Category: web 2.0

Simplicity, integration and value

On By rmascardoIn Dropbox, startup, web 2.0Leave a comment

This week’s top Digg item is a story called Google Drive Killer Coming From MIT features a start up out of MIT called Dropbox. Basically, it provides a way to store and share files online. I have say that their offering is pretty compelling, or at least the video of the demo is compelling. Why do I like it?

  • Clear value proposition — read the comments from the digg post and you’ll see the instant appeal
  • Killer integration — the integration between the web, windows and mac files systems is done really well based on the video. That clearly differentiates it from all the other online storage companies.
  • Simplicity — very cool basic sharing capabilities are very powerful without some stupid grand vision of being the next Facebook

The interesting question is how they plan to monetize their creation. I’m not sure I would pay for it. And, will advertising revenue be enough for a business that can be infrastructure intensive? I would love to see what their business model looks like …

Google’s OpenSocial (or “Maka-Maka”) Coming Soon

On By rmascardoIn Google, OpenSocial, web 2.0Leave a comment

TechCrunch had an interesting post today about Google’s new project called OpenSocial (or what TechCrunch previously called “Maka-Maka”). Michael writes,

The new project, called OpenSocial (URL will go live on Thursday), goes well beyond what we’ve previously reported. It is a set of common APIs that application developers can use to create applications that work on any social networks (called “hosts”) that choose to participate.

Amazing if they can do it but I’m really interested in understand a bit more about how it works. This is going to make is really easy to plug into these social networking sites. Watch out Facebook.

I can’t wait to get my hands on the details …

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