I was doing some research this evening on some Office 2.0 applications (more on what these are later) and ran into a slew of AJAX based desktop-like web apps.
Granted, I have known of websites like PageFlakes and konfabulator (now a Yahoo company) for a while now but it seems that more people keep on coming up with more of the same concept.
The one thing that baffles me is how these folks are able to sustain such ventures without necessarily having a monetization strategy. Unless they are VC funded and plan on another YouTube-like buy-out, I am not able to see how these guys will survive.
It seems that social networks are popping up every minute, everybody is doing this Web 2.0 thing. I just wander when will these guys wake up a smell that sour coffee.
Just as the social networking space is getting crowded so is the AJAX desktop space. Even the giants are in on it. Microsoft and Google are hard at work on their own versions of the desktop internet with Start and Google and even then, some others are given them a good run for their money.
Take NetVibes, PageFlakes, Goowy, Protopage and Zimbio for instance, they are all really really good products. They are all well designed and thought of, but how many of the same is enough? How many of them will survive the fight? How many of them even have a long-term business plan that makes any sense?
What do you think? Let me know your thoughts.