Whos Really Going to Kill Techmeme?

by Hugh MacLeod

Google just slapped a coat of paint on their Blog Search service today. The enhancements group stories together and headline what appears to be considered the “leading source” for the story. They also include a nice chart that displays recent activity (number of blogs covering it).

Myself, I’m already a fan of Google Blog Search, in most cases its the best resource for breaking and trend related stories. These new additions are nice but certainly don’t give me many “ah ha” moments.

Of course with something like this, the community is talking “Techmeme Killer”. I thought about it for a moment, but quickly came to the conclusion that this is no Techmeme Killer. Also a few minutes later I remembered I hate the old “______ Killer” meme itself. Its so speculative and quickly thrown out these days. Techmeme serves a narrow but influential audience, they know how to use multiple tools to supplement search and Techmeme will continue to be one of those.

In the spirt of the mob though I did come up with a few true TecheMeme Killers.

Warning: May contain outlandish future talk and if used improperly, damage the time line.

The TechMeme Killers

Gabe’s Shyness: After a billing mix up with his host, Techmeme is taken offline. Too shy to call support, Gabe just says “meh” and takes a job with Google. When Microsoft acquires Google in 2012, Gabe’s stock makes him a rich man.
The TechCrunch Payment is Late: After TechCrunch continues to miss payments to Techmeme, the site is unable to go on. The service shuts down, it’s dead pool post on TechCrunch receives over 500 comments, 400 of which are from Gabe.
FeedBurner: After years of Gabe pounding the keyboard and saying “Feedburner, your slow pings are killing me” it literally does.
The Other Woman: Gabe gets a girlfriend and is shocked to find out playing with her is more enjoyable than playing with RSS.

Ok, now I’m just giving Gabe a hard time so I’ll stop. Let’s not kill Techmeme just yet, in fact lets continue to build better aggregators. I can’t help but feel while Techmeme is unique, its just the beginning for this type of service.

What Others Are Saying:

Comments Closed

6 Comments about “Whos Really Going to Kill Techmeme?”

Andy Says:
October 2nd, 2008 at 5:12 am
Nice. But I was hoping this post would be the “Killer” Killer…
Sean Percival Says:
October 2nd, 2008 at 5:18 am
i have some more but they are either too insidery or too mean :)
anonymous Says:
October 2nd, 2008 at 5:42 am
Somebody had suggested this feature on google news group on Nov-2007 http://groups.google.com/group/news-Suggestions/browse_thread/thread/a438c138161a33cc/f27160eeebe77f64
Svetlana Gladkova Says:
October 2nd, 2008 at 7:23 am
LOL Sean, too funny to be true and unfortunately most all of the potential killers sound too dangerous to Techmeme – definitely more dangerous than the meme tracker on Google Blog Search :)
Google Blogsearch is No Techmeme Killer »TechAddress Says:
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:31 pm
[...] killer topic including: Rob Diana, Steven Hodson, Duncan Riley, Josh Catone and Svetlana Gladkova. Sean Percival had a bit of fun with the topic noting that the only reason Techmeme will be killed is because [...]
What Is An Idea Worth? »TechAddress Says:
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:34 pm
[...] killer topic including: Rob Diana, Steven Hodson, Duncan Riley, Josh Catone and Svetlana Gladkova. Sean Percival had a bit of fun with the topic noting that the only reason Techmeme will be killed is because [...]