Product Hunt - Cutting through the advertising

Email chains are back. 

Product Hunt is the results of a cluttered, over-advertised Internet and is rapidly growing according to TechCrunch.

Prior to the emergence of google and facebook, email chains were a common method of communicating but they died since they were very inefficient - each individual had to be added and then the information itself wasn't organized. However, the hurdle was also an advantage as you were able to limit the distribution and as a consumer of content, you knew that the content came pre-filtered.

Today, the internet is saturated with advertising. It's nearly impossible to tell if what you are reading is sincere vs. someone trying to get you to buy something. This is especially true when to comes to evaluating products and services.

Re-enter Web 1.0 email chains and individual, trusted recommendations. Limited reach to trusted individuals creates better content than just letting the entire internet bring us to crowd-sourced mediocrity.

For digital marketers, this next wave of products is a sign that the system is broken. They have been so successful in reaching consumers that the blur between content and advertising is complete. If the resulting backlash is successful, marketers will need to think of new ways to penetrate these new walls. Authenticity is key but if these products are successful, digital marketing will become harder than ever.