Nothing says Silicon Alley-is-back like the proliferation of me-too products that no one uses. Case in point: StockDigg and Flogz. (And nothing says 1998-is-here-again like the proliferation of nonsensical business names that end in "z" rather than "s".)
Digg.com, for those of you who are more Web 0.5 than Web 2.0, is a website that allows users to save links and ranks them according to popularity. It has been shamelessly ripped off and repurposed for the finance sector by people who think that the sector will embrace the technology despite a historical tendency to respond to new technologies by laughing maniacally and running away. Or living in denial as if it were St. Tropez. (Floor specialists, I'm talking to you.)
So far Flogz seems to have between 8 and 10 actual users and StockDigg appears to have a couple hundred.
Posted by Rob, Mar 31, 2006 6:00PM
Flogz is aimed more at the personal finance crowd, a group of people who have embraced technology through the likes of fool.com, pfblogs.com, and pfblogs.org.
To say something is being "shamelessly ripped off and repurposed" is a bit harsh. Would you say Google "ripped off" Yahoo because they built a search engine when one already existed? Or that MySpace ripped-off GarageBand.com because they "copied" the idea of allowing people to build band websites? In addition, the Digg founders have indicated they don't mind people using the social editing model they created just over 18 months ago.
Rob
support@flogz.com