When Your Favorite Service Closes
What happens on the internet stays on the internet – or so they say, how many times have you been warned that posting things on websites might come back to haunt you in years to come? Once again this week has disproved that to me. Two of the services that I have been using for more than 18 months have announced they are closing down this month.
The Internet: Temporary Happens
Earlier this year one of my favorite social location sharing apps was closed down. Whrrl which was created by Pelago and subsequently bought and shut down by Groupon – I wrote about my disappointment at the time – took with it a great community, of course I am still connected with some of those individuals on other platforms, but not in the same way.
This week Yap – a voicemail management app I have been using for quite sometime shut down. They sent out an email earlier in the month and within weeks had closed their doors. I will miss reading the sometimes hilarious transcripts of voicemails the service emailed me. Their premise was that they were more accurate than Google Voice in their transcripts – a claim which never really panned out – but nonetheless I really liked the service for its ease of use and the way it allowed for really deep personalization of what is, for the most part, an impersonal service – voicemail.
Also this week I discovered that Retaggr is closing up shop. Retaggr does what About.Me and other similar services do, except that they do it (or did it) in a more professional less 'me too" way and they were around earlier. The link on my Twitter profile has gone to my Retaggr page for a couple of years now and I met the team at SXSW a couple of years ago. Their announcement says that the principals have all moved on to other projects and that they just don't have the time to sustain the service anymore.
The Search For Alternatives
Of course when a service you have been using for sometime decides to close up shop you are left with the problem of finding an alternative. With web services that is becoming increasingly less difficult because good ideas are usually copied quite quickly. The problem is that finding an alternative that is more likely to last than the previous one you chose is not easy. As solid as they seem we, as users, have little insight into the dynamics inside a company and whether or not there is any sustainability.
Yap I have replaced with Google Voice. I am undecided about what to replace Retaggr with (suggestions welcome), I'm not wholly sold on the about.me model to be honest. Whrrl was irreplaceable and will forever be just a fond memory for me.
With Great Audiences Comes Great Responsibility
What the stories of Yap and Retaggr tell is that people with great ideas often can complete the early execution, but fail to realize that the sustaining their idea is hard work. It isn't glamorous, it can be, and for a lot of the time, is digging ditches. You have to not only love the idea but want to commit to it. It's the difference between dating and marriage. For what it is worth, I think the guys at Retaggr could have easily sold their site on Flippa and at least allowed the service another chance to continue.
But when you are done, you are done and you move on. Leaving behind the detritus of that period – the trouble is that the detritus often includes users with long memories. When the creators resurface with another new "service" they have lost trust from potential users who remember their last encounter. Why should they support your reincarnation? Its a lesson that many an entrepreneur would do well to learn early.
What are the services you can't do without?
image used under CC by Peter Kaminski
I'm glad you took the time to read this post.
If you enjoyed it I'm sure you'll enjoy my once a week newsletter - Did You See..? - I'll send you a few stories from around the web that cover Social, Digital and Mobile Marketing that I found useful. It's a quick but informative read
