1
00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:07,160
Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how

2
00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:14,320
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.

3
00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:17,360
Speaker 1: I am your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer

4
00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:19,880
Speaker 1: at how stuff Works and I love all things tech,

5
00:00:19,960 --> 00:00:24,560
Speaker 1: and today we're going to continue our discussion about companies

6
00:00:24,560 --> 00:00:28,320
Speaker 1: and services that launched after tech Stuff became a podcast

7
00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:31,360
Speaker 1: and just kind of get perspective on what has happened

8
00:00:31,400 --> 00:00:34,879
Speaker 1: since we started this show ten years ago. If you

9
00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:39,000
Speaker 1: haven't heard part one of this series, you should probably

10
00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:41,600
Speaker 1: do that because we're gonna start right back up where

11
00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:46,320
Speaker 1: we left off and away we go. Another thing that

12
00:00:46,479 --> 00:00:50,760
Speaker 1: is younger than tech Stuff is Kickstarter, and boy, this

13
00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:53,320
Speaker 1: is a big one. Kickstarter launched in two thousand nine.

14
00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:56,920
Speaker 1: It was co founded by Yancy Strickler, Perry Chen, and

15
00:00:57,000 --> 00:00:59,880
Speaker 1: Charles Adler, and the concept behind it is pretty simple.

16
00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:03,680
Speaker 1: Creators pitch a project and set a financial goal, and

17
00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:06,880
Speaker 1: if it's picked by Kickstarter, if it meets the the

18
00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:10,200
Speaker 1: requirements that Kickstarter sets and doesn't violate any rules, it

19
00:01:10,280 --> 00:01:13,360
Speaker 1: can then go up on the page and you you

20
00:01:13,440 --> 00:01:19,000
Speaker 1: choose a fundraising campaign duration typically a month is very common.

21
00:01:19,600 --> 00:01:23,039
Speaker 1: They then invite people to come and contribute money. To

22
00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:26,440
Speaker 1: this campaign for whatever it might be, and often it's

23
00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:31,120
Speaker 1: in return for promised deliverables should the campaign fund. Campaigns

24
00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:34,880
Speaker 1: are an all or nothing affair on Kickstarter, so if

25
00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:38,080
Speaker 1: the campaign funds, Kickstarter takes that percentage of the overall

26
00:01:38,160 --> 00:01:40,800
Speaker 1: campaign and the rest goes to the creator. If it

27
00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:45,840
Speaker 1: does not fund, then people are not charged for their pledges. Ideally,

28
00:01:46,040 --> 00:01:49,000
Speaker 1: the creator would use the money generated from their Kickstarter

29
00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:52,400
Speaker 1: campaign to complete his or her project and then send

30
00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:56,040
Speaker 1: the deliverables to the appropriate backers. That's not always how

31
00:01:56,080 --> 00:01:59,920
Speaker 1: it works, unfortunately, and there's no shortage of Kickstarter camp

32
00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:05,320
Speaker 1: aims that funded successfully but failed to deliver a product. Now,

33
00:02:05,360 --> 00:02:07,040
Speaker 1: someday I'm gonna have to do a roundup of some

34
00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:09,840
Speaker 1: of the more notable failures in the tech sector on

35
00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:14,480
Speaker 1: the Kickstarter, whether they were true failures or hoaxes, because

36
00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:16,359
Speaker 1: I've backed a couple of them and I'm still a

37
00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:20,120
Speaker 1: little salty about it. On a similar note, there's Patreon,

38
00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:23,480
Speaker 1: and that's another way creators can fund their work. This

39
00:02:23,560 --> 00:02:26,320
Speaker 1: is an ongoing means of funding work, as opposed to

40
00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:31,200
Speaker 1: an all or nothing campaign. It involves rewarding backers or

41
00:02:31,240 --> 00:02:35,720
Speaker 1: patrons with various rewards backers select an amount of money

42
00:02:35,720 --> 00:02:39,160
Speaker 1: they wish to contribute every month to the creator, and

43
00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:42,720
Speaker 1: creators can make tears of rewards for different levels of

44
00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:46,040
Speaker 1: monthly contributions. So you could say, for a dollar a month,

45
00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:49,000
Speaker 1: you will get access to this exclusive content that no

46
00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:51,160
Speaker 1: one else has access to. For five dollars a month,

47
00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:55,119
Speaker 1: I will make content for you for ten dollars, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

48
00:02:55,440 --> 00:02:57,799
Speaker 1: And Patreon is used by people who continue to make

49
00:02:57,919 --> 00:03:01,520
Speaker 1: something typically, so it ten to be ongoing projects as

50
00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:04,200
Speaker 1: opposed to a one and done affair. So it might

51
00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:07,639
Speaker 1: be a podcast, it might be artwork, it might be

52
00:03:07,800 --> 00:03:10,600
Speaker 1: a cosplay, it might be photography, it could be any

53
00:03:10,600 --> 00:03:14,079
Speaker 1: sort of creative endeavor. Really. In January two thousand nine,

54
00:03:14,320 --> 00:03:19,919
Speaker 1: Maker Bought launched uh Bray Pettis, Zach Hoken, Smith, and

55
00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:23,359
Speaker 1: Adam Meyer were the co founders a Maker Bought back

56
00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:26,400
Speaker 1: in New York City, and it was a company aimed

57
00:03:26,440 --> 00:03:30,240
Speaker 1: at bringing three D desktop printing to consumers. So three

58
00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:32,840
Speaker 1: D printers had been around for a bit already, and

59
00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:36,520
Speaker 1: additive manufacturing had proved its usefulness in the industrial world

60
00:03:36,680 --> 00:03:40,560
Speaker 1: several times over, but very few folks in the consumer

61
00:03:40,600 --> 00:03:44,040
Speaker 1: world had very much experience or even knowledge of three

62
00:03:44,160 --> 00:03:47,360
Speaker 1: D printers. Back in two thousand nine, Maker Bought founders

63
00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:52,040
Speaker 1: wanted to change that. In two thousand thirteen, Stratusists Incorporated

64
00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:55,400
Speaker 1: acquired Maker Bought in a stock deal worth six hundred

65
00:03:55,560 --> 00:04:01,320
Speaker 1: four million dollars, another princely sum. So wow. Now, in

66
00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:03,760
Speaker 1: recent years, the company has had to weather some pretty

67
00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:07,440
Speaker 1: difficult times, including layoffs, the departure of the founders of

68
00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:10,920
Speaker 1: the company, and backlash from the maker community that had

69
00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:14,640
Speaker 1: loyally supported this company in its earlier years. And I'll

70
00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:17,320
Speaker 1: have to do a full episode on maker Bot someday.

