Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Resurrected: The Industry Standard 2.0

The Industry Standard, originally founded in 1998, was the go to publication for all things internet. Startup .coms of the web 1.0 era flocked to advertise in this widely read publication, which attracted readers from all over the tech industry. In 2001 however, The Standard collapsed as a result of the .com bubble burst as investors steered away from anything built on or around .com.

Today, The Standard is re-branding itself under the social networking banner as an online-only publication which consists of a concoction of imported feed stories from around the net, well-known industry writers, freelancing journalism and analysis, and community contributions. The social networking aspect comes in the form of a Prediction System wherein members will have the ability to bet on the outcome a any given story (with virtual money). The prediction is a percentage based on who votes how much each way; wagering more on a story affects the prediction.

But is this just more of the same? One could view the prediction system to be a remodeled digg-like voting system and that we don't need yet another site to tell us about the Microsoft bid. This may end up being just another cliché site which will gather a core audience of contributors. Now if they add in real-money betting... that would be interesting.

Check out the new Industry Standard and try it for yourself.

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