The reason it is so hard to make a great web application is because it is so easy to make it suck. The greatest ideas do not always translate into the greatest applications because of poor execution. What makes them so bad though? Let’s take a look.
Easy is a feature
Easy is always the #1 feature people look for when using a web site. Therefore, it makes sense that you have decided to make it feature #101 which will be implemented next year. A great example of why wikis never really took off is because they aren’t the easiest apps in the world to use. Imagine using the technology and design behind Writeboard to power all of the pages on Wikipedia.
Learning a new syntax (yes, even HTML is new to most of the world) requires investment and in most cases wikis do not offer a great return on investment (ROI) so there is absolutely no reason to use them. A great example of easy design is Digg. One of the major reasons for its success is that Digging (and unDigging) an item is as easy as can be. So easy in fact that it becomes addicting.
Undesign isn’t a feature
It’s 2006 yet you think your 1997 design makes sense. FranzFred wondered why Reddit didn’t make the Top 10 Web 2.0 Winners list and one of the reasons is due to its design. I know the site works similar to Digg and I have read in many places it is superior, but when looking at the site I’m not even sure what is going on. This doesn’t mean it isn’t a great application after you spend time with it, but when you aren’t the only game in town how much time do you think someone is going to invest when there are visually superior (and no worse technically) solutions around?
You can come, but you can’t leave
You don’t feel the need to open up your data to the masses or to allow them to control the experience. We are living in an era where mashups are found on every street corner. MySpace isn’t an open system because they don’t offer RSS feeds nor the ability to export your friends list. They are an open system because they allow others to create widgets to use on their pages (and if they crack down on this they are insane).
Offering something as simple as a RSS feed can get your data on other sites, which in turn will drive more traffic your way. If you offer an API, developers will create fun and interesting tools to make the site experience even more special. Passionate users are willing to take that extra step to make the experience better so why not give them the tools to make it happen?
The cliche
Release early, release often isn’t a phrase meant to represent trips to the bathroom. There are always improvements to be made to your application and more than likely some features that will make it better. However, you are content to sit around and do nothing.
I ragged on Bloglines (which doesn’t suck) on the Top 10 Web 2.0 Losers list for seemingly being static with regards to updates. Apparently they have pushed out a small visual update that goes a long way in improving usability. That’s all most customers ask for.
Be different
How many people will argue that their app X differs greatly from app Y when the general user can’t tell the difference? At a time when blog networks were the hottest trend, we at 9rules went a different direction and decided we weren’t going to own the sites and we haven’t looked back since.
Being different can be scary because you aren’t sure how things will work out, but that’s what will make your web app special and that’s what people will appreciate. These sites and application dared to be different and look at the outcome.
User-generated content FTW
You think user-generated content creates itself? Users have never had a problem creating content for sites when they feel they are getting something equal or greater in return. It doesn’t have to be money and in most cases when the reward isn’t money the value is much greater to the user and the content will reflect that.
For even more things that can kill your web application make sure to checkout 10 Things That Will Make or Break Your Website. Do your part and make sure your web app doesn’t suck. Thank you.
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Today I finish off my Top Web 2.0 series (see Winners and Losers) with my list of the Top 5 Web 2.0 Upstarts to keep an eye out for. As with the prior two lists, coming up with a clear definition of what constitutes an upstart will be difficult, but for the sake of both simplicity and argument, let’s just say that an upstart is one that is gaining momentum and isn’t necessarily flooded with the attention that the other Web 2.0 darlings seem to achieve.
- Cyworld. Already a major hit in South Korea, Cyworld is the fun social networking site that actually has a revenue model that is only partly based on advertising. You can customize your cyber room to your heart’s content and if you still aren’t happy after spending all of your acorns you can buy more accessories.
Building your room and your online persona might seem kiddie and Barbie-like, but once you get started it is hard to stop and I can easily seeing this gaining ground quick in the US. The US version will more than likely use advertising more than the Asia version because our youth market isn’t known for paying for anything.
