it's a legitimate question: what is the business model here? If (and it's a big if) all the stars align, there's an opportunity to deliver this as a syndicated service that isn't quite an OEM sale but it kind of is. It's not isolated either, there are a number of software services that can be syndicated and composited with other services in part or in totality to deliver a product or service to a userbase. There is a lot of uncharted territory ahead, but del.icio.us is not alone in this regard.
I fail to see how technorati is a competitor...
Link: del.icio.us - Profile.
Business Model: del.icio.us "allows you to easily add sites you like to your personal collection of links, to categorize those sites with keywords, and to share your collection not only between your own browsers and machines, but also with others." This is a "social bookmarks manager" which provides a real-time sense of what people are reading on the Web. Not a business model in sight.
Competitors: Furl, Technorati, de.lirio.us, StumbleUpon
Hi, Jeff. I think Technorati might be listed as a competitor because of Technorati's tagging features. See
http://www.technorati.com/tag/
Posted by: Greg Linden | Mar 31, 2005 at 10:12 AM
I've always hated this business model thingy. Google's business model was what? Yahoo's? FlickR's? Web startups that saddle themselves with business models are forgeting the most important thing. It's the network that's important. Get 1 million users (Friendster) and the business model will take care of itself.
Posted by: Randy Charles Morin | Mar 31, 2005 at 10:58 AM