Video Platform Magnify.Net: SAI Gave Us A Heart Attack. But We're Not Dead

Peter Kafka | October 6, 2008 2:48 PM

magnify logo.pngEarlier today we published a list of 50+ projects that AOL has killed or is planning to kill. Some of those items had already been made public, but as far as we can tell, much of it hadn't been discussed outside of AOL. Definitely not discussed outside of AOL: Anything to do with Magnify.net, which showed up on the closed-or-about-to-be list.

Magnify.net CEO Steve Rosenbaum contacted us immediately to assure us that his company wasn't dead or about to be, which makes sense to us: As best we could figure, the fact that the company's name showed up on AOL's hit list meant that AOL was cutting off support for its product in some way. But Steve says that's not the case, either. We've asked AOL for clarification, but haven't heard back. In the meantime, here's Steve's statement:

You can imagine our surprise - since AOL doesn't own us,  or even have a stake,  or - as best as we can tell - support us as a 3rd party app.

So,  they can't really shut us down.   In fact, we're having a pretty great year, with 35,000 sites now using our service to search and embed videos. We've just landed new financing,  and we've got cashflow break even pegged for 2009.

So,  the reports of our demise are wildly premature.  Now we know how Steve Jobs felt last week.

ps.  Our best guess is that AOL had at some point a project called 'magnify' someone got confused and added the .net  on the end - but it's not us.

UPDATE: More info, via a comment left by someone who appears to be reasonably informed reader on our original post:

Some background on Magnify.net's inclusion here. Last year AOL budgeted development cycles to do some custom AOL Video API development to enable the distribution of videos on Magnify.net’s platform. During the development process, a decision was made to use AOL's Truveo Video Search APIs, which provide a comprehensive index of all web video. Based on this decision, a decision was made to curtail investment in custom API development.

See Also: AOL's Hit List: 50+ Projects Gone Or Going

 

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14 Comments

Sty Liskit (URL) said:
"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated," Mark Twain

Citizen journalism has been busy this week. First Steve Jobs, then Google, now Magnify.
Sty, don't follow: What's the Google reference?

In any case, this post has nothing to do with citizen journalism. This is a list, circulated by AOL internally, of projects they are shutting down. Steve's beef is with AOL, not journalists of any stripe (I think).
steve rosenbaum (URL) said:
Agree with Peter here... SAI was responsive and professional. AOL, on the other hand, hasn't responded to numerous outreach - it's really remarkably irresponsible to put a company's name on your dead list and then not have the good form to at least correct it when it's clearly a mistake. I'd sure like to get AOL to clarify what they own and are shutting down - since it's not us. I've got a source that says they are probably referring to a project called Magna (part of myaol). Could be - who knows.
Joe Dowling said:
aol has a product named magnet (mgnet) - maybe that's what it is
Julian (URL) said:
Wow, really shows you the power, no matter how erroneously used, of journalism. These instances seem to be increasing in frequency and will only continue with so much user-generated content now dominating sites. I can see some type of regulation forthcoming.
Again, Julian, I think your focus is misplaced: Our reporting is straightforward and accurate here. If AOL wants to clarify, that's up to them. But that's not a journalism (or "user-generated content", which this isn't) issue.
DontTaseMeBro (URL) said:
Some background on Magnify.net's inclusion here. Last year AOL budgeted development cycles to do some custom AOL Video API development to enable the distribution of videos on Magnify.net’s platform. During the development process, a decision was made to use AOL's Truveo Video Search APIs, which provide a comprehensive index of all web video. Based on this decision, a decision was made to curtail investment in custom API development.

-DTMB
DontTaseMeBro (URL) said:
Some background on Magnify.net's inclusion here. Last year AOL budgeted development cycles to do some custom AOL Video API development to enable the distribution of videos on Magnify.net’s platform. During the development process, a decision was made to use AOL's Truveo Video Search APIs, which provide a comprehensive index of all web video. Based on this decision, a decision was made to curtail investment in custom API development.

-DTMB
Sty Liskit (URL) said:
Peter, the Google reference is to what happened with the Google stock on a single day do to some very strange high volume trading. I cannot find the article I read about this, but essentially, a lot of Google stock was sold, bringing it down to 290ish. One person saw the trend as it happened and shorted the stock. Then that person posted in the discussion section on (I think) Google's finance site a very angry comment where he said the SEC will not allow this to happen because the institution(s) that started the dip somehow ended up losing money. I forget the details, but finally the SEC did invalidate the day and that fellow who had made four million shorting the stock was given none of his earnings.

Now that I bring it up, I guess it is not part of the set. Interesting story, nonetheless.
marjorie (URL) said:
Video Platform Magnify.Net: SAI Gave Us A Heart Attack. But We're Not Dead70-526I guess so. Don't be so stubborn.
adela (URL) said:
Video Platform Magnify.Net: SAI Gave Us A Heart Attack. But We're Not Dead 毒死蜱 That's an exaggeration. you had it coming.
ted (URL) said:
640-802 Video Platform Magnify.Net: SAI Gave Us A Heart Attack. But We're Not Dead You're not so great yourself. Pervert! He is such a pervert! I saw him looking at me in the toilet.
jacqui (URL) said:
Take a seat. Don't repeat everything I say. 640-802 / 350-030 / 70-290 / 70-646 / 70-631 / 220-601
Martin D'souza said:
The premier seller of jordans and buy air force ones and information on acne.

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