Internet startups are tight ships. Most feature a bare-bones team and just enough resources to get by, hugely unlike today’s decadent mainstream corporations. What happens when one of these startups is approached by an Internet giant hoping to acquire it? Perhaps the limited resources on hand necessitate an important decision: continue to evolve for the benefit of the user, or put development on the back burner in order to negotiate a profitable deal.
Socialthing! slowing down
I’ll be the first to admit I adore lifestreaming service Socialthing!; after all, there’s proof of that here and here. Unfortunately, the Version 2.0 release even I hyped seemed more a lateral movement than an upgrade, eliminating as many useful features as it introduced. Although some of these have reappeared over the last few weeks, I’ve been largely disappointed with the lack of progress by the Socialthing! team.
A month in the world of Internet startups equals six in any other niche. Here’s what Socialthing! has provided to its users over the last four weeks:
- support for minor social networks Brightkite, Plurk, and Seesmic
- a new pseudo-communityperson Brian Burns
- color-coding and advanced friend organization features (which still haven’t been announced on the main blog)
Some nice features, yes, but in my mind not enough to make up for a lackluster 2.0 launch that was referred to by the team as a “major revision.”
What’s the matter, Socialthing!?
The lack of evolution had me scratching my head up until yesterday when ReadWriteWeb’s Frederic Lardinois announced that AOL had bought Socialthing! for an undisclosed amount of money. A-ha! Now, this is all speculation from my end, but the buyout negotiations could have easily been what was distracting the Socialthing! team from releasing the high-quality updates that other lifestreaming innovators have been hitting out of the park.
The fact that there’s not even an announcement of this deal on the official Socialthing! blog suggests that this deal has taken up just about every ounce of the team’s time.
Startups at a crossroads
Whether or not the AOL buyout has influenced Socialthing! development over the last month or so, the issue brings up an interesting question: is an internet service “letting its users down” if it elects to pursue a lucrative partnership? Chances are good that the extra dollars in Socialthing!’s pocket will ensure a better chance of innovation and talent down the road– perhaps we should view this as more of an investment than a sacrifice.
I’m a big fan of Matt Galligan and Socialthing!. I just hope the team is able to make the decision that’s right for both themselves and their users.
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