criticisms.

If your sales channel is a direct personal pre-existing relationship with CEO’s of companies not in the technology field bloggers don’t add much.

These guys aren’t going for slow, organic, bootstrap, bottom up growth. These guys are going to have their board members call the CEO’s of other companies they are also on the board of. There going to sell those CEO’s directly. Those CEO’s are going to tell their IT people what they’re going to buy.

We’re not their customers.

It is absolutely pathetic to see how much attention you think you deserve.

For all the fervor, nobody has stood up to defend Tello’s bad stock photos. Guess that’s settled, anyhow.

To Michael’s critics: what does he have to discuss except these peripheral items? In his own words: I will forget all of this … if Tello is as cool as it looks like it might be.

I probably wouldn’t have known about Tello if I hadn’t read this post. I would have ignored it if it weren’t for Michael saying he was getting ripped. I check this site because Michael lets us know about new and rising products and services. That’s what he did with Tello. This is why people read his blog. What good would it be if he only praised every single site and didn’t criticize it? He might as well be posting up new logos with links and leave it at that. His insights and criticisms are his own and if you’re too narrow to realize that, go ahead and unsubscribe because it just demonstrates that you probably don’t “get it” anyway.

With respect to his criticism of Tello, I agree with him. Why are we not their customers? Last time I checked I work for an enterprise and might be the one to tell my CTO about this service. Some CTOs have no clue about new services like this (even though they should). But admit it, most CTOs are unaware of bleeding edge technologies even if they’re right in their face. I know engineers who’ve never heard of Ruby on Rails or Digg. If it weren’t for bloggers like Om and Michael, I wouldn’t have heard about it. It’s the people that read this site that are trying to keep their finger on the pulse of technology. Without people like us, a lot of folks would never know about half of these services or sites. We’re free marketing and mavens that will could push the tipping point. Ignoring people like us does nothing to that end.

I’ve worked in marketing for Sony, Apple and eBay so I think about these things all the time. Anyone with any sense knows that free and viral are good things. I look at that site and I think 2000 and outdated. They didn’t even bother to spend some money to make their website look half decent. Sure this isn’t a Web 2.0 service or site, but that doesn’t render their innovative marketing methods useless. The same people who are networked by their cell phone, blackberry, IM clients, are highly correlated to people who are up to date on the web. They might even read a blog or two. Board members and employees alike are surfing the web and either one can influence the decision-maker in a company to adopt Tello. By ignoring the web as a critical avenue to market to new clients, they are making a mistake. That’s all Michael was trying to say. Keep on doing the great job you’re doing Michael!

“Demand drive markets, not a bunch of self-pompous, self-appointed people that think they are on the cutting edge.”

There are two products in the same market. They are pretty much identical and they’re both good products.

Product A plays nice with bloggers and because of bloggers gets more attention from early adapters. Early adapters generate hype for Product A. More people hear about Product A and use it.

Product B does the opposite. They focus on mainstream channels which are slow. By the time their article is reviewed in Product A has been receiving hype and coverage in the blogosphere for over a month now.

Which product does better?

My gut tells me that Dave Lu work for Techcrunch or their PR agency and they’re shaking in their boots because they think they screwed up.

Don’t let him bother you Mike-critics. You made reasonable criticisms.

Comment #29 (see #23) is hilarious.

This is quite funny line of comments! Thanks for pointing to them from the post as I often don’t read comments. Guess I should from now on!

Shit, going anonymous (#29) was totally useless if people find the comment funny!
Bah..

Whoa. Here’s another vote for support for you Mike, and another note of skepticism towards the critisizing comments from “unique” people. This post, like your others, is neither arrogant nor is your writing “terribel,” but informative and enlightening as always. I trust you aren’t taking most of this seriously. Keep up the great work, and thanks for your contributions to the community.

