Topix Meet Karelia
2008-02-07 10:14AM PST/Home
The first thing I wondered as I read Welcome to the Neighborhood Google was if anyone at Topix has read The Long Story Behind Karelia's New Logo? Karelia was the small indie software developer behind Watson, before Apple developed Sherlock, took the market from them before ultimately abandoning that space. Here's my favorite quote from the Long Story:
"Here's how I see it," Jobs said — I'm loosely paraphrasing. "You know those handcars, the little machines that people stand on and pump to move along on the train tracks? That's Karelia. Apple is the steam train that owns the tracks." So basically the message was: get out of the way, kid; this is our market.
I took a quick look at Topix, they use Google for their text advertising, they use Doubleclick for their banner advertising, and they use Google analytics to measure their traffic. Would it be too much of a stretch to say that Google knows pretty much everything there is to know about Topix, and by extension the business of local news aggregation? The only thing missing is perhaps a monthly briefing from management!
I sincerely hope their relationship really is a virtuous circle. But I've got to wonder if it isn't going to be a bit more like the handcar and that steam train.