Why We See More Micro-Apps Every Day

Social Great Interface - crowdsourced content from Twitter, FourSquare, and others.

Last week, I spent some time analyzing a new channel I happened upon called TheHotList.com. In my analysis, I attempted to coin a new phrase to describe the channel — micro-apps. As I’ve watched new channels emerge, even just over the course of the last week, I’ve found more and more applications that fit the definition of a micro-app, so I thought it might help to better define my new term.

A micro-app is an application that sources very specific content from at least one external (or internal) source and manipulates the information to display it in a new or inventive way.

Here’s a great new example of a micro-app called Social Great.

Social Great takes geo-targeted content from applications like Twitter, Foursquare, and BrightKite and displays it in an interesting new interface that ranks the location’s popularity over time. The integrated Google Map also enhances the experience. Now, you might say, “This is nothing more than a mash-up — no need for a new term, Andrew.” However, I think it’s more than a mash-up. It’s a new application using aggregated data with the potential of re-interpreting the data set provided. That, to me, is a new application. A micro-app.

Information overload invites interpretation

As any new channel (like Facebook) moves through its life cycle from Gestation to Escalation, new opportunities emerge as the volume of content created on the channel increases. For an application like Twitter, the amount of information escalates to the point where it’s impossible to actually interpret the stream of content in real time. Herein lies the opportunity for anyone developing a micro-app.

Developers are taking a niche concept — like what’s hot (at TheHotList.com) or what’s popular (at SocialGreat.com) — and consolidating the data into a usable interface. That helps someone like me (who can’t read everything on Twitter, BrightKite, or FourSquare) if they’re curating the information into a better, more compact experience.

Welcome to the information overload opportunity.

Micro-apps may overrun my universe

If micro-apps continue to show up on my virtual radar screen every day, it’s possible that I’ll end up with an even more unwieldy online experience. However, if someone out there starts consolidating micro-app experiences into a unified platform, I just might be able to consume more relevant content in a much more seamless experience.

Imagine a TweetDeck plug-in that would allow me to add TheHotList or Social Great into the TweetDeck experience. That would be powerful.

Endless possibilities

Micro-apps could be created for any number of useful tasks. For example, I’d like to see a micro-app that could consolidate URL shorten-er data from TinyURL, Bit.ly, and a dozen other providers to show me the aggregate data for any one shortened URL. At this early stage in their evolution, applications like TheHotList or Social Great seem gimmicky. But most technologies emerge that way. From gimmick to great.

About Incubator Insights

At Tippingpoint Labs our strategy team is constantly evaluating new media channels. During our analysis we see opportunities for improvement using some of the key learnings across a wide variety of new media channels.  We publish Incubator Insights every Friday to help Angel Investors, Venture Capitalists and visionary start-ups avoid some of the pitfalls we’ve seen others make. Please let us know if these are helpful and productive. We’d love to know.

About the author

Andrew Davis -

In 2002, Andrew founded Tippingpoint Labs with journalist James Cosco. Since then, he's spent countless hours exploring the online universe and building a methodological approach to developing digital strategies that drive revenue or reduce costs.

Andrew's always asking big questions and analyzing data to understand markets, online forces and even business models. Andrew's research has resulted in the creation of innovative online metrics including Online Brand Value and Category Brand Value, eye-opening graphical representations of website evolution through the New Media Life Cycle and even using online data to predict offline revenue.

When he's not surfing the web, Andrew's traveling the globe speaking to a wide-variety of audiences about everything from social media to the future of print. Andrew is a frequent contributor to the Tippingpoint Labs website and has been creating valuable content since the early 1990s for The Jim Henson Company, CNN, The Today Show and MTV.

He's contributed to a book of short stories, called The Way Things Were and produced and co-wrote Roadside Ambition a documentary film about one small town with two huge balls.

"In a world where content is consumed as rapidly as it's created, companies need to develop a sound strategy to creating valuable online experiences that can, and should, be leveraged enterprise-wide. There is a content solution to every business challenge."