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Is it even worth it?

pianodude123

pianodude123

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 1, 2005
698
0
in the internet
I've been working for about 3 months on this site that is similar to a social networking site, but different in a few ways. After seeing google+ today, I am beginning to wonder to myself whether or not it is even worth me, an individual student, trying to create an advanced site in php and mysql when there are so many other large corporations like Facebook, eBay, Google, etc constantly developing new things. Lets say my site becomes popular around my school for a little bit -- I dont even think that would happen -- but let's just pretend... wouldn't one of these large companies be able to take my idea and just adapt it to their platforms in such little time that my site would just be obsolete in a matter of days?

Do people still try making interactive sites like twitter and facebook anymore, or is that decade pretty much gone?

The site does not have to do with the one in my signature... thats a really old one that I haven't touched for a while.
 
pianodude123 said:
I've been working for about 3 months on this site that is similar to a social networking site, but different in a few ways. After seeing google+ today, I am beginning to wonder to myself whether or not it is even worth me, an individual student, trying to create an advanced site in php and mysql when there are so many other large corporations like Facebook, eBay, Google, etc constantly developing new things. Lets say my site becomes popular around my school for a little bit -- I dont even think that would happen -- but let's just pretend... wouldn't one of these large companies be able to take my idea and just adapt it to their platforms in such little time that my site would just be obsolete in a matter of days?

Do people still try making interactive sites like twitter and facebook anymore, or is that decade pretty much gone?

The site does not have to do with the one in my signature... thats a really old one that I haven't touched for a while.
Click to expand...


Keep building your site altought I have a hard time believing your site will be the next facebook you might just get hired by a company that will need some of your knowledge and ideas.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

It's worth it just for the experience and knowledge. Keep chugging along, but I wouldn't put back any school work to do it, work on it only during your free time.
 
pianodude123 said:
Do people still try making interactive sites like twitter and facebook anymore, or is that decade pretty much gone?
Click to expand...

Twitter was unique in it's own right when it started as micro-blogging wasn't really pervasive (I don't even think blogging was that big at the time). While facebook took something that was already existing (social networks) and gave it a really clean interface unlike myspace.

What you're product/service needs to do is be able to offer something that the others haven't.
 
pianodude123 said:
After seeing google+ today, I am beginning to wonder to myself whether or not it is even worth me, an individual student, trying to create an advanced site in php and mysql when there are so many other large corporations like Facebook, eBay, Google, etc constantly developing new things.
Click to expand...

advanced site.. simple site.. the key is to do something that is interesting. and if you can do something that is interesting and captures the minds/attention of an audience then it is hard for someone to take that away from you.

pianodude123 said:
Do people still try making interactive sites like twitter and facebook anymore, or is that decade pretty much gone?
Click to expand...

are you specifically asking if it makes sense to create another micro-blogging platform (twitter) and/or general social networking platform (facebook)? in short no.. twitter is more or less king in the microblogging space ( although multiple services have tried to knock it off ) and unless you bring something truly unique to the space i think you will have a hard time pulling anyone away from facebook or g+

but dont let that stop you from creating something awesome. check out http://www.go2web20.net/ for a long long list of services/sites

and yes. like others have said the experience of going thru it is def valuable, but no need to kick a dead horse, if you don't think it has an audience move on to something else.
 
That is good advice, I will not let it consume my life, but at the same time, I'm at the point where I have a very clear vision for it and have invested a considerable amount of time into it. Once I get it to beta, I"ll invite all of you and you can test it if you wish!
 
manueld said:
Twitter was unique in it's own right when it started as micro-blogging wasn't really pervasive (I don't even think blogging was that big at the time).
Click to expand...

not that big? compared to what?

in 2007 there were 15.5 million active blogs which seems like a big number to me.. and was a big number to people then because they actually thought blogging had peaked in popularity at that time.

in 2009 there were 126 million blogs ( also seems like a big number )

twitter launched end of summer 2006.. and because its own company mid 2007.. so yea, unless i am missing something blogging was pretty popular at the same time twitter was starting up.

sources
1 : http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2007/04/blogging_growth.html
2 : http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/01/22/internet-2009-in-numbers/
 
If you have a unique idea you might want to try copyrighting it. Who knows, maybe you'll build something that is attractive enough for investors.

It sounds to me like you're passionate about it and that's the main thing. Follow through until it's complete. If nothing else, it will be a solid project in your portfolio.
 
Curren~Sea said:
If you have a unique idea you might want to try copyrighting it. Who knows, maybe you'll build something that is attractive enough for investors.
Click to expand...

You cannot copyright ideas... implementation is what counts. If you feel your site is fundamentally different than the other sites out there today, launch a limited beta (to prove implementation) and find a mentor with corporate experience.
 
manueld said:
Not compared to anything but more or less about how the general public sees it. At the time, you would still find quite a lot of people who didn't know what "blogging" is.
Click to expand...

not that big.. more or less.. quite a lot..
fwiw, speaking in vague generalities do nothing for an argument...

:p
 
and a patent still won't give you what is being suggested.

basically, you cannot own an Idea.

you can, however, impliment an idea better that everyone and people will use it. and to further what else was said, the experience alone will be good for you.
 
I think that if you're going for a large networking site with no specific goal, it will be very hard. You'll be competing with facebook/google+. I'd go with a site that has a very specific feature that people will want to use. Twitter in it's beginning , 9gag... I think a simple idea that's well thought out and well implemented has much more potential and is much simpler to implement.
 
I would overall say keep building. If you build a website ready to accept users and create profiles etc. With a cool look and feel and is brandable, then, once you have a specific idea/purpose for the site deeper than just general social networking, you just integrate it. Worse comes to worse you just make a really insightful blog with adwords. That can still be profitable.
 
digitalField said:
not that big? compared to what?

in 2007 there were 15.5 million active blogs which seems like a big number to me.. and was a big number to people then because they actually thought blogging had peaked in popularity at that time.

in 2009 there were 126 million blogs ( also seems like a big number )

twitter launched end of summer 2006.. and because its own company mid 2007.. so yea, unless i am missing something blogging was pretty popular at the same time twitter was starting up.
Click to expand...

Just using your numbers, I'd say blogging was "not that big" compared to what it would become. 15M isn't much when you're talking about worldwide (or even nationwide [US] users).
 
JakeGWood said:
I would overall say keep building. If you build a website ready to accept users and create profiles etc. With a cool look and feel and is brandable, then, once you have a specific idea/purpose for the site deeper than just general social networking, you just integrate it. Worse comes to worse you just make a really insightful blog with adwords. That can still be profitable.
Click to expand...

Agree you should keep coding. No telling where it might go or what you might come up with.
 
you have to believe in what you are trying to do with your site and that it WILL me successful. if you do not believe it will work than quit while your ahead and cut your losses
 
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