Sunday, September 30, 2007

Findory to shut down November 1

Update: The shut down of Findory has been rescheduled to occur on November 22, 2007.

Update: The shut down of Findory has been postponed. The website will remain active past November 1, 2007. More information when I can.

Findory will be shutting down on November 1, 2007. I posted the following on the site:
Thank you, Findory readers, for the last four years. I hope you not only found interesting news on Findory you otherwise would have missed, but also, just by using Findory, took pleasure in helping others find news they might enjoy.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end. On November 1, 2007, Findory will be shutting down.

It was a wonderful experiment building Findory. Information personalization is in our future.

Some day, online newspapers will focus on your interests, building you your own unique, customized front page of news. Some day, search engines will learn from what you do to help you find what you need. Some day, your computer will adapt to your needs to help with the task at hand. Some day, information overload will be tamed.

But not today. Findory will be shutting down on November 1. The website will no longer carry news, blogs, videos, podcasts, or favorites. The daily e-mails will cease. To ease the transition for users of Findory Inline and the Findory API, empty feeds will be served for a couple weeks into November.

I am sorry to see Findory go. Though it will not be Findory doing so, I continue to believe that the future will be personalized.

- Greg Linden, Founder, Findory.com
Please also see my earlier post, "Findory rides into the sunset".

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am sorry to hear that it will be closing. Hopefully your next project will do better. Still four years is very good, much better then a lot of other projects out there.

You mentioned in a post just recently:

...when shoppers try other [non-Amazon] stores, the experience should seem "hollow and pathetic". "Why doesn't this store know me?", shoppers should ask. "Why doesn't it know what I want?"

What do you think about starting a company that will provide recommendation engines for those many many small shops out there that really want to have that feature?

Unknown said...

Thank you for keeping it around as long as you have. I found it rather late, after reading your blog, and have really enjoyed using it.

-rh

Anonymous said...

I'm also sorry to hear you are closing it down, but also look forward to whatever you do next. Seattle is fortunate to have you in the local tech ecosystem. Keep blogging and keep sharing your insights on large, distributed systems and their challenges.

Anonymous said...

Hi Greg, while there is no such word as "should" ;), I really think you should give it 6 more months. Findory just needs a couple of UI changes, needs to make the reading environment more satisfying, and needs to make the purpose more blazingly clear to newbies. And I think then you will continue to have a mighty but more successful product on your hands.

At worst, shut Findory down as a mental exercise but then relaunch it as a new project with a great starting foundation. Imagine if someone came up to you and offered to give you Findory, if you would take it to the next level?

Steven said...

I have been using Findory for a long time (6000+ read articles). What will I make my home page on Nov 1? I can't think of anything out there that is even remotely similar to Findory. Any suggestions?

Anonymous said...

I'm not a long-time user; I came over a few months ago from a similar service after it shut down, recommending findory. Never thought it would be such a short ride, and that's too bad, because I use findory every day and love it.

Costas said...

Greg,

I had to shut down memigo myself a few weeks ago (technical issues and a severe lack of free time) and pointed memigo's (few, compared to findory's) users your way.

I'll miss findory as well; as far as I know there isn't a similar service left in the space, which is surprising really...

Anonymous said...

Hi Greg
did not know about Findory until now..Wonder how I missed it..It looks like a wonderful service., except, for as already suggested, some design changes..

I would request you to take this announcement back, and try one last PR effort to popularize the service. I myself own a wonderful service, but it's not getting popular just because of PR, and I shall myself be closing it down in sometime..

But, if Findory already has dedicated users, you should not betray them..You need to give it a push..Request you to go for a PR push...

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about Findory.

All the best for your future ventures.

I am sure you will come up with something cool again.

:-)
- Pramit Singh
http://mediavidea.blogspot.com

IntelliSearch - Enterprise Search Blog said...

Greg,
I'm curious have others approched you in regards to acquiring Findory? I'm just speculating now, as I am a long time user of Findory and feel sadden at the closing of Findory. I do belive that personalized search (along with other factors) are an important factor of whatever follows "web 2.0" and hope there can be a future for this technology and website. Feel free to email me directly at jt-kane at comcast dot net.

John

Steven said...

Arrghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!