| Not all dot-com dreams died when the Internet stock | | | | The idea behind 43 Things has roots in Amazon's |
| bubble burst. | | | | personalization feature, automatically suggesting new |
| Amazon.com, the king of the dot-com era, is keeping | | | | products based on what customers order. Petersen, |
| some of them alive in 2005 inside a small office on | | | | the Robot Co-op's chief executive, and others helped |
| Capitol Hill. | | | | create that feature at Amazon in the late 1990s. |
| Light floods into a sparse whitewashed room above a | | | | Five sobering years since those halcyon days of the |
| yoga studio, where former Amazon director Josh | | | | Internet boom, their new company retains some of |
| Petersen and his cohorts sit around a large table | | | | that time's Utopian ideals. |
| plugging away on laptops. This is home to the Robot | | | | But while the creators of 43 Things proclaim a desire |
| Co-op, a tiny company owned by the online retail giant. | | | | to change the world, they don't want to live like robots |
| The seven-member group has created a Web | | | | to do it. Typical office hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., |
| community based on sharing personal goals and | | | | and employees have salaries that pay the mortgage, |
| dreams with a worldwide audience. | | | | generous health benefits and unlimited time off for |
| Its Web site, 43 ( invites people to list their goals and | | | | personal goals, which is the whole point of their new |
| get information from other people who have done | | | | venture. |
| those things or want to. The free service has | | | | "A lot of startups have a very rough path before they |
| attracted a global following of 12,000 people in two | | | | succeed," said Petersen, 33. "We wanted to have a |
| months. | | | | humane work environment from the start. We didn't |
| 43 Things is part of growing wave of online social | | | | want to ask our families to take on risk or take on |
| networking, encompassing Web logs, as well as | | | | partners who push for a return on investment in two |
| Friendster, LinkedIn and other sites that form virtual | | | | years." |
| communities. Go online to find a date, a plumber or | | | | Unlike many startups today, this one faces no |
| someone halfway around the world who shares the | | | | particular pressure to make money just yet. |
| same passion for belly-dancing. | | | | "A lot of people came up with some lousy ideas |
| Like their dot-com predecessors, the social-networking | | | | because they were trying to make money and left a |
| companies have generated plenty of hype and millions | | | | lot of good ideas behind," Petersen said. |
| of dollars in venture capital. The field is getting | | | | Petersen said he and partner Daniel Spils, 36, began |
| crowded with services vying for attention, from | | | | working on the project in Spils' basement last summer, |
| Friendster and Google's Orkut to MySpace, tribe.net, | | | | after Petersen took a paternity leave from his |
| craigslist and local startup Judy's Book. As people | | | | search-technology job at Microsoft. Petersen had left |
| spend more time online, developers are inventing new | | | | Amazon in 2002, and Spils left later the same year to |
| ways for them to connect with each other. | | | | focus on playing music as the keyboardist for Seattle |
| Big companies' interest | | | | band Maktub. They made pitches to several other |
| No one can say for sure where this trend is heading, | | | | investors before settling on Amazon in the fall. |
| but Internet giants like Google, Amazon and Yahoo! | | | | Petersen had worked with Amazon Chief Executive |
| are taking a keen interest. | | | | Jeff Bezos while creating the personalization |
| One factor lending support to the business model is | | | | technology, and a verbal agreement with Bezos in |
| the sea change in advertising. Printed ads aimed at a | | | | September set the Robot Co-op deal in motion. |
| general audience are being replaced by online ads | | | | "No one can say we know exactly where this is |
| targeted down to the smallest personal detail. If a | | | | going," Petersen said. "That's a path they were |
| company like Amazon knows that Julie in Tacoma | | | | comfortable with." |
| wants to learn to make Greek food, it can send her | | | | Amazon won't disclose the size of its investment or |
| cookbook recommendations or an ad for a local | | | | what it might demand of the robots later. |
| cooking class. | | | | "We're not discussing the details around the strategy |
| The technology is constantly evolving, too. Compared | | | | there or speculating on the future of the company," |
| with earlier sites such as Friendster or LinkedIn, what's | | | | said public-relations manager Drew Herdener. "We |
| different about 43 Things is that you don't need to | | | | don't discuss our investment strategies." |
| search for people with the same interests. The | | | | Company potential |
| software finds them for you. | | | | Clearly, social networking has the potential to be a |
| The same concept is behind the photo-sharing service | | | | game-changing phenomenon, and Amazon wants a |
