Techcrush: startup follow-up
September 19th, 2006 10:23:00 am pst by 
Sterling Camden
Lutz Winter sent me an e-mail this morning to tell me about the launch of Techcrush. This site sprang from the head of Stowe Boyd in full armor: Stowe proposed a site that would revisit apps six months after they debuted on TechCrunch to see how they had performed. Lutz and his associate Yves Luther have incarnated Stowe’s vision.
Techcrush sports a simple design and easy navigation. Each post starts with a quotation from the original TechCrunch review of an application, followed by a summary of what has befallen it since that time. As of this writing, the products reviewed so far are Flock and iKarma. I don’t use either of those apps, so I can’t comment on the veracity or depth of Techcrush’s coverage, but it seems fair and neutral in tone.
Techcrush isn’t only composed of product reviews, though. Each post also contains a reader poll:
Note the very web2.0ish voting buttons.
At the bottom of the main page, the “Top 10 Crushes” lists the highest scoring apps. You can probably guess what’s listed under the “Flop 10 Crushes”.
My one disappointment: the RSS feed is not full text. The front page only has summaries, too — but that’s a little more palatable since you’re already at the site. Subscribed anyway.
Techcrush seems to be everything Stowe asked for (Stowe is listed among the site’s “Associates” as well). I think the balanced reviews and reader polls may provide a nice complement to the snarkiness of Dead 2.0 and Valleywag in the cause of relieving bubble pressure.
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Thanks for your review, glad you like the design — or so it seems…
Stowe contacted us to be a contributor to Techcrush. We’re happy to have him on board.
Yes, I do like it, Lutz. Except for the partial text feed. That’s great that Stowe plans to stay involved in his brainchild. Good luck!
I’ve had an on-again off-again relationship with Flock. I keep coming back to give it a shot, then eventually giving up on it because as much as I like what it does, I simply must have what it does not do. The biggest problem for me, as of the last time I tried it out, is the fact that one must either choose to share bookmarks or keep them private. There’s no middle ground. I really want the public bookmarking capability of Flock, but I don’t want to give up the ability to keep private bookmarks to get it.
Of course, I’ve gotten so used to the PageRank and AdSense plugins I use for Firefox that the lack of support for them on Flock (last I checked) is a deal-killer as well.
In many ways, Flock is a better browser than Firefox. It just doesn’t do some of what I need.
I haven’t really looked at Flock. In what ways is it superior to Firefox?
It’s more responsive, doesn’t suck resources as much, and seems to be more stable (personal experience). I also liked the tight integration with del.icio.us, with the exception of the lack of division of public and private bookmarks.
[...] Back on Tuesday Sterling reviewed the new TechCrush site, writing: Techcrush seems to be everything [Stowe Boyd] asked for (Stowe is listed among the site’s “Associates” as well). I think the balanced reviews and reader polls may provide a nice complement to the snarkiness of Dead 2.0 and Valleywag in the cause of relieving bubble pressure. [...]