What a shame. Six months ago when Adrian Holovaty left, he told The Verge that he saw EveryBlock living for a "long, long time" and that MSNBC.com were "taking the long view on it":
And there was little reason to doubt him...I didn't use EB very much but it was an incredibly well executed site, in terms of its mapping and data-aggregation...it obviously lacked a strong editorial focus, but that was ostensibly something that MSNBC would've brought to it.
Another thing to note: it's relatively routine to bash online startups who give less than two months warning that they're closing shop and taking all their data with them (either through a buyout or failure)...EveryBlock's owners, apparently, didn't think a day's notice was needed. Was there really no middle ground between immediate shutdown and keeping the site in low-maintenance mode? It's not like those maps and geodata go out of date quickly.
I understand that a new ad service isn't just free money, per se (you need a sales staff, or at least a tech person to manage the system)...but shouldn't they wait more than 30 days to see if that is a promising, maintainable form of revenue?
Has Adrian written on why he left possibly as soon as he was able (assuming that Everyblock was acquired in "summer 2009", and many founders are tied to two year agreements to stay, and he left in August two years later)?
FWIW, he left in August 2012, which would be three years after a summer 2009 acquisition. Also, he founded it back in July 2007...so when he says he "developed an uncontrollable itch to do something new", he probably meant it.
Before Everyblock, he's been a pioneer in utilizing data and non-traditional journalism with news sites, most notably at the LJWorld.com...so he's been in this local online news business for quite a while. I don't think this is your usual case of a founder jumping ship just out of profit motive.
Yes, I don't mess around or BS on my blog. Take it at face value, cause that's how I meant it.
I'd been working on EveryBlock full-time for five years, and I'd maintained chicagocrime.org (the precursor) for two years before that, so I was ready to do something not related to local data or news. My new thing (Soundslice) is completely different.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/16/3245325/5-minutes-on-the-v...
And there was little reason to doubt him...I didn't use EB very much but it was an incredibly well executed site, in terms of its mapping and data-aggregation...it obviously lacked a strong editorial focus, but that was ostensibly something that MSNBC would've brought to it.
Another thing to note: it's relatively routine to bash online startups who give less than two months warning that they're closing shop and taking all their data with them (either through a buyout or failure)...EveryBlock's owners, apparently, didn't think a day's notice was needed. Was there really no middle ground between immediate shutdown and keeping the site in low-maintenance mode? It's not like those maps and geodata go out of date quickly.
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Edit: Just one month ago, EveryBlock had developed a new form of advertising targeted at the neighborhood level: http://blog.everyblock.com/2013/jan/07/neighbor-ads/
I understand that a new ad service isn't just free money, per se (you need a sales staff, or at least a tech person to manage the system)...but shouldn't they wait more than 30 days to see if that is a promising, maintainable form of revenue?