« Proselytizing about headphones | Main | Disney buys Pixar; Jobs largest Disney shareholder »
January 20, 2006
Goombah usability testing
I haven't talked about Goombah in a long time. The reasons is that we've been deep in the salt mines, working our hardest to make the product better and better.
My main responsibility is the recommendation code. Recently I made some enhancements to the recommendation engine. I'm not going to describe the technical approach here, because it's proprietary. Also, there have been a large number of improvements to the user interface over the current public release, mostly due to direct user input in formal usability testing.
I'm very happy with our progress, particularly with the recent recommendation improvements.
Here is feedback from yesterday's test subject: "For me this [Goombah] is the only method I would use [to find new music]... Can I keep this after you leave? You’re not going to take it away are you? I really want to have the chance to explore it some more. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for... And, these [songs] are really interesting to me... Will you keep me updated, send me notices when you have new releases?"
It won't be very long now before we release the new version publicly. I'll provide updates here with the latest info when we're ready.
Frankly, I was so excited about everything last night that I lost some sleep, and am tired today! :)
January 20, 2006 | Permalink
Comments
Good to hear about Goombah -- have you figured-out a revenue model yet?
In the last year or so I have met a lot of people in the Internet and/or music industry who are keenly interested in the future of "personal music managers" (PMM's); a lot of them think such software-driven mechanisms could become the "Yahoo" for the next generation (start page, gateway, "digital hangout", etc.) -- sounds like Goombah could be a good fit. I certainly know I could sell it in today's climate...
It looks like the world is finally catching up to you, Gary. In addition to the landscape finally being open to your CF contributions, it seems Yahoo! has also just introduced "Yahoo Answers" on their site (I got an e-mail today from them). Though it seems 2 lifetimes ago now, I do recall some passionate conservations on this topic with you in 1997, which were so wisely quelled by the forward thinking of such [widely self-proclaimed] visionaries as Messrs. Dornbush, Lagrow, and Co., et. al.
I also recall early or pre-stage discussions with you about an ad network driven my mathematical analysis of user behavior (DoubleClick); an online dating service powered the same way (eHarmony or match.com); an online movie rental service that used ratings as a basis for the online community and recommendations (Netflix); or the idea to provide "real person" answers online (Yahoo or Google Answers); and so on. We all know now how ridiculous those concepts were...
Seriously, it's too bad you're in New England, where all the money's gatekeepers were so convinced that none of these ideas had legs back in 1996 and 1997. It seems CA and NY money disagreed...
I sincerely wish you luck with Goombah. I can't fathom you not being able to make that a huge success in today's climate, where millions of music downloads are happening each day, and new, undiscovered talent is constantly turning to the Internet as the new distribution channel, flocking to places like CDBaby and other primitive life forms.
Wish I'd met you in '06 instead of '96 -- I always shared your vision (and passion). Best of luck to you.
Drop me an e-mail if you get a chance. I hope you, Deborah and the kids are all well and happy.
Posted by: Jonathan Linscott at Jan 26, 2006 4:58:16 AM