| Flickr and Web bookmark-sharing site del.icio.us. | | | | hand in it. As sole owner of the Robot Co-op, Amazon |
| People are matched based on the same key words | | | | owns any technology the team develops, Petersen |
| or tags they use to express a goal, such as "lose 10 | | | | said. Although Amazon does have seats on the |
| pounds." After the first person posts a new goal on | | | | company's board, the co-op has autonomy in its daily |
| the site, every other person with that goal is added to | | | | operations, he said. |
| the group, creating instant networks. | | | | "We built it," Petersen said. "We're in charge." |
| Advertising on the site also works through matching | | | | The Amazon investment caused a bit of a stir when it |
| key words, so that it can be automatically targeted to | | | | was reported last month in Salon.com, the online |
| specific goals. A company might buy a Google ad to | | | | magazine. Some users said the co-op should have |
| promote its teeth-whitening formula, and that ad | | | | notified people earlier. But traffic to the 43 Things Web |
| appears on all the 43 Things Web pages where | | | | site tripled in three days as a result of the publicity. |
| someone has listed a goal of "whiten my teeth." | | | | Petersen and Spils, the chief operating officer, said |
| The process means most of the site's 44,000 pages | | | | they have no specific obligation to share information |
| feature targeted ads, all without a single sales | | | | with Amazon and wouldn't compromise their users' |
| representative. 43 Things had paid advertisements | | | | trust. |
| from the first day it appeared, Jan. 1. | | | | "The worst conspiracy theories bother us," Petersen |
| A similar process serves up Google text ads based | | | | said. "You can't make a site like this by abusing your |
| on key words in Google searches. | | | | users." |
| "If we make the site useful to people, that model will | | | | 43 Things' privacy policy states that the company may |
| work out just like it does for Google," Petersen said. | | | | collect and share with partners the information that |
| 12,000 registered | | | | users provide, including names, e-mail addresses, |
| Since the site went live, more than 12,000 people in | | | | physical addresses, phone numbers, ages and genders. |
| 900 cities have registered and shared their goals, from | | | | So far, users don't seem to mind sharing personal |
| the most mundane to the most bizarre. Among the | | | | information with the world, and many post their photos |
| throngs seeking to lose weight or visit foreign lands are | | | | and links to their own blogs. |
| three who want to take a bath in champagne and six | | | | Such information could be a marketer's dream. |
| hoping to learn how to raise just one eyebrow. | | | | Because the goals are so specific, the ads are better |
| Some Seattle residents have started a bike-riding club | | | | targeted, Spils said. About three-fourths of the 44,000 |
| and organized a gathering of neighbors in the Central | | | | goals listed on the site feature text ads automatically |
| District, while the site linked two people in Quebec and | | | | generated by Google on the side of the page. |
| Beijing who decided to practice English together using | | | | The group that wanted to learn how to raise one |
| Internet telephony. | | | | eyebrow, for example, is shown an ad for "shaping |
| John Hornbaker of Seattle has used the site to share | | | | perfect eyebrows" from an online beauty guide. |
| his experiences using the iPod and climbing Mount | | | | The robots share their own lives through links to their |
| Rainier. | | | | personal blogs, and the Web site gets plenty of help |
| "It was interesting and fun, seeing what all these other | | | | from visitors. When Petersen wants some suggestions |
| people wanted to do," he said. But he didn't receive | | | | from users, he posts a goal such as "explore how 43 |
| much in the way of feedback. After a while, his | | | | Things can promote online learning." Soon people as |
| interest started to diminish as he became busy with | | | | far away as Quebec, Australia and New Zealand |
| other activities. Hornbaker's not sure how much time | | | | chime in with ideas. |
| and effort it takes to get something worthwhile out of | | | | The goal-obsessed robots use index cards to scrawl |
| it. | | | | ideas or features they want to work on and sort them |
| Social-networking sites need a certain critical mass to | | | | by priority. Each week, goals are taped to the wall with |
| realize potential benefits and generate significant | | | | the time estimated to finish and the actual time each |
| revenue, said Mark Mahaney, an analyst with | | | | task took. A stack of 50 index cards lists features |
| American Technology Research. | | | | they are considering, including adding a link on 43 |
| "Whoever has the largest network has a real | | | | Things pages to Amazon's Wish Lists. |
| advantage over other players," he said. "It tells me if | | | | For now, Amazon is giving the robots the luxury of |
| there really is a business opportunity here, you better | | | | time. "We're totally free right now," Spils said. "We don't |
| build it quick and fast." | | | | check in. |
| Amazon roots | | | | |