Ok, that’s about the worst title for a post, but I’m jetlagged in Amsterdam and it made me chuckle. Anyhow, Rapleaf is a new Web 2.0 startup (a topic I’m trying to avoid these days, but couldn’t help it here) from the SF Bay Area focused on, and this part I like very much, trying to make the world a better place. Amen!
Think I’m just kidding around? I’m not! From their about page:
Rapleaf’s Goal: To make it much more profitable to be ethical
Whether they succeed or fail, I’ll give them props for trying. Effectively, Rapleaf is offering a Web-based service that lets anyone rate anyone else by email address or phone number. Think of an eBay rating, but now take it to encompass ALL online buying and selling. Auren Hoffman, the company’s founder (and a swell guy) is using it already in conjunction with a posting he made on craigslist.
I like when people actually use the technology they build. It always gives me a personal warm fuzzy when I use the Slingbox to watch my home DVR (like I did this morning starting at 4:12am, when Ambien failed me for the first time). If you are at some company and never, ever use your own products, I’d suggest looking for something different to do with your time. But, again, that’s just my opinion (but since you come to my blog, you must endure my opinion until such time as you continue on your merry Internet-surfing ways).
Now I do think most Web 2.0 stuff is a bunch of junk, Web toys and tools being built by bloggers, for bloggers, and will never, ever go anywhere (and yes, back in 1996 I thought an online bookstore was a goofy idea, I admit it, but I was right that it didn’t take 400 people to run an online pet supply store and people in Baltimore weren’t likely to order DVDs and ice cream at 11pm over the Internet for instant delivery). I think the concept behind Rapleaf is sound, and I’m actually surprised the folks at MSN Passport (or Live) never incorporated something similar. Honestly, I’d like to see the company take it a notch further: what if they could expand the concept to stick with an individual external to the notion of buying and selling?