71
00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:21,679
Speaker 1: In Spiro was under development and it was first shown

72
00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:24,520
Speaker 1: off at ce S two thousand eleven. I was actually

73
00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:26,360
Speaker 1: there that year. I got to see it, even got

74
00:04:26,360 --> 00:04:28,320
Speaker 1: to drive one of the little things. It was pretty cool.

75
00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:32,520
Speaker 1: The original Sphiro ball robot is ball shaped, has some

76
00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:35,039
Speaker 1: electronics inside it, including a little motor that allows the

77
00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:38,040
Speaker 1: ball to roll around in a controlled way, and you

78
00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:41,480
Speaker 1: would send commands to Spiro through an app on a smartphone.

79
00:04:41,480 --> 00:04:45,040
Speaker 1: It would turn your smartphone into a controller. Spiro's designs

80
00:04:45,160 --> 00:04:47,960
Speaker 1: got the attention of Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney,

81
00:04:48,080 --> 00:04:50,520
Speaker 1: who saw the potential to do a licensing deal in

82
00:04:50,560 --> 00:04:53,080
Speaker 1: which Spiro would make a remote controlled version of a

83
00:04:53,120 --> 00:04:56,440
Speaker 1: little robot that would feature in an upcoming Star Wars movie.

84
00:04:56,760 --> 00:04:59,560
Speaker 1: And that robot was, of course b B eight, and

85
00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:02,760
Speaker 1: the spher O b B eight is absolutely adorable. UM,

86
00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:04,560
Speaker 1: two of us here at the office, at least two

87
00:05:04,560 --> 00:05:07,120
Speaker 1: of us have one of those. Holly Fry would be

88
00:05:07,160 --> 00:05:10,880
Speaker 1: one and I'm the other. The Verge and Polygon are

89
00:05:10,920 --> 00:05:14,360
Speaker 1: both younger than tech Stuff. These are two related websites.

90
00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:17,800
Speaker 1: They are owned by a company called Vox Media, and

91
00:05:18,120 --> 00:05:21,520
Speaker 1: The Verge covers tech news and Polygon covers video game

92
00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:25,839
Speaker 1: industry and pop culture news. Joshua Topolski was the founding

93
00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:28,560
Speaker 1: editor in chief of The Verge, a job these days

94
00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:32,640
Speaker 1: held by Kneeli nil Patel, who uh is a really

95
00:05:32,680 --> 00:05:36,640
Speaker 1: fascinating person to Topolsky left his previous position as editor

96
00:05:36,680 --> 00:05:40,320
Speaker 1: in chief of Engadget after Engadget's parent company A O

97
00:05:40,520 --> 00:05:45,320
Speaker 1: L released a document that stressed profitability metrics over other concerns,

98
00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:50,880
Speaker 1: and he just felt that the integrity of reporting under

99
00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:54,440
Speaker 1: A O L was in dire jeopardy, so he and

100
00:05:54,560 --> 00:05:58,200
Speaker 1: several of his former Engadget coworkers left to go try

101
00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:00,839
Speaker 1: and do something else, and ultimately they founded The Verge,

102
00:06:00,839 --> 00:06:04,919
Speaker 1: which launched in November two thousand eleven. Polygon grew out

103
00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:07,800
Speaker 1: of the Verge and launched in October two thousand twelve

104
00:06:08,080 --> 00:06:10,640
Speaker 1: with a primary focus on video games, though in recent

105
00:06:10,760 --> 00:06:12,920
Speaker 1: years the site has expanded to cover lots of areas

106
00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:16,320
Speaker 1: of pop culture. And two other companies that are actually

107
00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:19,919
Speaker 1: younger than tech Stuff are Uber and Lift. Both of

108
00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:23,600
Speaker 1: these car hailing services launched after tech Stuff did. Uber

109
00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:26,400
Speaker 1: launched in two thousand nine, Lift in two thousand twelve.

110
00:06:26,960 --> 00:06:29,240
Speaker 1: Then I've covered Uber and tech Stuff, but haven't done

111
00:06:29,279 --> 00:06:32,960
Speaker 1: the same for Lift yet. But these car hailing services,

112
00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:35,960
Speaker 1: which sometimes are referred to as ride sharing services, but

113
00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:39,080
Speaker 1: longtime listeners know I have a problem with that particular

114
00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:44,640
Speaker 1: way of describing them. They have been incredibly disruptive businesses.

115
00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:47,400
Speaker 1: They also both have a reputation for not being too

116
00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:50,599
Speaker 1: terribly concerned with playing by the rule book, with Uber

117
00:06:50,600 --> 00:06:54,760
Speaker 1: in particular gaining a reputation for a somewhat cavalier business

118
00:06:54,760 --> 00:06:58,000
Speaker 1: practice attitude, not to mention a corporate culture that until

119
00:06:58,040 --> 00:07:03,840
Speaker 1: recently sounded pretty toxic. And then we have one last

120
00:07:03,839 --> 00:07:05,440
Speaker 1: one I want to talk about before we go to

121
00:07:05,480 --> 00:07:09,120
Speaker 1: break and that is Soilent, which really isn't a tech company,

122
00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:10,880
Speaker 1: but a lot of folks in the text here kind

123
00:07:10,880 --> 00:07:13,560
Speaker 1: of glammed onto it when it launched in two thousand thirteen.

124
00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:17,080
Speaker 1: It was originally sold as a powder, and now you

125
00:07:17,080 --> 00:07:20,960
Speaker 1: can find in a few different forms, including liquid bottled forms,

126
00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:25,480
Speaker 1: and it's a meal replacement product and cleverly called named

127
00:07:25,520 --> 00:07:29,280
Speaker 1: after the fictional soilent that appears in a short story,

128
00:07:29,320 --> 00:07:32,400
Speaker 1: but is mostly known from its appearance in the movie

129
00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:35,280
Speaker 1: Soiling Green, where we find out it's made from people.