- Netvibes. Having recently reported over 5 million users the question still remains who wants to use custom homepage portals? The answer seems to be a lot of people. With competition from heavyweights Google and Yahoo, it’s nice to see the little guy (well over $15MM in funding might not make you so little anymore) rise to the challenge.
Even better is to see them make money from partnerships that utilize custom modules instead of attempting to plaster the site with ads. It will be interesting to see how well they can grow without turning every homepage into a Yahoo portal clone.
- Guba. Guba has been around for some time in one form or another, but have now made the transition towards an online video seller. You can watch free movies, watch premium movies ($0.99) and TV shows ($0.49) online. The site used to be catered more towards adult-oriented sites, but now it is starting to hit the mainstream.
The challenge now is to see how well they can compete with Apple and their new iTunes Movie section. For now they have the upperhand by providing a more diverse selection of movies, but how long will that last?
- VideoEgg. When you have AOL, bebo and others using your technology to power their video offerings you know you have a hit on your hand. By offering their technology to any site that will allow their users to upload videos without leaving the site, VideoEgg has setup a platform that has a good chance of grabbing a hold of the online video wave and never letting go.
Add to all of this craziness their recently launched video ad network and you have a company that doesn’t look like they will be slowing down anytime soon.
- coComment. The only upstart on the list with no clear business model (when has that stopped something from being cool before?), but definitely a technology that is needed to keep track of all the conversations you try to maintain across the web. By making sure their technology works on a majority of the publishing platforms on the web, coComment has instilled themselves as the leader of the conversation tracking arena.
Of all the upstarts I think coComment will have the hardest time of surviving (although I think they will) because it might be hard to monetize conversations in a way that makes the service worth it. The rest of the list seem well on their way to riches and acquisitions and it will be very interesting to see what happens to them over the next year. I wish the list could have been longer, but it is hard to find companies that survive past their initial hype and continue to show strong growth and innovation. Competition is fierce and it’s good to see the smart companies rise to the top.
It’s amazing to me how entrenched in this era of the web we can become that we forget that Web 1.0 sites still dominates. Google, MSN, Yahoo, Amazon, eBay and MySpace own a large percentage of the top 10 traffic across the web. Many of them have started to show some Web 2.0 features (people weren’t too pleased to see MySpace on a Web 2.0 list), but they are still Web 1.0 at the heart of things. Today, I wrote about the dominance of Photobucket over Flickr yet nobody seems to notice. However, I bet the owners of Photobucket, who report to be very profitable have no problem with Flickr getting all of the attention. Of course if you believe in Alexa, Flickr is sitting pretty when compared to Photobucket.
This just goes to show that geeks have forgotten that there is a bigger web out there that involves “real people”. We have forgotten that we are the minority on the web and the real successes come from sites that know how to leverage the traffic of the general public. Yeah, Web 2.0 sites generally have a greater social interaction and cleaner interfaces, but what’s the point if they aren’t getting the traffic?
What type of community do you want to belong to, a small one or a large one? Apparently most people want large communities where they can create their own little niche groups within them (Facebook does a wonderful job of leveraging groups). Are Web 1.0 creators simply better marketers or is there really no reason for the users of these sites to go anywhere else?
The best sites will find what makes Web 1.0 great and leverage that with Web 2.0 technologies and advances. Hopefully we can move beyond what the people who write blogs think is cool and go back to what the people who actually use the sites find useful. From a business and marketing standpoint don’t forget the majority of the web when looking to make it big.
No idea if “me-toosim” is a word, but it just sounded too good to pass up. Job boards are nothing new, they have been around forever and if you hit up any of the long time designer portals you will see lots of them had job postings up since the beginning of time. In April, 37signals announced their job board which was simply a way for companies to post jobs for all of 37signals’ readers. The board itself isn’t laced with features that you can find on Monster, but that’s where its appeal lies.
