Some new products immediately jump out as a great idea. Others don’t.
I have to admit that today I came across something that immediately gave me a sinking feeling. A company called Serr.biz are planning to launch a new Search Engine Friendly URL component called SerrBizSEF.
Now, I’m a sucker for Joomla SEO Tools, and I’ve reviewed just about every one available on this site – most of them with great enthusiasm. However, I don’t believe this one will fly. Here’s why:
Four Serious Obstacles to the New SEO Component
1) A crowded market. There are already six SEF URL solutions for Joomla: Open SEF, Artio SEF, SEF Advance, sh404SEF, Remosef and JPromoter. Oh, and thats not counting forks and hacks of this bunch. When it comes to the current market leaders, SEF Advance is the clear commercial leader and sh404SEF is the most impressive GPL (free!) option. All of these rivals have codebases that have been in development for years.
2) Price. SerrBizSEF is due to go on sale at $75.95 which is 50% more than SEF Advance and about the same price as JPromoter when it launched. JPromoter now costs less than one-third of that price. If SerrBizSEF lasts long after its launch, its likely that its price will need to drop to a similar level.
3) Timing. Given the recent GPL decision, is this really the best time to be launching a new commercial, proprietary component?
4) Lack of Killer Features. The list of features doesn’t offer anything thats unavailable from other components and looks like it may offer quite a bit less than the leaders. Serr.biz will offer support tickets, but will that be an improvement on the excellent free support offered by Emir (SEF Advance) and Yannick (sh404SEF)?
Conclusion
Over the last few weeks we’ve talked about doing business in the new GPL Joomla world, interviewing some of the most dynamic and successful entrepreneurs. Some of even succeeded despite some of the obstacles above: Fabrik is one of many form components and JCE is one of many WYSIWGs. However, I have a feeling unfortunately that Serr.biz, a company founded in 1999, will be outstripped on this occasion by its younger rivals.