At a dinner event earlier this week, Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield casually mentioned a site called Wordie, whose tagline is “Like Flickr, but without the photos.”
Butterfield was amused by the site. Coincidentally, we had just spoken with Wordie founder John McGrath the day before, and we were too. Wordie is like a bag of tricks. It’s a way for users to keep track of words they like and want to remember.
“It’s kind of a combo toy, dictionary, thesaurus, and social networking site…but mostly a toy,” McGrath said.
If you visit Wordie, you’ll see that the site is more about fun than anything else. You won’t necessarily build up your lexicon because there are no definitions there, only links to definitions. But you can keep track of those words that you hear or read and know you’ll want to use again like troglodyte or gouache. When you look up new words, you see links to various definitions, as well as a list of other users who have marked that word to remember. It’s silly but somehow addicting in the way Flickr is addicting.
McGrath had just finished writing Squirl, a social networking site for collectors, when he decided to write Wordie for his friends. It is written with Ruby on Rails.
“I get a lot of email from people saying they thought it was a ridiculous idea and then spent two hours entering words and checking out other people’s words,” McGrath said. “It has a simplistic charm.”
Butterfield brought up Wordie in a conversation about how we define social media and Web 2.0 applications. I’m not sure Wordie is either but it is nifty and a fun way for those of us in the Web 2.0 industry to find/use our sense of humor.
I guess it’d be of much help especially for students preparing for various exams that test vocabulary.
Remember Project runway’s Tim Gunn, the big words guy? I am listing the big words he used that causes serious blank stares: these are my 15 words, can’t wait to see whoelse like them! It’s a fun project, we all remember those difficult GRE/GMAT days don’t we!
Mitigate
Faux-bois
Consternation
Sturm und drang
Caucus
Circuitous
Ambivalent
Placate
Constructivist
Amorphous
Contrivance
Misapprehension
Egregious
Quotient
Anemic
How many do u know;)
I’ve been waiting to use this acronym on TC, here it is…WTF…ahhh… thank you!
I must say this is a piece of crap. The quality of Techcrunch is getting bad day by day. Not sure if I need to blame the writer or the owner of this blog. But definitely something has to be changed in here !! WE NEED BETTER COMPANIES TO BE COVERED WITH MORE INSIGHTS AND ANALYSIS.
I can see the simplistic charm, but really is this TC material?
There’s just absolutely nothing on the site but words to click on, which then lead you to two options: look up the definition on other sites, and see other users who have saved that word. I see there’s a commenting system but I didnt see a ny word with comments… and who in their right mind wants to comment on WORDS? I mean seriously???
Have to agree - cover something better. Maybe new social networks or investment sites or something.
Never anything on investment - cover something like this.
I like their error reports!
Sorry, but this site has gone all
500 Application Error on you. Something’s wrong with the server, most likely. Please email John, the slack bastard who built this. Feel free to give him a piece of your mind.
This is John from Wordie. The post went up at midnight on a Friday, which seems a suitable time to take a break from business. It’s the weekend, even the Wall Street Journal takes a break. Do we really need to read that yet another copycat YouTube got $8 from Sequoia, or whatever? A little variety is good. And people do seem to want to comment on words — it surprised me, too, how many closet logophiles there are. We only just launched, and this week alone over 50,000 words and 2,000 comments were entered.
Glad you like the error, BlobsBlog, but hope nobody else gets to see it
I think its a great idea.. I think its needs a little CSS styling just to make it a bit more appealing. Otherwise really cool.
seems rather simple and uninteresting…but im going to give it a try!…i will be back with a comment update….
I actually think this is a great idea. I always come across words that I would like to learn and/or use, but usually just forget about it. Now, here is a neat little system for people who want to expand their vocabulary and discover new language.
Imagine the possibilities!
What about all those students cramming for tests like the SAT?
What about features for people who do crosswords every morning? I can never fill out the NYT crossword puzzle, but what if they made it into a social thing?
If it enters in to wide use, you could even use the word lists to track the use of language and slang, sorta like Googe Zeitgeist tracks searches.
After spending time on the internet you’d think half the people hadn’t passed the 2nd grade - could this good spelling cool again?
And I already thought of a good way to monetize it: companies could sponsor different words they want their brands to be associated with. For example, Tiffany’s could sponsor “sophistication” or the Gap could sponsor “hip.”
It’s still a little buggy and rough around the edges but I find its simplicity to be very fresh and different.
