3 ms·

It can be a big advantage. In a commodity market, which search has become, it's huge. And the other type of market is one with huge network effects. Beating

It can be a big advantage. In a commodity market, which search has become, it's huge. And the other type of market is one with huge network effects. Beating Facebook will be hard regardless of your feature set.

taeric 15y ago
You realize that Facebook was hardly first into this market, right? Same with Google.
- kenjackson 15y ago
  Facebook was the first I know in this market. Others competed in similar markets, from SixDegrees to BlackVoices, but sufficiently different in that they weren't attempting as broad of an appeal. Google was the first to the "search only" market. Well after AltaVista abandoned it. When Google came on the scene search engines were a feature of portals. They made the market of the search-engine only destination.
  - mbesto 15y ago
    > Facebook was the first I know in this market. And herein lies the fallacy and the confirmation bias that exists about the success of companies. Just because you know it to be first doesn't mean it was the first to market. > Well after AltaVista abandoned it. So you're saying AltaVista was first? (technically it wasn't) scratches head
    - kenjackson 15y ago
      I think you don't understand what "first" means in this context. It doesn't mean literally first. Here, read this description of first-mover advantage from Wikipedia: "In marketing, first-mover advantage or FMA is the advantage gained by the initial ("first-moving") significant occupant of a market segment." Notice the term "significant occupant". Second, notice the term "market segment". Just because you know it to be first doesn't mean it was the first to market. The fact that you know it to be first (assuming you know the market somewhat), implies that it was quite likely first-mover. In that if someone else was previously a significant occupant, you would have known of them. My friend who did New Haven Clique in 1994 and got 20 Yale friends to join wasn't first-mover. So you're saying AltaVista was first? (technically it wasn't) scratches head In the search space I think it probably was AV (and of course they abandoned to go portal -- which brings up the discontinuity argument that plagues first-mover discussions). The only other one I could think of was OT, but they were more of an engine and less of a search page destination. Almost everyone else was portals (although Yahoo/InfoSeek portals from the past would only barely resemble what we call portals today).

taeric 15y ago

You realize that Facebook was hardly first into this market, right? Same with Google.

kenjackson 15y ago
Facebook was the first I know in this market. Others competed in similar markets, from SixDegrees to BlackVoices, but sufficiently different in that they weren't attempting as broad of an appeal. Google was the first to the "search only" market. Well after AltaVista abandoned it. When Google came on the scene search engines were a feature of portals. They made the market of the search-engine only destination.
- mbesto 15y ago
  > Facebook was the first I know in this market. And herein lies the fallacy and the confirmation bias that exists about the success of companies. Just because you know it to be first doesn't mean it was the first to market. > Well after AltaVista abandoned it. So you're saying AltaVista was first? (technically it wasn't) scratches head
  - kenjackson 15y ago
    I think you don't understand what "first" means in this context. It doesn't mean literally first. Here, read this description of first-mover advantage from Wikipedia: "In marketing, first-mover advantage or FMA is the advantage gained by the initial ("first-moving") significant occupant of a market segment." Notice the term "significant occupant". Second, notice the term "market segment". Just because you know it to be first doesn't mean it was the first to market. The fact that you know it to be first (assuming you know the market somewhat), implies that it was quite likely first-mover. In that if someone else was previously a significant occupant, you would have known of them. My friend who did New Haven Clique in 1994 and got 20 Yale friends to join wasn't first-mover. So you're saying AltaVista was first? (technically it wasn't) scratches head In the search space I think it probably was AV (and of course they abandoned to go portal -- which brings up the discontinuity argument that plagues first-mover discussions). The only other one I could think of was OT, but they were more of an engine and less of a search page destination. Almost everyone else was portals (although Yahoo/InfoSeek portals from the past would only barely resemble what we call portals today).