Comments on: Piczo Raises $11 million http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/ Startup and Technology News Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:32:12 -0800 hourly 1 By: <fb:name linked="false" useyou="false" uid="701487296">Liza Davis</fb:name> http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/comment-page-1/#comment-2983542 Liza Davis Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:02:20 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/#comment-2983542 I am shocked at how outdated all of the information on the internet about Piczo is! They underwent a major change at least 2 weeks ago. The members are outraged! It almost seems as if Piczo has been hacked! They changed the home page completely! It's as if there are 2 separate sites there. Like the creator of this "new Piczo" as they call it, is the evil stepmom, the "new Piczo" is one of the evil stepdaughters and the web building part of the site is Cinderella. What do I mean? Well, as someone who had a site there before the changes I did my best to make this "new Piczo" work for me, but it didn't work out. This is what is going on. The "new Piczo" -which is for blogging, does not connect with the web site building part of the site. You are forced to create a new nickname. You can then upload an image to be your display picture and you have limited....very limited account options available. These account options are NOT the same as the account options you already had before the changes. You cannot access your original account information at all! The display picture you upload there does not affect the web building avatar setting. When you go to work on your site you will have the display pic that you had before the change to Piczo happened. You cannot change it. But you can change the one you set in the blogging part. They put a navigation bar on top of everyone's site. That navigation only goes to the blogging part of Piczo. You only have access to your friends if you put a friends list on your site. And you can only add your friends via the old toolbar. I had figured that one out on my own. You can no longer click on the meebo chat icons of your friends and visit their sites. If you try to do that you will get an error message. There is no messaging service now. No contacting your friends or sending them messages. There are no flagging buttons on the web building part of the site now. You cannot add new friends there. The comment boards most of the time will not allow you to leave comments. Even if you are logged in, when you click to add a message you get prompted to log in and when you do that you get redirected to the "new Piczo". There is no more seeing your friends updates, no more homepage, period, where you can access all of the site's features. The blogging part of the site works pretty much just fine. Just sometimes there are blank pages...some kind of error in the site's system? I don't know, but I do not like the blogging part. The main reason is that security is gone. There is none. Kids of all ages are posting pics of themselves and giving out personal information in their blogs. There has also been porn sites making blogs there. One had 9 direct links to porn in it. [there is a flagging option in the blogs] so I flagged that blog like 14 times in one day. It stayed up for at least 3 days before it got removed. Then there was another blog with porn in it the same day the other one finally got deleted. If you cancel your account all it does it remove the new username you were forced to make. I don't know if cancelling your account would delete a site you created with that new username because I didn't try to create a site. Cancelling your account the way it stands right now, does not remove the sites you created prior to the change. I have a serious problem with that. What if Piczo is being hacked right now and that is why there are these problems? That means that the account information I have set to my sites is vulnerable. Trust me, I have learned my lesson from this. I am already being a lot more careful about the information I have on accounts, now. Lesson learned, so nobody has to say anything to me about that. BUT the issue really is that there are young people who had accounts there. With all the boasting of the safety of Piczo there is no telling how much personal information could be in these accounts, or even on their websites for that matter. Some are set to password protect, but if there is a hacker on the loose there, that password protected site is not safe. On top of all of that, there are a lot of people complaining that they follow the directions on how to get logged in and have access to their sites, but they are never able to log in. It just seems like Piczo was recreated and then got abandoned. The only person who responds to anyone in the comments section of the Official Piczo Blog is someone who sounds like a little kid. This person actually used someone else's username and claimed it was them. This person has completely ignored my legitimate complaints and questions and just tries to throw insults at me. It is a complete mess there. Lots of people have left. I am shocked at how outdated all of the information on the internet about Piczo is! They underwent a major change at least 2 weeks ago. The members are outraged! It almost seems as if Piczo has been hacked! They changed the home page completely! It’s as if there are 2 separate sites there. Like the creator of this “new Piczo” as they call it, is the evil stepmom, the “new Piczo” is one of the evil stepdaughters and the web building part of the site is Cinderella.

