Pubsub Implosion

June 6th, 2006 at 6:26 pm

The confusing workflow and UI hasn’t been improved for over a year.

I had to unsubscribe from my searches because most of the matches were spam blogs. Yuck…

June 6th, 2006 at 7:43 pm

Hope Steven Cohen willcome out of it okay. He is a bang-up speaker and his blog, Library Stuff, is outstanding and has greatly benefitted the library community.

I never got much good out of PubSub. Confusing interface and the results were nearly useless.

June 6th, 2006 at 9:05 pm

I joined PubSub, I used it, I wanted to, it was aimed to solve a problem I felt I had… Then it failed miserably to deliver in all counts.

That doesn’t mean it cannot improve in the future, but dissatified users are the hardest to earn back. Usually it is a lot easier (and cheaper) for a business to focus on acquiring new customers than trying to earn the love back from those who once were.

I think that may have to do with PubSub’s current problems, whatever they may be. New “companies” should take note (I know I do). While everything seems to be “beta” now, if you don’t deliver something compelling and useful today, you will lose the early adopters for good. Of course you can still be content with “the rest of us” (I am in fact enjoying a huge crowd of non-early-adopters using our services), just remember that those are truly moving targets, as opposed as the early adoprters who seem to always be there, ready to try you out (and as quick to leave you)…

Er… Nevermind. Best of luck to PubSub, whatever their fate may be.

June 6th, 2006 at 9:43 pm

Art, Robert

Anyone can run a blog, what really makes Mike different is he takes time to put himself out there, shaking hands and sharing wisdom, weather its in London, Seattle or the valley.

Thats really cool, keep up the good work!

June 7th, 2006 at 7:55 am

I never quite “got” PubSub–it didn’t meet my needs–but I understand they have some very powerful IP underneath. I hope that is worth enough to secure a buyer or cushion the landing. I’d echo the comments on Cohen, but he’s about as “employable” as someone could be.

June 7th, 2006 at 8:33 am

Thanks Hope and Tim.

Obviously, I won’t talk about this situation. Where ever I end up working, I know that in the end, it’s the health and vitality of my family that matters the most.

June 8th, 2006 at 12:01 am

Steven, Michael,

What happens to the Structured Blogging initiative? I sure hope that doesn’t become road kill with PubSub!

June 8th, 2006 at 8:35 am

Hm, and what happens to FeedMesh now? I thought that was hosted by PubSub as well.

June 9th, 2006 at 10:17 am

Not surprised. I reported problems with their tech to them several times with never a response or acknowledgement.

June 10th, 2006 at 5:19 pm

How long before techcrunch becomes fuckedcompany2.0.com?

June 15th, 2006 at 11:43 am

May I ask ONE simple question?

What’s the “business model” of pubsub? I mean, from where do they make money?

If it’s not making money, then of course it’s investors are RIGHT on their part to opt for insolvency…..

June 17th, 2006 at 8:32 pm

Vishal,

Negative? Maybe. Jaded? Pretty much. Worried? Absolutely! I’ve been down this road before. In fact many of us have. In the Web 1.0 world I was both fortunate and unfortunate to have worked for seven companies in the span of 1999-2002. Two exist today and I watched the rest implode. So when I see posts like this I get nervous and bring it to attention.

Having a viable business model is something that should have been learned by all after the collapse of web 1.0. Being purchased by Google, Yahoo, IAC, or News Corp should not be the end game, it should be one of many viable exit strategies. As you alluded in your previous post, making money should be the priority.

I must not be the only one worried, jaded, or negative as this very post now lives in the Deadpool.

http://www.techcrunch.com/tag/DEADPOOL/

As for your comments, I’m not sure where I am condeming the efforts for change. I’m very happy that the entire software industry has been tossed on its head over the past two years as it started to rebound and that new methods of interface design and engineering have emerged. Its exciting to see my customers talk about moving away from their embeded JSP pages, 5 step processes, and actually wanting to learn dom based javascript and AJAX principles because the finally get it that usability is important. And its happening on the enterpise!

As for Pubsub, I know nothing about the business model or the company and my comments were purely on the circumstances.

cheers

August 24th, 2006 at 5:30 am

I wish luck to Steven M. Cohen.