Robert Scoble has a post today on his blog about a Web2.0 logo generator and the trend by many Apple users to decorate their laptops with stickers.
While the post by Robert may seem to be just a throw-away item, I believe it signals a latent desire by many of us to express ourselves through the visual medium.
Therefore, I continue to believe that there is a huge opportunity for consumer brands to create badge/widget generators which produce both embed code for one’s website, blog, MySpace page, and now for one’s Facebook page, as well as, physical stickers of those web badges.
An idea which has been percolating in my brain for a while is for a company to develop a web service which would enable its users to create an Address Book-like organization tool but instead of using text as the visual medium, it would use graphic badges.
For instance, I might have a folder in this new organizer for all my affiliations- schools, clubs, groups, etc. Each “record” would be a graphic image of that item. Then, similar to Dashboard widgets, when the user flipped the badge/widget over to its backside there would be data fields.
So, I might have an Apple MacBook Pro badge which when flipped over would have the Serial Number, Date of Purchase, Customer Support Telephone Number, URL to Apple Support, and more. There might be a button which would enable me to connect to a VoIP support line or another to email support. The options are limitless.
This web service would be similar to Netvibes and Pageflakes but simpler. Users would be given HTML templates (hosted by the web service) which could be filled-in with badges/widgets. AIM Pages seeks to do soemthing similar but it seems to me that rather than try to make this service a start page portal, it should be more of a display cabinet – storage locker. Each item would be given a static URL and would be taggable. Click here to see an example.
Imagine that instead of a bunch of web2.0 logo there were logos for companies you use everyday. There might be a Whirlpool logo for your washer/dryer. Perhaps a badge for your car? Maybe even a badge for your skis. How about a badge for Comcast. (Update: see top image for an example)
Companies could offer users the badges on their websites. There might be different types of badges. An owners badge or a endoresement badge. The point is that often the visual medium is a better way to orgaize information than the plain text medium.
Scobble’s post demonstrates that their are lots of people who want to express themselves.
