Peril At the Disco, uhm, Edges
The last couple of weeks has shown us, once again, that while it’s cool to be an edgeling, there is quite a bit of risk associated with that particular lifestyle. The challenge, of course, is future-proofing your home when you haven’t bothered to fully compact the foundation. Consider a couple of examples.
Google MyMaps Last week, I think it was, Google released their own little personalized map mashup service called MyMaps. As many in the blogosphere noted, this was a terrible signal for the many companies that built their business around the Google Maps API. Om Malik notes:
Some use the Google Maps API as an underpinning for their offering. They now face the prospect of competing with Google, which also controls the API. However, a quick review of Google’s new service gives upstarts an edge on user friendliness, even though on their blog, Google claims even caveman can do it.Many predicted that loads of startups would be forced off the ship now that Google had entered the game. I think there’s some truth to that, but not because Google is unbeatable. The problem is that Google owns the API and hasn’t fully fleshed out what happens to users of that API as their usage infringes on Google’s bottom line. If there’s any reason it’s not true it’s tied to the perpetually scrappy nature of startups and their founders - why would you quit if you don’t physically have to?Google’s announcement shows that social mapping and geo-tagging are now a big enough opportunity for the company to take seriously. It also points to a larger trend – location-based services and how they are increasingly becoming part of information aggregation and sorting technologies.
Photobucket Today, Photobucket posted somewhat surprising news that MySpace had now decided to block media from their domain:
Today MySpace made the decision to prevent Photobucket users from posting their videos and remixes to their MySpace pages.I’m sure this doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone at Photobucket, though it’s always nice to play it off as one. Photobucket definitely is eating at some of the intrinsic value MySpace wants to hold on to for itself. The same can be said for YouTube. The reality is that services like Photobucket and YouTube helped make MySpace what it is today and there’s undoubtedly a bit of saltiness.This action by MySpace means that all of the videos and remixes you created will no longer show up on your MySpace profile, blog and comments section. More specifically, if you attempt to add new videos or remixes to your profile, they will be removed.
Source: Photobucket Blog, “Breaking news: Posting from Photobucket to MySpace”
The real question for Photobucket is what happens if they are indeed banned from MySpace (note: as of last check it was still working). I think that Photobucket is indeed well entrenched however, they are the poster child for startups you never heard of, so that could be problematic. YouTube, for example, has generated the required escape velocity and no longer has to worry about its identity.
Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s much option to the world as it stands today. Entrepreneurs will pour themselves into every unfilled crack they see in the landscape. Most won’t make it out alive but most all will learn something useful for the future. I know I certainly learned something the last time I got slammed into the wall.