From the other 'instant' clones out there, including youtube instant, and hacker news instant, I would not consider it to be a failure.

Immitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

After all, Youtube instant supposedly had traffic in millions, and the chap was offered a job. Was that a kind of PR ploy? May be. May be not.

However, I would be interested to see how Google instant impacts Google Trends.

what value would AOL get from the aquisition??

If you are getting the message: "You're submitting too fast", and you need to reply soon, just access HN through web proxy,create an acc, and submit! :)

...And I call for a free,long lasting solution for world hunger,world peace, and education.

There is no such thing as a free lunch,however well you dress it up.

you could have put a disclaimer:

Step -1: Get hold of Steve Job's creditcard Step 0: Stand 10 steps away from the Bank, with a gun in your hand NOW,Take the rest of the 10 steps forward. Easy! :-)

First and foremost,I admire the frankness with which you have written this article.

But I certainly did feel you were criticizing yourself a tad too much, and perhaps over-simplifying some of your real issues.

Here's a blog article of Evan Williams written in 2005, which rings very true, even today.

http://evhead.com/2005/11/ten-rules-for-web-startups.asp

I sincerely wish you the very best going forward.

Rise from the ashes,go for the riches! :-)

Thanks for the comment and the link to that article. Think we unfortunately violated many of those principles in v1 which we hope to remedy this go around.

Would be curious about your thoughts on "over-simplifying some of your real issues." If you don't mind sharing, would love your perspective/thoughts.

Thanks again.

I might be wrong, but I just got that impression when I saw phrases like "branded like a mullet", "you blew it" in your article.

However wrong you might have been,however big the mistake might be, I think the best way is to have as little emotional baggage attached to it,in thought or word,for it might cloud your analysis.

For instance, at some point later in time, when you think about your branding, the fact that you hadnt projected yourself correctly, and the phrase "branded like a mullet" would come to your mind first. So, you MIGHT be stopping yourself from deeper analysis prematurely, by broad blanket criticism.

Completely agree with you on not wanting emotional baggage going forward.

Part of the rationale for this post was that it was cathartic for our team, i.e., understand/admit our mistakes, laugh at them and move on. A clean break of sorts and a reminder of things not to do in this incarnation of the product.

I think that kind of read:

"Dude, you fucked me bad.Real Bad-But,hey- I am still alive!"

Because human brain has two halves-left and right. Not a remotely sensible answer? No?Can there ever be one silver bullet?one answer to this question? I dont think so- And I think, anyone who says otherwise is lying to himself/herself.

Hell hath no fury than a woman scorned :-(

The fastest route- for greatest traffic in shortest time - spend 1000 USD on ads in porn sites ;-)

Do you have any links?