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Selling shovels to Web 2.0 gold miners

An analysis of peripheral Web start-ups.

Erica Ogg Former Staff writer, CNET News
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur.
Erica Ogg

As popular social-networking and video-sharing sites continue to gain popularity, a new class of start-ups is attempting to cash in on the bonanza.

Several companies that debuted at Demo '07 showed off slick new applications that are ready-made to take advantage of the content and audiences of successful sites like YouTube, MySpace.com, Facebook and others. Web apps like Panjea, Vuvox and Share2Me enable users to re-share media content that's already been uploaded on the Net.

Though building a company based on a single feature usually is not a wise idea, VCs are all over this stuff, shelling out venture funding despite these start-ups' lack of solid business models and sophisticated, patented technology. Analysts say that's a big mistake. For more, check out the rest of the article at CNET News.com.