What do I mean? Well, as someone who had a site there before the changes I did my best to make this “new Piczo” work for me, but it didn’t work out. This is what is going on. The “new Piczo” -which is for blogging, does not connect with the web site building part of the site. You are forced to create a new nickname. You can then upload an image to be your display picture and you have limited….very limited account options available. These account options are NOT the same as the account options you already had before the changes. You cannot access your original account information at all!

The display picture you upload there does not affect the web building avatar setting. When you go to work on your site you will have the display pic that you had before the change to Piczo happened. You cannot change it. But you can change the one you set in the blogging part.

They put a navigation bar on top of everyone’s site. That navigation only goes to the blogging part of Piczo. You only have access to your friends if you put a friends list on your site. And you can only add your friends via the old toolbar. I had figured that one out on my own. You can no longer click on the meebo chat icons of your friends and visit their sites. If you try to do that you will get an error message.

There is no messaging service now. No contacting your friends or sending them messages. There are no flagging buttons on the web building part of the site now. You cannot add new friends there. The comment boards most of the time will not allow you to leave comments. Even if you are logged in, when you click to add a message you get prompted to log in and when you do that you get redirected to the “new Piczo”. There is no more seeing your friends updates, no more homepage, period, where you can access all of the site’s features.

The blogging part of the site works pretty much just fine. Just sometimes there are blank pages…some kind of error in the site’s system? I don’t know, but I do not like the blogging part. The main reason is that security is gone. There is none. Kids of all ages are posting pics of themselves and giving out personal information in their blogs.

There has also been porn sites making blogs there. One had 9 direct links to porn in it. [there is a flagging option in the blogs] so I flagged that blog like 14 times in one day. It stayed up for at least 3 days before it got removed. Then there was another blog with porn in it the same day the other one finally got deleted.

If you cancel your account all it does it remove the new username you were forced to make. I don’t know if cancelling your account would delete a site you created with that new username because I didn’t try to create a site. Cancelling your account the way it stands right now, does not remove the sites you created prior to the change. I have a serious problem with that. What if Piczo is being hacked right now and that is why there are these problems? That means that the account information I have set to my sites is vulnerable. Trust me, I have learned my lesson from this. I am already being a lot more careful about the information I have on accounts, now. Lesson learned, so nobody has to say anything to me about that.

BUT the issue really is that there are young people who had accounts there. With all the boasting of the safety of Piczo there is no telling how much personal information could be in these accounts, or even on their websites for that matter. Some are set to password protect, but if there is a hacker on the loose there, that password protected site is not safe.

On top of all of that, there are a lot of people complaining that they follow the directions on how to get logged in and have access to their sites, but they are never able to log in.

It just seems like Piczo was recreated and then got abandoned. The only person who responds to anyone in the comments section of the Official Piczo Blog is someone who sounds like a little kid. This person actually used someone else’s username and claimed it was them. This person has completely ignored my legitimate complaints and questions and just tries to throw insults at me. It is a complete mess there. Lots of people have left.

]]> By: amier http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/comment-page-1/#comment-2675077 amier Sat, 28 Mar 2009 18:05:52 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/#comment-2675077 hiii ana amier al iraqi hiii ana amier al iraqi

]]> By: Charles Hope http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/comment-page-1/#comment-740341 Charles Hope Thu, 18 Jan 2007 20:04:22 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/#comment-740341 "Site visitors cannot search or browse user profiles (they must know the exact URL of the member profile)" Absolutely false. On the very front page are a bunch of profiles to browse! And no login required! “Site visitors cannot search or browse user profiles (they must know the exact URL of the member profile)”

Absolutely false. On the very front page are a bunch of profiles to browse! And no login required!

]]> By: cw http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/comment-page-1/#comment-739565 cw Thu, 18 Jan 2007 16:17:59 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/#comment-739565 Dick your last sentence was correct. Congratulations to Jeremy and Piczo.... and I'm sorry for all those messages on your cell phone. Dick your last sentence was correct.

Congratulations to Jeremy and Piczo…. and I’m sorry for all those messages on your cell phone.