It made sense for them to create something like this. If you have the audience, why not figure out ways to monetize it as much as possible? People found the concept of independent job boards as genius especially when you consider they are charging $250 a pop. Then we got TechCrunch’s Crunchboard which targets mostly the same audience except you only had to pay $200 to post a job there. Not far behind was GigaOM Jobs which hits up the same exact same market as CrunchBoard at the exact same price.
Today we get Cameron Moll’sAuthentic Jobs, which allows you to distinguish between a full-time job and a simple gig for a price of $250. Then by mere *cough* coincidence, Jason Fried announces that 37signals will open up a Gig Board which will also allow you to post gigs and is giving away 20 free slots. In return Cameron begins to offer 20 free slots as well, although I would’ve went extreme and given 100 away for free.
In any case, in almost every announcement of these job boards people are saying how great of an idea it is, but that is probably because they are supporting the sites they love. Is a job board for every single site on the web a good thing? Of course I don’t think it is, but that doesn’t mean you should try to avoid making money if you can. Admittedly after 37signals launched their’s we considered doing one for 9rules that encompassed all of our communities and we still might do something, but we also know that it will differ than the five examples I have posted above in more than one way.
The question remains though how much innovation should you pursue when so much competition crops up without losing the simplicity of your concept? The argument for Bloglines in the Web 2.0 Losers discussion was that there was no reason to innovate when they simply did the job correctly. The only differentiating factors between the above job boards is the amount of people that each one will reach and the price per posting. So much for competitive analysis and taking things one step further than the rest.
It will be interesting to watch this space and even more so how Cameron reacts if his job board doesn’t take off. We wish him and all the others best of luck because we all win when people get paid. Or some shit like that. Do you think these job boards should try a bit harder to differentiate themselves or are they just fine the way they are?
The Top 10 Web 2.0 Losers list was an interesting look at companies and sites that possibly haven’t lived up to their potential in this era of the web. Today I am going to look at the top 10 sites that I feel have exceeded the expectations of many and have taken marketshare away from established leaders or have become leaders themselves in their industries. Again, these sites don’t have to represent the Web 2.0 concept of rounded corners and AJAX technology, they are simply showing strength during this time of the web.
- Myspace. Love it or hate it, this is the top dog on the Web right now and it doesn’t look like anyone is going to take it down anytime soon. With Myspace it was never about the feature set or interface because other sites offer more and look better, it was always about the community (if you are not on Myspace, you are not on anywhere) and the control you had over your page. What fascinates me the most about the site though is that it has gone beyond being just a social site and has now become a social platform where companies form around the sole purpose of developing widgets to use on Myspace.That’s power that any site would love to have. With the amount of people that use the site, any new project that Myspace starts is bound to be an instant hit. Rupert Murdoch is already claiming that Myspace Video will overtake YouTube in 60 days which is no small feat when you consider that YouTube serves over 100MM videos a day.
- WordPress. After dethroning SixApart (losers list) in the self-hosted blogging category, Matt Mullenweg set his sights on the hosted blogging space and has been kicking major ass. What makes this even more intriguing is that WordPress.com is essentially running on Open Source software so you aren’t left with the feeling that development will stop anytime soon as you do with MovableType or Typepad. Add to that, the service is free with addons costing a small price per year and you have a company that has a revenue model that doesn’t revolve around advertising (sad when I get that happy over something like that).
- Flickr. A popular choice on any Web 2.0 list, this was the first real Web 2.0 breakout hit due to its use of tagging and sense of community. After being bought by Yahoo! things don’t seem to be slowing down and through the use of a great set of APIs the service has become a viral phenonmenon.It has yet to really make a splash with the mainstream audience who still use the larger photo-sharing sites, but it is making great strides to catch up. A free service that uses ads or a Pro version which costs a minimal amount of money per year, Flickr has created a revenue model that revolves around the best of both worlds.
