I’d like to start by expressing sadness at the demise of an excellent service, useful, relevant, innovative and provocative, Xmarks was a simple service that allowed you to synchronise bookmarks & passwords across your computers and browsers. It was the only product of its kind.
You can read about what went wrong and you can wonder that they didn’t manage to make money, it leads from a previous post of mine about how Internet companies are valued and what happens to them when the originators (the guys that made them) want to sell out. The great concept is to start charging, sell out or occasionally do an IPO.
The lesson to me is that very few make it – remarkably few. Xmarks has 3 million users, and that’s a staggering number, but it’s not enough to capitalise, there were times when 1 million users was considered an achievement, but now that number has increased to 10, 20 or even 100 million.
So what’s going on and what is the fight about, actually it’s the same as it always was, the little guy against the corporate giant. Taking a simple bookmarking service like Xmarks that does one job and does it very well. They have suffered from all three Browsers, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome.
All three Browsers now offer bookmarking syncing services, that means you can save your bookmarks on Internet Explorer, and later have those same bookmarks on your laptop, office computer or home computer, provided you’re using Internet Explorer. The same is true of Chrome and Firefox, provided you’re using their browsers you get to sync your bookmarks.
And that I think is a great sadness and indictment of our corporate culture society. The technology to share undoubtedly exists, but are the ‘controlling’ forces willing to pass that benefit on to consumers. No!
So what are we losing, it’s a bit like not being able to send money between banks, it’s a bit like saying if you bank with HSBC you can’t send money to Natwest, or the auto-industry – most of us realise that great leaps have been made in electric cars, but the car manufactures are just not passing those on to the consumer in any relevant way. Corporate culture dictates that everyone must compete to the detriment of all consumers.
We seen this time and time again… the little guy comes up with a great idea and the corporate giant just works solidly and stoically to wear them down until they can no longer continue. I think it is shaming and a sad indictment of the corporate culture we live in.
What can we do about it – we have to vote with our feet or money, we as consumers are in real danger of losing control over the Internet and all it has to offer, time and time again we’re being asked to open our wallets, give our private information, or open ourselves to corporate threats. Frankly, we’ve bought the LP, record, tape and CD – jolly well give us the music!
Realistically, you can comment on this blog, you can take my ideas further, write about them, form your own opinions and make your own judgements. BUT most importantly of all is to download as many browsers as you like and use them all. Don’t have a preference and don’t stick to one. By showing corporates that you like driving more than one make of car – you’re increasingly the likelihood of them co-operating.
Apple are the worst – they charge you $99 bucks for this simple service.
Comments
comments