]]> By: Rick http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/comment-page-1/#comment-738826 Rick Thu, 18 Jan 2007 12:33:13 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/#comment-738826 haha Drama 2.0 that quote is so dead on haha Drama 2.0 that quote is so dead on

]]> By: Drama 2.0 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/comment-page-1/#comment-738099 Drama 2.0 Thu, 18 Jan 2007 07:07:01 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/#comment-738099 With that type of usage, I'd agree it's not a good sign if they're not close to profitability and need this much money. Hopefully the investors see something that's not apparent to the rest of us. Otherwise it seems like another one of those "if we just give them more money we'll accelerate the path to profitability" investments that usually just accelerates the spending. It reminds me of the hypothetical situation where an investor asks "We're losing money on every product we sell. What can we do?" And the executive answers "It's easy. We'll make it up on volume!" With that type of usage, I’d agree it’s not a good sign if they’re not close to profitability and need this much money. Hopefully the investors see something that’s not apparent to the rest of us. Otherwise it seems like another one of those “if we just give them more money we’ll accelerate the path to profitability” investments that usually just accelerates the spending. It reminds me of the hypothetical situation where an investor asks “We’re losing money on every product we sell. What can we do?” And the executive answers “It’s easy. We’ll make it up on volume!”

]]> By: MistOne http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/comment-page-1/#comment-738034 MistOne Thu, 18 Jan 2007 06:21:27 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/#comment-738034 sounds like they are being rewarded for building a strong presence in a very attractive niche - valuations and funding needs are all relative to the marketing value of their audience. nicely done! sounds like they are being rewarded for building a strong presence in a very attractive niche – valuations and funding needs are all relative to the marketing value of their audience. nicely done!

]]> By: Dick http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/comment-page-1/#comment-737989 Dick Thu, 18 Jan 2007 05:52:38 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/#comment-737989 This is the most impossible site to view. It takes the cake in fugly. I dare anyone to stay on this site for more than 30 minutes. Your head will explode. Complete and utter chaos. maybe that's why the kids like it? This is the most impossible site to view. It takes the cake in fugly. I dare anyone to stay on this site for more than 30 minutes. Your head will explode. Complete and utter chaos. maybe that’s why the kids like it?

]]> By: SutroStyle http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/comment-page-1/#comment-737880 SutroStyle Thu, 18 Jan 2007 04:53:15 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/#comment-737880 Piczo was actually a decent business when it was run by several guys here in SF in the bootstrap mode. I happen to know that they had very decent traffic when they operated on budgets like 100-200k/yr. They decided to make it big however. Now their traffic is flat, and the company is controlled by greedy VC. I think it's a failure. Piczo was actually a decent business when it was run by several guys here in SF in the bootstrap mode. I happen to know that they had very decent traffic when they operated on budgets like 100-200k/yr.
They decided to make it big however. Now their traffic is flat, and the company is controlled by greedy VC. I think it’s a failure.

]]> By: Morgan http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/comment-page-1/#comment-737652 Morgan Thu, 18 Jan 2007 02:53:50 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/#comment-737652 Honestly, if you can't profit with 2 BILLION page views per month, I don't know who would hand you another 18 million, but I guess it's pretty high stakes poker out there. I think the idea is that these sites need ot make a major push, become a major player, or quit. I would think more of them would just grab hold of profitability and do more of what they're doing than to sell more and more of the company off. I guess that's why I'm neither granting nor securing my 4th round of VC funding. Honestly, if you can’t profit with 2 BILLION page views per month, I don’t know who would hand you another 18 million, but I guess it’s pretty high stakes poker out there. I think the idea is that these sites need ot make a major push, become a major player, or quit.

I would think more of them would just grab hold of profitability and do more of what they’re doing than to sell more and more of the company off. I guess that’s why I’m neither granting nor securing my 4th round of VC funding.

]]> By: Kieran http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/comment-page-1/#comment-737459 Kieran Thu, 18 Jan 2007 01:30:46 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/#comment-737459 Piczo is a great site, concept and has a solid user base. It will only grow once its kid friendly features catch on more outside the UK. It will be interesting to see exactly how they spend that 11mm, yes it will be for expansion but how will they stand out? Piczo is a great site, concept and has a solid user base. It will only grow once its kid friendly features catch on more outside the UK. It will be interesting to see exactly how they spend that 11mm, yes it will be for expansion but how will they stand out?

]]> By: matthew http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/comment-page-1/#comment-737440 matthew Thu, 18 Jan 2007 01:23:29 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/#comment-737440 geez that's a lot of money. i hope they can make it last! geez that’s a lot of money. i hope they can make it last!