- YouTube. In my opinion the most addictive site on the web. There has been a lot of talk lately about the value of YouTube and its ability to stay alive with all the copyrighted content it has on the site, but people tend to forget that the same companies that hold these copyrights are the exact same companies that have been looking for effective ways to reach the younger crowds online. A Chinese kid lip-synching to Backstreet Boys may be copyright infringement due to the use of the song, but how often can a 10 year old song be heard by over 2MM potential buyers in just a couple of days? Companies are starving for this kind of attention and they can get it now without even trying.The company is demanding $1.5 billion to buy them out and it’s quite possible they will find a suitor. For all the talk that people are going to leave in droves to go to other sites that offer money, well let’s just say large sites like this just don’t die in an instant. YouTube will be around for a very long time.
- Revver and MetaCafe. Not nearly as popular as YouTube, but still making large strides these two video sites offer producers monetary rewards for posting videos up on their site. Some of the more popular YouTube directors have been using these sites to generate some cash for their efforts, while still posting on YouTube to gain audience. That’s the kicker, even when another site offers them money for their content, they still post on YouTube because that’s where they will make their mark.With revenue-sharing in place and a model similar to YouTube’s, both of these sites are looking very good right now.
- Newsvine. Simply how news sites will be done in the 21st Century. With the way syndication of news works, you can read the same story in multiple places, but Newsvine offers reader feedback and a strong community to complement the news you read everyday. If participating isn’t your thing, you are still provided with up to the minute news reports just like any other news site.Newsvine’s audience is mature and knowledgeable and doesn’t cater to just the geek crowd, which is refreshing in this era of the web. A clean design, the type you would expect from Mike Davidson, help to make the site a pleasure to get around.
- Yahoo. The largest and strongest company on the list has a sense of where the web is moving. With early acquisitions of Flickr and del.icio.us, Yahoo understands the value of community sites with user-generated content. Now they are the forerunner in getting Facebook so even when people being to panic due to the cutback in advertising it still looks like clear skies for Yahoo.And if you don’t believe in the power of being acquired by a big company, del.icio.us has just announced they have registered their one millionth user and showing a growth rate that has tripled since being acquired.
- Digg. There isn’t much to say about Digg that hasn’t already been said. It has taken old school concepts and remixed them in a way that has become addicting. With over 500k registered users in less than two months their growth is almost unmatched. What makes this site so great and why it will continue to grow is the ease of use of the site. After registering you are thrown right into the action and can participate simply by clicking a Digg button. As the community grows their will be more and more turmoil, but that won’t hide the fact that if you are looking for interesting stories and sites, Digg will remain the #1 place to go for a very long time.If you run a site there is no greater pleasure than having an article reach the Digg frontpage. If you want traffic, this is where the action is and that will help keep the site fresh moving upwards.
- Skype. If you use VoIP you use Skype. That’s pretty much all you need to know.
- Facebook. Potentially to be bought out by Yahoo for $1 billion, Facebook makes a strong case for not trying to cater to everyone. However, things will change now that they have opened registrations for all to use. However, the fact that you can’t manipulate your page like you can with Myspace may show that users want freedom and control if you want their attention.Of course with such a great user interface I may be proven wrong.
This list was a bit harder to make than the Losers list because there were a couple of sites that could have easily made it.
I am definitely looking forward to seeing what happens to all of these companies in the next year.
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Yesterday when I wrote the Top 10 Web 2.0 Losers I figured it would ruffle some feathers and bring the loyalists out, but I wasn’t quite sure for which sites. No matter how much we might think people hate a site or application there always seem to be fans around waiting to defend it and this certainly was the case with Bloglines and Technorati. When these sites were brought up the arguments for why they should not be on the list were well-thought out and made me reflect a bit more on my decision to place them on the list.
Bloglines
Bloglines has always been the leader in its field, but due to the lack of innovation their marketshare continues to dwindle and it doesn’t seem that any change is on the horizon.
