I was listening to This Week In Tech
this morning, as they were talking about various services and Web sites
they use. It occurred to me that, while many of these sites are very
fascinating, most are me-too at best, or worthless at worst.
Certainly
you're familiar with Wayne Gretzky once saying that he skates to where
the puck is going to be, not where it has been. (I can't prove that,
but I'm sure it's online somewhere.) Well, so much of what makes
headlines out there has been done many times over. Everyone wants to
have social networking now. Sorry, but unless Facebook makes some
colossal mistake, you're too late. The party is over. All of this link
sharing and super high tech community junk is neat, but how much do you
need?
The problem is that everyone wants to create the next thing
that is everything to everyone. Aside from building something you can
sell to Google or Microsoft, why the hell would you want to do that?
More to the point, why are VC's giving you money? I'll never quite
understand it.
I run niche community sites. They've served their
audiences well since before the first dotcom bust, and frankly haven't
even had to evolve that much (which bothers me, but apparently bothers
others less). There is still something to be said for a small
community. It's one thing to go out for attention whoring and saying
you have a million friends, but what value is that to people?
I
guess the point of this post is simply that even as someone who loves
Web technology, so much of what is being put out there is just
pointless and without a market. At least people seem to have stopped
using the term "mash up."