Comments on: Coghead Announces 17,000 Developers Building Applications Visually

By: GSIY … Ruby-Rails Portal

GSIY … Ruby-Rails Portal — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:05:30 +0000

[...] and other recruiting activities, I’ve been watching the various vendors like LongJump and Coghead, who promise a software silver bullet: delivering software without the expense of developing it. [...]

By: New Site “Jumps” Into The Application Creation Space : Forecast-Blog

New Site “Jumps” Into The Application Creation Space : Forecast-Blog — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 23:47:42 +0000

[...] with very few programming skills. Since then we’ve seen Zoho Creator, WyaWorks and Coghead launch their own competing applications. Salesforce AppExchange is arguably also a competitor, as [...]

By: drew

drew — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 07:00:49 +0000

I like the idea of coghead but im not sure if they hit the mark.

Their UI isn’t a flexible or user friendly as I thought it would be.

What do you guys think WOULD work…following along the same lines of online software.

By: guanxi

guanxi — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 00:47:02 +0000

A similar product we use is TeamDesk (teamdesk.net). It’s highly customizable rdbms (though we haven’t needed anything complex yet), the responsiveness of the interface is great (a concern of ours with any web app), service and support have been highly responsive (including implementing many requested features), and it’s much more cost-effective than Quickbase, at least.

By: Pavel

Pavel — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 22:04:26 +0000

Well, the structured data on the web is a part of a future (see http://lifeboat...ding.the.planet). That’s right. I’m thinking in the same direction. I just sure microformats like RDF, OWL will be used to create such structured semantic networks. In this case you can write your software by picture or by XML or just RDF triples.
Now I think some triple store services will appear on the web. This is a first step to get real value from structured data. Other services like coghead or like my http://www.semanticlinks.net will use them or realize own storage. Such services are two-steps-ahead.

By: pwb

pwb — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 05:14:17 +0000

Looks like a bunch of mediocre and lightly customizable apps. I don’t understand who would be satisfied with this.

By: Paul McNamara

Paul McNamara — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 22:30:31 +0000

Hi, someone above asked about the ability to build apps to sell to your customers. We will absolutely support this model. We call it the Affiliate model. You’ll be able to build an app and then get a subscription based revenue stream from that app.

By: pallet jack

pallet jack — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 21:09:41 +0000

Sounds like a decent – web program – to make other web programs ..

– and I bet it could really get viral – If someone could create a program and then sell it to over 5-10k people on a ”trial” basis –

People would hate that person but they would make alot of money

-RB

By: edbong

edbong — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:47:07 +0000

Jajajaja… I really enjoy the “software-by-picture” (whoopee) metaphor… great! I dont quite share the opinion but it is a valid argument. We have been working on something similar for years now and a pattern has evolved. The the “software-as-picture” concepts works great for 90% of the implementation…. but then – on the last mile – the customizations drive you crazy. A button here, change of color there… it starts adding up. For this same reason we decided to not stay on-demand but to release the Applicationexchange.com under an open source license. It helps you to get the best of both worlds.

By: Ramón

Ramón — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:46:47 +0000

I am the CEO of a small group of companies with 100+ employees. We have been using Quickbase (similar to Coghead) from Intuit for the last 3+ years for easily building up to 10 custom applications from CRM, knowledgement management, expense-holiday-traing tracking, project management, task lists, and other very specific applications for our business on one single enviroment…… and I can assure you this is part of the future of entrerprise apps.

Building an application on Quickbase is easy and a sraightforward exercise and with some experience you can achieve 95% of what is needed without programming a sinle line of code, not involving IT departments and leaving the power of information management on the business line.

Initially, it is not cheap but when you realized the potential, it really becomes cost effective.

I wander why Intuit is not promoting it as it should. If this guys a Coghead do similar to Quickbase and promote it, I assure they are going to be successfull.

By the way, in Quickbase there is not drag&drop technology, but the way it works, it is not needed.

By: RaJesh Anandakrishnan

RaJesh Anandakrishnan — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:41:25 +0000

After seeing article in TC, I immediately registered and started using CogHead. Its not a simple application to play around. It needs some time to understand what is what.(even after seeing the video demo). Design is not so intutive. Learning curve is high. It is not so easy to use.

~ http://www.sugg...stusability.com

By: Who would use Coghead?

Who would use Coghead? — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 19:30:12 +0000

Question? Can you make money buy using coghead tools?

if not… it’s waste of time…

By: Jason Nelms

Jason Nelms — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 19:22:06 +0000

I am one of the folks using CogHead. It isn’t as simple or straightforward as the TC articles make it sound. I personally have found dabbleDB to be easier in terms of developing. Does anyone else have any comments on the ease of use of Coghead? Just wondering if I am missing something that will make it easier than it seems after a few tinkerings.

By: KR

KR — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 18:52:26 +0000

Although many of the 17k developers may not be active, let’s say for the sake of argument that 5k are active in using the tool. If 1000 or 20% of those developers provide a simplified application solution for their companies or vertical markets they support, that is not bad.

Microsoft is known to take 3 versions before getting things right. I think that Coghead or any company trying to address a complex solution deserve a little time to get the kinks out of the system. The fact that SAP has invested in this company has to be worth something. Last I heard the guys and gals at SAP can write a little bit of code, and know something about using software to automate business tasks.

By: The Social Customer Manifesto

The Social Customer Manifesto — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:27:49 +0000

Full Speed (Cog)Head…

Had a great conversation on Friday with CEO Paul McNamara and Sarah Franklin from Coghead as a run-up to Web 2.0 Expo this week. (Disclosure: Coghead is a customer.) Some key bits they shared: Their web-based application development platform is…

By: Sprezzatura

Sprezzatura — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:07:14 +0000

I signed up for a Coghead account some months ago. Got a string of bugs the first time I tried to use it and never went back. They’re probably counting my account as one of the 17,000 though.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:04:53 +0000

I think it’s a good idea, especially if it can ease the burden for small businesses to create workflows that really work. I can see some immediate applications for some of my cilents.

I wonder, however, if that is 17,000 active developers or 17,000 people who read about it on this blog (or another blog) and just signed up. 17,000 people equals about 5% of the RSS subscribers on this site. Probably not too far-fetched that such a number might just be checking it out.

I’m not picking on Coghead. Seriously, I think they look terrific. Just seems that the numbers aren’t really all that meaninful. Of course it will be the same problem when I release numbers for my site as well.

By: tommyboy

tommyboy — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:22:01 +0000

Hey Jim…Learn how to write in english.

This sounds like a quality application. Small online businesses really need a a simple, customizable database solution for things like CRM and Inventory Management. Quicken and Access are two software solutions that can be used, but I think there has to be better. Can zoho, coghead, or someother online database solution serve this need?

By: Direct Textbooks

Direct Textbooks — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:18:16 +0000

Make that 17,001, looks good. Don’t know if it’ll be truly useful, but worth a look.

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:05:49 +0000

Oh another venture capital news.

Sounds exciting for investors & company…
Sounds depressing for web 2.0 people…

Maybe mike find it or Maybe mike is looking to chase new web 2.0 muhammand ali “I’m greatest Web 2.0. I’m king of fighter. I never use Venture capital. I will accept your web 2.0 innovation challenge.” oh yeah, he would contact and write about it.

By: whoopee

whoopee — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:03:25 +0000

people have been trying to sell software-by-picture through various CASE tools for twenty five years. twenty five years of failure.

yes you can build software by drawing pictures. totally useless, brittle, slow, unscalable software. nothing changes when you put this in a browser other than six months of bonus novelty.