More than a couple of people had a problem with this statement, including Mark Fletcher, creator of Bloglines. I suppose lack of innovation really only hurts you when the competition capitalizes on it. For as long as I can remember Bloglines has been the #1 feed referrer for this site. The top 5 looks like this:
- Bloglines 31%
- Firefox Live Bookmarks 24% (very surprising to me)
- NewsGator Online 10%
- Netvibes 7%
- Rojo 6%
With almost a third of the readers is there any reason for Bloglines to continue to innovate? When that number is steadily going down I think there is. Innovation in this since does not have to be tagging or article ranking. It can relate to minor touches such as the UI and fixing the little things that seem to bother people.
Look at Apple and it’s iPod dominance. It could easily be argued that there is absolutely no reason for Apple to continue to improve the iPod due to their market dominance and with such a simple interface all people want to do is pick up the player and play music. However, that hasn’t stopped them from pushing the device to its limits which has only kept its marketshare high.
Bloglines is fortunate that they are in a space where there are a lot of crappy options that seem to fight over the same ten people while only a few are really gaining ground. However, better interfaces are coming out and sure you don’t need to cram every feature known to man in such a simple application, but there are features that would improve the service. Bloglines has been around long enough where expecting a couple overhauls shouldn’t come as a surprise to them.
Technorati
The argument here seems to be that Technorati continues to grow so why would I put them on the list? They do great things and I use the service daily (when it’s available), but do you think those ads are going to sustain a company with a number of employees and a service that tracks over 50 millions site? Three rounds of funding and there really is still no end in site and the general public could care less if a site is a blog or an encyclopedia. They just want to go to a place and do a search on their interests and find sites that talk about it and they have that in Google and Yahoo.
Do they have it in real-time? It isn’t that far off to be honest with you. The technology is far from perfect with missing links and inaccurate statistics. I could be completely wrong about Technorati and over the years if they succeed I will be very happy for them, but I honestly don’t see that happening. Eventually someone will buy them out and hopefully the price makes all interested parties happy.
For now I will just remain skeptical.
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Note: Be sure to checkout the Top 10 Web 2.0 Winners list as well.
Last week, Michael Calore, posted his take on Web 2.0 Winners and Losers and while I agreed with some of his picks, there were a lot that I didn’t think belonged. I also wanted to go a bit more indepth as to why these sites have made the list. With that in mind I have put together my list of 10 Web 2.0 losers and winners (coming Tuesday).
Now many of these sites might not be considered Web 2.0 with regards to the technology they use, but this list was made to show the losers (and winners) in this era of the web regardless of the technologies they are using.
- Odeo. As I talked about in the Business Notes section of 9rules, Ev Williams talked about the failures Odeo has experienced and honestly it doesn’t look like it is going to get any better. After a promising start built from a ton of hype the momentum quickly stopped once Apple introduced podcasting within iTunes shortly after. Comparing a show’s subscribers in Odeo versus iTunes it is clear who the winner in the podcast directory game is and it’s not Odeo.What many people will consider Odeo’s downfall was their speed of development. Just last month they released a Myspace widget, which in the podcasting/audio space you would’ve figured that would’ve been one of the top things on their list to get out the door. Also, many people are worried that they have lost their focus due to the release of projects such as Hellodeo and Twitter.
- Squidoo. With the backing of Marketing guru, Seth Godin, it was easily assumed that Squidoo would do pretty well, but unfortunately that hasn’t been the case. Squidoo is a concept that had great potential to work 5 years ago, but now there is no reason for anyone to create a page and fill it with links to other places simply to look as though they are an expert in that category. In this user-generated era of content users always expect to get paid (Note: “paid” doesn’t always mean monetarily) and Squidoo offers no real benefits for anyone to invest their time in.
- Edgeio. When Michael Arrington is a part of something people are going to pay attention. However, it doesn’t seem that much attention is being paid to Edgeio except for spammers. It’s always nice to visit an English speaking site and once I look for housing I can easily find any place in China.The real problem is that Edgeio assumes you will use your website to sell your goods when there is very little chance that your audience has the reach of either eBay or Craigslist. Sellers will always go where the majority of the people are for the best chance of making money.