I agree this isn’t mainstream TC content, but what the hell, as John pointed out, everybody should put on a Hawaiian shirt sometimes.
I checked out the site and it does look pretty cool. Agreed, it is a little simplistic, but I’m guessing it launched not too long ago. I really do often have points in my day when I hear a word that means absolutely nothing to me and I try to remember it. 98 times out of 100 I forget it, but who knows, maybe I’ll start writing them down, entering them into Wordie, and remind myself of them every once in a while now. Certainly worthwhile for the minimal effort involved.
A couple suggestions/questions: do you think you could add some kind of language tag into the word entries list? I’m living in Paris right now but am a native English speaker and I think that besides forcing i18n into the whole site for new languages (a good long-term goal, since this is a website based on language), you could just have people tag words that are obviously still in use in their native languages as from that foreign language. Also, would it be possible to bring up definitions from public sites such as http://www.wiktionary.org like http://www.answers.com does? I feel like that ability to immediately view the information in question (what those complicated words actually mean) would make the site much more accessible and popular.
But I digress, that’s enough from me. Good work, John et al.
Note to MA: Start writing again. Your site needs you - desperately! I come here to listen to your perspective and I’m not feeling the love these days. I know it’s tempting to hire writers but most of us are here because of you. Peace.
This is really neat!
I’ve noticed that most dictionaries don’t come with commenting systems: it seems to me that this is the most important gap that Wordie is poised to fill. Now if I want to share my thoughts on a word with the world, or if I want to read others’ insights on a word, I will know where to look.
Quit bashing TC or Natali. Yeah, this is not something to knock our socks off, but it is a simple application that “works”. If it does what it is supposed to do, then who are we to blame TC for profiling it here.
I do agree with the others though; the site needs a CSS facelift. It has too many words, even for a word site.
Give me a “b”
Give me a “o”
Give me a “r”
Give me a “i”
Give me a “n”
Give me a “g”
you can figure it out
داماس بوست سوريا بين يديك
Thank you for pointing out Wordie. As a teacher of both English and technology, I am always on the look out for innovations that bring the two together. I can see this site being very useful for students taking vocabulary-intensive subjects.
Great…sounds like mnemonics…
Should have launched when I was back in school…way way back…
Fun aside…sounds very useful especially to those of us constantly looking for brain food…
Although I am seeing that these new sites apperently are not tuned into dotMobi…I see Wordie definitely having more utility on my mobile phone….come on guys….get with it…..
http://www.revafinancial@squarespace.com
Dear Friend,
Readers Digest site hasa two player word game in which you can challenge logged players, but you hardly find any logged users interested and responding.
http://www.tekno-world.blogspot.com
Cute idea, but where’s the RSS and tagging? What about creating “word albums” (like Favorite and Most Despised and Interview and Web 2.0)?
Plenty of potential for word geeks, though. I hope they continue to build on it.
this is good, sometimes I really like some words, even the pronunciation.
how much did 37signals pay you to mention when a site is writtein in ruby-on-rails? you certainly never mention ‘this site is written in JAVA/PHP/Django/whatever’, only rails..
nice intro to web programming project. I wish I had a blog so I could spam it in my comments like everyone else.
projection: $30 million buyout from amazon.com in 3 months
Hands down the dumbest thing I have ever seen reviewed on this site. I agree, these guys will probably end up getting a ton of funding.
Id rather see sites competing like physical businesses to rather than everyone trying to be “original” and coming up with new garbage.
I’m surprised by the angry reaction here. Maybe you, personally, don’t care about Wordie, but for linguists, academics, and hobbyist logophiles (and there are a lot more of those than you’d guess), it could be both a great resource and a social hub. Among all the companies featured on this site, this seems like one of the safer bets.
Exact same headline we’ve already seen for Wordie like six times. Write your own material, Natali.
#25: don’t worry, even venture capitalists aren’t dumb enough to write checks for this.
#26: you must not be a linguist or academic…
this isn’t a “company”. it has no business plan and no business model. it’s a thoroughly standard intro-to-ruby-on-rails project. it’s literally as sophisticated as the example projects RoR tutorials walk you through.
I officially raise my valuation to $40 million.
Dag–lots of Bitter Bobs here!
I don’t get it.
Then again, if I didn’t consider celebrity gossip, Sunny Leone crack-licking photos, celebrity upskirting, and tattletale dirty politics passing as “news” as being kinda “dumb” and “garbage”y, I suppose I wouldn’t be interested in Wordie either. Not meaning to snark too badly, Roy, but really, there’s enough mindshare (and even VC) for everyone who can offer something that meets a need.
