Well, I must have missed the newsletter or something — but it seems like TechCrunch launched its database of Web2.0 companies about two weeks ago, with an appropriately/cringeworthy “crunch” like moniker: Crunchbase. And in fact,it may yet be in ’stealth’ as its not officially listed in the TechCrunchNetwork on the TechCrunch home page.
I did notice that they were trying to do a “database” type thing with companies in the recent past. There was a short tyime where all outbound links to companies were instead pointing to their database, but it was pulling entries right into TechCrunch’s wordpress theme.
Clearly it looks like they’ve spun the whole thing off into its own site / url. Personally, I think this is the smart thing to do, as each “web2.0″ niche service/blog deserves their own domain, and can be marketed and monetized separately. If you head over to Crunchbase, you’ll notice it serves up a nice little blurb about each company, including who important people are and the kind of funding its required. But more than that it also serves to collect some information around that company that is presented in the sidebar, such as Techmeme mentions (do I detect using an as-yet-released Techmeme API?), Technorati mentions and so on. It also allows users to submit their own reviews of different companies.
This latter feature could prove very interesting — or controversial, depending on how Crunchbase takes off. Haters with a chip on their shoulders could flood some of these reviews with negative comments, which, depending on how popular Crunchbase eventually gets, could prove problematic for some companies. After all, they are not dealing with a one-off TechCrunch effect, but an ongoing record (much as a database is meant to be) of the company. Which in turn might lead some to be tempted to astroturf their own comments. It will be interesting to see how Arrington and co. deal with this if it ever becomes a problem.
Crunchbase looks like an interesting tool both for spectators, punters such as myself, and investors alike. I have to give props to Mike Arrington for trying to collect information in a “just-the-facts ma’am” type of approach that tries to avoid personal commentary — but does link to other opinions around the web, via Technorati, Techmeme and Del.ici.ous. I’ve yet to have a real close look at some of the companies that he’s got listed, but so far it looks pretty good and without any glaring inaccuracies.
July 25th, 2007 at 10:12 am | Permalink
I think using a separate domain is a no-brainer. They’re building a family of media companies. I ran into this database this morning and wondered why I hadn’t seen it before- your post tells me why. It will be interesting to see how Arrington handles this apparently stealthy launch…
July 25th, 2007 at 11:12 am | Permalink
yeah i had noticed they started linking to crunchbase pages awhile ago. in fact, in can be quite annoying because rather than linking to the company’s website they’ll link to crunchbase, making it one big link circle jerk.
July 25th, 2007 at 1:49 pm | Permalink
Martin — it will indeed. I was half expecting an announcement somewhere on TC, but trying to “search” for Crunchbase leads you no where. And this is in small part because searching for something only gives you a small number of queries (five) without any link to any prior entries (you can get around this by adding “&paged=x” where x is the number of pages back you want to go, however).
July 25th, 2007 at 1:50 pm | Permalink
Chris,
Yeah, they stopped doing that and thank the lord they did. It was really annoying. :P
July 26th, 2007 at 10:50 am | Permalink
Now you tell us, Tony! ;-)
I think Crunchbase will be very useful for web workers, researchers, and journalists. I went half-blind last week researching earth-bound locations of web 2.0 companies last week, for instance.