Mint.com: Can Arrington and Calacanis Really Set Web 2.0 Trends?
If Ameritrade can not be counted on for financial data intgegrity, how can consumers be expected to put their faith in the likes of Mint.com, I underscored yesterday, countering Union Square Venture’s assertions of a financial “data bill of rights” in its Mint.com competitor, portfolio company Wesabe.
USV’ Fred Wilson rode the TechCrunch40 winning Mint.com wave on behalf of Wesabe, and conference producer Jason Calacanis continues to do so, while pitching TechCrunch40 2008 to boot!
You thought it was safe to come out of the TechCrunch40 water? NO!? The Michael Arrington and Jason Calacanis show rolls on; Calacanis is now delcaring TechCrunch40 has set Web 2.0 trends, starting, not surprisingly, with its controversial winning pick: Mint.com.
If TechCrunch40 is declaring its own self-made trends, it is only fitting that Calacanis should name them as well: First up, Data Normalization Services, thanks to Mint.com:
Big trend coming out of TechCrunch40: data normalization services like Mint, Cake, TripIt, and Clickable.
DMS is a new category (I think I just named it) in which companies pull in data from 3rd parties, normalize (clean) it, and then leverage it. In Cake’s case they suck in people’s trading activity to share investment wisdom. TripIt normalizes desparite travel prodiders to provide clean trip itenearies. Mint, which one the TechCrunch40 event’s $50,000 prize ($25,000 of which was technically my money!!!), sucks down your credit card and banking information to create a dashboard of your spending AND to save you money.
These services are creating a layer on top of existing services in order to do something that those services typically don’t want done. In the case of Mint they might show you how your bank is ripping you off and get you better rates for your credit card or savings account.
All is good then, once our data becomes “normal,” thanks to TechCrunch40 hyped Web services? NO!
If Mint.com can’t even handle normal Web traffic, who will trust it with their confidential financial data, as I discuss in Mint.com: TechCrunch 50,000 Winner or Loser?
Calacanis extols Mint.com “creating a layer on top of existing services.” Such layering, however, risks the integrity of consumers’ financial data, as I analyze in-depth in Wesabe USV: YOUR Financial Data Belongs on the Web!
Arrington and Calacanis may have ruled Web 2.0 for two glorious and highly profitable TechCrunch40 days, but can they really parlay that into a must-follow TechCrunch roadmap for Web 2.0?
How much lasting confidence will there really be in any of the TechCrunch40 picks? After all, if their winning, power VC-backed Mint.com can’t hack the real Web 2.0 heat, what should we expect of the 139 TechCrunch40 runner-ups?
Mint.com “refreshing money management”? It hopes to be able to refresh its servers!
THE REAL TECHCRUNCH TREND: TechCrunch40 Fuels Hacker Dreams While DeadPool LOOMS
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