For those of you that don’t read the Codeguru Update eNewsletter, I’ve posted part of my editorial here. My editorial leads to the question:
What is the oddest application (on or off the Web) that you’ve seen from a major, mainstream company?
In the case of the application I mention below, the company is Procter and Gamble, which is big within the consumer products market. The application is called Sit Or Squat. With a name like that, it makes you wonder if the application will be successful? While this might seem to be a goofy idea, it does serve a need.
It is serving a need that can make an application successful. So what appliations have you seen that are goofier than SitOrSquat?
From my editorial:
Every day I receive a large number of emails from public relation (PR) firms marketing the latest software tool, add-in, concept, idea, or nonsense. Some of these I post to the announcement forum, but most I tend to file into a “news” folder in the hopes that I can later come back and see if any are of interest to you.
In the vast deluge of press releases I get, one did catch more of my attention than the others today. It brought to my attention that there is still a lot of room for creativity in building web sites and in tapping into third party APIs to make a unique product. In this case, the press release was from Charmin—Yes, it was from the toilet paper people. They have created a new web application that can be downloaded to your iPhone or used on the Web.
What does it do? You no longer have to wonder where there is an available restroom. You can now use their SitOrSquat application to find the nearest restrooms. At first this seems like a ridiculous application, but it only takes being on the road with kids to know the importance that such a simple application can serve.
If SitOrSquat can work as an application, then just think of all the other fun ideas that could be created. The application really shows that there is still a relatively unlimited number of ideas that can be tapped.
Of course, once you’ve created the next cool application, don’t forget to send out lots of press releases!