130
00:07:35,720 --> 00:07:40,000
Speaker 1: Soiling Green is, anyway the other versions of soilent, we're not,

131
00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:44,320
Speaker 1: but I think most people think of Soilent as it's

132
00:07:44,320 --> 00:07:47,920
Speaker 1: made of people. The company has backed off the messaging

133
00:07:47,920 --> 00:07:49,960
Speaker 1: that you could have soilent for every single meal of

134
00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:52,080
Speaker 1: the day and get rid of quote unquote real food

135
00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:56,120
Speaker 1: and still maintain a healthy lifestyle. They kind of retreated

136
00:07:56,200 --> 00:07:59,080
Speaker 1: on that a little bit, but it's supposed to contain

137
00:07:59,120 --> 00:08:01,440
Speaker 1: everything you need to keep bond trucking, and the fact

138
00:08:01,640 --> 00:08:05,160
Speaker 1: was it was it is a very convenient and fast

139
00:08:05,240 --> 00:08:10,280
Speaker 1: way to get some calories and maintain the basic nutrients

140
00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:13,080
Speaker 1: you need. And people who are working ridiculous hours in

141
00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:16,680
Speaker 1: tech companies started using the stuff like crazy because it

142
00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:21,000
Speaker 1: was convenient. As for me, in August of decided to

143
00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:24,080
Speaker 1: experiment by only having Soilent for breakfast and lunch for

144
00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:26,200
Speaker 1: a month, and it was the beginning of my weight

145
00:08:26,240 --> 00:08:29,320
Speaker 1: loss journey. And while I no longer regularly drink Soilent,

146
00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:31,920
Speaker 1: I do still have the occasional bottle when I need

147
00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:36,120
Speaker 1: something convenient and fast. Now that's all these companies and

148
00:08:36,160 --> 00:08:38,440
Speaker 1: services that have launched since tech Stuff, and of course

149
00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:41,360
Speaker 1: there are tons more. I just grabbed a selection that

150
00:08:41,360 --> 00:08:43,760
Speaker 1: I thought were interesting. We're gonna go into a break,

151
00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:46,240
Speaker 1: and when we come back, I'm going to talk a

152
00:08:46,320 --> 00:08:49,880
Speaker 1: little bit about some companies that launched after tech Stuff

153
00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:52,600
Speaker 1: but aren't around anymore. But first let's take a quick

154
00:08:52,640 --> 00:09:03,240
Speaker 1: break to thank our sponsor. Okay, so let's talk about

155
00:09:03,320 --> 00:09:07,680
Speaker 1: some stuff that launched after tech Stuff and now don't

156
00:09:07,720 --> 00:09:12,360
Speaker 1: exist no more. Go boom. First, we're gonna start with Vine,

157
00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:15,160
Speaker 1: and I have to do a full episode on Vine

158
00:09:15,200 --> 00:09:18,280
Speaker 1: at some point because that story is also really interesting.

159
00:09:18,320 --> 00:09:22,480
Speaker 1: But in short, the summarized cliffs Notes version. I don't

160
00:09:22,480 --> 00:09:24,679
Speaker 1: even know if cliffs Notes still exist. A Cliff's Notes

161
00:09:24,720 --> 00:09:27,880
Speaker 1: still exist. It used to summarize stuff anyway. Vine was

162
00:09:27,960 --> 00:09:32,400
Speaker 1: created in two thousand twelve by russ yusup of Dom

163
00:09:32,520 --> 00:09:36,560
Speaker 1: Hoffman and Colin Kroll, and the apps started out as

164
00:09:36,559 --> 00:09:39,680
Speaker 1: a program that would let people cut videos together using

165
00:09:39,720 --> 00:09:42,520
Speaker 1: a mobile device, so you could edit together a video,

166
00:09:42,880 --> 00:09:45,880
Speaker 1: and it wasn't terribly stable, and it had no time

167
00:09:45,920 --> 00:09:49,280
Speaker 1: limit attached to the videos. You can make very long videos,

168
00:09:49,280 --> 00:09:52,120
Speaker 1: but that meant the videos were very difficult to share

169
00:09:52,360 --> 00:09:54,720
Speaker 1: because the file sizes were so large, it was difficult

170
00:09:54,760 --> 00:09:57,120
Speaker 1: to send it to someone else to watch. That's when

171
00:09:57,120 --> 00:09:59,600
Speaker 1: the co founders figured that if they created a time limit,

172
00:09:59,640 --> 00:10:02,160
Speaker 1: if they made sure that the videos could only be

173
00:10:02,400 --> 00:10:05,280
Speaker 1: a few seconds long, they could make it a share

174
00:10:05,240 --> 00:10:08,400
Speaker 1: double experience because the file sizes would not be too

175
00:10:08,520 --> 00:10:12,880
Speaker 1: large to send over cellular networks or WiFi. Sort of

176
00:10:12,920 --> 00:10:16,480
Speaker 1: the video version of what Twitter was, where you could

177
00:10:16,520 --> 00:10:21,160
Speaker 1: record short social videos for your friends. And Twitter loved

178
00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:24,080
Speaker 1: that idea. They presented it to Twitter and Twitter said,

179
00:10:24,120 --> 00:10:26,920
Speaker 1: this is a great idea. We like it a lot,

180
00:10:27,559 --> 00:10:32,080
Speaker 1: and they purchased Vine, reportedly for around thirty million dollars.

181
00:10:32,600 --> 00:10:35,640
Speaker 1: And Vine had not yet launched yet, and just as

182
00:10:35,679 --> 00:10:38,839
Speaker 1: Twitter had started out as one thing in the minds

183
00:10:38,840 --> 00:10:41,520
Speaker 1: of its creators and then turned into something else. If

184
00:10:41,520 --> 00:10:43,880
Speaker 1: you're familiar with the story of Twitter, you know that

185
00:10:44,320 --> 00:10:47,080
Speaker 1: they originally were thinking about a service where you could

186
00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:49,640
Speaker 1: send out a text message to a group of friends,

187
00:10:50,280 --> 00:10:53,679
Speaker 1: and that was really the only use case they were

188
00:10:53,679 --> 00:10:56,959
Speaker 1: thinking of with Twitter was just I'm gonna go do something.

189
00:10:57,000 --> 00:10:59,200
Speaker 1: I wanna let my friends know what I'm about to do,

190
00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:01,680
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna blast us them all with this Twitter message.

