Is Techcrunch the Rainmaker of the online world?

I found this hilarious – Techcrunch speculated and then later confirmed that the only technology behind TagCow’s photo-tagging service was NO technology, ie. humans. Even while they were being mocked, TagCow was gloating (why not?!) about being ‘Techcrunched’ on their site, apparently there is no thing as bad publicity, even in the online world.

 

I am in awe of the tremendous influence that Techcrunch wields in the online world and the potential impact it can have on a fledgling site’s success. No amount of money can buy the kind of traffic that Techcrunch can drive to your site and if your site crashes because of the unexpected humongous spike in traffic – it seems to be a badge of honor (still don’t get how creating a bad customer experience can be a good thing). However, that’s huge publicity, it’s powerful, and most of all, it’s FREE.

What Michael Arrington, the founder and co-editor, says does matter but whether it means the ‘Techcrunched’ site will continue to be successful once the herd moves on to the next ‘big thing’ is anyone’s guess.

Photo tagging made simple

Michael Arrington of Techcrunch, offers a quick analysis of Tagcow, an image and photo tagging service where the revenue model and even the technology behind the service is highly suspect. Arrington (and some other techno-elites) speculate that it’s actually humans doing the tagging.

I note that the TagCow site is careful not to say anything about the tagging process, and never use the word “automated” or anything else that would suggests computers are doing the work.

In addition, questions marks around this technology (or lack thereof) behind this service, there are also questions about its revenue model, because currently this service is free.

There’s one more teensy weensy problem, once you’ve gotten past the technology, revenue model questions, I am not too impressed by the service itself. Call me crazy, but isn’t tagging supposed to help you get more organized? I am as lazy as the next person (probably lazier) when it comes to tagging my photos but when I do come around to doing it, I use relevancy tags such as name of person, location, date, etc. How can any third-party photo-tagging system, be it automated or monkey-operated, do this?  How helpful are tags like ‘yellow cup’ or ‘mountain’? 

I don’t get it. Based on everything that I’ve heard and read so far, apparently, I am not the only one.