Yay! Let’s all jump on the blogger-bashing bandwagon. We’ll get refreshments and stew in our own coolness. We haven’t been corrupted by any of this “conversation” nonsense, let’s be proud of it! How dare this mere blogger suggest that any lessons have been learned by the past few years of transparency and openness on the internet. Press releases and mainstream media coverage for all!

Sheesh.

#28

Eric,

I believe the comparitive performance of Product A vs. B will not be based based on whether bloggers or mainstream media hyped the product. It will be based on the level of marketing effort of each company and how good the product/service really is.

Mike,

You deserved to get ripped into because you used the word ‘hype’, not ‘marketing’ or ‘PR’. It make you appear to be a ‘hypster’ which I believe you are not (I hope).

Smart entrepenuers and startups made a big investment in their venture and naturally want to build their company on solid marketing strategies, not hype. Hype strategies is for whack web sites that think VCs will get excited about their whack web site because there is ‘media buzz’ out there.

Marketing is not ‘hype’. Marketing takes time and are well planned out. Sometimes marketing have to be done one handshake at a time. Just my 2cents.

Mike, you are free from editorial control. Keep feeding your opinion. When I read this, I didn’t think you were pompously self-promoting yourself and bloggers. You comments in that regard do have some merit. But I don’t think it’s black-and-white. If a company is 2 engineers in a garage, blogs are the vital. They likely can’t afford big marketing spends or a PR agency. And they don’t necessarily have adress books full of CEOs. John Sculley’s call, on the other hand, WILL be taken by ANY CEO in the Fortune 2000.

Ultimately the product has to peform. The Dotcom landscape (even pre-bust) was littered with rock star teams (board, investors, founders) who created lots of hype and then imploded due to poor execution (too many chiefs, not enuf…). If Tello works well, is easy to understand and install, and responds quickly to user feedback, they have good chance of success. If stock photos were the predictor of demise…what’s the saying, “if I had a nickel…”

You said it yourself: if the product is a star, you and everyone else will forget about stock photos and forgotten links (does anyone want to give them the benefit of the doubt that they just may have overlooked the blogs, and not intentionally ignored them).

I would just say: keep doing what you’re doing, but be a little more careful when analyzing blogs’ (and your own) relevance. Let other crow about how necessary you are becoming.

Now that I have come sincerely to your defense, can you help a brother out. Let me come to your BBQ. I promise I won’t take up much space. I hope you can squeeze me in.

“I think the comments from Mat, James, Kevin and Grey might all be the same person slamming you. Have you checked the IPs? ”

I would agree with this or they are directly affiliated with Tello in some way.

To digregard the bloggers who bring new products to the attention of the first tier of users..the users who really test and use beta products..the techies and tech enthusiasts.. IS a big mistake. I´m sure Mike doesn´t need the “attention”: He is meerly pointing out that you have made a big marketing mistake because you are ignoring your prime market: the readers of Techcrunch and similar blogs who are more likely to use a beta product, deal with the bugs, actually give you great feedback to improve your product, and pass it on to other tech enthusiasts. The mass market typically waits until a product is ready for prime time before jumping on the bandwagon. Business Week,etc aren´t going to help a prelaunch “product” at all or even a Beta product. It may help you produce a nice “news” page on your site, but it won´t help your product.

To the people who responded in such a negative, condescending way: Be a little more professional with your criticism. Obviously you like something about what Mike is doing if you responded so quickly to his new review. I think he mentioned that the service “seemed” like a great idea;however, the path that Tello is taking is probably not the best..especially for a “prelaunch”. It just isn´t the most practical and beneficial way to get a beta product to critical mass within the first tier of users of bleeding edge products.

Keep doing what you are doing Mike. This is the best blog to keep up to date on new products and services. For every one of these flamers, there are 1000s of us who love your blog and like it just the way it is.

I think Mike has lot of fair points here and the criticism was fair.

It seems to me that employers or CEOs of Tello company are writing here anonymously against Mike’s criticism… What a shame.

