Google is addicted to social because it seems to be the only game in town that can bring in magnitude times more people than a typical product could (e.g. Basecamp)
Color was founded with this power-team of folks that had proven records so when the Hyposaurus came stumbling down the block and Google saw it coming with the potential to snatch up an amazing team with the potential to pull in millions of more users into the Google ecosystem and then direct them not just towards ads, but all their other offerings... it looked like it had every indicator that it would fly.
Unfortunately it looks like some air got let out of the tires and things slowed down considerably for them.
I don't know that I have all the faith in Color staying around, but Path I believe has staying power. They have a really cohesive/directed vision and purpose that they are executing really well.
They may not launch with a billion new accounts a minute, but I think there is so much solid product/story there that once they pass that event horizon, they'll have people pouring into them.
Sort of like a Tumblr or Posterous growth curve -- really focused, really solid products so once people start taking notice, everyone likes what they see.
Just my 2 cents and I used to eat a lot of paint as a kid... so take this all with lots of salt.
Google is addicted to social because it seems to be the only game in town that can bring in magnitude times more people than a typical product could (e.g. Basecamp)
Color was founded with this power-team of folks that had proven records so when the Hyposaurus came stumbling down the block and Google saw it coming with the potential to snatch up an amazing team with the potential to pull in millions of more users into the Google ecosystem and then direct them not just towards ads, but all their other offerings... it looked like it had every indicator that it would fly.
Unfortunately it looks like some air got let out of the tires and things slowed down considerably for them.
I don't know that I have all the faith in Color staying around, but Path I believe has staying power. They have a really cohesive/directed vision and purpose that they are executing really well.
They may not launch with a billion new accounts a minute, but I think there is so much solid product/story there that once they pass that event horizon, they'll have people pouring into them.
Sort of like a Tumblr or Posterous growth curve -- really focused, really solid products so once people start taking notice, everyone likes what they see.
Just my 2 cents and I used to eat a lot of paint as a kid... so take this all with lots of salt.