Bessemer Venture Partners is launching an incubated startup called MashLogic into private beta today, with the audacious promise of helping people “take back the web.”
They say (and they’re not alone) that the web today is driven by page view economics and search engine optimization goals, which leads publishers to link to themselves too often. The result is a less than optimal web experience.
There are Greasemonkey scripts that strip out these inefficient links, and various services like Adaptive Blue are adding browsing and link options for users via a plugin. Another startup, Sphere, acquired by AOL earlier this year, is a pop up window triggered by users that shows other content they might be interested in based on an index of the current page. It worked, well enough to get them acquired at least.
MashLogic is a more direct approach. Users must download a Firefox plugin to use it, but there’s no toolbar. Instead, you simply change the settings to tell it what kind of information you’d like to have included on web pages. Links to Wikipedia is an easy one. But it also has company links to LinkedIn to show you people there you might know. And a currency converter. Etc. It’s like a frickin Swiss Army Knife for hyperlinks.
One setting I like – the ability to remove all links on a page, and then only MashLogic links appear. For a lot of sites, the user experience is vastly superior. You can also create blacklists of domains that won’t show up in links on the page, even if the original publisher put them there.
Once you’ve got the tool configured, smart links will start popping up all over the place. Professional Athletes get their playing stats, Politicians get a real time poll of their progress towards the White House. Currencies are *zap* converted. You can even see a map for any street address.
Their goal is to save you from having to go back to the search engine to find the next thing you’re intersted in but isn’t linked on the site.
So far in my testing, they’ve nailed it. Instead of linking Bessemer Venture Partners in the first paragraph to Crunchbase or their website, I left it blank. The result was a great MashLogic Link bringing in Crunchbase information and other information relevant to Bessemer. If a user doesn’t like that info, they can just make a few changes and go right to Wikipedia, or a search engine, or wherever.
And if you mouse over a link to a sound or movie file, it will play the file right in the popup.
We have 500 beta installs available now, here. Once they’re gone, you’ve got to find someone who’ll be willing to hand one over. Lucky for all of us we have InviteShare to bring givers and takers together. MashLogic should be up and running there by morning.
The Business Model:
The easy money will be by adding links to ecommerce items, leading to affiliate fees from splits. But the service will also be a central hub of data and linking activities, which can be monetized in different ways as well.
MashLogic is also encouraging distribution to users from publishers. Yeah, you heard that right. The idea is that if everyone is going to be using this, you’ll do better by getting it to users first, pre-stocked with your sites as resources. Those users can change all of those settings, but many won’t. And your passionate readers will find themselves flying back to your content, no matter where on the web they’ve wandered off to. Once enough users find that they love this product, licensing it directly to the browsers may makes sense. And then the revenue opportunities sort of hop into the pot themselves.
I’m putting this on my must-have list of Firefox addons.
We have been using it – you are quite right – this is quite innovative.
LOL: So you see, Web 2.0 may not die after all – the innovators will survive
oh no, it’s dead. anything new from this point on is called something secret that Tim O’Reilly will soon divulge to us (TM)
it’s going to be called THE WEB. But don’t tell anyone yet. I am going to announce it at my next conference.
I like it because it has such a nice retro feel to it.
p. ahem t.
Mike: it’s going to be called “Post Web 2.0″ aka “Web 3.0.”
Scoble, isn’t Web 3.0 called the Semantic Web? How about we confuse people even more and call the next wave “Pre Web 3.0″ – what do you think?
We should call it WEJAX 3.0
Dudes, Hyperwords does the same on Firefox for almost 3 years, nothing new here. http://www.hyperwords.net/
One of the best feature being customized search from any website search box. For example you can highlight any word and select a search within TC, Youtube, IMDB, whatever. Very practical.
i like hyperwords better because it’s none intrusive. and you hover whatever you want in a page, not just pre-defined keywords. not to mention that MashLogic’s business model will soon trigger lots of unwanted links in your pages and you’ll wonder which are true information and which are just ads.
Hyperwords is open-source.
really, check out their demo and you’ll see there’s nothing mashlogic does that’s not already been done by hyperwords. with a difference: 3 years of experience.
demo here: http://www.hype...s.net/demo.html
Steve, thanks for letting me know about Hyperwords. I just tried both Hyperwords and MashLogic and like them both. Will probably keep them both too. I like the search feature of Hyperwords
Dudes hyperwords.net is not working.
Dont you just love those invite only beta startups. what a joke.
get out of here Bazaar with your geriatric polish link. mike tell this guy no polish links.
Basar, yes, this is also one of my favorite feature. Note that something similar is built-in in Opera Browser.
FixLocator, you’re really stupid or not using the right browser, because Hyperwords IS working and I’m using it for the past 3 years. There’s not beta for Hyperwords, you can just download it. And you really have guts to criticize Basar for his link, you being the most spammer of all on this site.
