Timothy Post.com

Two blogs posts caught my attention today.

First, Pete Cashmore wrote an entry on Kaboodle’s big announcement today. As Pete explains, the announcement has three major components:

1. A Partnership with Shopping.com
2. The ability for users to form groups
3. The use of widgets for people to display their items remotely on other web platforms.

Before you all get too worked up and worried about Kaboodle’s, seemingly, huge strategic move, you should read a blog post by Fred Stutzman. It’s titled, “The Long Tail of Identity.”

Fred writes, “One of the interesting things about designing ClaimID was thinking about all the ways we create identity online. Sure, our Google resume is a big part of our online identity, but what about smaller things like our listening history on Last.fm, or our viewing history on Youtube. All of these things say something about us, and they are all open for interpretation by others.”

You probably can guess what I’m going to write next…..

In addition to search terms, muscial tastes, and video preferences, there’s another “medium” through which people create public identities- consumer brands. There’s no other icons or symbols in our culture that have as much influence and power as do consumer brands and logos.

OK, I’m just going to say it straight out, “You guys at MyPickList, Wists, ThisNext, StyleFeeder, Kaboodle, Nabbr, Swagroll, et al are NOT in shopping business, you are in the IDENTITY business. You need to create platforms and distribution systems on which and by which folks can express themselves. Brands are simply the medium of choice. Shopping is an effect, not a root cause.

So, the Kaboodle announcement doesn’t really excite me too much (Yes, Pete’s right about Widgets but I’d say to Kaboodle, “It’s about time.”). The other two pieces of the announcement are red herrings.

Groups? What are they going to be a niche social network? I don’t believe so.

The partnership with Shopping.com is nice and all but it doesn’t give them a significant competitive advantage. What will impress me is when one of the above-listed social “identity” websites does a deal with the actual brand name companies themselves. That’s where the big-time money will be had.

Anyhow, I’ve talked with a bunch of you guys and I’m still waiting for one of you to think outside the box and do something magical! Take off your code development hats and put on your sociologist’s hat (More Paco Underhill, less Sergei Brin). This is a very cool and dynamic space which is developing very quickly.

May the most creative team win!!

// 08.29.2006 at 12:59 pm // Tagged webwidgets