191
00:11:02,040 --> 00:11:04,560
Speaker 1: It turned out the Twitter turned into something much different

192
00:11:04,640 --> 00:11:11,200
Speaker 1: where you had celebrities, news outlets, brands, all these different

193
00:11:11,520 --> 00:11:15,120
Speaker 1: entities that were blasting out information to the general public

194
00:11:15,559 --> 00:11:17,920
Speaker 1: and creating a new means of communication. It was not

195
00:11:18,600 --> 00:11:21,520
Speaker 1: that was not Twitter's mission at the beginning. The same

196
00:11:21,559 --> 00:11:24,080
Speaker 1: thing was true for Vine. They wanted to create a

197
00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:29,480
Speaker 1: way for people to make very short, socially UH focused

198
00:11:29,640 --> 00:11:33,640
Speaker 1: videos that could be easily shared. But people began to

199
00:11:33,679 --> 00:11:37,439
Speaker 1: take that six second limitation as a challenge to create interesting,

200
00:11:37,559 --> 00:11:42,320
Speaker 1: super short form video stories. But Vine didn't stick around UH.

201
00:11:42,400 --> 00:11:45,959
Speaker 1: Instagram and Snapchat both took a lot of wind from

202
00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:50,280
Speaker 1: vines sales. Instagram did it by creating longer form videos

203
00:11:50,520 --> 00:11:53,439
Speaker 1: and by longer formament that at first they were fifteen

204
00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:55,520
Speaker 1: seconds long than they ended up being a bit longer.

205
00:11:55,880 --> 00:11:58,640
Speaker 1: Snapchat did it by making it easy to share videos

206
00:11:58,640 --> 00:12:01,840
Speaker 1: with friends that would later those videos would disappear, and

207
00:12:01,840 --> 00:12:04,679
Speaker 1: it would keep it very social and timely, And so

208
00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:08,280
Speaker 1: Twitter chose to shut down Vine in two thousand and sixteen.

209
00:12:08,360 --> 00:12:10,760
Speaker 1: It is no longer a thing. Although you can still

210
00:12:10,760 --> 00:12:15,440
Speaker 1: watch previously created Vine videos, you can't make new ones

211
00:12:15,640 --> 00:12:18,880
Speaker 1: because the service doesn't exist anymore. Or how about cool

212
00:12:19,480 --> 00:12:23,440
Speaker 1: cool as in c U I L I remember doing

213
00:12:23,440 --> 00:12:25,600
Speaker 1: an episode about this way back in the day. In fact,

214
00:12:25,600 --> 00:12:29,079
Speaker 1: before it launched. Cool launched in July two thousand eight,

215
00:12:29,360 --> 00:12:32,280
Speaker 1: just a month after tech Stuff went live. Maybe it

216
00:12:32,360 --> 00:12:35,080
Speaker 1: was shortly after Cool launched when we did our episode,

217
00:12:35,080 --> 00:12:37,840
Speaker 1: but Cool was the search engine that claimed to have

218
00:12:37,920 --> 00:12:42,440
Speaker 1: the largest number of indexed web pages among all search engines. So,

219
00:12:42,480 --> 00:12:44,720
Speaker 1: in other words, they said, hey, if you want to

220
00:12:44,760 --> 00:12:47,959
Speaker 1: find the information on any topic, trust us. We're gonna

221
00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:51,160
Speaker 1: have it because we've indexed more pages than anybody else.

222
00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:55,360
Speaker 1: And it would present search results with longer entries about

223
00:12:55,440 --> 00:12:59,120
Speaker 1: those specific results, as opposed to maybe the sentence or

224
00:12:59,160 --> 00:13:01,959
Speaker 1: two you might get from Google. You would get longer ones,

225
00:13:02,240 --> 00:13:05,720
Speaker 1: and also you would get thumbnail pictures of various sites

226
00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:08,280
Speaker 1: that were supposed to be relevant to whatever the search

227
00:13:08,320 --> 00:13:11,880
Speaker 1: results were. But things were rocky for cool from the start.

228
00:13:12,640 --> 00:13:16,440
Speaker 1: One month after it launched, the head of the technology department,

229
00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:20,880
Speaker 1: essentially the person in charge of the search technology, quit

230
00:13:20,920 --> 00:13:24,360
Speaker 1: the company after getting into disagreements with the CEO about

231
00:13:24,400 --> 00:13:27,320
Speaker 1: the company's direction. It made a bit of a splash

232
00:13:27,400 --> 00:13:31,880
Speaker 1: when it debuted, but it didn't gain momentum and by

233
00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:35,040
Speaker 1: the fall of that year. By the fall of two

234
00:13:35,040 --> 00:13:38,760
Speaker 1: thousand eight, and had already dropped to nearly no traffic

235
00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:41,920
Speaker 1: at all, the amount of traffic going to cool Head

236
00:13:41,960 --> 00:13:45,120
Speaker 1: gone to a tiny, little trickle. The company continued along

237
00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:51,280
Speaker 1: until September and then cool unceremoniously shut down, laid off

238
00:13:51,320 --> 00:13:53,439
Speaker 1: all the employees who were told there would be no

239
00:13:53,480 --> 00:13:55,679
Speaker 1: more checks, they would not be getting paid for their

240
00:13:55,760 --> 00:13:59,320
Speaker 1: last few days of work, and the servers all went offline.

241
00:13:59,679 --> 00:14:02,520
Speaker 1: This despite the company raising more than thirty million dollars

242
00:14:02,520 --> 00:14:06,439
Speaker 1: in venture capital over the course of its existence. Also,

243
00:14:06,520 --> 00:14:11,079
Speaker 1: it gained a reputation for irrelevant search results, sometimes presenting

244
00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:15,920
Speaker 1: very inappropriate images in response to search results, and other

245
00:14:15,960 --> 00:14:18,520
Speaker 1: major problems. And like I said, did an episode on

246
00:14:18,520 --> 00:14:20,720
Speaker 1: cool back when it launched, but maybe a full story

247
00:14:20,800 --> 00:14:23,640
Speaker 1: could be an order. I might. I might revisit it

248
00:14:23,680 --> 00:14:27,720
Speaker 1: because it is again another interesting study in how tech

249
00:14:27,760 --> 00:14:30,520
Speaker 1: can go wrong. Next, I want to talk about Pebble,

250
00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:33,400
Speaker 1: and this one hurts. I was a fan of the

251
00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:35,680
Speaker 1: idea of Pebble all the way back to when the

252
00:14:35,760 --> 00:14:40,040
Speaker 1: Kickstarter campaign launched in the spring of The campaign was

253
00:14:40,080 --> 00:14:43,960
Speaker 1: a wild success and it raised more than ten million dollars.