Wow! Thats quite innovative…. Signing up for the beta…
reminds me of apture.com but i like this one too
I’ve been using it for a while now, and its great! I’d recommended paring down the custom settings to a minimum set that applies to you (i.e. I’m not in the US so the Yelp mash means nothing to me). But once done, its pretty damn good. I’ve also spoken to the guys behind it, and they’re really smart.
Despite all the doom and gloom, they have a bright future ahead.
Are you people crazy??? Am I the only one who hates those useless pop-ups links, like SnapShots?? The web is full of them already, why would I knowingly add more…
Fully agree with that
thnaks for you
Oh I thought it strips out ads and replaces them with photos from your social networks. Social advertising…
You’d load a page and never know whom from your inner circle would appear on the page; they unknowingly hawking X product. Might be fun? I’d pay attention to those type of ads!
I think this could be helpful. The list of the most popular mashes looks good but for me maybe not the currency converter.
This is good idea.
http://www.oxyshopping.com
I think, this is quite innovative.
http://www.oxyshopping.com
How can it help me with http://www.culturallycool.com
Nice tool… Two questions:
(1) How will/could this service be monetized? By selling the add-on? By incorporating paid links? If the latter, back to square one.
(2) What’s the legality of tools such as this that rewrite copyrighted content? If the current lame linking habit of sites play a significant role in the sites’ business models, they might fight back by spoiling a tool such as this if it were to gain critical mass. Lack of encapsulation of web pages is a two-edged sword.
Mike….Waiting for your attack on this guy….
http://www.25ho...dCompany20.aspx
Gonna be fun!!!
If I understand this correctly, MashLogic changes the look of websites by replacing or adding links to sources the user might find more useful. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.)
That leads me to the question whether it should be allowed to change the content of web pages by way of plug-ins. It’s the content publishers who spend money on the creation of the content, hosting, etc. So they should be allowed to add internal links to their other pages or to advertising partners, wouldn’t you agree? After all, the publishers must pay their bills or otherwise they won’t be able to create as much unique content anymore.
Even worse, what happens if MashLogic decides to add contextual links to other publishers’ content in order to make money from their plug-in or service?
Prefer Apture.com. Doesn’t do personalization, but great for reading information and educational material.
Links are dead, long live the links
Hyperwords did this 3 years. Flyswat did it 11 years ago, was bought by NBCi for $100M, and then commercials ran about it (renamed Quick Click) in primetime NBC shows for 6 months. How is this innovative?
NFB LJV4RF,N TV CFRCMN5FHTHE JG TCD VK NGVR D
You’re all correct that Flyswat, Snap and others have injected links and pop-ups before, and — since they ultimately relied upon the publishers to make money — eventually the paid links and ads ruin the experience. That’s why MashLogic is taking a fundamentally opposite approach that focuses only on the user experience, without compromise:
1) We are NOT trying to convince publishers to run our software on their sites, so we will never add or remove links to suit the publishers. Publishers who choose to distribute MashLogic have NO say in what the mashes do.
2) MashLogic will not put ads or “sponsored links” into your web pages.
3) All mashes will run transparently, so that you know exactly what each one is doing to your web experience.
4) The user is in complete control of which mashes are active at any time, so if you don’t like how one of them mashes the web, it is EASY to turn it off.
5) Not only can you turn the mashes on and off, but soon after launching we will open up the platform so that anyone (not just programmers) can easily, in 5 minutes, make and share a new mash.
Our vision is to restore the fluid discovery of a benevolently hyperlinked web. As we all start truly browsing the web again instead of running back to our search engines at every click to find relevant content, there will be enough benevolent hyperlinks that MashLogic can make money from affiliate deals on that traffic.
Michael, thanks for trying MashLogic, and recruiting your readers to give us feedback during this crucial beta phase.
David,
IMO. *you* and the other annotation/ augmentation-thru-extensions Co.’s are going too horizontal, while the technology/ methodilogy is still too abstract for most to get comfortable using it.
Solve a specific problem, simply and easily; one thing to use this technology for.
Do you know how long it took for people to get comfortable using cell phones for more than phone calls? About 10 years.
Going “wide” is difficult and requires highly accessible APIs, and developers exploiting them to create an ecosystem of businesses and solutions around *you*.
Can someone point out a successful (money-making and all that) company that is based on a FF plugin? I’m drawing a blank.
David (ML): “publishers have no say in what the mashes do.”
Michael (TC): “publishers will do better by getting it to users first, pre-stocked with your sites as resources.”
Who’s right?
Oh, and this is nice, too:
David (ML): “there will be enough benevolent hyperlinks that MashLogic can make money from affiliate deals on that traffic.”
Translation: “If we send you traffic, we’re going to be asking for $. Cash or ads baby, but we’re going to monetize that benevolent traffic”
Yikes. Maybe should have spent more time incubating a conscience.
