Sometimes, you will see that users of some popular product/service are “inventing” new uses for existing features, to help them achieve something that they need. When that happens, it is a clear indication that a product/service that does just that “newly invented” piece potentially has a solid number of users right off the gate.
Let us take some examples: real time status updates – before Twitter, users were trying to use offline messages in messenger services – “stepping out for lunch” – an indication that a real time status update service was needed. Foursquare (with its check-in feature) is another example.
We do have two examples that are open right now – Reddit’s AMA (Ask Me Anything) is probably a good standalone service. And the fact that Pinterest is used to pin things that are not really pinnable – there are many services waiting to be tapped there.
Any more ideas that you can think of?
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