SiliconBeat: SiliconBeat's one-year anniversary, and a request

SiliconBeat celebrates its one-year anniversary today.

We thank everyone who has joined us for the ride. More than 10,000 people now come to this site daily. We'd also like to request your feedback.

We opened up the site on Oct 28, 2004. We'd actually started blogging secretly, in test mode -- many weeks before, on Sept 8, coincidentally the same day that Dan Rather aired his 60 Minutes story about lapses in the president's military record. Bloggers tore apart the report's claims. That controversy marked the rise of blogs as a major social force.

So we are an example of the earliest wave of...

the mainstream journalist blogging phenom. It has been a tricky ride at times, as this WSJ article a couple of months ago suggests, but it has been well worth it for us -- and we hope it has served you well too.

Mainly, we'd like to hear your suggestions for how we can make the site better. So far, it has been just Mike, Matt and the chickens. No pros. Doing it mainly on our own time -- on the side of our regular Merc jobs. Sure, we could spiff up the site a bit. But we're asking mainly about content. What do you like? What do you not like? Feel free to drop us an email, or add a comment.

Finally, a suggestion. We think you should subscribe via RSS. The reason for this is because we make many updates. If you simply visit the site, you may miss when updates/corrections/clarifications are made on previous posts. If you subscribe via RSS, the updated posts show up again in your RSS inbox, with clear markings as to how the piece has been updated. Corrections are a key part of this business, and a way we can foster trust with readers who may find something wrong and let us know we screwed up.

Thanks for reading!

Matt & Mike

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Great job guys, congratulations! You've quickly become daily reading for me.

My three wishes:

1) More stories on the little guys, who are generating interesting ideas and leveraging the ability to start a company with virtually no capital.

2) Start referencing a wider array of sources. I've found some great blogs through you guys, but if I just wanted to read Om and Private Equity Week, I could go there myself.

3) More stories on people, not just businesses. Really interesting to see what's happening to some big names from the late 90s, and who doesn't love a good human interest story? The tales of the VSO folks, Steve Harmon, Chris Kitze, etc. have been facinating!

Keep up the good work!

Mitchel on October 28, 2005 9:57 AM
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CONGRATULATIONS on this key mile stone. Bot you guys have been doing a great job covering the events in the Bay Area.
Though the site's primary focus is Silicon Valley, t'd be nice to see the following as well --
- Coverage on startups from other places in CA and US in general.
- Interviews with the key players behind startups.
- Visitor boards
- Pointers to useful resources .. to name a few.

Congrats once again and wishing you the very best going forward.

Regards,
Startups.in

Startups.in on October 28, 2005 10:05 AM
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Thanks for a useful touchstone - I usually check in every day to see what's going on from your perspective.

I second the comment by Mitchel above about covering smaller players where possible.

oliver marks on October 28, 2005 11:37 AM
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Ok, agreed. Small guys! We'll keep our eyes peeled for them. And help us, small guys, by letting us know about you. Send us an email, telling us your good ol' tale. Preferably one with lessons for others. And preferably Silicon Valley oriented.

Matt Marshall on October 28, 2005 1:45 PM
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Congratulations and thanks for having brought a great coverage of this past year. I am actually quite happy of the mix of content you are bringing to us, which I see as complementary to Om's and TechCrunch's. I particularly appreciate your posts that are an extension of your Merc articles.

Jeff Clavier on October 28, 2005 2:19 PM
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Guys

Since I discovered this site, it has become daily reading for me, even being all the way in China does NOT stop me from looking.

Keep up the good work, and your drink in Shanghai awaits your arrival.

Shak

Shak on October 28, 2005 4:31 PM
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Congrats guys... great site, and one i check regularly for news about the industry. i agree with jeff -- between you folks, Om, Battelle, and TechCrunch... i feel like i'm right in the middle of Bubble 2.0 :)

Dave McClure on October 28, 2005 5:29 PM
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That's Boom 2.0, Dave :-)

..and where else would we be able to kibbitz about this except for the blog of record for tech startupdom here at Siliconbeat.

Thanks, guys, for putting the effort in to cover the Valley and what everyone's up to around here. It *is* required reading, and a fun one, at that.

Looking forward to your covering the year ahead.

Chris Tolles on October 28, 2005 5:58 PM
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Guys, great job - I too now consider your blog to be required daily reading - fun and informative - I've got the RSS feed going to my MyYahoo page, but I find myself clicking on the main blog URL, not the individual post links - I'm always wanting to read the whole thing. I also put my vote w/ the thought that human interest stories that intersect w/ Silicon Valley and the tech biz are great reading.
Thanks.

Terry Whalen on October 28, 2005 6:43 PM
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Congrats on your one-year anniversary! To follow up on Terry's post above, if you're interested in syndicating your content on My Yahoo!, you should consider posting an "Add-to-My Yahoo!" button on your site. It's easy to do, is easy for users, and keeps clicks coming back every day. To create your "Add-to-My Yahoo!" button, go to http://publisher.yahoo.com/promote.php

Ted C on October 28, 2005 11:59 PM
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To add a little to the folks asking for more "little guy" stories, I like the breadth of what you cover. I read a lot of topic-specific blogs, and some to keep my eyes on what's going on.

So I'd say, the stories about what everyone else is covering are less useful or interesting to me. As reporters, you're paid to cover a lot of ground, talk to a lot of people. Sharing that in short post form is great stuff.

Also, the valley has a very strong, and very repetitive narrative. I'm glad you've covered some of the vc fund falling apart stories, and as others have said, talking about the unfunded, the quirky, and the different is also great.

Adam on October 29, 2005 8:32 AM
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I appreciate Silicon Beat both for its lively writing and the reliability of its information. The story that has not been covered in Silicon Beat is what large companies like IBM and HP are up to with their venture investments. Here's an EETimes story that reveals a bit about IBM's activities:

http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=172901188

Alison Chaiken on October 29, 2005 8:09 PM
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Congratulations, gentlemen!! You have become a must-read-daily site for me. I'll second the requests made by the few others on covering small guys, and I'll add a ps to it> Means covering Google less ;-)

Grunt on October 29, 2005 11:19 PM
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