Not many,
StumbleUpon
iMacros
fireshot
Simpy
furl
There are some others that I dislike due to heavy user tracking issues, not sure of their success. I think it is just a feature, not a business. One needs to provide added value in some transaction to make money.
David/MashLogic,
With all due respect, how do you justify the modification of online content that has been created and is owned by others? If I’m a publisher, I want the user experience on my website to be exactly the same way I wanted it to be, considering that it is me who has spent both time and money on the development of unique content and that it is me who owns the website.
Not sure what others think about this, but I can’t get my head around the fact that users want to have access to free quality content while at the same time not accepting the placement of ads on websites.
The same would go for other services, add-ons and plug-ins that can be found out there, too, such as FireFox AdBlock Plus, for example.
Really interested in hearing your thoughts on this. Thanks!
that’s precisely why I’m developing my website 100% in Flash. and now with flash deep-linking feature, SEO is not even a problem anymore.
This is the difference between:
- The early techno adopters who like the MashLogic pop-ups.
- The mass market who don’t want to install anything that distrubs them.
If it has mass market uptake, Microsoft will copy it with their next IE.
Still all the best for MashLogic as innovation needs to continue.
Microsoft has done it already in IE8. It is called Accelerators.
http://www.micr...celerators.aspx
Hyperwords is better, and even this is not on my must-have list of add-ons. Except Adblock, iMacros and Delicious, there is no add-on I really need – although I have 32 installed
The internet formally known as web 2.0
I think a few people are focusing on the wrong end of the stick here. Mashlogic is flipping the script – it’s putting the power/customization in the hands of the user. By opting to avoid the publisher-centric model and make it user-focused, I think they can get around some of the issues mentioned.
As a user, I can chose to view a site anyway I want to. I’m choosing to install Mashlogic, so if I want to have popups that add value, or modify hyperlinks, its my choice. Mashlogic simple enables me to do that.
Blocking ads is a tricky one because it directly affects the publisher’s ability to monetize and effectively stay in business.
If they can get around the distribution difficulties (i.e. people have to take the step to install the plugin), I think this could be a really useful tool for the masses.
Finally some innovative stuff. Sounds great, I;ll try it out.
I doubt anyone will use this, pop-over windows are distracting, annoying, and why would anyone trust a 3rd party in inject all this affiliate-code biased content? Even if this was added to Firefox by default I would switch back to MSIE.
PJ,
I;m using it and it;s great. there arent really popus–there are callouts that appear only on mouseover. very useful–i often dont have to browse away from the page to drill down on something
PJ: you trust every web site you go to, and they link you to ads and themselves. these guys are letting us decide where the links go. it sounds like they get affiliate bucks only if we use their tool to link to vendors we like. i’m definitely going to check it out.
Hi, this is Ranjit from MashLogic. Thanks for all the interest and feedback.
(1) I’ve used Hyperwords and I like it. If you know what you are looking for and what you wish to do with it, Hyperwords works well. It is a reactive tool that relies on the user to make the first move. MashLogic chooses to be pro-active by pre-loading links. We analyze text on a page and combine our judgment and your preferences to show you a condensed set of results that are informed by the semantic nature of the term (e.g. Microsoft is the name of a company, John McCain is the name of a person). This adds an element of discovery to content, which we find compelling.
I’d encourage Hyperwords users to try us out. Install us in a fresh profile and boot us if we don’t add value.
Props to the person who remembered Flyswat! Great team, I’ve heard and quite possibly ahead of their time. We stand on the shoulders of giants.
(2) Apture, Snap, and others enable publishers to enhance their sites — you will observe the benefits when you visit specific sites. MashLogic is a “Portable Personality” that takes effect on every site you visit.
(3) Pop-ups on hover can be annoying, no doubt. Ours are slightly delayed, which helps. You can disable hover and switch to click invocation via Configuration -> Options.
(4) On the question of content modification, it is useful to think of real-world models like Tivo that let users customize broadcast content.
Feature of interest to Hyperwords users: if we do not pick up a term that think we should, select the term, right-click and invoke MashLogic. This explicitly checks the term against your active mashes and adds a link if we find a “hit”.
Also of interest even if not (yet) as completed as Mashlogic because it’s a demo for Exalead BtoB customers :
http://wikifier...bs.exalead.com/
(automatic link btw. people, organization or place and English written Wikipedia).
Waiting for a “full” online release with more sources and languages.
real shocker why you like this one mike
woah!
tried it. thought it was cool for 10 minutes. Got annoying and unistalled it.
I am amazed to see that a VC like Cowan justifies this type of investment, especially a week post the bubble popped.
You guys are planning on using affiliate fees! Oh really – do you really think that Amazon’s 3% (net after fraud, etc.) and similar services can cover your monthly burn? You are dreaming.
STUPID
Thanks for you
Thanks For You !!!
” Ideas change the world ”
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