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WidgetLaboratory Strikes Back At Ning Where It Hurts
- SwellJoe 18y agoI always grimace a little when I hear about a business that is built entirely on being in the good graces of another company. I don't know the story here, beyond what's in the article, but I know that I'd never want to be in that position. Facebook apps, Ning and MySpace widgets, iPhone apps. All are closed platforms, and for that reason alone, dangerous ways to try to make a living. I'll probably build an iPhone app, and a widget or two, but I'd never base the core of my business on it.
- furiouslol 18y agoWindows developers were not faring too badly (at least in the past before the web phenom arrives)
- SwellJoe 18y agoUnless they happened to build something too successful. There was a time when the leading word processor was not Word, the leading spreadsheet was not Excel, and the leading web browser was not Internet Explorer. These are merely some obvious examples. Of course, this is one of the great reasons why the web is wonderful for consumers: No one can own the platform.
- rw 18y agoHopefully no one will ever own the internet platform, but we know it could happen.
- Herring 18y agoMaybe because their business model wasn't built entirely on being in the good graces of another company. Gates would have creamed his pants if he could legally turn off an app with the flick of a switch.
- azharcs 18y agoAnother example of how "platforms almost always win against the applications built over it".
- brandonkm 18y agoReally seems that Ning was genuinely threatened by what widgetlaboratory was supplying on their site. A lot of sites on Ning relied on them and widget labs response was very much justified given the context of the situation(thousands of users unable to use the site they built because core functionalities are gone).