Swivel, the “YouTube for Data,” is Live

When I blogged yesterday about Swivel.com, the site had nothing but a “coming soon” banner. Well, one day later, Swivel has gone live. There’s not too much there yet, and things seem a little buggy, but it’s well worth a look.

One commenter on the original post wrote: “Coming soon” on a website is similar to “Closed for renovations” in a restaurant’s window. It’s a safe bet that the restaurant will never reopen, and it’s at least a semi-safe bet that the website will never be up. I’ll believe Swivel when I see it.

So this Doubting Thomas turns out to be wrong, about Swivel at least. But he’s pretty right about the “Closed for Renovations” sign, isn’t he? Why do restaurants always post that sign when it’s not true? Is there an upside there that I’m not seeing?