
Did Blekko launch the "Minimum Viable Product?" - domino
http://www.skrenta.com/2010/11/did_blekko_launch_the_minimum.html
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citizenkeys
According to the article, blekko was in development for three years. Looking
at the site ( <http://blekko.com/> ), it appears they just kinda copied
Google. The site looks like google, including the search results.

The name "blekko" sounds like "blech", another term for "gross" (
<http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=blech> ). The slashtag thing
is also confusing.

So, imho, no, they did not launch the "minimum viable product". To paraphrase
Paul Graham, the way to beat Google would not be to attempt to replace it but
rather render Google irrelevant.

Another point: Blekko is an example of what in management classes we refer to
as "escalation of commitment". At some point, blekko should've realized that
attempting to copy Google was a stupid idea and done something different.
Instead, the longer they worked on it, the more committed they became to the
idea. Three years later, no minimum viable product.

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jarin
I think the term "minimum viable product" gets thrown around too glibly, as if
it's the only way you can possibly be successful.

If your goal is to be a better enough search engine than Google for people to
want to switch to it, it's kind of pointless to release basic search as a
product (take a look at Cuil for an example). I think Blekko did the right
thing by waiting until they had features like slashtags (especially tags like
/seo that appeal to early adopters) and some basic social interaction, which I
would say gave them a "minimum compelling product".

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citizenkeys
Thank you for mentioning "Cuil" by name. When I was reading the Blekko
article, I was thinking "This reminds me of that search engine founded by
former Googler's that bombed." I couldn't remember the name.

