Fragmentation, Filter Failure, and Startup Opportunities

Recently I’ve been very focused around content accessibility and the information overload that is occurring online. It’s clear that the natural progression of the Internet has produced a normal fragmentation of the web. More simply put, there are more and more online destinations that we care about, support or use than we have adequate tools to conveniently access them with. With each destination offering and executing around a unique proposition, the Internet has become a deep and wide place for all of us.

Think about it. How many social networks are we a part of? How many shopping sites do we jump to and from? How many job boards do we use to post jobs or find job seekers? Even more so, how much relevant data that we don’t know about exists in cyber space? How much of it can search engines like Google and Yahoo capture on page 1 without being forced to essentially discard the rest due to low viewership numbers on page 2 and 3? The variety and breadth of the Internet is being lost as fast as it is being created because our traditional methods of accessing this data are slowly but surely becoming less adequate. As more and more unique services are born, the more and more fragmentized accessibility becomes.

So what is the answer? One answer is more time. More time to be able to utilize all the different kinds of unique services one by one. So when we search for something to purchase we can search Google, Ebay, Amazon and others. The second option is aggregation. In the same way that a search engine aggregates and indexes websites and web content, we require a mechanism that aggregates the variety of unique services, not just websites, that are available to us and we care about. Aggregation is key to maintaining accessibility of the entire sophisticated web.

Take Indeed.com for example, an all in one search engine and dashboard for job seekers. Indeed combines, integrates and displays a large percentage of all jobs published out in cyber space in one search. The innovation not only provides convenience but also defragments the accessibility of all job sites online. Indeed is a prime example of a much needed and accepted aggregation service for the online job space.

Or take our latest portal LeapFish.com, an all in one Internet dashboard that works to capture the variety of the web by integrating results from major online destinations including YouTube, Ebay and others in a single search query. LeapFish lends more accessibility to all of the different kinds of data we care about. As a result users are conveniently surprised with information that they wouldn’t have normally been aware of had they used a traditional engine.

Aggregation is big area of growth. For entrepreneurs, grappling with the information overload can deliver great value. I foresee big growth in aggregation and would be willing to invest in any serious startups in this space.

Best Regards,

Ben Behrouzi

 Ben is on Twitter.com/benbehrouzi.