The first idea is for an app that might be named Crossed Paths. It would use the iPhone’s location capabilities to track each of its users’ movements. It would then report to each user which other users crossed paths with them each day - basically which users were in the same vicinity in any given […]

As I read here and here about the various examples of iPhone apps in the App Store today, it first occurred to me in a true case of web 2.0 warped thinking that people might not be willing to pay for the apps. But when I noticed that the majority of the apps cost between […]

This idea was contributed by reader Cliff Bull.
It is amazing what the mind can conjure up when you don’t make money your primary focus. Cliff has come up with an idea to boost the adoption of recycling, particularly amongst young people in the U.K and in fact anywhere else in the world. His idea is […]

A meme did the rounds last week variously titled “How To Fix Venture Capital”, “Why There Aren’t More Googles” and “Where are the $Billion Startups?”. Basically Umair Haque started it by suggesting that the reason there aren’t more big companies like Google is because startups get bought before they can make it that big. Paul […]

Most air travellers travel with hold baggage pieces well within the allowed limits but many others travel with excess baggage - typically on international, long-haul flights. I haven’t done much detailed research on revenues from excess baggage charges but my guess is that they are substantial.
My idea is for a web-based system that allows passengers […]

I travelled to Botswana this week for work and all through the last couple of weeks in the run up to the trip, I received tons of emails and documents relating to the trip, which I filed away but was too busy to read. None of it needed immediate attention but I knew I had to […]

In this post I outline a few features that I hoped Open Social was about but quickly learnt it wasn’t. When I first read the name of Google’s recent social networking play ‘Open Social’, I immediately made a connection with Open ID, expecting to read that it was finally a way to have one base […]

It is no secret that Facebook needs to find a way to monetise and that Yahoo needs to close the gap on Google. My proposal for a Yahoo and Facebook partnership that might address both problems is as follows:

Yahoo to provide an in-Facebook web search facility with an agreed ad-revenue split between the two. You […]

I find it an increasingly worrying trend to find more and more startups openly admitting that they don’t know how they will make money yet but expect to figure it out later. Perhaps even more worrying is that these startups are getting funded. Notable examples recently include:

Geni - as admitted by CEO David Sacks on the GigaOM Show.
Clipmarks (which recently got […]

We all know that the P2P loans startup Lending Club grew remarkably quickly because it launched on the Facebook platform but given that it now runs on its own site, I am wondering what Facebook gained from hosting and more or less incubating Lending Club.
I ask because unlike many of the applications on Facebook, Lending […]