Tello has been all over the news since last night. It hasn’t launched yet, but the promise is to allow people within your company and at trusted other companies to see your “presence”.
This means you can tell if they are using a landline, cell phone or IM application. You can use the Tello application to communicate with them and share applications. The system will work with traditional phones, blackberries and IM clients, and looks to be a killer productivity tool.
Tello raised $5.5 million from Eagle River, Evercore Partners, Rho Ventures and Intel Capital. The founders include John Sculley, Jeff PUlver, Craig McCaw and Michael Price.
I’m looking forward to testing this out, and maybe using it for my business. But Tello has made some odd choices in the weeks before launch.
First they clearly orchestrated a news blitz even though they are pre-launch. Ok, they got some great coverage. But why did they organize this way before launch? There won’t be as much hype on the day this goes live, when people can actually use the service.
Second, they’ve obviously decided that the bloggers don’t matter much. Om Malik and Alec Saunders took the time to write about them. Even though they each command a large and very relevant audience, Tello didn’t bother to list either of them on the news page. Lots of other bloggers wrote about Tello too (including our own MobileCrunch), but were not mentioned. Companies that don’t embrace bloggers tend to become attacked by bloggers. Companies that embrace bloggers, and thank them, get lots and lots of love.
Third, and this is minor - what’s up with the circa 1995 stock photography on the home page?
And no blog? Does Tello intend to communicate with us via press releases?
Of course, I will forget all of this (stock photography and all) if Tello is as cool as it looks like it might be.
Update: I have never been ripped into as aggresively as I have in the comments to this post.
Update: Tello has added blog posts to their news page. Good for them.
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 because I want your opinion. I thought that was the reason for reading someones weblog? Keep up the good work.
Hi Mike,
People subscribe to you because they need your opinion, which has always been valuable. What u citied in this post is also useful stuff that new companies and even existing one should be mindful about. For a Business, its all about managing relationship with the touchpoints to their products: whether they are the direct consumers, critics, promoters, etc.
But what I also feel, that a Company is not obliged to link back to bloggers. At least in case where they have not requested them to write about their Product/Service. One won’t be expecting a similar kind of reaction from likes of Forbes or eWeek -”…we write about you, so you mention us in your News Page…”.
But then as said, it would be bad relationship management for a Company if they don’t give due credit to their Reviewers.
Mike, for the “couple of people who are leaving negative comments undermany different names (IP addresses are the same)”…
run the IP address through a tool like this:
http://www.location.com.my/free.asp
That should at least give you a city. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and find the ISP listed is actually not an ISP but the actual company. Do let us know. My, this social web 2.0 thingy sure is entertaining.
Rich, Thanks. Yep, I know where these people are roughly. The key is that its just the same IPs over and over.
First of all, I want to say “Hah!” because was the first to call out the ones writing flames as not just random comments (in my opinion). It was the style of the writing and some other cues that made me think.
Second, Mike, this blog entry has to have some kind of historical significance. I mean, you had the photographer of the photos writing comments on your blog! That’s frigging amazing. And it’s clear (to me) you also had Tello PR people and/or employees posting anonymous flames. What a colossal PR blunder. Instead of engaging you with positive dialog (which I’m sure would elicit a positive response from you and your readers) they took the low road. They blundered with their first marketing endeavor and now it’s preserved on the Web forever. I’m sure they are incensed because they likely spent months planning it all out and one lone blogger and morons that read his blog, in their mind, tainted it. But it’s bigger than that–it’s not one lone blogger, it’s that they missed the boat on a new way of doing business.
And smart, successful people don’t like to think they’re clueless about anything. Hence, the terribel flames here.
Mike,
Keep up the good work!
Your honest opinion is what we look for when reading TechCrunch, and that is what makes it such a great blog.
Honest opinions is also what we expect from comments to your posts, not personal attacks.
Too bad you need to grow such a thick skin in this flaming environment, but that is life.
Cheering from the sides,
Juan
“that made me think”
We need more evidence that this actually occurred. The thinking, I mean.
Forget the bashing, you’re right. We were overlooked in the VoIP blogging world.
It’s being corrected as I got to Jeff who led me to Doug and I think this is just opening night focus.
That said, what we should focus on is the lousy job the mainstream media did at really telling the story. That’s where the blogs come in. We go deeper and wider. We associate and explain better. If anything the story got undertold by only a few bloggers getting the story, and Om is more than a blogger which is why he gets the nod first.
Alec knew from being involed with Tello from other levels. He was very helpful in demystifying the story for me.
Now that I’ve talked with Doug Renert I’m more clear, and will write on Tello with an informed insight and opinion.
I’m just reading this for the first time
What a freaking joke - all the people bashing Mike obviously have an agenda and don’t want him to call it as he sees it
Mike - fuck ‘em, you’re right
Dave
I wonder if these comment attacks are a form of linkbaiting? As other readers noted, they wouldn’t have known about Tello if they hadn’t been attracted to this story for its furor. It sounds strange, but so does making these attacks with the notion that it would change anybody’s opinion. Next logical explanation: college social experiment. Most logical explanation: a rotten prank … if you call that logic.
The Art of Linkbaiting:
http://performancing.com/node/38
There is a lot of ‘we’ here, especially among the supporters. I thought web2.0 was about thinning the lines between the ‘we’s
“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.”
As a decontructionist blogology specialist, I have to say that when a user posts a comment scolding a blogger about voicing his opinion, is this not the reader attempting to erect a Domination System and impose it on the blogger?
“Shame on you for being so exhibitionistic that you tell us your opinion, especially since it conflicts with my omniscient view.” is what the flamers are saying.
But who cares? because they are teenage boys with girl names who tell fart jokes and worship Harry Potter.
You are correct about pre-launch publicity: waste of time, betrays a chaos of intracorporate finagling.