As it is, I’m enjoying the heck out of Wordie–having a place to jot down words I like and find interesting! It’s true that not everyone delights in words—in the same way not everyone delights in food or music—so Wordie will not strike a chord with them.
But there’s *great* potential here…as pure fun and social hubbing for word geeks, or leveraged, repurposed, or incorporated into learning/memory tools.
Guess we’ll just have to see…and in the meantime, I’m going to check out who’s listed “internecine,” “pettifog,” and “confabulate” in Wordie!
Valuation? I think I’d consider selling Wordie for $40, oh, wait, I mean ONE MEEELLION DOLLARS. I built it in two days over Thanksgiving, with a drumstick in one hand and a remote in the other.
Given, I’ve put a ton of work into it since, adding features and supporting the community, which has grown far larger than I ever imagined. I’m psyched about that, or course, and I’m having a blast, as are a great many Wordies. But#28, you’re right: no business plan, no business model, no company. Just fun.
The back end is more sophisticated than you might think, though, mostly to let it run on a $5/month host (huzzah for railsplayground.com — handled getting techcrunched with barely a shrug).
“Dumbest thing ever reviewed” on TC? Makes me proud.
@John: I have no problem with hobby projects. I think rails is awesome and some really cool stuff is done with it. my problem is the utter lack of skepticism and rationality displayed in places like techcrunch. it’s flooded with wannabe VCs dropping buzzwords and cliches. I actually think the site is interesting, I had a similar idea myself a while back. what bugs me is the seemingly growing “web 2.0″ bubble. TC is more of a gossip blog these days, and I wonder how it ever gained the clout it has. if you can build a community and make some money off it, you deserve it. if you enjoy doing it, go for it. I love entrepreneurs. I just can’t stand clueless analysts.
Does this mean you were kidding about the $40 million valuation?
I say screw the acquisition and just start patenting the english language. that’s where the big money’s at these days
Hey if you still wanna sell for $40 I’ll buy!
Maybe I was bit mean,but got your attention?!? Anyway, I read TechCrunch daily to see whats happening, and I just don’t see how it plays next to articles about Youtubes new features or Googles gmail functions which lets everyone including the competition aware. Now if there were a “sub techcrunch” site for cool sites that are made for and from hobbyists, it would fit there perfectly.
Say what you will about celeb news and those kinds of sites, but there is a market for them and our readers like it. I have other sites in the network if you would like to be more serious. Ill be submitting our new social news site to TC in a few weeks time, you can all rip me a new assh*le then…
Interesting idea, though I have not really utilized Flickr yet so I doubt I will begin utilizing Wordie.
i wonder if the word Milquetoast is on Wordie yet?? ;))
Heck yeah it is. Strangely, I put it there — in my list of outdated slang:
http://wordie.org/words/milquetoast
I think much of the negative feedback on this post is a bit unqualified and certainly unjustified. This is about a site with all your basic web 2.0 ingredients. Is it up for acquisition? Probably not…yet. As for aesthetics, aren’t you ppl getting sick of the same ol web 2.0 slick fest? Seen craigslist?
After looking around a bit and signing up on the site I could see really great potential in this site - it could become a Wikipedia level resource for quotes with a lot of use…some brilliant psychoanalyst could probably extract some interesting info based on word trends and networks. Would everyone have jumped all over a review of Ta-da lists? It’s not much different.
Why do you guys feel so entitled? Would you have been so brash if MA had posted this? I have an idea…Michael and Natali should swap stories and see what happens with feedback…
kudos to John who thought to put such a simple thing together and by his own admission did so waving a drumstick hither and yon. Who cares how complex the Ruby code is (*cough* nerd)… And If it’s so boring, why is it so darned successful a mere two weeks after appearing? It’s appealing perhaps? Hell, I’m already knee deep entering words I love (and hate, because he thought to add that option too). And that’s nothing compared to the individual users on there that have manually punched in over 2500 words. No, it’s not boring, it’s dangerous! It’s a haven for OCD word geeks!
And not for nothing, but I look forward to the day we move past judging what is “Web 2.0″ and what’s not. You can take all that other “social bookmarking bloggy soggy mashup” gibberish too. It’s just trendy spin to describe things that have existed for 10 years. Is there a word for that on wordie yet? John?
I’m loving it so far, totally my kind of site.