One key for them, I think, will be the ability to take over the mapping services. If they’ve hooked up with Trulia, then that shows they’re thinking in the right direction.

How can Webcards make it easy for Google Maps mashup developers to make money? And can they go past the junky advertising model, possibly going towards invitations, reservations, etc. – any higher-level service. The coupon stuff is a big deal – it’s a great idea, but it’s got to be easier to save, print, transfer, use, etc. Find the dominant grocery store (chain?) in each town/neighborhood, and figure out a way to help them spend money on things other than those circulars – or find a way to tie those circulars to the webcards.

The original idea behind Smalltown was a disaster; this webcard thing in a slightly more open format is slightly less disastrous — but one truth remains — it’s nearly impossible, still, for a small business to have a decent web presence. Hopefully Smalltown/webcards can fix that.

I think it’d be cool to hire local contractors/movie folks to go around and get owners/workers on camera doing what they do. Webcards.com would effectively subsidize a video ad for the first year or two, and then start looking for break-even around three years out.

I’ve been watching the mapping arena for a few months, now – it’s about to get even more hectic/ridiculous. The most exciting stuff — revenue-related and otherwise — is happening in mapping. Enough yapping.

p.s. is it that seeeeesssmmemememeic junk that’s causing the page reload three hours after i’ve been reading? man, cut that junk out like a malignant tumor –> quick.

I found your entry interesting do I’ve added a Trackback to it on my weblog …

Didn’t see the static link on SmallTown though.

Flash is great and all, but not for a Craigslist competitor.

Business widgets are a cool idea, but I question the decision to use Flash.

And yes, I know you’re a startup, but try doing a Google search for “webcards.com” right now. As in the site itself isn’t immediately showing for it’s own domain.

At Smalltown local sites, businesses can correct their data for free. They only pay us if they choose to update their listings to add more features like video or coupons.

At Webcards.com, anyone can make a Webcard listing for $9.50 per month. Users start from scratch (no pre-loaded data) and can easily change their Webcards whenever they want.

- Hal

This “business listings” data should be based on structured information hosted anywhere on the web, including the web site of the business itself, and it should be based on an open standard. What we need here is “FOAF for Businesses” (i.e. expand the “Organization” tag in FOAF) and some simple tool sets for adding skins to such data. (Think semantic web of business information.)

bob wyman

These guys have come up with the online equivalent of the MOO card (ask Sabine and she can show you what Moo cards look like) – WebCards are a google-indexable online equivalent – i wonder how long it will be before Google starts offering “AdCards” (…