Dave's Download

The Linkup -- Among Worst Tech of 2008

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Posted: December 9, 2008

The failure of the Linkup service is a warning that no single backup is enough protection for valuable data. Once called Streamload and then MediaMax, the service offered free and paid accounts for storing digital media. But a botched transfer committed the cardinal sin of deleting user files, and then the company went out of business. Honorable mention to Apple's MobileMe for also losing user data in its messy rollout, but at least the company stuck around to apologize.

These stars arrived with breakthrough technology:
Hybrid Electric Bikes
Geotagging Devices
Superthin OLED TV
Extra-Fast Cameras
Tag Reader for Kids

These duds included fumbles and foibles:
Blu-ray
The Linkup Online Backup
"I Am Rich" iPhone App
Liquid USB Drive
Bulky Motorola Cellphone

More Dave's Download posts

Horrible Name, Too

Worth noting, The LinkUp (which was at www.thelinkup.com) is different than LinkUp (www.linkup.com). LinkUp is a thriving job search engine, but during MediaMax's transition to TheLinkUp, we had to deal with a good amount of confusion from the horrible name choice. On their blog, they called themselves TLU. And although a bad name choice was hardly the worst of their flaws, it shows poor judgment and vision that probably doomed them from the beginning.

Eric Caron of MN @ Dec 23, 2008 14:54:16 PM

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