Mike– stick to your guns. I actually kind of slightly agree with some of the points your critics (in this case), but the vitriol with which they deliver their opinion seems to be coming from an emotional and not rational place.

I read this blog because it tells me about new web stuff, and usually has an opinion or some inside info that I can’t get anywhere else. Don’t let some harsh commentors change that.

I just wanted to write the 39th comment. 39 comments folks! And nobody cares? Come on.

What an interesting read…

Two hours give or take since the frenzy…

Has Tello realed in their own PR people now?

Tello does look dull with the stock photos, but agreed does sound interesting and I would have never have known good, bad or indiffernt about Tello if it was not for you Mike.

tello

- has stock photos on its site
- doesn’t have a blog
- doesn’t thank bloggers
- orchestrated a news blitz
- has PRs but no references to posts by bloggers
- addresses CEOs, top brass & cares a damn what bloggers think

and I presume, tello
- doesn’t have an AJAXified client, no tagging either
- they didn’t inform Mike of the launch

is tello a Web 2.0 company in the first place? if yes, give me reasons why it is web 2.0. and if no, what’s it doing on a “weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new web 2.0 products and companies” then?

You post an update on how people are ripping into you. It was a process in the making Michael. This was just the straw that broke the camels back. I know several worthy companies you have passed up profiling, and continue to profile less than stellar “comapnies.” Socialporn is a good example of one of these. The term “company” is taking on a new role it seems in regards to techcrunch.

You and your website are not ready for the success it has taken on, and the role it now plays on the web. You may want to think about the Cobain/Young method, and burn out before you fade away.

Yawn.

Jabber has had this feature for more than 5 years now.

With Google talk dont you think google will be all over this and these tello’es will land up getting crushed.

Presence is core infrastructure: ergo it will land up in the bigs software bevies sometime soon.

Yet another company built to flip?

Mike,

I posted some comments about how to engage the blogosphere. I’m interested in your opinion.

http://pauledmondson.blogspot......eb-20.html

1. A lot of people have confused popular blogs with mainstream journalism. Mike, it seems that people expect that when a blog reaches a certain critical mass, it will suddenly conform to the mainstream’s unwritten rules. This site is your opinion - voice it!

2. Tello is marketing old school style. Its not about whether blogs are *cool* or “2.0″ or whathaveyou; its about openness, transparency, responsiveness. Blogs and many of the tenets that fall under the 2.0 banner ultimately help close the loop on the customer feedback cycle - and thus are a good thing, above and beyond the goodwill equity they may generate.

3. Endorsing Tello’s marketing strategy because bloggers are not their primary audience is a fair point; that being said, I think the disconnect is that they’re trying to generate buzz and public profile, but not following up with the “2.0 attitude” that many of us have come to expect from the new crop of startups.

I still think it’s funny that your readers think anyone who disagrees with your opinion must “work for the company”. Just more self-centeredness.

Also, I see the title of this post has been changed from the much more inflamatory “Tello - Already Making Mistakes” to a more reasonable “Tello - Good Product, Dumb Strategy?”. That’s a classy move.

The folks who somehow think that the criticism of techcrunch has been orchestrated by tello are hilarious! Tello and their PR firm clearly don’t even know what a blog is; the point that a lot of you are having trouble facing is that this will in no way hurt their business.

This isn’t Adam Curry and Wikipedia…

As the comments continue to roll in, I’ve been thinking. I’m wrong quite often, and people do call me on it. Sometimes they call me on it very rudely, but that’s ok. It’s part of the deal.

But something else is going on here. There are a couple of people who are leaving negative comments undermany different names (IP addresses are the same). They either have a personal problem with me, or they are associated with the company in some way. If its just something against me, that’s ok. But if they are associated with the company, I think there is a real problem with Tello’s attitude towards the market. I have no way of knowing which it is, or either, but I do know that the reaction to my post is over-the-top aggressive.

