Google Dice: An OBVIOUS StumbleUpon Rip-Off
OK, so maybe you heard the news that Google missed out (or was outbid as they like to say) on a little opportunity called StumbleUpon. Apparently as recently as a few days ago, StumbleUpon was on the auction block for companies such as Google, AOL and eBay. At this point everyone has heard that eBay snatched it up (a strange acquisition for them) now we are just waiting to see what they are going to do with it.
Today we find out that Google has released a product of their own called GoogleDice, as they explain it “surfing without a query” is the next step for Google. HELLO!! You had the most addictive piece of social software in your grasp and you let eBay get it? I think this is a rather suspicious move, was Google planning on launching Google Dice the whole time, did they purposely let StumbleUpon go so they wouldn’t have to scrap their own platform? These are some questions that you should be asking yourself.
I have been playing around with GoogleDice this morning and frankly I am unimpressed. It seems to be behaviorally targeting the web pages that it shows me, looking at my browsing history and combing cookies. All the sites coming up are SEM sites or Video Game sites. It is obviously based on your viewing habits (which isn’t a bad thing mind you) but that kind of weeds out the fun, I like being shown random websites, and discovering new things which is the essence of StumbleUpon. Perhaps Google has more in the pipeline for GoogleDice, but for now it is just coming off as a cheap imitation.
You Can read more about it here:
ProNet
Google Blog
April 24th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
ya this was announced several days ago, but Google def. has the ability to kill off some of stumbles growth… it also doesn’t have a thumbs style rating system…
April 24th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
No… It;s not a rip off at all because it sucks. It just doesn’t work very well at all. It feeds me crap that I’ve already seen. The human edited Stunbleupon feeds me great stuff.
Maybe Google will develop an algorithm to suggest hot new music but I don’t think the robot will be all that hip.
April 24th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Hahaha. Guys I completely agree it is such a half-assed attempt at something cool, how could you roll out this piece of crap under the radar like that? i mean I know Google does this alot but seriously after such a high profile buy people are going to jump on you and quick about this stuff. I mean there are no unique features except that it doesn’t have any!!
Maybe they will add something to adwords to have your web page included in the GoogelDice results??
April 27th, 2007 at 11:26 am
[…] * The pepperjam folks point out Google’s completely obvious StumbleUpon clone. I agree and then I don’t. Google Dice was an attempt to clone, but it sucks ass and doesn’t work the same way. I want to see new stuff, not crap I just read five minutes ago. Hey Google, try working on this first. […]