Comments on: Commercebucket: Creating Your Own Competition

By: Brian Gongol

Brian Gongol — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 21:56:41 +0000

Awww…the wizard has come out from behind the curtain! I was looking forward to waiting to see how long it took for people to realize that “Rob” was you. Regardless, I think we’re all looking forward to seeing how CommerceBucket evolves. It’s only been out there for a very short while, but I think we’re already attracting some good contributors.

By: David G

David G — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 17:28:06 +0000

I recommend cocomment for keeping track of comments you’ve left on other blogs & elsewhere. Comment search is the new blog holy grail & I believe those guys may be the first to crack that code. The value truly is in teh conversation & it needs to be unlocked. I still think your personal networks will end up being the most productive agregators – check out mybloglog’s new relase that links together the community of readers & commenters on your blog.
Best of luck with Commerce Bucket – looks like you’re off to a great start.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 03:23:25 +0000

Actually, I think I’d propose a different approach. Given the lack of barriers and the rapidly-changing environment for eyeballs on websites, it isn’t entirely clear to me that focusing on the better mouse trap is the right approach.

Given the low costs of development and the (relative) ease of getting a product out, why not just go for a see-what-sticks approach? It certainly isn’t elegant or pretty, but given the payoff structure of the Internet, seems to be a better bet.

I’ve found R/K selection theory is a good way of looking at the internet landscape, tell me if you disagree:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R/K_selection_theory

By: laurence haughton

laurence haughton — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 17:57:39 +0000

“the winner among web site battles is often the beneficiary of some tipping point, and that while the tipping point itself is more than just luck, being the first to reach the tipping point has a large luck component.”

Spot on and true in businesses beyond the web. That’s why you always have to remember that the “currently” successful may be nothing but lucky (or at least extremely lucky).

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 17:42:25 +0000

Laurence,
That’s a good point and I think I should explain my thinking behind it a little more. I didn’t mean to imply that execution doesn’t matter – it certainly does matter. What I was thinking is that the winner among web site battles is often the beneficiary of some tipping point, and that while the tipping point itself is more than just luck, being the first to reach the tipping point has a large luck component.

For instance, the #1 reason that I think Digg was successful is it was the first site to post the Paris Hilton phone hack. The site had a few thousand members, one of them had the inside scoop on the hack and posted it. When people Googled it the next day, it was the first thing that came up. Digg picked up a ton of new readers that could just as easily have gone to one of the other sites if they had the post instead. Long-term, the best site may win, but they have to make it past the initial stages.

The truth is that I don’t care if someone wants to compete with Commercebucket. I wish someone would design a great biz aggregator so I don’t have to mess with it. The problem is that no one has so until then I’ll keep working to build one.

By: laurence haughton

laurence haughton — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 17:21:58 +0000

“Barriers to entry, or better yet, the lack of them, …makes competition much less about execution and much more about randomness and luck?” Hardly…

First, as barriers come down businesses are forced to really execute (many for the first time in their lives). Simply, a lack of barriers allows disappointed customers to defect more easily. That doesn’t happen where the barriers are higher (cable carriers, the DMV, etc.)

Second, there has always been a lot of randomness and luck in superior business results. But again as barriers come down that luck is more shortlived. That should make you happy.

Your problem with business blog aggerators is another kettle of fish.