I will not allow this blog to descend into fuckedcompany.com-like language and I will moderate overly rude comments in the future (I have not needed to do this in the past). But I think what has happened in the comments area to this post is really interesting and so I am going to leave it as it is.

Mike is not accountable to anyone, unlike the WSJ or NYT he does not have to be fair and unbiased. It is HIS blog and HIS writing. I am shocked to find people telling him how things should be said about companies. If you do not like what he is writing do not read the site and good luck finding interesting tech news elsewhere.

noah
okdork.com

Mike, can you provide the names of the commenters who are sharing ip addresses?

Noah, Mike isn’t accountable to anyone, but when his audience provides critical feedback, he might want to pay attention to it.

It’s not fair to say that any of the negative comments here *might* be from Tello employees, that’s really arbitrary since you have no evidence.

Brad, Mike’s post about Tello was informative, personal, opinionated–generally positive about the company but critical of its PR strategy. The first comment and some others attacked Mike as well as his posts, with a level of rage I found really surprising. Remember the recent flaming of Jeremy Hermann’s blogpost about an emergency on Alaska Airlines? The earliest, nastiest comments were similarly anonymous; Jeremy discovered they came from IPs linked to the airline itself. That’s why people are suspicious in this case too. It’s hard to see how Mike’s post would incite the kind of flame seen in those early anonymous comments–except from people who felt personally attacked.

I’ve never heard of Tello and I don’t care what they do (after I’ve read the description on their web site). But I’ve read the comments on this post as I was interested in viral effect the post might have. To tell you the truth, I am really impressed… The fact that there are more than 50 comments posted on the company nobody (or mostly nobody) ever heard before is really impressive. I do get a feeling that most of the “negative” comments are somehow related to Tella. Frankly, it can be anybody (Tella related): investors, owners, PR, employees etc. My point is that unless you are emotionally attached to the company or really don’t like Michael (I don’t think that is the case here) you will not start posting so many posts explaining your previous posts and defending your point. I’ve personally agree with some of the points Michael made and disagree with some. But then again, I think Mike can say whatever he feels like saying as it is HIS web site. Even further, he actually replied to all negative commets with class and I have to give him credit for that. Many other bloggers wold simply remove the comments they didn’t like.
Last point, the fact that so many Tella supportes expressed their opinios here should tell us all how much power does single blog like TechCrunch have.
Thank you Michael for great site and never ending source of information!

Here’s a new feature for the blogging tool-smiths: flagging anonymous comments from the same IP addr:

“Comment by Joe [John Doe #1, 3 total comments] — January 24, 2006 @ 5:00 pm”

What does a traceroute on those IPs show, Mike?

I love reading blogs but can’t stand bloggers, in much the same way that I love going to France…

Mike, if it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t of heard about Tello so they should thank you for this press they’re getting.

Well, I’m neither attached to tello, nor do I dislike Michael. I read this blog religiously. That doesn’t mean I can’t fire an occasional shot across Michael’s bow when I think he’s drinking too much 2.0 koolaid.

Something else to consider is that Michael has softened his criticism of tello since this was first posted. The original title (still the post slug) was ‘Tello’s made some mistakes already.’ Suggesting that a non-web company has made a serious PR blunder by not catering to the blogosphere is just silly and kind of arrogant.

What Mike did here was use the ‘power’ he has acquired as a blogger to influence people’s opinions (irrespective of the quality of the product)
Sort of what NYT and others have been doing till now (and resented by people for it).

This way Web2.0 will be succeeded by Web1.0

“uggesting that a non-web company has made a serious PR blunder by not catering to the blogosphere is just silly and kind of arrogant.”

What’s a non-web company? There’s no such thing as a company that doesn’t need to use the web in some way or another. The web is the media. The media matters, regardless of what level we’re talking about.

People are saying well it doesn’t make sense to talk to the blogs because we’re talking to ‘big media’ is missing the point completely.

