

Solving the problems of early stage me-too product startups - yaj
http://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/2009/05/13/solving-the-problems-of-early-stage-me-too-product-startups/

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skmurphy
Isn't the real solution to avoid "me too" solutions in crowded spaces? If you
can't segment or develop a unique appeal to a niche when you are starting out
it's not clear how much value you will be able to create as a startup. An
established company may launch a "me too" as a part of a brand extension or to
have a complete line of products, but I can't think of a good reason for a
startup to do so.

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zaidf
I think the author of the article considers segmentation and "unique appeal"
as me-too solutions, albeit good examples of them.

So you two are saying the same thing.

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skmurphy
That wasn't my intention. As an example look at what SmartSheet has done with
SmartSourcing <http://www.smartsheet.com/product/smartsourcing> they are
taking a "me too" on-line spreadsheet and integrating it with Amazon's Turk in
a novel and useful way. If it takes off it will be a different service from
other on-line spreadsheets (provided they are not copied). I am not affiliated
with SmartSheet but was impressed by this idea.

~~~
zaidf
I'm still not sure what your intention is:\

I think the original author would consider smartsheet as a me-too solution(ie.
excel, google spreadsheets)--but an innovative one for using Amazon's Turk.

~~~
skmurphy
If it's me too what other apps act as a general purpose front-end / aggregator
for Mechanical Turk. If it's me too it should be compared in that category,
not as an on-line spreadsheet.

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dryicerx
Forward idea

A bit off topic, but while we are on the Back/Forward subject, I am suprised
why there is no standard for implementing a "Forward Link" meta tag for
website.

For example in HN news there are pages (next page), and so do most websites.
Wouldn't it be great if there was a meta tag that specifies what this logical
next page is... and pressing the forward button will take you there!

~~~
roam
Actually, such a standard exists: <http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-
html40/struct/links.html#h-12.1.2>.

I think Opera is (or was) the only browser to support this.

