Miguel. This is a really good. idea. I think of people who never use computers. or the internet. imagine there is still ppl out there having difficulties using the web. all they know is to google..

And if you have a portal where noobs to the internet can use easily not to much shit like yahoo.com or msn.com

just plain simple like google or stumbleupn and wikipidia this would actually be a big idea. and if it turns out that this is a well used app..

i bet google or yahoo would want to acquire it ....

Tell me more what the guides would be.. such as functions maby have a community where people can help each other out in a forum or live chat..

Hi migueljds,

I usually agree with Rizal but I can't really see how this idea in where we are at (in terms of internet maturity). I am not sure a guide idea is still fresh.

- Kempton

very good idea - if it will contain an automatic and constantly updated algorithm of "what others with my profile, interests etc... do on the net"

which generates the "guides proposals"

--> if you have enough users (whose usage can be tracked!!!) this can fly really well

--> i think the problem is critical mass generation upfront - if you don?'t have enough users, then the platform is not really more than a starter portal like yahoo and thousands of others

Please excuse me while I just jump in and comment. If I am out of line please let me know. This sounds like a great idea at first but I recall 20 years ago that there was a gateway similar to this on the old freenets. I have seen nothing about it for many years as the local freenets are long gone but you could put in basic info about yourself and it would give you a list of places you should go to learn more about your field.
It would guide you through the basics but anyone who ever used the freenets knows you had to have basic skills just to navigate them so it was not really newbie friendly. You might want to search this out and see what killed it and then procede. You might find some stuff that would help you in this endeavor.

colonelron.

as it is like you are talkina bout.. this was 20 years ago. and remember there werent many people who could afford a computer. and 200 years ago it must have been dos form . mostly kids used amiga or commodore 64 so u cant compare 20 years to now.

i know 2 year olds using computers . and very well.... almost everyone in the Industrial world has a computer or ACCESS to a computer. having this guide as a startpage would be great for you to learn how to surf the web etc. what to do where and so on... i know alot of people like my grandmom who wouldnt dream of sitting infront of the computer. but if you have something like an easy web 2.0 guide. with ajax functions etc..

the guidance would be extremly easy to use.. less then 1 click away for everything. of course this plattform will take long time to build . but if u put it on opensource and let hundreds of thousands cooperate ..something is about to happen

I do believe that there still is a high barrier to entry for most people on the internet. I wish there was a simple way to allow my mom and my grandma appreciate all that the online universe has to offer without resorting to the gated community of the old AOL.

If you are targeting internet noobs how would you get you brand large enough to reach them in their offline worlds? You would be fighting for first time users against the likes of Yahoo, Netscape, Ask and Google. The marketing could cost much more than the service.

I think a somewhat-similar idea has been here before. You might want to find that and consider working together.

This is the general area that I was aiming my idea Guided Web Tours
http://www.cambrianh...er/ideas-id/GEi72N2/

I think there are probably some elegant ways for companies, individuals etc to build tutorials for the web that are quick easy and enjoyable for newbies to interact with.

Wow, thanks all for your comments.
PsychSplash: I see some of the similarities of your idea, but I also think my idea is quite different.
Kempton: The Internet might be getting more mature, but it's rapid growth ensures that as long as people have a life outside the Internet they are always behind the times. This will help them utilize the best of the web, without needing to be guru's.
AndyDoan and coiler: I totally agree a major barrier to making this idea work to it's full potential is getting enough initial users. Also, how to access those people, who are not proficient with the Internet (and mostly offline), that this site would most benefit. Now that is the million dollar question, or rather 2 million dollar questions, maybe even billion.
My thoughts on that. It would be extremely difficult to compete with the other Internet giants for homepages, but perhaps with todays trends of creating web applications that are able to run on your desktop, we could create something like that distributed via email (not spam, word of mouth referral) most non-proficient Internet users at least know how to use email. As for getting enough initial users participating to create a valuable enough guide worthy of WOM, hopefully we could come up with passive methods of retrieving information all around the internet (Alexa, Google Trends, StumbleUpon, Wikipedia, del.ico.us, etc), otherwise we just start small and niche and grow.

yup these are programs that we call widgets that can be placed in blogs. homepages. socialnetworks, and with the viral marketing effect of these. is how youtube, digg stumbleupon grew big.. and the widgets are totally free of cost to distribute as long as you see the long term effect of these you can compete with practicly anyone in the business. as long as the user feels that the service is genuine and easy to use. and some sort of a cool factor..

These are things that would apply to just about every online business, that's why, execution is most crucial for any web 2.0 startup. I suppose a good start would be to determine what guidance users most need on the Internet, to determine what initial information to start the site off with.

I just don't see it being popular

hows it going with this?