Squidoo was a community Web site platform that allowed users to create
pages, called "lenses," which could then be used to sell products for profit or
charitable donation. The site reportedly consisted of 1.5 million "hand-built
lenses" as of October 2010. On August 15, 2014, Seth Godin announced that
HubPages had acquired Squidoo. History
Development on Squidoo started in 2005, with the launch of a beta testing period
in October of that year. The launch team consisted of Godin, his book editor
Megan Casey, former Fast Company employee Heath Row, Corey Brown, and Gil
Hildebrand, Jr. The first version of the Web site was developed by Viget Labs.
Following the end of the Web site's beta testing stage two months later, Squidoo
subsequently reached 100,000 lenses within the first six months.
= HubPages acquisition = On August 15, 2014, Godin announced that
Squidoo had been acquired by HubPages, and stated that the aim was to relocate
some of Squidoo's content to its new home at HubPages by October 1, 2014. In
the announcement on the Squidoo site, Godin explained:
They’re [HubPages] the industry leader, continually pushing the envelope in
terms of their content, its presentation and the traffic and traction they get
online. The best way we know to serve our users is to give them an even better
place for their content, and when I talked with Paul Edmondson at HubPages,
it became clear to both of us that combining these platforms leads to a
stronger, more efficient, more generous way to share great stuff online.
Users were encouraged to archive their pages, as the transfer of Squidoo
content will be selective and content that is not transferred will not be
available after the overall migration. Godin also published an "FAQ" section on
the Squidoo website to further assist users in relation to the transition.
Site structure Squidoo was a user-generated Web site
that used the lens concept as its primary feature. In his e-book
Everyone's an Expert, Godin describes a lens as "[focusing] light and [showing]
us what we need to see." The site also allowed content creators to earn revenue
from referral links to Web sites like Amazon.com and eBay. Squidoo was notable
in that it allowed users to create multimedia pages without an
understanding of HTML. The users who created lenses were called
"lensmasters". A lensmaster could be anyone with an interest in a specific
subject—they did not need to be externally recognized experts. In
Squidoo's early stages, Godin noted that Martha Stewart and Jane Goodall's lenses
did not receive large amounts of traffic, whereas lenses on myspace and
the online game Line Rider were among the site's most successful. Squidoo
contained lenses on 35 different topics, including "Food & Cooking," "Green
Living," "About Me," and "Business." "SquidMonsters," "SquidTrophies," and an
experience points system were additional features that were later introduced.
Godin explained in January 2006 that the company intended to start a
profit-sharing system for participants based on advertising and affiliate
links, whereby lensmasters would receive a commission if their lens included
links to buy products. Reception
After its debut, Squidoo was profiled in CNN, The New York Times, MSNBC, and The
Washington Post. The site was given top prize in South by Southwest's
community/wiki category in 2007. Squidoo challenged established information Web
sites like About.com and eHow for traffic, while it remained similar in
unique visitor numbers to newer models like Mahalo.com and HubPages.
See also India Study Channel
HubPages Mahalo
References