- Flock. When your supporters’ main argument is, “They haven’t even released a 1.0 version yet”, there is a good chance something is wrong. What exactly is the market for Flock? Arugably, Flock received the most amount of buzz last year before a beta was even released. With 12 employees on board and a stockpile of money to work with everything was looking rosy. That was fall of last year and now that we are in Fall 2006 what do we have so far?Beta 1 (v0.7). Let’s not forget that their founding CEO has quit along with their loudest cheerleader and you have signs of a company that is in trouble no matter how much the crowds want them to succeed.
- Netscape. It’s hard to call Netscape a loser because by default they should be receiving a ton of traffic with the use of one of the oldest Internet brands around. However, I don’t see them doing much simply because of the use of that old brand. Many people remember Netscape as being Microsoft’s whipping boy and newer people couldn’t care less what Netscape is because they know one thing, it isn’t Digg.With a broader range of categories than Digg, it seems Netscape is trying to appeal more to the general public than just the technology crowd. However, that crowd doesn’t seem to be interested in going through stories and voting up the top ones and too much of the Digg crowd will remain loyal to Digg because of the community and interface (Netscape needs a UI overhaul in the worst way).
- Microsoft. In May, comScore Networks reported that MSN Spaces was the largest blogging service worldwide, but who knows about it or uses it? Microsoft seems content to think that just being in the market is good enough for them and the market and will kindly hand itself over. What have they done exciting on the web in the past year?They want to compete with Google and Yahoo in the search space, but don’t seem to be making any ground there. Then there was the Adsense competitor that hasn’t made any waves. They completely missed the bus in the Social Networking space and have already fell behind in the Online Office Suite space. Now they believe they have the ability to compete with YouTube with their upcoming Soapbox. With the amount of cash they have they can catch up, but it doesn’t seem like they have any interest to do so.
- AOL. Not so long ago AOL had the largest social network on the Internet with their IM service and although they still dominate that field they weren’t able to capitalize on it and translate it on the web. Imagine starting a Social Network with your friends list already added as your friends and your account and page already setup with your IM information. The chance was there and they clearly missed it.Add to that a homepage that can’t compete with Yahoo and you are left with a company struggling to find a new identity.
- Bloglines. When AskJeeves bought Bloglines many people were hoping that the #1 online RSS reader would finally get the overhaul they had been waiting for. Sadly, those people are still waiting. Bloglines has always been the leader in its field, but due to the lack of innovation their marketshare continues to dwindle and it doesn’t seem that any change is on the horizon.Make sure to checkout Bloglines Revisited.
- SixApart. For a company that used to be the darling of the blogging world it’s surprising to see them lose so much traction so fast. WordPress has taken over the self-hosted blogging application crowd and is poised to do the same with their hosted platform as well. SixApart has not pushed anything innovative in their MovableType or Typepad applications and their recent offering, Vox, seems to just conflict with these two even more.
- Technorati. What does a couple years of development and multiple rounds of funding get you? Nothing but the same if you follow the Technorati model. The only ones who seem to care about this blogging search engine are the site owners who wish to keep track of who is linking to them and that’s if the service is even up to allow them to do so.The problem is that most people don’t care about blog search and the ones that do will soon go to Google because it is guaranteed to be up. After three rounds of funding and in excess of $12MM burned you would expect Technorati to be a force on the web, but that hasn’t been the case and it doesn’t look like it will be the case in the future either. There is no reason for the big search companies to acquire them because they can do what Technorati does so who is the likely buyer?Make sure to checkout Technorati Revisited.
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It has been said more times than not that you need a business plan to succeed. A well-documented plan that will guide you from start to finish on creating your successful company. I never created one for 9rules and I’m pretty sure we never did one for Business Logs either. Has that helped us or hurt us? I’m not sure, but I am happy with where both are at now and there was always one problem: we kept moving.
Not physically moving, but as we got to know not only each other, but the landscape of what we were working in we found better ways to go about things and created new strategies. The end goal has remained the same, but the paths we are taking are greatly different than what we started with.
