I just finished a longish review post about GrandCentral on TechCrunch. This brings back memories - for the first year or so of TechCrunch I mostly did long product reviews, really sinking my teeth into the meet of the services I wrote about. It’s actually what I love most about my job, but it takes a lot of time and the payoff isn’t nearly as big in terms of links and page views as breaking news.
I think I’m going to make the time to do more of these, particularly for services that are clearly unique and have a real chance of getting a lot of users on board. There is no better way to really know how a product works (and how it compares to competitors) than to test it for hours and know every corner of it. I can’t do this for all, or even most, of the companies we cover. But I can hopefully find the time to write at least one or two per week.
GrandCentral is just a really cool service. And I have a feeling it isn’t going to be an independent company for long.
It’s too bad that the only time you get to do the part of your job you love is in the middle of a holiday weekend!
Please do try, I read TC less and less as it moves into the business of Web 2.0 rather than what Web 2.0 is. I don’t mind if the business posts pay for the review posts but there has to be a balance.
I think that’s a great idea, Mike. And good review of GrandCentral. It’s got its kinks (lack of SMS) but it’s a great service and it’s really changed the way I use my phone.
I’ve wondered why TechCrunch has moved away from these types of posts. In fact, I’ve been interested in writing reviews myself.
If you’d be interested in chatting with me about writing about some of these very cool startups - send me an email. I’m an experienced freelance writer and blogger.
This is good to hear! For so many startups, the difference between success and failure is in the details of their offerings — and you have a strong record of spotting hits ahead of time. Looking forward to more.
meet –> meat
I miss those longer review posts. Good to hear you’re going to be getting back to them.
hey mike: let us know when you’re doing more in-depth reviews… perhaps you could invite 5-10 folks to help do trial-run testing, and then you could do “Oprah”-style book reviews
(kinda serious actually… that would be fun!)
Writing longer posts is different from what you used to do. On some websites it works very well (businesshackers.com or amazingstartups.com), but in some cases you need to have a different way of providing information to your readers. It’s important to identify your target audience before deciding.
That’s great to hear Mike. Just a day before this post I commented about that very topic — we were really in synch this holiday: http://www.floridaventureblog.com/2007/05/ppp-direct-makes-it-techcrunch-bakers.html
Everyone is different, but I much prefer the in-depth stuff. Keep doing what you love…