254
00:14:43,960 --> 00:14:47,240
Speaker 1: It made it the most successful Kickstarter campaign up to

255
00:14:47,360 --> 00:14:51,800
Speaker 1: that point, and unlike lots of other tech crowdfunding campaigns,

256
00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:57,520
Speaker 1: Pebble actually shipped their promised watches starting in January. So,

257
00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:00,280
Speaker 1: in case you aren't familiar with it, Pebble is sort

258
00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:04,120
Speaker 1: of a semi smart watch with a connect via Bluetooth

259
00:15:04,120 --> 00:15:07,240
Speaker 1: to a smartphone and you could get notifications on it.

260
00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:10,440
Speaker 1: You could run certain apps on it, you could change

261
00:15:10,480 --> 00:15:12,920
Speaker 1: the face on it. It had a very ultra low

262
00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:16,240
Speaker 1: power l c D screen that was monochromatic, so it

263
00:15:16,320 --> 00:15:19,360
Speaker 1: had a really good battery life. It was water proof

264
00:15:19,440 --> 00:15:22,960
Speaker 1: or at least water resistant. Um it was neat. It

265
00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:26,160
Speaker 1: would vibrate whenever you would get a notification, so you

266
00:15:26,160 --> 00:15:29,600
Speaker 1: could actually read things like Twitter messages or emails on

267
00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:33,400
Speaker 1: your watch, and uh it was. It was a kind

268
00:15:33,440 --> 00:15:38,120
Speaker 1: of a low cost smart watch. But Pebble wasn't able

269
00:15:38,160 --> 00:15:41,360
Speaker 1: to make a profit, and in sixteen the company had

270
00:15:41,400 --> 00:15:46,120
Speaker 1: to file for insolvency. Fitbit ended up acquiring most of Pebble,

271
00:15:46,440 --> 00:15:49,760
Speaker 1: though not the actual hardware. Fitbit got the software and

272
00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:54,440
Speaker 1: the assets, meaning the programmers and developers Pebble as a

273
00:15:54,440 --> 00:15:58,840
Speaker 1: company closed shop at the end of Another piece of

274
00:15:58,880 --> 00:16:02,640
Speaker 1: hardware that doesn't exist anymore is uh Yeah oh u

275
00:16:02,960 --> 00:16:07,640
Speaker 1: y a launched in This was originally a micro console

276
00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:11,960
Speaker 1: running on the Android operating system, a gaming micro console,

277
00:16:12,080 --> 00:16:15,120
Speaker 1: that is. It was crowdfunded and reached its goal in

278
00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:19,360
Speaker 1: just eight hours on Kickstarter, and finished the campaign more

279
00:16:19,360 --> 00:16:23,600
Speaker 1: than above its goal, with a final tally of more

280
00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:27,120
Speaker 1: than eight and a half million dollars. The games on

281
00:16:27,120 --> 00:16:31,280
Speaker 1: the console were largely in that casual gaming category, and

282
00:16:31,320 --> 00:16:33,520
Speaker 1: it could run a few other apps in addition to

283
00:16:33,680 --> 00:16:36,440
Speaker 1: running games, but sales of the uh Yeah didn't do

284
00:16:36,560 --> 00:16:41,080
Speaker 1: very well outside the initial crowdfunding campaign. Reviews of prototype

285
00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:44,360
Speaker 1: builds were mixed or some of them were mildly negative,

286
00:16:44,640 --> 00:16:48,960
Speaker 1: but those reviews improved significantly once the retail version of

287
00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:51,880
Speaker 1: the Uyah was ready to ship for customers. They said,

288
00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:55,200
Speaker 1: oh well, yeah, paid attention. They listened to the problems

289
00:16:55,240 --> 00:16:58,040
Speaker 1: we had with this and they addressed it, and the

290
00:16:58,080 --> 00:17:00,880
Speaker 1: new build is much better. Even so, it never really

291
00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:05,119
Speaker 1: cut on in the marketplace, and Uyah accrued debt, it

292
00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:08,880
Speaker 1: could not pay, it could not renegotiate, and eventually it

293
00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:12,560
Speaker 1: was forced to sell off its assets to Razor Incorporated.

294
00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:17,000
Speaker 1: The hardware was discontinued and Razor put the employees of

295
00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:20,280
Speaker 1: Uya and the software assets to use elsewhere under its

296
00:17:20,280 --> 00:17:23,960
Speaker 1: own umbrella, and Uya was no more. Now we have

297
00:17:24,080 --> 00:17:27,080
Speaker 1: more to say about these companies and services in just

298
00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:29,400
Speaker 1: a moment, but before we get to that, let's take

299
00:17:29,440 --> 00:17:40,240
Speaker 1: a quick break to thank our sponsor. Now, just before

300
00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:44,040
Speaker 1: the ad break, I talked about Ouyah. Now let's talk

301
00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:47,280
Speaker 1: about on Live, which was first discussed at the two

302
00:17:47,280 --> 00:17:52,119
Speaker 1: thousand nine Game Developers Conference. Users would buy hardware that

303
00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:55,240
Speaker 1: would allow them to access games online, and they would

304
00:17:55,280 --> 00:17:58,480
Speaker 1: pay a monthly service fee for the opportunity to play

305
00:17:58,600 --> 00:18:01,399
Speaker 1: numerous games from an on line library. So instead of

306
00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:04,840
Speaker 1: buying a game, you would pay this monthly fee and

307
00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:07,439
Speaker 1: you would have access to a library of games and

308
00:18:07,480 --> 00:18:10,280
Speaker 1: it would stream to your machine, then you could play

309
00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:13,959
Speaker 1: in the cloud. This is very similar to what was

310
00:18:15,119 --> 00:18:17,840
Speaker 1: pitched as the Phantom console back in the day, except

311
00:18:17,880 --> 00:18:21,760
Speaker 1: this one really had intent behind it. People were really

312
00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:26,200
Speaker 1: determined to make a working service and a working product.