9rules mixes a lot of ideas and concepts from web’s past and we remix them in new ways. We aren’t always sure what will stick and what won’t so we have tried to remain as agile as possible. At times we probably don’t move fast enough for our own good, but I could see how trying to stick to one plan would do us more harm than good.
I’m definitely not saying great planning won’t remove a lot of headaches, but make sure you leave room in your plans for change. We can read about being agile all we want, but actually being agile is something completely different and it seems more and more companies are getting stuck with this issue. You create a blog network at the peak of the blog network era and you have your plans laid out, but the market changes so what do you do now? Or what if your a blog search engine and even though you lead the pack, what can you really do when Google and Yahoo enter the arena?
We are in a time where everyone can copy everyone so easily with regards to technology how does your plans account for that? Sure you can analyze the current competition, but what about the guys that launch a week after you? The more you move and faster you move the harder it is for your competition to keep up and the only way you can really do that is by remaining agile. Plan it out, but don’t write it in stone.
I’m sure everyone remembers clearly the mini-fiasco behind BusinessWeek’s cover of Kevin Rose proclaiming him to be the $60 million boy (at age 30) (9rules’ take on things). For one reason or another it seems people want to see Digg make it big and succeed, but don’t seem to look at what it would take for it to do so. Now, I can’t claim to know the future plans of Mr. Rose, but it’s hard to see Digg having the impact on the web that everyone is proclaiming it has in its current iteration.
In one form or another, Social News sites have been around for a very long time so it is almost silly to consider the Digg model as revolutionary. Mix Fark with a little bit of MetaFilter and essentially you have Digg. What Digg does well is give the users a sense of participation on the site by allowing them to Digg stories to the frontpage. Throw in some Slashdot commenting functionality and you have the Social News sweetheart of the web.
Valued by “many” VCs at around $200 million I have to wonder where the value is. I love Digg and use it often, but what does that $200 million really provide me with? I get to go to a site and then leave the site. Many times I can find the links in other places so what’s the real value that I am getting from here?
I can only guess that the reason so many of us want to see Digg succeed is because we are capable of creating something similar (doesn’t mean it will gain traction) and we become first-hand witnesses of the next big thing. Compare Digg to Flickr and the valuations that get pushed around become even more baffling. Flickr is a site that caters to millions of registered users (more than Digg) and actually provides value that you can see right away. The site allows you to capture your life with photos and archive them for the world to see. Throw in a bit of advertising along with a Pro version and it seems Flickr deserves the $200MM valuation more than Digg.
Flickr also provides a sense of community compared to other photo-sharing sites, which in turn only creates more value. Digg’s community might be unique to the people that participate, but the same kind of community can be found on Fark, Metafilter, Slashdot and many other sites.
None of this means that Digg isn’t important to the web, I just have to question how important it is to the web versus how important we are making it seem. I know there is a problem when Netscape can offer to pay the top Digg contributors money if they move to Netscape and it causes a major uproar. If the service is truly valuable there shouldn’t be any concern, right? However, look how quickly Netscape was able to emulate the Digg model. Login -> Submit -> Digg/Vote.
If Digg is able to sell for millions and millions of dollars then more power to them, but for the ones who decide to buy it you have to wonder what’s the true value that they see in it. Tons of sites on the web receive millions of pageviews a month and keep readers on the site longer than Digg can. The value in Digg is that it has become a great model for the next breed of portals if they ever decide to make a comeback. Other than that, it still looks to be just another large site to me.
Going on yesterday’s post I was thinking is there anything you would pay me $1,000 to do for you or your company? Since it’s Friday you can have a bit of fun with it (I would pay you $1,000 to go to hell) or be completely serious and maybe I will take you up on your offer. If there isn’t anything then I am an expert at nothing maybe and a professional at everything ;-).
There are quite a bit of services I would pay $1,000 for and interestingly enough they don’t have anything to do with the web…
