This is not the first time that GoDaddy. The Big Domain Vendor known for their Danica Patrick commercials wanders in Widgets Territory. but it is a first for how they are doing it now and a first for Social Networking and Online Startpages.
That is what they have done with a 2 in 1 new product called SmartSpace and SocialSpace
SmartSpace
I would like to avoid being sarcastic but i can`t. GoDaddy SmartSpace is like a Web 2.0 Geocites. it does aims directly to that. GeoCites still exist by the way and it something offers “similar” to SmartSpace. so that is why i dare to make the association. but SmartSpace feels way more modern and simplified that GeoCites. so they got that going on.
It is very simple. you pay for the SmartSpace service 5 bucks a month and you get a domain for 1 year and you get services for that domain. web services in the form of modular widgets. services like Chat, E-mail and a Blog in a site you can set up for your domain.
I remember that when i reviewed their Domain Search Widget. i talked about how now you only needed a Domain and you ddin`t had to bother about hosting or paying for services because you could pretty much connect them to your domain as you saw fit thanks to many free services that allow you to get from a blog to an e-mail, etc.
That is why GoDaddy is offering this. they know that and they want a piece of that cake too since Domain Buyers are now more open to take that route. they offering you the commodity of not having to setup anything yourself elsewhere if you are willing to pay 5 bucks a month. brilliant if you ask me.
Also because there are now a lot of Quick Website Publishing services that only ask you for your domain to get your site going on. most got a free option and you can still add services to your domain using other services to it.
So this needs a really good Quick Website Generator. they should buy one for this.as i said. there many around
SocialSpace
But the commodity of a Domain + Web Services + Website space could not be enough to set you for such a deal. so they got a extra thing to convince you: Your own Startpage.
Yes. they are going for the head pageflakes, netvibes and all the independent Startpages with this. since saying they aim for the Big 3 (M, G and Y!) would extremely over optimistic. but this offer can do hurt small startpages and give pageflakes and netvibes a headache or two.
Just like in the other Social Startpages. you can load Widget containers from feeds, load some dedicated ones (youtube, flickr, news sources, etc) and from your SmartSpace web services and aggregate content in your personal SocialSpace Startpage.
Is This Good Enough?
Sorry, but no. it is very interesting and cool even. but for a PAID offering is just too generic to make a serious dent or give to lure you and while the GoDaddy brand instantly exudes “Domain Buying”. it has nothing to do with Social Media or Web Services for anyone to think on it unless they happen to stumble on it or GoDaddy Spams informs their domain buyers heavily
However. if GoDaddy wants this space and is serious about it. they could simply leverage from the big Social Graphs (Facebook Connect, MySpace Data Availability API, etc) and could leverage a Platform like OpenSocial and offer Instant Social Networks while they are it. that would also let them aim for Ning and have a truly compelling bundle of offerings that would be well worth the 5 bucks a month without having to invest much. right now i would say it is actually expensive and it should not cost more than 30 dlls a year for it. but if commodity is such a big factor. then it may be indeed worth the 55+ dlls year for you.
GoDaddy SmartSpace and SocialSpace | Widgets Lab