313
00:18:27,320 --> 00:18:30,720
Speaker 1: After a few months of its launch, the company announced

314
00:18:30,720 --> 00:18:33,040
Speaker 1: it would move to a free service model, but you

315
00:18:33,040 --> 00:18:35,800
Speaker 1: would have to pay to access specific games, so you

316
00:18:35,840 --> 00:18:38,440
Speaker 1: no longer have to pay a monthly subscription fee to

317
00:18:39,160 --> 00:18:41,280
Speaker 1: access it, but you would have to pay money to

318
00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:44,399
Speaker 1: either rent a game, meaning you would have access to

319
00:18:44,440 --> 00:18:47,560
Speaker 1: that game for a given amount of time, or I

320
00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:50,160
Speaker 1: believe you could actually quote unquote purchase a game, which

321
00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:52,280
Speaker 1: just meant that you could access that game whenever you

322
00:18:52,320 --> 00:18:56,200
Speaker 1: wanted from that point forward. But in August two thousand twelve,

323
00:18:56,320 --> 00:19:01,159
Speaker 1: the company laid everybody off. Everyone got hired, The company

324
00:19:01,240 --> 00:19:04,160
Speaker 1: sold all its assets off, and then formed a new

325
00:19:04,280 --> 00:19:06,920
Speaker 1: on Live company. So essentially it was like a do over.

326
00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:11,280
Speaker 1: It was a control alt, reset, control delete, where you

327
00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:14,200
Speaker 1: you you say, well, we had this company, We're getting

328
00:19:14,280 --> 00:19:17,399
Speaker 1: rid of everybody. We're dissolving the company. We're forming the

329
00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:21,520
Speaker 1: new company and the Louder Partners l A U D

330
00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:24,720
Speaker 1: E R. We're the new owner of on Live. That

331
00:19:24,800 --> 00:19:28,920
Speaker 1: company continued on until two thousand fifteen. Then Sony Entertainment

332
00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:32,120
Speaker 1: swept in and bought up most of the company's assets

333
00:19:32,640 --> 00:19:38,560
Speaker 1: and online service shut down in April, so not a

334
00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:40,840
Speaker 1: big success. And I remember talking about on Live back

335
00:19:40,840 --> 00:19:42,760
Speaker 1: in the day with Chris Billett two where we were

336
00:19:43,400 --> 00:19:47,399
Speaker 1: both kind of skeptical about the prospects of a cloud

337
00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:50,879
Speaker 1: based video game company at that time. These days, I

338
00:19:50,880 --> 00:19:53,359
Speaker 1: would actually think it'd be not that difficult to do,

339
00:19:53,440 --> 00:19:56,679
Speaker 1: and in fact, Microsoft is doing this over on Xbox.

340
00:19:56,720 --> 00:19:59,919
Speaker 1: You can pay to be part of a Microsoft service

341
00:20:00,359 --> 00:20:03,119
Speaker 1: where at least the Microsoft games, you can have access

342
00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:05,680
Speaker 1: to those month to month as long as your service

343
00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:09,159
Speaker 1: subscription is active, so it does still kind of exist,

344
00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:11,800
Speaker 1: although you are downloading at least part of those games

345
00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:14,720
Speaker 1: to your Xbox console, so it's not exactly the same thing,

346
00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:19,159
Speaker 1: but we're seeing some similar business practices that are in

347
00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:23,680
Speaker 1: place today. Next, I'll chat about yik Yak. This one

348
00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:25,960
Speaker 1: hits a little close to home because I once had

349
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:30,880
Speaker 1: to um to uh moderate a panel with the yik

350
00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:34,600
Speaker 1: yak founders. That would be Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington

351
00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:38,520
Speaker 1: and yes those are their actual names, and that service

352
00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:42,679
Speaker 1: launched in twenty thirteen here in Atlanta. It was a

353
00:20:42,760 --> 00:20:47,480
Speaker 1: location based anonymous messaging service, So you would log into

354
00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:50,240
Speaker 1: yik yak and you could read messages written by other

355
00:20:50,320 --> 00:20:55,399
Speaker 1: people that uh are in the same general location that

356
00:20:55,480 --> 00:20:58,760
Speaker 1: you were in same general region of your city or town.

357
00:20:59,320 --> 00:21:03,320
Speaker 1: So um as you moved around the city, the messages

358
00:21:03,359 --> 00:21:06,119
Speaker 1: you could read would change because it was all proximity based.

359
00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:09,360
Speaker 1: So if you happen to be near a college campus,

360
00:21:09,400 --> 00:21:12,199
Speaker 1: you could read the messages from that college campus because

361
00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:14,760
Speaker 1: you were close enough to it. But as you moved

362
00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:16,600
Speaker 1: across to the other parts of the city, you would

363
00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:21,320
Speaker 1: see messages from other areas. Users could post about just

364
00:21:21,359 --> 00:21:24,960
Speaker 1: about anything, and again, because it was anonymous, at least

365
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:28,320
Speaker 1: at first, you didn't really have a lot of accountability there,

366
00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:30,359
Speaker 1: and that caused a lot of issues. It got a

367
00:21:30,359 --> 00:21:33,040
Speaker 1: lot of criticism from people who said the platform enabled

368
00:21:33,040 --> 00:21:37,520
Speaker 1: harassment and bullying. Yek yek used geo fencing techniques to

369
00:21:37,560 --> 00:21:41,720
Speaker 1: create blackout zones around places like middle schools and high schools,

370
00:21:41,800 --> 00:21:44,520
Speaker 1: So if you were an administrator of a high school,

371
00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:48,360
Speaker 1: you could use that to black it out the service

372
00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:50,880
Speaker 1: around your high school so that students wouldn't be able

373
00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:53,000
Speaker 1: to use it while they were on campus. UH there

374
00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:56,160
Speaker 1: were a lot of issues with with students using this

375
00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:01,680
Speaker 1: um while in school and causing issue use, and critics

376
00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:06,000
Speaker 1: pointed at instances of mean spirited pranks, destructive gossip, and

377
00:22:06,119 --> 00:22:09,719
Speaker 1: hate speech on the platform. K attempted to respond to

378
00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:13,320
Speaker 1: these issues in a few different ways, including creating mandated

379
00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:17,040
Speaker 1: handles so you no longer could be completely anonymous, but

380
00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:20,680
Speaker 1: saw its user numbers decline and eventually the company shut

381
00:22:20,720 --> 00:22:24,240
Speaker 1: down the service in the spring of tween. Then there's

382
00:22:24,359 --> 00:22:28,000
Speaker 1: r d O or r d i O, the online

383
00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:31,200
Speaker 1: music streaming service that one launched in twenty ten, very

384
00:22:31,240 --> 00:22:35,080
Speaker 1: similar to other streaming services like Spotify or in some

385
00:22:35,119 --> 00:22:39,240
Speaker 1: cases like Pandora. There were two main tiers of r

386
00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:42,159
Speaker 1: d O service. There was a free tier that was

387
00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:45,240
Speaker 1: AD supported, so you could listen to music and occasionally

388
00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:48,159
Speaker 1: an AD would be inserted in between songs. And then

389
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:51,040
Speaker 1: there was a subscription add free tier that you could

390
00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:54,040
Speaker 1: uh subscribe to and so you'd pay a monthly fee

391
00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:56,880
Speaker 1: and you'd be able to listen to music without ads.

