Can Rap Genius Annotate the World?
nymag.com
nymag.com
I've always considered their annotations to be a cute little novelty that's otherwise pointless, and Rap Genius itself a case study in a startup for no reason, so to get all the money they've gotten from investors, I imagine their presentation must be pretty damn impressive.
It just feels like the media and investors want them to succeed (hence the paid-for fluff pieces such as the posted one), but no one else gives a shit. How many of your friends are actually using Rap Genius?
I don't see them changing the world, but I do believe they're worth something as a company. They've built the world's best lyrics site, after all, and they've got Disqus-like potential as a pluggable annotation platform. Lastly, in their community, they have a constituency that's probably fairly unique, and I think that's a significant value too.
Next question!
These comments and analyzes sometimes exist, but they take the form of huge definitive volumes which kinds of put the damper on how much can be produced, and to their diffusions. What if anyone with a bit of knowledge could annotate a document, wikipedia-style? That's something I would like very much.