Open source copy-cats

de.lirio.us is a new clone of del.icio.us. I’m stymied. I understand that the intention is to make an open source clone, so that others can innovate at the API level. But I still don’t get it.

First, what you need here is open APIs – something delicious has been quite good at – not open source. Open source is useful for running another instance, something you don’t want to do with a social service. The power comes from many people using the same instance.

But more important, it’s disappointing to see an exact replica of delicious. There’s zero innovation, even though there is plenty of innovation to be done. In fact, delirious is even uglier than delicious, which certainly wasn’t a beauty to begin with.

Plagiarism like this isn’t going to get me to switch.