]]> By: Dan Gudema http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/comment-page-1/#comment-737332 Dan Gudema Thu, 18 Jan 2007 00:36:51 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/#comment-737332 Seems to me that Pizco is one of those horses now, where they have to win the race or they lose everything. Hopefully they will figure out how to sell the site off to Google, who are flush with overpriced stock, or MySpace before market realities kick in. Next we will hear that Club Penguin is getting millions. At least Club Pengin sounds better and easier to remember. If I were investing millions I would expect more than a 5 digit name thrown on the wall. Seems to me that Pizco is one of those horses now, where they have to win the race or they lose everything. Hopefully they will figure out how to sell the site off to Google, who are flush with overpriced stock, or MySpace before market realities kick in. Next we will hear that Club Penguin is getting millions. At least Club Pengin sounds better and easier to remember. If I were investing millions I would expect more than a 5 digit name thrown on the wall.

]]> By: ginchy http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/comment-page-1/#comment-737264 ginchy Wed, 17 Jan 2007 23:59:28 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/#comment-737264 Oh good, just what the world needs. Another social networking site. Someone needs to start a company that lets people network all the social networks they belong to. Oh good, just what the world needs. Another social networking site.

Someone needs to start a company that lets people network all the social networks they belong to.

]]> By: Rick http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/comment-page-1/#comment-737242 Rick Wed, 17 Jan 2007 23:53:01 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/#comment-737242 Amy, I'm having trouble with the idea too. I have trouble with a lot of the funding amounts I see here, even in a climate where some seemingly unintelligent acquisitions are made, the investment amounts don't seem to be at all in proportion to either what I'd estimate costs to be at or what I'd expect a liquidity event to be worth. This is very likely due to ignorance on my part, if so could someone please enlighten me? Amy, I’m having trouble with the idea too. I have trouble with a lot of the funding amounts I see here, even in a climate where some seemingly unintelligent acquisitions are made, the investment amounts don’t seem to be at all in proportion to either what I’d estimate costs to be at or what I’d expect a liquidity event to be worth. This is very likely due to ignorance on my part, if so could someone please enlighten me?

]]> By: Amy Wilsch http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/comment-page-1/#comment-737219 Amy Wilsch Wed, 17 Jan 2007 23:45:46 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/#comment-737219 I fail to understand why a social networking site, assuming they have as many employees as Legacy.com (45) and MySpace (60) who do nothing but review content, needs $18 million dollars (especially when websites are not as expensive to build any more). Are they having lavish parties that we're not invited to? Unless they're blowing it mostly on advertising....which is ironic if their business model is based on advertising. I fail to understand why a social networking site, assuming they have as many employees as Legacy.com (45) and MySpace (60) who do nothing but review content, needs $18 million dollars (especially when websites are not as expensive to build any more). Are they having lavish parties that we’re not invited to? Unless they’re blowing it mostly on advertising….which is ironic if their business model is based on advertising.

]]> By: Praveen Rajan http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/comment-page-1/#comment-737198 Praveen Rajan Wed, 17 Jan 2007 23:37:31 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/#comment-737198 Congratulations, Piczo! Kudos for the great work in enforcing security & privacy. Congratulations, Piczo!

Kudos for the great work in enforcing security & privacy.

]]> By: Rick http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/comment-page-1/#comment-737182 Rick Wed, 17 Jan 2007 23:32:49 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/#comment-737182 For crying out loud, how many rounds are these guys going to need for a profitability event? Bubble much? For crying out loud, how many rounds are these guys going to need for a profitability event? Bubble much?

]]> By: Marshall Kirkpatrick http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/comment-page-1/#comment-737173 Marshall Kirkpatrick Wed, 17 Jan 2007 23:31:46 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/17/piczo-raises-11-million/#comment-737173 Some people might say that young users seeking security are the most viable of any niche social networking market but I think they are just an indication that future generations will be interested in social networking in general and will look to specific sites to fill their most pressing needs. Congrats to Piczo. Some people might say that young users seeking security are the most viable of any niche social networking market but I think they are just an indication that future generations will be interested in social networking in general and will look to specific sites to fill their most pressing needs. Congrats to Piczo.

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