Comments for New: ReadWriteWeb Companies

New: ReadWriteWeb Companies

2008-07-09T05:17:39Z

Here's another new feature we're launching: ReadWriteWeb Companies. It's a company index, powered by TradeVibes. Now whenever we write a review of a startup, you may see a RWW Companies widget at the end of the post - with lots of contextual info about the startup (funding, people, competitors, news, and more). It's a nice value add for our readers, we hope. You can see an example of the widget at the end of this post, for TradeVibes owner Mill River Labs.

]]> We're not the only site that is running a TradeVibes widget, so this isn't a unique feature. Also there are similar company indexes in the market, including KillerStartups, CrunchBase, and Niall Kennedy's Startup Search - to name just a few. Those are all great products and we have considered creating a similar proprietary product ourselves. But why recreate the wheel, so we went with TradeVibes. Let us know your feedback in the comments below.

See also our other new feature launched this week: ReadWriteWeb Predictions

Mill River Labs

Comment from Elia on 2008-07-08

2008-07-09T06:45:38Z

This is pretty neat. It does seem that TradeVibes is becoming the standard for company profile widgets with Mashable and ReadWriteWeb both using it, similar to Predictify seems to be the standard for the co-branded prediction markets...

Comment from Amit Agarwal on 2008-07-08

2008-07-09T06:50:15Z

Richard - While this will adds value to RWW stories, I just hope that if you link to some company from your blog posts (say Google), it points to google.com and not to the profile page of that company on tradevibes.

Comment from Amit Agarwal on 2008-07-08

2008-07-09T06:51:50Z

Richard - While this will add value to RWW stories, I just hope that if you link to some company from your blog posts (say Google), it points to google.com and not to the profile page of that company on tradevibes.

Comment from Joe on 2008-07-08

2008-07-09T06:53:38Z

I've been a reader and big fan of RWW for a few years so I hate to be the jerk here but... This feature seems like an obvious knock off of what TechCrunch already has created with CrunchBase, why not work with those boys and a couple of others (Gigaom comes first to mind)to make a universal index, or at least introduce something new that doesn't already exist in a better form somewhere else?

Comment from Tony on 2008-07-08

2008-07-09T06:54:09Z

I hope you don't mind me saying, but it seems like a bit of a distraction from the stuff your actually writing. The info it presents also seems to be better suited towards people with a venture-funding, capitalist type mindset rather than a developer or technology-user type mindset. Maybe that's what RRW is going for, but you guys seems to have a different nitch. If you could minimize it, and click somewhere to find out more info if you were curious about the company then it would be cool. just my 1 & 3/4 cents.

Comment from Duncan Riley on 2008-07-09

2008-07-09T07:08:27Z

Amit, I can't speak for RWW, but I use the same Tradevibes service as a value add info box at the bottom of a post. I'm sure Richard won't be linking in posts like some other sites will

Comment from Sebastian on 2008-07-09

2008-07-09T07:24:06Z

An open initiative would have been preferable. Why not creating a "Wikipedia for companies"?

Comment from gregory on 2008-07-09

2008-07-09T07:33:00Z

do something original

crunchbase, inquisitr, they beat you ... why copy that?

Comment from Richard on 2008-07-09

2008-07-09T08:06:33Z

Amit, definitely won't be doing that. This is just a value add widget for the end of the post.

Comment from Richard on 2008-07-09

2008-07-09T08:16:57Z

Thanks for the feedback so far. To answer a couple of things:

#4, Joe, we're not out to compete with anybody here. As I said it's a value add feature for our site.

$5 Joe, that's a good point. In evaluating it we decided there was enough interesting data in the widget to make it a good feature to have. But I take your point re the VC stuff perhaps not being so relevant for RWW.

#8 gregory, see my reply to #4. I admitted it wasn't a unique thing in the post, but it's (we hope) a value add feature.

Comment from Amit Agarwal on 2008-07-09

2008-07-09T10:52:23Z

Thanks Richard. This is perfect.

Comment from xavier vespa on 2008-07-09

2008-07-09T20:15:05Z

I agree those widgets add value to any startup review, as I wrote here a few days ago: Crunchbase widget adds value to startup reviews

However, picking Tradevibes seems to be a choice by default, as, like it or hate it, Techcrunch truly is the Web 2.0 press center (RWW is more the Web 2.0 reflection center), and the challenge for a Web 2.0 directory is to be constantly connected to the ever-changing Web 2.0 industry.

Good stuff though...

Comment from Joe on 2008-07-09

2008-07-10T01:31:01Z

Thanks for the response Richard, that makes sense. I guess some of us feel like the resources may be better used somewhere else but you certainly know your own business better than we do. As long as the quality of content doesn't change I'm not going anywhere :)