Findory Put On Life Support
Michael Arrington
25 comments »
The last time we wrote about Findory was over a year ago. Ironically, it was to note that they had turned cash flow positive. Today, founder Greg Linden said he’s going to stop development of the site and put it on “autopilot.”
Findory is a personalized newspaper. It looks at stuff you tend to like to read, and compares that to others’ tastes, and presents customized news to you. The more you use it, the more it knows about you and the better the results.
The site hasn’t made much progress over the last few years. It peaked in early 2006 according to Alexa and has gone sideways since then - Linden tells me the site generates 1 - 2 million page views per month. This is another sign that the online news space is grossly oversaturated. It will take a significant technology step forward for a new startup to get traction.
Findory is now in the DeadPool.
Too many start-ups too few hours on the day
Yeah it’s tough even following the news of all the sites that give you the news. Not to mention learning their different nuances.
To me this is evidence that Findory just didn’t work all that well. I was never hip to the site determining for itself what I wanted to read.
So perhaps “Web 2.0″ sites can linger on even after their respective owners cease normal operations, thanks to Adsense plus alleged cheaper operating costs? Interesting implications, if such zombie companies actually become a real trend.
surely its not deadpool fodder if its still up and running?
I think there is another news idea thats not been done yet but I won’t share it :p
I had never heard of this site until 15 minutes ago.
I tried it and I rather like it, as it rapidly lead me to some fairly relevant associated stories and I also like the way if “dimmed” articles I had read. I’m willing to give it a go until/unless someone pulls the plug.
Darren - If a founder says he’s putting a company on autopilot and not working on it any more, and he’s the only employee, then yes, it’s in the deadpool.
I also had never heard about this site but on visiting it, it looks like a pretty decent site and maybe all that was needed was some bit of marketing.
just filtering news isn’t enough i’d humbly suggest - one needs to add tangible value to that as a base service.
bad luck, am sure you’ve learnt by the experience and it will stand you in good stead for the next project.
A lot can happen in 12 months.
This is a deadpool company! They are dying because of lack of innovation in a segment that already has too many players.
Mike is right when he says “it will take a significant step forward in technology for a start up to get traction” in the online news sector.
2007 will be the year of the great purge in Web 2.0 where non-innovators die off no matter how much cash they raise.
1-2 mil page views / month must pay for the hosting bandwidth at least..
So I’m sure Greg will keep it running for as long as people are using it.
This is sad news - I wish Greg best of luck with his future travels.
I think there is a growing danger that, if the rate of new startups continues or accelerates, none of us will be able to give them the time or attention they deserve and they will fail despite their usefulness.
I’ve actually written about this shrinking level of attention and problems achieving critical mass here http://www.touchstonelive.com/.....-pain.html
i think it’s safe to say most of these companies will end up in the deadpool considering their biz plans call for $10.00 CPMs, yet ad networks are filling their remnant inventory at 0.19CPM.
The Washington Post ran an article today on Backfence, another news-oriented start-up that’s running into trouble:
For Local News Site, Model Just Didn’t Click
http://tinyurl.com/ulcps
the more I read this site the more I think your full of it in more ways than one.
news delivery is pretty much about writing and publishing, end of story. i’ll bet all the money in my pocket that most of the tech crap on most big websites never gets used.
the problem with a lot of ’startups’ is they are a solution in search of a problem and very little of it is of any practical use no matter how you spin it. the best sites on the web are ones that provide high quality content for their users, end of story (again).
In fact, I was a Findory enthu and stayed on it for 3-4 months as my only news site before moving to Megite.
Clean interface, ability to add opml, and easy sign-up was good nuff thing.