Comments on: Guy Kawasaki Formally Launches Alltop. Wow, It’s Bad.

By: Scott

Scott — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 00:28:04 +0000

It’s pretty amusing reading a bunch of rants from tech know-it-alls. He’s trying to serve (what he thinks) is an unserved market. You might think “google news” or “pageflakes”, etc might be better but the intended audience doesn’t know that. So typical for technogeeks to think everyone does or should think like they do – they don’t. 90% of the users wouldn’t know if it was a bad site or a great site. They could care less how it was put together and if it used javascript or CSS and is complilant. They just know if it works for them.

Why “TechCrunch” would even review it is interesting… is the only reason because GK is involved? Get a little extra traffic the article and all of the hater comments? Duh. Lame. “yeah, we dissed this once before, but let’s diss it again and get some more traffic.”

By: AllTop - Persistence Pays Off - The Netsetter

AllTop - Persistence Pays Off - The Netsetter — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:57:27 +0000

[...] Guy Kawasaki launched AllTop a year ago, I remember reading some pretty bad press. Headlines like Guy Kawasaki Launches AllTop. Wow, it’s Bad. and AllTop – A gimmick site with marketing flair aren’t exactly what one hopes to launch [...]

By: Brad Chambers

Brad Chambers — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:39:28 +0000

There are over 13,000 radio stations in the USA. Multiply that number times the number of radio programmers, producers and personalities who don’t have time to search for the latest high tech site that meets tech snob muster. Add to that the fact that Guy’s marketing books are almost required reading in the industry – and he just spoke at the Convergence Radio/Internet conference, guaranteeing him press in industry journals. Maybe it’s not as pretty and as cool as you guys like-but it serves a purpose and Guy is smart enoug to listen to an industry that, frankly, isn’t that picky. They just need it to work. I’m pretty up on technology but Netvibes, PopUrl, etc…never heard of them. Maybe there IS something to marketing to someone other than your fellow techies…I know…I’ll get slammed, bammed, hacked and kicked around the block for this…but…you guys really oughta get out from behind your computers once in a while…have a martini!

Brad

By: Michael P.

Michael P. — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:19:09 +0000

Guy…. No response?

By: Sean Nash

Sean Nash — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:16:59 +0000

What I think is funny is the fact that so many folks here make the point that: “wow… it suuuure isn’t as high tech as an RSS feeder.”

Honestly? Whoooop-de-do.

Like RSS is sophisticated. Simple as pie if you aren’t tech-scared to the max. That isn’t the point of Alltop. This is a site that tons of people I work with can and do use to find broad images of what is going on in several topics.

This isn’t about geeks. Get over it.

Sean

By: sharonfranz

sharonfranz — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:23:50 +0000

Well, it took me about a week (to learn the Drupal software) and $10 to buy hosting: Wopular.com Pretty much the same thing except with featured stories on the first two columns.

By: Alltop.com: Learn More Online With RSS Feeds « Marketing Breakdown

Alltop.com: Learn More Online With RSS Feeds « Marketing Breakdown — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:56:07 +0000

[...] March when the site first launched, it was greeted with bad reviews. I remember being unsure about the purpose or utility. However, upon revisiting the site, I [...]

By: The Cranky Product Manager

The Cranky Product Manager — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 23:41:30 +0000

The Cranky Product Manager blog was listed briefly on Alltop’s new “product management” page, with pole position in the top right corner. The blog probably has a bigger and more loyal readership than 25 of the 28 product management blogs listed. Well, after the Cranky Product Manger posted a “thankyou, but what’s the big deal about Alltop anyway” (as is required by her cranky online persona), she was demoted to the very bottom of the Alltop page. As was Product Beautiful, another blog that also publicly questioned what was so great about Alltop.

Granted, Alltop’s FAQ says they give better page position to “their friends”, and its their site so they can do what they want. But their actions do seem to undermine their claim to be an digital magazine rack that aggregates only the “best of the best”, perhaps they should tag it “the best of the blogs that kiss Alltop’s ass” instead.

By: Alltop Launches Redesign To Cover More Topics With Less Clutter - Technology Info

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:24:53 +0000

[...] wasn’t too long ago that Guy Kawasaki announced Alltop, a news aggregation site that tries to make it easy to find the top stories on a slew of topics [...]

By: Alltop Launches Redesign Amid Rapid Expansion

Alltop Launches Redesign Amid Rapid Expansion — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:03:40 +0000

[...] wasn’t too long ago that Guy Kawasaki announced Alltop, a news aggregation site that tries to make it easy to find the top stories on a slew of topics [...]

