I know I could design a better site, but that doesn't change the fact that the fundamental idea and features are still the same. I don't want the other site's owner to feel like I'm copying his site. Has this ever happend to anyone? Should I just scrap my project or go with it? I'm also looking to avoid legal problems.
Personally (me, one individual) have 4-5+ solid "ideas" with significant market research behind them. None of them have competitors, whatsoever, and all of them solve huge problems in the marketplace. The only thing holding me back is a lack of technical skill, which I am solving by learning how to program.
So, that being said, I would think a little harder. Rome wasn't built in a day, and an original idea isn't likely to come in a weekend.
It happens to most people. Very few ideas are unique. In fact most aren't.
I'm also looking to avoid legal problems.
Is your product/service classed as competition or do they provide a product/service that's copyrighted?
It would be like me creating a website called ScrewMyLife and finding out that FMYLife already exists. The only difference is that FMYLife is wildly popular and all clones automatically fail. My competitor has probably received a couple hundred thousand visits (the content is very viral), but not enough that a well designed website could easily crush it.
Imagine that FMYLife was created two years ago but never really went anywhere because it was poorly marketed and just looked like crap. You KNOW there's huge potential and it would do much better with an improved design/experience. That's sort of where I'm at right now. The problem is that the only new feature I can think of is to use Facebook connect to grab a user's like and suggest personalized content.
Hell, there's a reason they haven't cornered the market.
It validates your idea and gives you a focal point to differentiate yourself.
How can you be different? what can I do better?
how can I do a more customer centric solution?
how can I market better?
make yourself "not" the other site - how?
If this is a project that you care about, and one at which you can do a better job, then don't let anything hold you back. What would our world be like without competition?
What's important is that you do it better than anyone else - so take a look at how they're doing it and figure out how you can do it better.
Yes. When we started our company, the space was already fairly crowded. We worked to do it better than they were.
Also, if you ever intend to grow, you will have to get over your fear of legal problems. Retain an attorney and run critical plans by him/her.
