Got Ajax? Who cares.
Building “Web 2.0″ applications is becoming an Eminem-like fan club atmosphere. 18 of your buddies are building applications using Ajax, Ruby on Rails and really cool fade effects, so you should too, right? Maybe. But this isn’t the key to acquisition by a larger company (read: getting rich).
I also don’t see many start-ups attempting disruptive things in the non-geek space. I see plenty of events web apps, tons of RSS Aggregators, lots of AJAX-powered office apps. But what about Web 2.0 applications that will tackle things like health, finance, education, government? — Richard MacManus (Where are the Disruptive Start-ups in Web 2.0?)
When you build extremely geeky things, expect extremely geeky users. It isn’t that there isn’t money to be made in this space, because if you can capture a 10% market-share within a 1-2% US market, you’re doing fairly well, especially for an indy-developer. But if your goal is to make waves or to change what the future holds for others - you need to attack much larger markets to have an impact.
When I was employed at a Securities Trading firm we constantly dealt with real-world problems that needed technological solutions. We didn’t keep rebuilding the To-do list, as some have the custom, we rebuilt how money was exchanged, how trades were executed and how the average user would be able to understand the immense amount of data flowing from the Stock Exchanges each and every day. Those are real problems that require big-thinkers to solve in a way thats cost-effective and user-centric - not geek-centric.
Build the next “Web 2.0 app” - just build it for everyone, not just me.
Mike Rundle’s thoughts on the matter. Its almost like we orchestrated these posts!
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