tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post112929876979683736..comments2024-03-24T10:38:16.997-07:00Comments on Geeking with Greg: Can Web 2.0 mashups be startups?Greg Lindenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09216403000599463072noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post-1133531477307716912005-12-02T05:51:00.000-08:002005-12-02T05:51:00.000-08:00I think you're sort of right - in the literal sens...I think you're sort of right - in the literal sense. But may be missing the bigger picture. <BR/><BR/>A lot of web-services are built on (and dependent on) somebody else's web thing. Search engines are a classic example : "how could THAT work? How can Google trust that people won't delete or change the contents of their pages that Google went to so much trouble to index? Isn't the value in the pages themselves, not something as ephemeral as links?"<BR/><BR/>In the real economy, an awful lot of people act as brokers or middle-men between two sources of value, and they DO (apparently) add yet more.<BR/><BR/>Mashups certainly add value that doesn't exist in either of the original sites. The only question is a) whether there's a business model, and b) whether the mashup is unethically parasitic. <BR/><BR/>A lot of mashups have no business model and are done for fun. But that doesn't mean that there can't be something mashup-like that became a huge business.Composinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01739889615635395138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6569681.post-1129315663022156932005-10-14T11:47:00.000-07:002005-10-14T11:47:00.000-07:00Interestingly, Paul gave me the same two arguments...Interestingly, Paul gave me the same two arguments for not wanting to build a home search mashup based on MLS data when I talked with him at the Where2.0 conference last June. As the entry of HomePages.com and Trulia (among many other mls search engines with mapping), he was quite prophetic when he told me that there would soon be a lot of competition in this real estate mapping market due to the low barriers to entry.Dustin Lutherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17175717262610565908noreply@blogger.com