Welcome to the World, Squidoo

Yesterday, the Squidoo team released the application into the wild. It’s in beta, naturally, and there are some wrinkles that still need ironing, but all in all, it’s quite a nice experience.

For me, the launch is doubly interesting. It seems like ages ago, but in reality, it was something more like 6 months, that I was beginning my internship with Seth and finding out what Squidoo was and what it was supposed to do. Things have come a long way. It’s interesting to see where the design has diverged from what we originally planned and also to see how some things that we left open ended have been closed.

My best of luck to Seth and the whole team there - I know they’ve been working hard at it.

I’m often asked what I think will come of it. Most people who now know I was on the team are always interested in picking my brain about how effective I think it will be. I always tell them it’s surely got a fighting chance. I think there are four reasons primarily:

• Squidoo lets us be experts, much like blogs do, but without the unwieldy committment
• Squidoo spans all areas of expertise which support better revenues from Google and other affiliates (many, if not most, topics, aren't connected to high-value clicks)
• Squidoo has good intentions and makes it possible for us to do good for others with "minimal" effort
• Squidoo is backed by Seth and a great team - they will fight the good fight

There’s lots of other reasons, surely, and I am sure many have their own list for why it WON’T. I’m still a supporter.