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spindritf

Dalton Caldwell just showed me a new service that could be a very big deal.

https://twitter.com/paulg/status/402260557325021184

Is this it?

It could be big. It certainly is something that I was missing on the web. Something that TV still does fairly well.

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Translation: We have invested in App.net, directly, or by proxy

App.net was originally Mixed Media Labs, which made a product called PicPlz. They took over $7MM in funding. I _thought_ they got funded from YC, but can't find a reference to this now, so I must be mis-remembering.

http://www.crunchbase.com/product/picplz

http://www.crunchbase.com/company/mixed-media-labs

They then shuttered their product to build App.net, doing the whole 'crowdsourcing' thing and collecting another $500,000. You know, which throws that whole "We won't shut down, you can build on our platform" thing into some amount of doubt.

Dalton is a part time partner at YC : http://daltoncaldwell.com/y-combinator

This must be what I was remembering, thank you!

If pg was talking about this, it feels like an over statement to me since it feels like it's the exact same idea as "close friends" on facebook, which creates a notification anytime one of them does something.

What am I missing?

The difference is the angle. The Facebook Close Friends is useful but is made for one to one relationships than organizations. App.net is not advising that you make an alert appear on your fans' phones everytime your band publishes anything on social media; they only want the band to use this feature when a new song is being released or they are about to perform in your area. It is publisher centric; Facebook Close Friends feature(which I love and use!) is consumer-focused. I don't think my Close Friends even know I get an alert each time they post something. In contrast I bet app.net plans to expose detailed analytics including engagement and unsubscription rates so publishers can further optimize content and reduce noise.

In that way, it sounds like a Facebook Page + Close Friends feature + letting publisher trigger notification on selective posts only.

The difference is that you already have Facebook installed and don't "need only to download the free App.net app for iOS or Android."

God damn it, shit fuck. I had been working this exact idea out in my head for several weeks, now the person who's opinion in tech has endorse that idea which is being created by a much bigger team. Should I just moved on, ?

Think of it as validation of your own idea, competition is always good.

I read the article, then read this tweet.. then searched Google for something else pg was referring to.. was disappointed when realized he was talking about the feature in the article :(

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