Blink’s story of a missed opportunity
Thanks to Otis I read another interesting failure story.
Blink, a social bookmarking site, had the idea and the money to become what del.icio.us is now - back in 1999. Yet, they missed the opportunity.
Some observations after reading:
- Knowing what works today, it’s easy to forget that there had been hundred of ways to do it wrong
- Particular details can drag the implementation off the right course, even if the idea in general is right on target
The comments to the article give some more reasons for the final outcome, including lack of development focus and too early timing for the social bookmarking idea to gain foothold (though it seems that Blink managed to acquire more clients that del.icio.us has now).
Well, I would disagree with “had the idea”. That, precisely, was the problem. The idea was different - bookmark manager. Private, not public. Categorized, not tagged.
I agree about the money part :)