The fact is, companies need to levarage all aspects of the media, and those who don’t at least reach out to some blogs or other new media outlets are either clueless or arrogant, or both.

Has some excited comment authors invested money in Tello?

Or are they Tello techies?

I do not see any issue with Michael post.

Michael: like a leader all your words are analyzed (wrongly)… Hope it is not the reason why you will switch to some politicaly correct blog.

(Sorry for my swiss-french-english writting.)

//There’s no such thing as a company that doesn’t need to use the web in some way or another.//

Local funereal parlor don’t need the web. Trust me, if you have to use the web when you need a funereal parlor, you need to re-examine yourself…..

Ted: putting a media strategy together for a company means making decisions about where to focus your money and energy. Deciding that a viral approach using the blogosphere doesn’t make sense right now because you can get more bang for your buck elsewhere does not make a company clueless or arrogant.

And it’s pretty obvious, to me at least, that some companies live the web, while others dabble, and rightly so. When was the last time you subscribed to the blog feed for your electricity provider, or a furniture company? All roads don’t lead to the blogosphere, as hard as that might be to accept.

Do not associate blog entries with IP address, that is evil…

RAUL

Deciding that a viral approach using the blogosphere doesn’t make sense right now because you can get more bang for your buck elsewhere does not make a company clueless or arrogant.

I understand the basic point but it seems to come from a place of misunderstanding the fundamental nature of personal media. I could email Michael right now, even though I don’t know him, and engage him in a conversation and let him know about my company. Given the pedigree of the company at question, there’s no doubt it would be an easy sell. So, you’ve spent at most an hour on the phone/email and you’ve got a positive post from a blogger or two. A ‘viral approach’ to selling a product is a very different thing from a media strategy concentrating on awareness.

And it’s pretty obvious, to me at least, that some companies live the web, while others dabble, and rightly so. When was the last time you subscribed to the blog feed for your electricity provider, or a furniture company? All roads don’t lead to the blogosphere, as hard as that might be to accept.

You’re still missing the point. What if I need to find out about a new furniture store in my town? There are any number of ways to do that, but if I was managing PR for a new furniture company, one of the many places I would reach out to would be blogs such as Apartmenttherapy.

Saying that some companies live on the web and others dabble is also missing the point. Media is important to Tello, or there wouldn’t be a media strategy. Blogs are part of media. Hence, it makes sense to invest a couple of hours to get to know that part of the media, and reach out to it.

As for the person who mentioned funeral services, try searching Google for funeral and see how many ads pop up, and how many SEO pages are in the normal results.

“So, you’ve spent at most an hour on the phone/email and you’ve got a positive post from a blogger or two.”

Yeah, I suspect they don’t know what a blog is, or they don’t care. And I don’t think it will end up impacting them negatively. If they’ve made a mistep in not engaging the blogosphere, then I’m sure they can correct it later; I don’t see that they only get one chance at it.

“Saying that some companies live on the web and others dabble is also missing the point. Media is important to Tello, or there wouldn’t be a media strategy. Blogs are part of media. Hence, it makes sense to invest a couple of hours to get to know that part of the media, and reach out to it.”

So over on the tv marketing newsletters, tello is being bashed because they had the tenacity to ignore television advertising? Meanwhile, there are a clutch of telegraph operators out there who are smoking mad about the fact that tello’s arrival hasn’t been announced in morse code.

#57 - hilarious

#59 - yes, i have changed the post to soften it (I do this on a lot of posts), so some of the early flames are now out of context.

I would never post the IP addresses of a commenter unless a crime of some sort was being committed (in which case I’d give it to the police). Flaming me anonymously pisses me off but I would never breach trust by posting personal information.

I’m glad to see that the comments have evolved to constructive criticism.

