There seems to be a trend among self-proclaimed Web 2.0 companies that when they are young, development is active. They take user feedback as gospel, and used it to shape the next revision of the web application. When the user base is happy, the developers pull all-nighters. New features and cool new “gadgets” pop up overnight, and users always leave with a fuzzy “cool” feeling. There seems to be a proven model for companies that stick to this regiment, they build up a much wider base of users and have a much more sought after application.
But then something happens, something that will cause the founders of such a company to never have to worry about money (or working) again. Some very large company comes in and buys them! Maybe the selling price is only $120m, or perhaps it’s $580m, or a staggering $1.65b. I assert the same happens in every case: the work ethic of the formerly lean and hungry company is thrown out the window, the purchaser reshapes the application to meet their needs, and the whole things is put on a shelf somewhere in a warehouse to mildew.
Although the case of Google’s acquisition of YouTube is too young for us to accurately speculate (though with recent reports of massive network failures and random video deletions, we can speculate), we instead discuss what happened when Yahoo purchased Flickr and News Corp with MySpace. Each deal (worth $37m and $580m respectively) closed very quickly, and within days assimilation into the new parent company commenced.
Here’s the point: When is the last time anyone saw a new feature added to MySpace, or read about any bugs being fixed, or existing features being tweaked or improved. And what about that server performance and the slow load times?
And now sadly, Flickr seems to be following the same course. Although initially they continued to develop the product after acquisition, it has now been months since the last major feature addition (and from what I’ve seen very few people requested or are even using that mapping functionality). A site that used to be driven by feedback, whose admins used to roam the user forums responding to queries and requests, now merely exists in status quo. There is also no hint as to their next move, because as this author speculates, they plan on making no next move.
One thing that Web 2.0 introduced, for better or worse, is this idea that the developer and the user can be connected. It seems like a fun exchange and very symbiotic in nature, the developers receive immediate feedback (and often some great feature requests), and the user population receives a great new tool that is usually highly adaptable to their needs. And then, unfortunately, big business came in set to raise the bottom line. Those developers were given maintenance duties, and the user population’s feedback goes unheard.
Update: Since I began drafting this article, it seems that Flickr has changed its “version” from Gamma to “Loves You”. It almost sounds Orwellian when a company proclaims its love for you, doesn’t it? Oh, and MySpace has added some new features, but only under intense pressure from all levels of government and from carpool lanes full of soccer moms.
Somehow I always join the latest revolution in television programming a few years late. Back in 2003, Josh West introduced me to 24 somewhere during season three. I loved it, proceeded to borrow the boxed sets of seasons one and two from Blockbuster and Josh, respectively, and have not missed a live episode since then.