392
00:22:56,920 --> 00:22:59,960
Speaker 1: But the service failed to survive in a very crowded

393
00:23:00,119 --> 00:23:03,520
Speaker 1: space and eventually had to file for Chapter eleven bankruptcy

394
00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:07,160
Speaker 1: and so selling off some of its assets to its

395
00:23:07,200 --> 00:23:13,320
Speaker 1: former rival Pandora as a result. Then let's talk about

396
00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:16,520
Speaker 1: Juice a Row. Juice a Row is one of those

397
00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:19,320
Speaker 1: things that kind of makes me scratch my head. Sometimes

398
00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:22,600
Speaker 1: venture capitalists irritate the heck out of me, and that's

399
00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:25,600
Speaker 1: the case with juicer Row. It was a WiFi enabled

400
00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:29,760
Speaker 1: juicer that relied on a subscription service. You would subscribe

401
00:23:29,840 --> 00:23:34,000
Speaker 1: and receive single serving packets that had cut up fruits

402
00:23:34,080 --> 00:23:36,960
Speaker 1: or vegetables or both, and you would put this packet

403
00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:40,760
Speaker 1: inside the juicer, which would squeeze the packet and produce

404
00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:44,800
Speaker 1: a fresh glass of juice for you, which all in

405
00:23:44,840 --> 00:23:48,960
Speaker 1: itself doesn't sound that bad, but there are other issues.

406
00:23:49,080 --> 00:23:51,600
Speaker 1: So the company received more than a hundred million dollars

407
00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:54,080
Speaker 1: in venture capital funding I think a hundred and twenty

408
00:23:54,119 --> 00:23:58,480
Speaker 1: millions since it's founding, but in the company said it

409
00:23:58,480 --> 00:24:03,240
Speaker 1: would suspend sale of the juicer and repurchase juicers that

410
00:24:03,280 --> 00:24:05,840
Speaker 1: had been sold to customers up to that point while

411
00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:09,520
Speaker 1: looking for a buyer for the company. The juice packets

412
00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:12,679
Speaker 1: all had QR codes on them, and you were supposed

413
00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:16,679
Speaker 1: to scan your juice packet QR code before you pressed it,

414
00:24:17,359 --> 00:24:20,000
Speaker 1: and the company said this was to make sure that

415
00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:24,280
Speaker 1: you never were getting juice from expired products. You would

416
00:24:24,280 --> 00:24:27,200
Speaker 1: scan it and the juicer would say, oh, well that

417
00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:30,520
Speaker 1: was put in that packet just three days ago, so

418
00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:32,760
Speaker 1: it's still good. You should be able to use it.

419
00:24:33,080 --> 00:24:35,239
Speaker 1: Or no, that's a month old. It's bad. They'll make

420
00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:37,600
Speaker 1: you sick. Don't use it. That was what they were

421
00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:39,880
Speaker 1: saying it was for, but other people said, no, this

422
00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:43,200
Speaker 1: is really a method of digital rights management. In other words,

423
00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:46,560
Speaker 1: it was a way to prevent you from using your

424
00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:51,200
Speaker 1: juice a row from pressing any other juice packets made

425
00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:54,359
Speaker 1: by anyone else. So it's kind of like the idea

426
00:24:54,359 --> 00:24:58,040
Speaker 1: of a Curig, the Curig coffee makers that use those

427
00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:01,120
Speaker 1: single canisters to make a a single cup of coffee.

428
00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:05,560
Speaker 1: Other manufacturers started making canisters that could work with Curiggs,

429
00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:08,720
Speaker 1: and then Curig wanted to change its design so that

430
00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:12,680
Speaker 1: only its packets would work in its machines, and other

431
00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:14,800
Speaker 1: people said, well, you can't do that. That's you know,

432
00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:17,840
Speaker 1: it's anti competitive and it's a type of DRM that

433
00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:20,560
Speaker 1: I'm not comfortable with. People were making the same claims

434
00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:23,560
Speaker 1: about Juicer Row, although the company denied that was the purpose,

435
00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:27,800
Speaker 1: and Bloomberg published a pretty damning report in two thousand

436
00:25:27,880 --> 00:25:30,960
Speaker 1: seventeen that said, you can get the same result as

437
00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:34,360
Speaker 1: the Juice Row if you just took the packet that

438
00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:37,800
Speaker 1: that would come when you subscribed and just squeezed the

439
00:25:37,840 --> 00:25:41,919
Speaker 1: packet by hand and squeezed it into a glass. Uh.

440
00:25:42,359 --> 00:25:45,840
Speaker 1: A venture capitalist named Ben Einstein took a Juicer row

441
00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:52,160
Speaker 1: and dismantled it and said it was incredibly sophisticated. In fact,

442
00:25:52,240 --> 00:25:56,520
Speaker 1: it was too sophisticated. He said, there was way too complicated,

443
00:25:56,840 --> 00:26:00,240
Speaker 1: unnecessarily complicated, and that jacked up the price of the

444
00:26:00,320 --> 00:26:04,280
Speaker 1: juicer but did not provide additional value. And this was

445
00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:08,760
Speaker 1: backed up by other reviewers of the same product. So yeah,

446
00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:13,120
Speaker 1: not not the best showing of a brand new product.

447
00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:16,880
Speaker 1: And also one of those where people said, why does

448
00:26:16,960 --> 00:26:19,840
Speaker 1: this need to be a smart such and such? Right,

449
00:26:19,960 --> 00:26:22,280
Speaker 1: why does it need to be a smart juicer? And

450
00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:25,399
Speaker 1: people point at this and say, yeah, this is not

451
00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:27,800
Speaker 1: a valid argument. I don't know that we need such

452
00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:31,800
Speaker 1: a thing. The last example I want to give about

453
00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:34,680
Speaker 1: a company that launched after tech stuff and no longer

454
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:39,919
Speaker 1: exists is Cloud. Now. Cloud was an app, an extension

455
00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:43,359
Speaker 1: really that was meant to measure a person's social influence

456
00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:47,960
Speaker 1: or their reach using a cloud score, and a cloud

457
00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:50,879
Speaker 1: score would link to many different social networks, primarily Twitter,

458
00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:54,919
Speaker 1: but you could also link into stuff like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, ETCETERA.

