gdgt launches
July 1st, 2009, 8:01pm by Mike
You have to hand it to Peter Rojas and Ryan Block, the minds behind the founding and popularizing the gadget blog genre, first at Gizmodo and then at Engadget. The two have teamed up again for a new site, gdgt, which just launched, and it definitely addresses areas of the gadget world that hasn’t been tackled elsewhere (at least not on this scale): How do you find a gadget based on specs? And what do you do after you buy a gadget? Where do you go to find out more about what you can do with it, problems people are having, and fun hacks and tips?
From their welcome statement, they say that the goal is both to create the world’s biggest gadget database, and a way for people to create and share info about gadgets. What they didn’t say is that we gadget people already have plenty of ways to talk about our gadgets, and do so regularly (as our non-gadget friends and family members often remind us!).
One thing, though, is that they’re definitely doing what gadget and computer companies have tried to do for years, with varying degrees of success — build a community around their products — and they’re doing it on a much larger, product-agnostic scale. I guess they’re banking on their street cred to carry them through, but I wonder whether people will flock to gdgt when there are companies with huge discussion/support forums, and independent fan sites that already attract the die-hards.
Looking forward to hearing the story of the site on this week’s podcast.
July 1st, 2009 at 8:25 pm
I’m in! So far, I’ve got 16 “have” gadgets listed at my profile. Several of those I plan to unload shortly, and several others aren’t listed yet, most notably the Canon SD 700 IS & Garmin Forerunner 305.
I don’t know if I’ll visit the discussion forums much, but it will be interesting to see what sort of gadget clusters develop.
July 1st, 2009 at 8:43 pm
I’m having trouble finding my specific PC models as products, and it occurs to me that it’s a mistake to group computers at least by their specific model numbers rather than their underlying OS.
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:47 am
I realized this morning on the drive to work (while listening to the podcast) that the real strength of this site is the weak connections. We already all know what gadgets we each have, and what we all think of them — maybe we’re ahead of the general gadget curve since we’ve been talking about gadgets since gizmodo was in diapers!
What could be interesting is connecting to people that you don’t know well, who have similar gadgets (or taste in gadgets), or people you know but don’t always talk about gadgets with. For you camera guys, it’ll be useful, for example, to find people that you don’t know who have your camera, and seeing what lenses they have.
I guess I’m just trying to think about how gdgt might be useful to me, since I already have a gadget community here!
July 2nd, 2009 at 10:01 am
They’ve lumped a lot of the Mac models together, too. Basically, they’ve got one entry for each form factor/ design iteration. But the problem is, people start to add details for their specific computer to the general description.
Still waiting for some classics to be added to the list. The Treo 600, Palm III, Palm IIIe & Palm T3 spring to mind. Another question: what do you do w/ unused but still owned gadgets? Have or had?
July 2nd, 2009 at 10:37 am
To Mike’s point, unlike Facebook, where the community features is intended for you to connect with people for the sake of connecting with people, the connections on GDGT serve the purpose of facilitating discussion about specific gadgets– personalized recommendations and tech support, really. It’s basically the gadget version of Zune Social, where your AFK (away from keyboard) friends aren’t necessarily the ones who share your taste in music and can provide matched recommendations, etc. But is gadget discoverability really an issue? GDGT aspires to be so much more than a collection of discussion forums on various unrelated gadgets (e.g., epinions, CNET, etc), and it seems to me that the networking aspect is the key to transcending that. But I worry that it could be a little forced. It’s Web 2.0, right? If you don’t have a social networking component, you’re dead. Maybe they should allow you to give virtual gadget gifts.
I’m trying to figure out how Yelp or Flickr fits in the facebook-zune-gdgt spectra I’m talking about. One thing about Yelp and Flickr is that by design or by nature, participants are encouraged to be themselves, be real, etc. People establish a vibrant community discussion about food/photography, but then they tend to get together in real life and participate in their hobby. The virtual social network leads to real life connections in way that Twitter, for example, would not. I can’t imagine that I would ever get together with people I met on GDGT, just because I have common gadget interests!
Anyway, anyone disappointed that there isn’t a mobile friendly version of the gdgt website, or that the VeronicaB video wasn’t hosted by youtube, which would have been Pre/iPhone friendly? Makes me feel like they aren’t as in touch with their community as they like to believe.
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:45 am
There are lots of classic gadgets that aren’t on there — I tried to add the Series 1 Tivo (still pending), and don’t see the original iPod. On the podcast, Peter said he added the original GameBoy, so it’s not just a question of “we’re not putting up old gadgets,” which I thought might be what was going on.
As for the social network aspect — the specific person I thought of was Won (if you’re reading this, hi Won! Are you signed up? Couldn’t find you.) Won is somebody who I don’t talk to much, but I know he’s into gadgets, is a critical gadget user, and I’d respect his opinions on things he has and wants.
And I also agree that social networking makes a lot more sense as a forum for discussing activities away from the computer, and that gdgt is going to struggle with that. I have issues with all these social networks, trying to figure out the purpose, and how much privacy/publicity I want to have — which is why I’m not on Facebook, and why I don’t use my real name on these sites anymore.
July 2nd, 2009 at 1:14 pm
I agree, Won would be a good GDGT friend to have. On the other hand, as much as Won was a gadget guru to us, how hard would it be for a gdgt contact to establish the same kind of credibility? Anyone who had a Palm III is a candidate :).
July 8th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
I got my sticker. Where should I stick it?