The end of the business model
Matthew Koll, CEO of Wondir was coming into San Francisco at the same time as I was leaving last week, so we sat down at SFO to talk about his company, which makes live question-and-answer technology. You ask a question, somebody answers. It's the mutant four-way love-child of Usenet, IM, Keen, and Tacit. It's interesting not just because it's a cool service but because Wondir is yet another company that represents, for me, the end of the online business model.
Like almost all the other specialized search services I've seen lately, Wondir makes money from Google AdSense. If Matthew gets enough users to his service, Google will pay him. It's not his only revenue stream, but it's a big part of his profit model, at least for now.
It's gotten to the point that I've almost stopped asking CEOs how they plan to make money. They only have to say, "Google," and it's a clear picture. Search engine experts like Danny Sullivan already know this: Google is an advertising company, not a search company. And for CEOs of online startups, it's the gravy train.
