While going through some boxes in storage today, I came across a folder from the summer of ’99 marked, “Internet Ideas”. Inside, I was impressed to find some well thought out business plans for unrealized websites. Admittedly, there were some not-so-good ideas as well.
My favorite though, was BigBag.com. The name is now taken (since ’03 it appears) by some crap company, but if only I had been able to secure the financing and if only the technology was in place ten years ago…
It worked like this: BigBag was to be a virtual shopping hub for all of the world’s famous shopping districts. From Piccadilly Square to Rodeo Drive to The Magnificent Mile, you could select where you wanted to shop – and what time of year you wanted it to be there – and voila! You were plopped into that environment in 3D fashion. Even if it was the middle of July, you could stroll up and down Newberry Street in Boston at Christmastime. All the shops dressed in their festive yuletide gear. A light snow falling. Carolers passing by. And up and down the street you could casually stroll.
When you found a shop you liked, you would go up to its door and click on it. This would be the link to the shop’s actual website. If it didn’t have one – and most back then did not – we would build it for them. There would be an exit back to the street and BigBag world from there, of course. But you could browse and order stuff securely while there.
The trick would’ve been getting every store in every famous shopping district to sign on. My lawyer expressed dire concern over that hurdle. The other glitch was the technology. One VC insider told me I was about ten years ahead of the curve, since such a site would require so much memory to operate, it would undoubtedly crash users’ computers and create a frustrating experience instead of the intended pleasant adventure.
I recently came across a couple of variations on this idea. One is referred to as “Augmented Reality” and I believe it is the way of the future for shopping online. The other takes about ten years to load, but is an offering from New Zealand and is a virtual mall.
Ah, Edison. Your quote (paraphrased) is so true: “I haven’t failed a thousand times – I’ve just found a thousand ways to NOT do it.”
Augmented Reality
Virtual Mall
