I think that the most important thing to learn from del.icio.us is that a web 2.0 service should be useful even if no one else is using it (or perhaps other people are using it but designating all their data as private).

The social aspects can be a bonus later when you have more users. But you should not depend on them to attract users initially.

Good call, just make something users want and make sure you have a good ear to hear from them. For me the social networking aspect is a luxury one can afford once the users are in place. But nothing beats good old common sense(which I find is making quite a comeback these days) of making something user's want. Just do that something exceptionally well and your well on your way.

Interesting content. Too bad it is one of the most poorly written articles I've seen in some time. It is so bad, in fact, that the meaning of some sentences has be to inferred...

he covers a bunch of this in his startup school speech: http://wiki.ycombinator.com/presentations/apr06/Joshua_Schacter.mp3

worth a listen.

I was there :)

I'll second the motion that the article is poorly written, but the content was valuable. Things like logging-in being a barrier for people are truths that one doesn't really think of when designing a web-based system.

I am not sure if emails are good or bad though. I personally hate spamming by different websites. But while facebook could send so many emails to you a day (wall posts, photos, etc.) they're incredibly successful.

I am not sure if emails are good or bad though. I personally hate spamming by different websites. But while facebook could send so many emails to you a day (wall posts, photos, etc.) they're incredibly successful.