Technology today is very powerful. You have more power in your smartphone than the computer which powered man to moon in 1960s. Not only you have more power in the computer, you are much better connected with the world via powerful 3G and broadband networks so a lot more can be done today with technology, than was possible a few years ago.
Since tech is so powerful, whatever new we build, must bring real value to the people. Else it is useless, and the bar is going higher and higher for it.
Think about two interesting social projects in the current times-
- Google +
- Path
Both of them build valuable technology and some of them were quite revolutionary. But none of them built “something unique” which made people use those social network for things which they could not find elsewhere. Now lets look at some of the successful social networks-
- Snapchat- Providing disappearing photos. A novelty.
- Pinterest- A collection of photo moments essentially. A novelty.
- YikYak- ? Seems to be doing pretty well. Needs more research.
Bottom line, when you want to build something, you should create something unique and interesting. But the uniqueness should not just be the product, it should be the whole social experience surrounding it.
neeraj's 