how many people really know the taste?
Since Friday, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the Yahoo acquisition of del.icio.us, the latest in the recent string of great Yahoo pick-ups. Not only does it have me wondering which of the ideas in my head might be converted into $30MM some day (that’s the rumored del.icio.us sale price I’ve heard), it has me wondering which of the ideas NOT yet in my head will manifest into something real. More importantly, which idea will land with the biggest impact…..into the hands of mainstream internet users, not just advanced online users. And dare I go as far as to wonder which idea will be considered useful by the biggest population of all…..the blue collar working class.
del.icio.us is an amazing company (simple, useful, effective) in my opinion, and obviously many others hold that same opinion. But how many is “many”? Or to flip the question, how many people have no idea what del.icio.us is? I’ve explained the site to my girlfriend a few times, yet her eyes gloss over whenever I talk about it. I’ve sent countless e-mails with del.icio.us links to friends over the past year, yet I’ve never gotten a reply. I kid you not that when I’ve asked some people about “tagging”, they only knew of it as graffiti signatures. Even amongst internet industry professionals, there are still a lot of people who have no idea about del.icio.us and/or tagging. During lunch yesterday, I brought up the topic of Yahoo buying del.icio.us, and then spent the next 10 minutes explaining to 2 coworkers what del.icio.us is and what they do.
My point isn’t to try to prove that del.icio.us is unknown, nor is it to highlight how most people are late adopters. I’m just trying to prove that I’m a early adopter. ;-) Seriously, I’m just throwing out a reminder (mainly to myself) that what some of us consider “revolutionary”, most others have no clue about. That’s the thing to keep in mind when dreaming up your company of tomorrow. Sure, the early adopter crowd is fun to amaze and impress, but the mainstream working class is a much bigger slice of the pie. Build a company/service that improves the online experience for John and Jane Smith, and you’ll have yourself a winner (and maybe $30MM!!!).
Congrats to Joshua on well deserved win.
And a trivia question for all - anyone know the story of how del.icio.us came to have such a crazy URL? (notice how I avoided using “domain” :-)