Re:Awesome Highlighter (YC summer 08)
by wallflower on Sunday June 22, 2008 @01:32PM
(#224307)
User annotations help make the user feel they are part of the community/creative process. Walled gardens like NYTimes might be scared (remember ThirdVoice) to let the public annotate their content - highlighting is a trojan horse to overlaying user annotations and co-opting their precious content. If I were the NYTimes, I'd be scared to sign any revenue-sharing contract unless it specifically prohibited later, more sophisticated annotations.
One of the most-popular sites in Japan is a clever site that lets anyone comment directly on a video, literally.
As I understand from Techcrunch, the revenue stream would come from selling their "awesome highlighter" product to media sites. The incentives for media sites to buy it?
- nice feature for their users to share highlights
- possibility to survey what their users find interesting
I believe there is some revenue potential in this. It just strikes me how simple business ideas can be. Once again, value is the key, not complexity.