Inform.com launched back in October 2005, accompanied by a hype-laden NY Times article and the revelation that it employs 55 people (!). Mike called it like he saw it, then followed up with some damage control - frankly, he was right the first time. Today I dropped in to Alexa to check up on the New York startup, and - surprise, surprise - it's failing dismally. No doubt someone will drop by to tell me that Inform is constantly improving and plans to add a zillion new features this month - but quite frankly, that's the problem.
Inform is a classic case of trying to do everything at once, and failing to do any of those things well. Rafat Ali calls it everythingitis - the misguided notion that if you add more features than the competition, you'll win. I see it everyday when yet another startup claims to be building "MySpace, but better". And we see it time and time again in what I call the portal strategy - an ill-fated attempt to build "everything under one roof". Yes, Inform went wrong at every turn - too many employees, zero usability etc. But I think the inability to specialize will be its downfall.