By: MarshalSandler.com » Alltop, all the top stories

MarshalSandler.com » Alltop, all the top stories — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 13:08:36 +0000

[...] Guy Kawasaki Formally Launches Alltop. Wow, It’s Bad. [...]

By: digital-with-reblog » Alltop, all the top stories

digital-with-reblog » Alltop, all the top stories — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:00:52 +0000

[...] Guy Kawasaki Formally Launches Alltop. Wow, It’s Bad. [...]

By: Saurabh Garg on The New New Thing » Blog Archive » Saurabh Garg on India.Alltop.Com

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:23:00 +0000

[...] of other mass niche categories (complete list is on their homepage). They like to call themselves a magazine rack (I tend to disagree [...]

By: Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop Launches Frienderati: The Top Friends From FriendFeed

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:28:17 +0000

[...] other Alltop sites (which aggregate top feeds in other categories), this one is kind of a head-scratcher. There is no way to sort, so I guess you are expected to scroll through all 94 names to get what [...]

By: Infotron » Blog Archive » Guy Kawasaki’s Truemors Gets Acquired By NowPublic

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:28:18 +0000

[...] if Kawasaki can sell his other experimental startup, AllTop, I’ll be impressed. Its so awful its kind of [...]

By: Guy Kawasaki’s Truemors Gets Acquired By NowPublic

Guy Kawasaki’s Truemors Gets Acquired By NowPublic — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:14:40 +0000

[...] if Kawasaki can sell his other experimental startup, AllTop, I’ll be impressed. Its so awful its kind of cool. CrunchBase Information Truemors NowPublic Alltop Guy Kawasaki Information [...]

By: Independent Street : Anti-Social Aggregator? �AllTop� Lists Any Story, Not Just Popular Ones

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:26:46 +0000

[...] you don’t like. Mr. Kawasaki fielded criticism when Alltop launched in March from some in the tech community who note you can already collect feeds of content through iGoogle, Netvibes, MyYahoo, and others. [...]

By: Alltop - - LGR Webmaster Blog

Alltop - - LGR Webmaster Blog — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 22:58:54 +0000

[...] Most notably Darren Rowse and Jeremy Schoemaker. I first heard about Alltop back in March when TechCrunch did a story on the new site. TechCrunch was less than glowing about AllTop when it first wrote [...]

By: Guy Kawasaki launches muslim.alltop.com | Infidels Are Cool

Guy Kawasaki launches muslim.alltop.com | Infidels Are Cool — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:59:13 +0000

[...] been quite impressed with what he’s done, even though he was bashed by the tech blogs for doing what they say is “just another rss mashup site”. I disagree. Others may have [...]

By: TechParent Editorial: Alltop? Make it Stop already! : Triple Venti

TechParent Editorial: Alltop? Make it Stop already! : Triple Venti — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:17:58 +0000

[...] feel very lonely, no I am not completely alone, there are others (well at least two here and [...]

By: Will RSS Ever Go Mainstream? | Copyblogger

Will RSS Ever Go Mainstream? | Copyblogger — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:51:45 +0000

[...] Arrington slammed Alltop as nothing new, and to those of us in the blogging/technology echo chamber, that’s true. But [...]

By: Stilstudie: Alltop.com - Frisim utvecklingsblogg

Stilstudie: Alltop.com - Frisim utvecklingsblogg — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:32:55 +0000

[...] TechCrunch sågar sajten med orden Guy Kawasaki Formally Launches Alltop. Wow, It’s Bad, och även där är kommentarerna från (de ofta teknikfixerade) läsarna blandade, allt från [...]

By: Aaron Mentele, Charisma 18 » south by

Aaron Mentele, Charisma 18 » south by — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 05:09:46 +0000

[...] We launched Alltop. It was already live, but we switched the front page just in time to make a few more people hate it. [...]

By: Terry B

Terry B — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 03:02:53 +0000

Michael’s right. That’s why we need smart aggregators that don’t show everything but only what’s important. Take a look at nobosh.com for an example which covers business & technology sources. nobosh filters out the bad articles (bosh), efficiently only showing users the no non-sense (nobosh).

By: Bradjward

Bradjward — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 14:07:00 +0000

My visitors from Alltop (I’m in the education section, BlogHighEd) are staying on my site much longer and are viewing twice as much content as others do. They seem to be a very engaged and ready to learn audience. Like people are saying, it’s a great place to get started and perfect for those who don’t know what RSS is. Face it, we (the readers of TechCrunch, etc.) are in the minority when it comes to web knowledge. My mom can use Alltop, and she does.