Comments on: Snimmer - Test It If You Dare

By: benjamin

benjamin — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 19:50:42 +0000

we (www.imcontacts.com) had the same idea 1.5 years ago. Its probably not that smooth as snimmer but there are more gadgets for the members…

By: EH

EH — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 01:45:30 +0000

Web-based chat is a non-starter. End of story.

By: RandomRat

RandomRat — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 20:38:52 +0000

LOL, Hilaaaarious.

By: Scott Schiller

Scott Schiller — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:31:53 +0000

Facebook has an “Advanced Wall” app I think which encourages disabling your “native” wall, shows some ads and promotes spamming your friends/contacts to write on your new wall. There are also checkboxes checked by default with a note of allowing only 10 (I think) invites per day, presumably one enforced by FB themselves. I had it installed for almost two minutes.

I was notified that a friend wrote on my (new) wall (which was odd as I didn’t have one yet), so I clicked and was lead through the install process. I read my new message, which was “come write on my new wall!”, and uninstalled.

By: Shambhu Borah

Shambhu Borah — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:27:39 +0000

“I like the idea a lot - looking at people’s pictures and other information while chatting with them is a great idea.”

Can’t you already do that with GoogleTalk?

By: bdb

bdb — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:42:09 +0000

Ok, so we don’t want to discuss the merits and shortcomings of the service? Just the Spamminess?

It is called “viral marketing”, and if executed correctly can be quite effective (MySpace/Facebook come to mind). Plaxo is suffering for their prior practices and it is anyone’s guess why snimmer didn’t figure this would come back to haunt them.

Hint: VC’s and advertisers use ‘user numbers’ as metric when determining valuation, so the motivation is clear. The cost/benefit analysis of this strategy was obviously blown.

By: Ben Gold

Ben Gold — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:12:40 +0000

oh, I was wondering about that. That’s the second time this week something like this happened.

By: James Thomas

James Thomas — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:42:51 +0000

Doesn’t facebook do this as well? There was some service that tells all your friends via your email on hotmail and gmail…

By: Sinmer CEO

Sinmer CEO — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:41:14 +0000

Quick, let’s spam everyone in their contacts list … that way we will grow and strike it rich. Screw users, our product is awsome and they need it.

By: Vero

Vero — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 12:43:51 +0000

Well, it certainly explains certain messages I received from some friends last night!

Mike, as you say, the idea has potential. It’s a real shame that companies think they can not only get away with this kind of behaviour, but make a conscious choice to use it as a way to promote their service. It’ll only lead to a negative reaction and a premature shutdown/shotdown from potential users.

Slow healthy growth is better than a quick shot to “fame” followed by a speedy crash & burn - it just takes a bit more patience and persistence.

By: bdb

bdb — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 12:29:55 +0000

So, these guys saw Pownce, and then thru this together?

Spammy? Ok, what else? Competition? Financing? 2 man team?

This has more in common with Pownce than the services mentioned as comparable.

Why can’t I just use Gtalk (alongside some SN if you’re into that)?

By: Fabian De Simone

Fabian De Simone — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 10:15:51 +0000

And I need to do something with my English grammar apparently…

By: Fabian De Simone

Fabian De Simone — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 10:12:35 +0000

This guys really need to do something with their spanish version, is terrible! It makes no sense.

By: David Krug

David Krug — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 08:40:52 +0000

Agh. That was annoying.

By: anthropocentric

anthropocentric — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 07:48:39 +0000

I can’t wait to hear what Uncov has to say…

By: Christopher Sisk

Christopher Sisk — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 06:43:17 +0000

I really hate services that try to force feed themselves to your contacts. My ‘Skepty Sense’ tingles.

By: Paul M. Watson

Paul M. Watson — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 06:33:40 +0000

Just careful on that login too, it submits your password in clear text.

Have to say it looks amateurish, Michael. The client-side code is horrendous and that it not only IMs but spams your IM contacts via email is worrying.

Plus, and I shudder to even mention it, MSN/Live/Spaces linked your IM account to a profile and photo page too.

By: Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 06:22:09 +0000

yeah, I didn’t mention all the sounds. you can turn them off.

By: mark

mark — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 06:20:20 +0000

i went to snimmer, and a fuckin’ retarded bell sound started and wouldn’t stop. The most ridiculous pos of a site. Ever.

By: Smaran

Smaran — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 06:20:15 +0000

Hehe. Looks like you’re in a fix, Mike. E-mail them and ask to have your account closed.

By: Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 06:15:00 +0000

Oh man. It sent out emails too to gmail.

By: Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 06:13:36 +0000

now I’m getting the messages from my friends testing it.

By: Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 06:00:23 +0000

ridiculous.

By: Nick Douglas

Nick Douglas — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:59:25 +0000

On the upside, Michael and I finally got to reconnect. (It was like the movie “Serendipity” only the chick in that is cuter.)

By: Smaran

Smaran — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:59:07 +0000

I was wondering what that was about. I got both an e-mail and an instant message from you promoting SNIMMER. The IM:

Hi, this is my IM Page on SNIMMER. You can chat with me there: http://yourID.snimmer.com/

Spammy.