Sysadmin Field Notes

January 29, 2008

Joel on Software thinks that the CutCat is back.

Not that he says this is a guaranteed failure, but I think the comparison is off. While there is still an adoption problem with getting people to install the software, there's a much bigger value proposition for the customer.

Joel's claim that "Some things are still the same: typing URLs is not hard" is biggest misstep Yes, if you're sitting near your computer, it makes zero sense to pick up your cue cat or phone and scan an interesting ad because it's easier to type the URL. Always.

But have you ever typed a url into 99% of the world's mobile phones? Sort of a time consuming, incredibly painful, makes-me-want-to-slash-my-wrists sort of experience. Being able to just point my phone at an ad (or an article, or lots of other possibilities) and grab the url and visit the page is by itself tremendously more valuable than the cue cat ever was. Especially since Google can give it away for free, and the advertisers themselves don't have to worry about it.

As more mobile apps pop up, that will actually do things like process payments, the potential grows even further. This could become, "scan this bar-code to order tickets for this movie." Or stores could have the barcode on their signs, and you scan it to visit their website. Or info about a construction project. Or a flyer on a signpost for an interesting band could take you to their website, and you could see if there were tickets for tonight's show available. Or buy their CD and have it shipped to you.

Could be very cool, and it's simpler than trying to rig up wireless, or rfid, or bluetooth, or whatever other mobile communication schemes are out there.

This idea doesn't deserve to be lumped in the with CueCat.