Very often, I have come across promising start-ups, that have a world on a string, and can capture the minds and hearts of early adopters, only to stumble and whither away? I see their bigger rivals, with mediocre and somewhat insipid technology come from behind and take market share. Is that the case with Blinkx, a desktop search company that only a few brief months ago, knocked my socks off. Remember I compared them to Google in the early days. However, things are getting a bit dodgy out there in Blinkx-land. Microsoft’s desktop plans, Apple’s upcoming desktop launch, and Google’s move into the space, has me worried about Blinkx and its future. They have come out with a new version, Blinkx 2.0, and it has been received with generally good reviews. It has cool new features like saving peer-to-peer searches and smart folders. My readers have given the product two thumbs up. But in this applause, lies some worrying news. For instance, co-founder Kathy Rittweger is no longer with the company.
(Her name is gone from the company’s about page!) (Here is a cached version of the old about page, thanks to Google.) All I actually had to do was click that page to find out Kathy was gone. I don’t know the reasons, though timing is definitely curious. For instance, Mark Opzoomer, a former Yahoo executive has taken over as the CEO and one of the co-founders is gone. She had become the face of the company, appearing in numerous articles and promoting the Blinkx-way. Well someone didn’t care much about that? I think in a tiny company like Blinkx, this kind of power play is always worrying. This is how start-ups unravel. I hope I am wrong, but it doesn’t look too promising. Blinkx spokesperson could not be reached!
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