

Why isn't there any good "Application Wish List" site? - anujkk

I always wished there was a site where I can post/find good ideas for web/mobile/other applications. I know there are many sites on this topic. e.g., internetwishlist.com, many other idea banks and idea sharing sites but I don't find them  user friendly.<p>What I need is a Web application + Mobile app that lets me:<p>1. Access the site from anywhere/anytime.<p>2. Post and manage my ideas easily and quickly - allow options for even anonymous posting - No registration required to submit/view ideas but if you have an account you can manage your own ideas and favorites etc.<p>3. Up/down rating of ideas (just like HN)<p>4. Tagging of ideas/ Tag wise idea list<p>5. Effective search system.<p>Do you know any such site? If not, I will make one as my next weekend project.<p>Edit : Also suggest me a good domain for such site.
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sathishmanohar
Great!! I have this idea in my list of ideas as well. I had thought about this
for sometime, and will share a few of thoughts.

1\. Ownership of the resultant product: If some likes an idea, and builds upon
it? who owns the products? Does, the person with the idea owns a part of it? I
hope US has first to invent system, that means the person who first runs with
that idea, has the most advantage. How do we tackle this?

2\. Incentive for the thinker: I'm willing to share ideas that I'm not ready
to work on. But, others may find it useful and that may also go on to become a
billion dollar business. But, I might like to have something out of it, not
money necessarily, may be a recognition that the inception happened in my
mind.

3\. Business model possibilities: Site can employ intention marketers, which
can work with the people with ideas to sell license them on their behalf,
which may also be a viable model. Note: Invention marketers, not patent
lawyers or market research approaches. Invention marketers only get paid when
the idea get licensed.

4\. Pairing Geeks and Non-Geeks Service: Since, these you are talking about
tech products, the site can pair non-developers with great ideas with great
developers to get a prototype or product of the ground. The structure could be
like revenue share on the product, this way people with idea doesn't have to
invest a lot of money at the beginning, and they will get developers, who
believe in the idea, might be a success.

This has great potential IMO, when done right.

~~~
anujkk
Thanks for your valuable feedback.

1\. Idea is not a product. If the concept is patentable, patent it first to
protect your assets. The whole concept of this tool will be to share and
validate idea, or to just share the idea that you can't develop due to lack of
skills, time but would like to use.

2\. Again, one can't claim he owns an idea. A person not using this tool can
come up with same idea. You earn money for execution of idea not the idea
itself. The best that can be done is to have a HN like karma system. If
developer of product wants, he may give credit to you but can't be forced to
do so.

3\. I'm planning to make a twitter like "follower" system where the followers
can be categorized in developers,designers,funder,promoter etc. Idea owner can
contact them to form a group to kickstart a project. It can be excellent for
open source project ideas.

4\. As mentioned in point 3, it can be done but negotiation can't be done just
on basis of idea. It is out of scope of this tool.

We can add a feature to keep ideas private and share it with limited people
and make them agree to a Non-disclosure agreement first. Not advisable but can
be done if required

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angryasian
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ag-
R_ZlGO21NdE9...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ag-
R_ZlGO21NdE9HSWRkbjNyUGRxS2JIV3NxYVdiaXc&hl=en_US#gid=2)

this spread sheet was posted on HN sometime ago. You can have a billion ideas,
its more about execution. More than likely if you didn't think of the idea
organically or have some passion in the idea, then it really doesn't matter.
Even if you're doing for customer dev purposes, its still a hard sell to get
people to participate. Look through the spreadsheet i posted here, and really
is your app really solving any problem ?

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damncabbage
Not quite what you're looking for, but may be useful regardless:
<http://builditwith.me>

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michaelpinto
My guess is that it could be a supply and demand problem — I bet that for
almost any niche you can think of there could be a mobile app (or even dozens
of apps). So do a test: Come up with the ten most niche ideas you can for a
mobile app, google them and see if there are any results.

~~~
anujkk
I didn't get your point. Are you trying to say there is more supply of ideas
than demand? or vice versa?

I believe there are many unshared and undiscovered ideas to share with people
and there are many hackers who are looking for new ideas/problems to solve.
It's just that there isn't a proper tool to do it which both idea sharers and
idea searchers feel excited to use.

~~~
michaelpinto
Honestly yes I do see a ton of bad ideas, way too many "solutions looking for
problems". If you're looking for a problem to solve find some existing
software that's terrible (and there's a ton of it) and figure out how to make
something much better. Often these are overlooked areas hat are in front of
your nose.

For example back in the day your database wouldn't have listed a social media
website for a youth market because MySpace was out -- so Facebook by that way
of thinking wouldn't have happened. Same with other success stories: Why do an
iPod when there were already MP3 players on the market?

Also I think part of the problem is that there's so much venture capital that
many of the obvious problem areas are over covered.

I'd also add to this the following: Software isn't about "having an idea" so
much as the execution. The idea that software is about an idea always seems to
be promoted by non-tech types who don't make software (usually MBAs or lawyers
who are frustrated because they can't express their creativity).

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SoftwareMaven
I would love this. I experiment far more with mobile apps, but still often
find myself thinking "nah, not now". Unfortunately, there isn't a good way to
flag something and come back later armed with more information.

Let me know if you build it!

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GeneralMaximus
There's <http://www.reddit.com/r/SomebodyMakeThis>, which is moderately
active.

