James Hong weighs in on what sorts of businesses work on the web, in general, and why Google's WebQuotes in particular is cool. I think James "gets it". Furthermore, I'm turning into a bit of the green-eyed monster... Why?
1) Startivity (the business I started) was just the sort of "connector" business James describes. We connected merchants with websites (some of whom were merchants themselves) to allow inter-site, dynamic, automated, contextually-relevant, preference-optimized cross-selling. Of course, Amazon.com advocated using their web services SDK to build such a service. So maybe someone else will get wealthy off it, eventually.
2) James has the combination of intelligence, perseverence, and creativity such that he deserves the success he's had. This isn't a guy who was just "in the right place at the right time." I mean, that I can remember, James did stints with ZipRealty and RedLadder, then started a neat (though hard to defend) viral advertising platform called DealSpring, then worked at some content brokering company (OneCenterPlaza or something like that), then started XMethods, then came up with HotOrNot. It's not like he hasn't paid his dues. But can I at least begrudge the fact that he did it all before he was 30? (Or the fact that he ain't hosting his sites with my company?)