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Kevin Rose Will Join Google

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Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#81

Post by grokaholic »

freshfunk wrote: post #40
goronbjorn wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google doesn't have any engineering problems, that's for sure. They want Google+ to succeed (assuming that's what he'd be involved with), but I think it's fair to say the problems they're struggling with there are at the "idea/design" level as opposed to the actual codebase. Say what you want about Kevin Rose in terms of things he's created, but he does have a very good eye for great ideas, see early investments in F…

This is true but Google has always been an engineering-led organization as opposed to a product-led one. Social networking is less of an engineering problem than it is a product problem. This is true for other social products as well. Fundamentally, Google is taking the wrong approach. Listen to how Vic Gundotra talks about Google+ as opposed to how Zuckerberg talks about Facebook. This may be a step in the right dir…

"Listen to how Vic Gundotra talks about Google+ as opposed to how Zuckerberg talks about Facebook."

Many similarities and differences in how they talk--which particular differences do you have in mind?

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#82

Post by PhrosTT »

samstave wrote: post #74
untog wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to be some sort of Kevin Rose defender in this thread, but I don't think it's fair to say that he just "had an idea". He had an idea and spent years working on it, iterating and improving until Digg finally hit the big time. I think he deserves credit for that. As a developer, I agree that some "ideas guys" suck. But some of them are fantastic, and have a huge talent in taking a core concept and fleshing…

> He had an idea and spent years working on it, iterating and improving until Digg finally hit the big time. I think he deserves credit for that. I don't think anyone has argued against this. He does deserve credit for this. The problem is that he has been given too much credit. I.E. that there were far more ideas of the same caliber. I am sure this must have been tough on him, to fail at producing again like the ear…

My main problem with Digg is it blew up largely because Rose got to shamelessly plug it on ScreenSavers.

A LOT of ideas can succeed when you get to skip the whole network effect hurdle.

I think he has some insightful thoughts once in a while (like predictions he makes on Diggnation), and he did a great job parlaying Digg into Rev3.

I'm also pretty jealous he'll get a paycheck to say "Hey this feature would be cool" or use his celebrity to push Google+.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#83

Post by bksenior »

xpose2000 wrote: post #16

Sorry if this sounds harsh, and I know he has a lot of fans out there. But this guy struck gold 5 years ago with Digg. Sure, he deserves props for this. However, he's not a developer. He's an "ideas guy" as far as I can tell. As a developer, I hate these kinds of people because more often than not their ideas suck. In any case, what I am saying is that it seems like people in the industry get by based on one previous…

Shipping ideas is hard and is a multi phased process in which technical building is only a small portion. Finding an audience, not f'ing up your product once adopted, growing your team and letting the experts do their job without hopping in to meddle is just as difficult to do. I am not the biggest fan of how Oink was handled, but this guy clearly creates and understands leverage and in 9/10 cases that is more valuable than the perfect technical product.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#84

Post by revorad »

wavephorm wrote: post #75
revorad wrote: post #66

Hardly anyone knows the details, but the amount of jealousy and hatred that comes out on HN on these stories is shocking.

If it's jealousy and hatred, then it's not because of being jealous of success. A lot of developers work really, really hard on their startups for years bootstrapping, just scraping by, and being ignored by investors because they're not famous. And Kevin Rose comes along with a half-baked idea of posting pictures of the food you're eating to the Internet, and his "startup" that he's "really dedicated to" get's almost…

That half-baked idea got hundreds of thousands of users in 3 months. That is success.

Just because your definition of skills is limited to writing code does not mean having connections, being good at marketing, PR or selling has no value. It's exactly the same mentality we developers hate when idea-men want to hire us as code-monkeys to implement their perfect vision.

Reading stories on tech blogs does not mean you know how much hard work someone put into their whimsical-seeming startup. Being a celebrity certainly does not automatically imply you don't have to work hard.

And just working really really hard also does not entitle you to success. Life is unfair. Get used to it.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#86

Post by fudged »

xpose2000 wrote: post #16

Sorry if this sounds harsh, and I know he has a lot of fans out there. But this guy struck gold 5 years ago with Digg. Sure, he deserves props for this. However, he's not a developer. He's an "ideas guy" as far as I can tell. As a developer, I hate these kinds of people because more often than not their ideas suck. In any case, what I am saying is that it seems like people in the industry get by based on one previous…

This was my exact thought process.

Burka has great UI skill. I really don't know what value Rose could bring to Google.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#87

Post by randomdata »

runevault wrote: post #59
mbreese wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other thing he's done well is engage his audience. If he can help Google+ become more engaging, more 'sticky', then he'll have done great. That's assuming he'll be working on that product.

Except the Digg redo (which he was a part of) drove users away, so if he ever actually HAD that touch, it is as likely he lost it as anything.

However, the Digg redesign was prematurely deployed because the old code could simply no longer handle the load. At least that was the story. Who knows what it could have been if it were released on the intended schedule.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#88

Post by moreorless »

cryptoz wrote: post #58
reidmain wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was the CEO when Digg v4 was released and was one of the driving forces behind it. Digg v4 was the dagger that killed Digg.

Banning anyone who mentioned a certain number didn't help much either. Digg's policies were terrible long before v4 came out. Edit: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

FYI - the ban was not his idea. He was very much against the idea. There was quite an internal struggle during the course of that day.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#89

Post by alaskamiller »

samstave wrote: post #74
untog wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to be some sort of Kevin Rose defender in this thread, but I don't think it's fair to say that he just "had an idea". He had an idea and spent years working on it, iterating and improving until Digg finally hit the big time. I think he deserves credit for that. As a developer, I agree that some "ideas guys" suck. But some of them are fantastic, and have a huge talent in taking a core concept and fleshing…

> He had an idea and spent years working on it, iterating and improving until Digg finally hit the big time. I think he deserves credit for that. I don't think anyone has argued against this. He does deserve credit for this. The problem is that he has been given too much credit. I.E. that there were far more ideas of the same caliber. I am sure this must have been tough on him, to fail at producing again like the ear…

This is the wrong storyline. Reddit didn't evolve from Digg.

They started around the same timeframe and it was as much Mac/PC in terms of fanboyishness. Reddit won because of the power of subreddits and capturing the long tail for content and communities.

What's out of touch with your story is that Digg users thought Reddit's UX was horrifying and avoided it like the plague. Even to this day without enhancement suites I wouldn't crown Reddit to be the pinnacle of UX. It's very much Linux terminally compared to Digg's Mac.

Finally, this jaded bitterness that Kevin Rose got $1.7MM to piss away...

If you were worth getting $1.7MM to piss away you would have had $1.7MM to piss away.

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