So over on the tv marketing newsletters, tello is being bashed because they had the tenacity to ignore television advertising? Meanwhile, there are a clutch of telegraph operators out there who are smoking mad about the fact that tello’s arrival hasn’t been announced in morse code.

I can’t tell if you’re being deliberately obtuse just for fun? Tello isn’t doing ‘advertising’– that’s the whole point.

I’m very happy to see Tello added blogs to their news page - http://www.tello.com/news_events.html

Ted: it’s just that I’ve been waiting for ages to make that morse code joke. p.s., it’s all ‘advertising’; that’s the whole point.

Michael: glad to see that you have had some positive impact on their media strategy!

That’s awesome! I love how word gets around on the web.

While I will not defend my work here as high art, the images on Tello.com are most definitely not stock and most definitely not from 1995.

The approximate date should be obvious from the tech in the shots — the Motorola headset should be a pretty big giveaway — though I suppose that the specifics of the monitor, desk phone, conference room phone and laptops can’t really be seen at their current size. But they’re obviously not a decade old.

The equipment in the images was all very carefully selected to represent current tech. You can dismiss the photographs as being poor (I’d appreciate it if you didn’t, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion), but they’re not stock and they’re not old.

The only thing that was genuinely old in the shoot was the lens used for the image on the far right of the banner — it was a vintage Super Takumar 35mm f2.0 that holds a special place in my heart for its peculiar idiosyncracies.

The short version: while you’re perfectly within your rights to dislike my photographs, calling them “circa 1995 stock photography” is factually incorrect.

As long as we are discussing the power of blogging and web 2.0, here’s what I think…

Web 2.0 companies and the blogs that “report” on them are quite frankly insignificant. Web 2.0 is a made-up fantasy fueled by technology blogs such as this one that treat these companies as if they are actually going to have an ounce of mainstream success…A number of people seem to have the idea that they can take an idea already in development or released by a mainstream web company like google or yahoo, create a website, throw in some AJAX, and be successful. The sudden popularity of blogs such as this one make them believe that one day, their product will become a success.

But I have not seen a single web 2.0 company have any real success. The only people who use their services are the people who read blogs like Techcrunch. Sure, I like to come on the site and see a new comapny featured, but I have come to realize that all of the ideas that these web 2.0 companies have are only briefly amusing.

I believe that this web 2.0 bubble will burst very quickly, as people come to realize that the whole idea is just a giant waste of time. The ONLY company that I can think of that has been profiled on this website and has a chance at mainstream success is Riya, and that isnt even a Web 2.0 company, per se.

Now I am going to have to find ways to make up the hours of my life I have lost obsessively reading blogs like this to find “the next big thing.” I am sorry for those people who have devoted a lot of time and effort to the imaginary world of Web 2.0, because this utopia is falling down.

I’ve been reading this blog for sometime - i dont subscribe to it but check it out once a week.

I do know people who know Mike and they refer to him as ‘Mike Arrogant’ rather than Arrington. Some of these peps have gotten good reviews as well.

I guess we will have to see what Mikes web 2.0 company is and see if its something special.

Well personally I like the fact that Mike is expressing his honest opinion. You can agree or disagree, but there’s no need to flame.

Keep up the great work, Mike.

what we should be criticizing is their choice of favicon. what the heck is that?

Dang, Mike…you make a couple of criticisms and get roasted. while I complement a company and get roundly hammered. Some days ya just gotta have a think skin, eh?

As an avid reader of TechCrunch let me say that I can understand where this article is coming from. Mike isn’t offended, he’s impatient. He’s going to continue to do his job, and that means critiquing the business strategies of profiled companies.

What separates this article from pure critique is the insistence that product is more important than style and when the product is available a forward-looking perspective of it will be found on TechCrunch.

–just saw the second update, wonder if this blog-post had anything to do with it

Dana - Are you the same Dana Allhighandmighty that some my friends talk about?

Michael, Since this isn’t about Tello anymore I wanted to say that I subscribe your blog b