Interesting post on the 37Signals blog regarding competing against Google. Harb references a post by Paul Graham about Kiko’s founders putting their site up on eBay.
Long story short, it sounds like Kiko came out with a web-based calendar, but when Google came out with theirs, Kiko’s growth stopped, users defected, and they threw in the towel.
Paul’s solution is to stay out of Google’s way.
Kind of sounds like what could happen to Blogjet with the advent of Windows Live Writer. However Harb offers a more optimistic take on the events.
No. Don’t run, don’t hide. Be different. You can’t outdo Google by trying to match them point-by-point, but you don’t have to. There are other, better ways to fight. Compete differently.
Perhaps the same can be said for the creator of BlogJet vs Microsoft. I was chatting with Jon Galloway about this and I suggested this would really hurt BlogJet, perhaps even spell its demise in the long run. How does a tiny company challenge Microsoft and compete against a free product? Jon was more optimistic and pointed to SourceGear as a counterexample.
I was not convinced. Writing software to post to a blog has a much lower bar of entry compared to a source control system. But so does writing a Calendar app, no?
It will be interesting to see if Dmitry can competes differently and come out with some creative means to keep Blogjet viable. Good luck.