459
00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:58,000
Speaker 1: Cloud launched in two thousand and eight after tech stuff

460
00:26:58,040 --> 00:27:00,840
Speaker 1: was live, and cloud scores were but mean one and

461
00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:05,000
Speaker 1: one hundred. The higher your score, the more effect of

462
00:27:05,080 --> 00:27:07,920
Speaker 1: your social reach was said to be. I was always

463
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:11,679
Speaker 1: in the eighties, by the way, uh the average I

464
00:27:11,680 --> 00:27:14,119
Speaker 1: think was somewhere in the thirties. But for a while,

465
00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:17,800
Speaker 1: companies would offer perks to cloud members who had scores

466
00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:20,920
Speaker 1: above a particular threshold, with the idea that the receiver

467
00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:23,320
Speaker 1: of the perk would talk up his or her experience

468
00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:25,960
Speaker 1: using the service. I heard about people who got like

469
00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:29,199
Speaker 1: crazy deals on hotel rooms things like that. And the

470
00:27:29,240 --> 00:27:34,080
Speaker 1: whole expectation there was the provider of the service or

471
00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:37,840
Speaker 1: the product would get a benefit from the person with

472
00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:42,159
Speaker 1: a very high cloud score saying, Hey, this company is

473
00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:45,240
Speaker 1: the bomb dignity. You gotta go and buy their stuff

474
00:27:45,320 --> 00:27:48,800
Speaker 1: because it's amazing, And it would be like a marketing campaign.

475
00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:51,879
Speaker 1: And when you think about it, marketing campaigns get very expensive.

476
00:27:52,200 --> 00:27:54,200
Speaker 1: But if you can get effective word of mouth from

477
00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:57,439
Speaker 1: somebody who's very influential, and it just cost you the

478
00:27:57,480 --> 00:28:00,919
Speaker 1: price of a product that you're already selling. That's a

479
00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:04,800
Speaker 1: pretty efficient marketing campaign. So that was going on for

480
00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:07,080
Speaker 1: a while. Eventually Cloud would get rid of the perks

481
00:28:07,119 --> 00:28:10,480
Speaker 1: program because it received a lot of criticism and uh,

482
00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:14,160
Speaker 1: there was questions about how effective the perks were that

483
00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:18,360
Speaker 1: came from both users of Clout and from the providers themselves,

484
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:22,880
Speaker 1: and critics said that Cloud was kind of a social evil,

485
00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:27,200
Speaker 1: that it was leveraging social status anxiety and it promoted

486
00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:30,480
Speaker 1: bad online etiquette because people were just trying to find

487
00:28:30,520 --> 00:28:33,840
Speaker 1: fast ways to jack that Cloud score up higher and higher.

488
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:39,200
Speaker 1: And eventually the service would end officially on May twenty,

489
00:28:39,880 --> 00:28:43,800
Speaker 1: two thousand and eighteen, so just uh, a short while

490
00:28:43,880 --> 00:28:48,120
Speaker 1: before this podcast was recorded. So Clout is no more

491
00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 1: as of like a couple of weeks ago. And like

492
00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:54,000
Speaker 1: I said, this is just a sample of some of

493
00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:57,720
Speaker 1: the services and companies that have launched since tech stuff

494
00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:00,760
Speaker 1: became a thing. It's funny to think that my show

495
00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:04,360
Speaker 1: is older than a lot of these famous companies and

496
00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:09,040
Speaker 1: services are and outlasted some of them. That's pretty amazing

497
00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:12,160
Speaker 1: to me. And Also, it's amazing to me that you

498
00:29:12,200 --> 00:29:16,200
Speaker 1: guys have been supporting this show, and I love that.

499
00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:20,400
Speaker 1: It's I deeply appreciate all you listeners out there, the

500
00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:22,680
Speaker 1: ones who write to me, the ones who just listened

501
00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:25,000
Speaker 1: to my show and look forward to the next one.

502
00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:29,240
Speaker 1: All of you guys have been incredible, and thank you

503
00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:32,520
Speaker 1: for supporting the show and for letting me do something

504
00:29:32,560 --> 00:29:34,640
Speaker 1: I love to do, which is I love to learn

505
00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:36,520
Speaker 1: and then I love to talk about the stuff that

506
00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:39,520
Speaker 1: I've learned, and you guys have made that possible. So

507
00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:44,280
Speaker 1: thank you so much. Thank you for ten years of

508
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:46,800
Speaker 1: tech Stuff. I can't wait for the next ten. I'll

509
00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:51,680
Speaker 1: be talking about robots, possibly two robots. I look forward

510
00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:55,240
Speaker 1: to my robotic listeners. Anyway, for you humans out there,

511
00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:59,120
Speaker 1: if you have any suggestions for future episodes of Tech Stuff,

512
00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:01,760
Speaker 1: why not send me a message. It can be about

513
00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:05,280
Speaker 1: a technology, a company, a person in tech. It could

514
00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:09,120
Speaker 1: be a suggestion for someone I should interview or have

515
00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:12,360
Speaker 1: on as a guest host. I look forward to hearing

516
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:15,240
Speaker 1: from you guys. The email address you can use is

517
00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:19,320
Speaker 1: tech Stuff at how stuff works dot com, or you

518
00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:22,320
Speaker 1: can drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter to

519
00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:25,480
Speaker 1: handle it. Both of those is tech Stuff hs W.

520
00:30:26,280 --> 00:30:29,360
Speaker 1: And finally, make sure you follow us on Instagram. It

521
00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:31,280
Speaker 1: is a great way to get a behind the scenes

522
00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:34,560
Speaker 1: look at what's going on at tech Stuff. And uh,

523
00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:38,800
Speaker 1: I really look forward to doing tons more episodes for

524
00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:42,080
Speaker 1: you guys, and I'll talk to you again really soon

525
00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:50,040
Speaker 1: for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is

526
00:30:50,040 --> 00:31:00,240
Speaker 1: it how stuff works dot com two