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"This is an interesting case. It seems like the group designed, built and shipped a pretty slick ratings app all in a bid to gather data."

Well, that's one way to spin it.

Gotta hand it to Kevin, he knows how to handle PR.

more like TNW is just especially useless. of course oink was a bid to gather data, that's what all the rate-things apps are. except oink failed, nobody used it. if it was successful at gathering data, it would still be running.
Thanks, always wondered whether I was just useless or 'especially useless'. Remember that writing an article like this means explaining things that may not be as evident to the general public as they are to you. Thank you for reading though, I appreciate it.
This doesn't exactly help their credibility with me as a user. Why should I invest time in their next "experiment" if they're just going to give up a few months after launch?
Milk always made it pretty clear that anything that didn't gain traction would get killed. They are going to launch 2-3 products a year and kill anything that doesn't get good uptake.
Doesn't really answer the question... Following the good old logic, we should all stay away from Milk's products until any of them "gains traction".
With all of these companies shutting their doors, I think it would be fun to make some sort of data graveyard. A place where you can visualize your dead interactions.
Kevin,

Thanks for continuing the throw shit at the wall. Looking forward to what you do next!

Kevin,

Thanks for continuing the throw shit at the wall. Looking forward to what you do next!

I feel bad for Kevin Rose, I used to lookup for him as a role model in the entrepreneurial and startup world a few years ago.

However, I think the only good thing he did recently was the Foundation podcast, and even that seems to be dying.

do you count Digg as a success?
I do, I just think Kevin Rose get's tired of things pretty fast
Ouch. Kevin Rose had good timing with Digg, but I think this is a great lesson that the ability to churn out idea apps with no long-term vision is a road to nowhere.
Mark my words: no tech startup founded by hipsters will ever succeed.
Random aside: the article says "just over three months." Then links to an article from November 3, 2011. Can nobody in this industry do basic arithmetic? I realize that four months is just over three months, but argggh.
Yep, my fault. I'm crap at dates. I've updated the article.
I interviewed for a developer position with Kevin and he told me that Oink was an experiment long before it launched. I didn't take the job because I personally would rather work towards long term shipping products. He's also clearly more of a product guy than he is a tech guy, so that makes sense. He's got a bunch of money to last him many years to try different things. If it doesn't stick or go big, he's now got code, developers and data to move onto the next project. No big deal, I'm actually a bit jealous of that position as it sounds like a lot of fun to be in his shoes. My prediction (without any basis) is that we should expect to see another announcement from him about some new experiment in the near future. =)
perhaps kevin rose is joining the bandwagon of SoLoMo to compete with the likes of Highlight, http://LetsLunch.com, Glancee etc