#22: Guy says “this is the coolest thing since the Macintosh”

I love this site. Good work...

Cool! We get to see a death match between Slide and Filmloop on Scobleizer!

I used Slide when it came out, and met someone from Filmloop. I think it's interesting that two companies launched with similar ideas, and, from what I have heard, quite similar business models.

But, hey, for someone that worked and works in the photo industry, this is just fun to watch.

re: Slide’s model is really simple: you can choose to subscribe to Slide Shows with photos of products you can buy. If you do, we get a referral bonus. Back to work


Thanks for the clarification. All I can say is, "Wow, that's a heckuva business model." This means that I could theoretically create hundreds of trays, never subscribe to ones of affiliate products, and you keep paying for bandwidth and storage?

Your VC is okay with this? :-) Sounds almost too good to be true. Maybe the big picture is to get a lot of eyeballs and sell...

Back to sightseeing...

Guy

Thanks Guy, great to be here. Advertising is the engine of commerce, we are certainly all for it. We are just not comfortable with placing advertisements right next to our users’ family pictures. Slide’s model is really simple: you can choose to subscribe to Slide Shows with photos of products you can buy. If you do, we get a referral bonus. Back to work…

Powerpop,

Welcome to the fray! Can I ask you something? What is Slide's business model?

I hear you guys are anti-advertising. So does this mean that in a Slide tray, I will never see an ad?

Do you semantically differentiate between an "ad" and a "affiliate slide"? For example, could my Slide tray have an affiliate frame from Match.com that looks like an ad except that you're in the Match.com affiliate program, so in your mind, it's not an ad?

I've never been able to figure this out about you guys.

Thanks,

Guy Kawasaki


PS: I am a director of Filmloop. :-)

I should add something about the "Macintosh" quote. Push has been tried a few times on the net (ahem, Pointcast). It is impossible to do in the browser for the same reason that IM is impossible - persistance. So its right to have a desktop presence. An everyman's push is indeed revolutionary ... its an open issue whether Filmloop, Slide or another entry has the right balance of features and usability.

Or you can make a Slide Show on Slide.com and point it to your Flickr RSS feed. All your photos will then click through to their original Flickr web pages! No need to upload your photos again. You can also do this with your photo blog feed.

ps. I work at Slide ;)

Powerpop

re: Drawback: I just uploaded everything to Flickr, now I need to upload to “the next cool thing?” At some point, switchover cost will keep people where they are (”I’ve switched enough; I’m done.”).


This doesn't exactly solve your problem, but FYI, you can drag and drop from Flickr to FilmLoop.

Guy

Re: Guy, with all due respect, there is a huge difference between the telephone and Filmloop


That's true: the first phone didn't require an operator, everyone had one so it made sense to get one too, it was a small, handheld device, and carrier coverage was abundant.

What was I thinking? :-)

Guy

I like it for the reasons Chris mentions in #11. I also like it for its similarity to Ceiva but without the expensive hardware, phone line, or membership fee.

Drawback: I just uploaded everything to Flickr, now I need to upload to "the next cool thing?" At some point, switchover cost will keep people where they are ("I've switched enough; I'm done.").

So...link this to my Flickr account and I'll download.

Guy, with all due respect, there is a huge difference between the telephone and Filmloop...

Slide is similar.

Guy is their VC.

so it's a photoblog, minus the blog, using the power of rss (enclosures) to send pictures.

let's see if it takes off. definitly a good idea, one of those SHIT WHY DIDN'T THINK OF THAT type of things.

at the university i watch people use their computers, all they do is check myspace of facebook to see if people updated with new pictures. this might be big if the word got out.

remember where to advertise: COLLEGES

Keep ripping me guys. We'll see...

Guy

“This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.”

Western Union, internal memo 1876

Eh? Another stupid photoish social networky site just now in a 'loop'? Guy Kawasaki has sunk to the bottom of the Ocean, pay no heed.

I’m becoming collectively unimpressed with anything the A-List blogosphere says is awesome.

Glad others are finally starting to wake up. ;) I was starting to feel lonely.

I’m not talking about “M” for 75 more posts.

You better kick them out before the Xbox Launch then. Get cooking.

BTW, Robert - thanks for the mention, and sorry I beat you to it (grin).

What I found cool about FilmLoop was that I could create a loop in about 10 seconds, invite friends to subscribe to it in about another 10 seconds, and when I explained the concept to my non-techie friends, they got it in about 10 seconds.

There are other ways to do much of what FilmLoop does. Building a photo gallery like this in a browser - sure. Does your mom have the skills to do that? Mine doesn't. And if you did that, how do you subscribe them to it? And if you could subscribe them to it, how do you get it to perform, and how do you get it to present as a filmstrip, and...

I didn't say FilmLoop was the killer app of anything. And I'm sure Guy can defend or trash his reputation without my help (grin), but if you tried this you have to admit it is cool for what it is...

Chris

http://blahgkarma.blogspot.com

There are only 3 possible explanations:

1) Guy Kawasaki did not write that e-mail.

2) That e-mail was not written by Guy Kawasaki.

3) Guy Kawasaki wrote the e-mail right after reading "How to trash your reputation with one quick e-mail."

TDavid, agreed. I'm becoming collectively unimpressed with anything the A-List blogosphere says is awesome.

Odeo. FilmLoop. Sphere.

It's all buzz and no delivery. Very little of these apps is new. That doesn't mean they won't someday be something special, but right now none of them is... So none of them deserves heaps of praise (nevermind pile-on, gang-buster style praise).

I'm not talking about "M" for 75 more posts. :-)

What about Microsoft Max?

I know its a "M" but it seems very similiar, drawbacks for both I think are that you need to install a player or client to view it when you send it to someone, wish that was not needed, alot of people get turned off when you hav eto install something.

About as exciting as placing a banner ad engine on your desktop. Boring, and intrusive. Guy Kawasaki has truly hit bottom.

I reviewed FilmLoop (C+) on Oct 25 and uninstalled it recently. Sphere is another thing some folks said was special. I looked at Sphere a week ago in its current development and I'd give that a C+ too, although it shows more promise than FilmLoop.

Frankly, the free version of EULAlyzer excited me more than both of these put together.

Guy's a paid evangelist for this product... Take his opinion with a bit of a grain of salt.

FilmLoop were all over AdTech last week, and I didn't see a single exciting thing about them. Hell, Relevant Noise was more relevant and exciting. And they were boring.

Kawasaki's idea of cool has definitely shrunk in size and importance. What's next? A really cool horizontal 2D shoot'em up? Puh-leeze!

Maybe I'm missing something obvious here, but why can't this be done in the browser? Why the need for a separate download? And are slideshows of pictures that big of a deal?

Nice idea - ironic that Guy says it is the coolest thing since the Mac yet a Mac version is coming soon(sometimes maximum exposure trumps cool)