WebProNews

Whether something is gimmicky or memetic, viral or just sickening, an original extension or cheap piggyback program, consistently useful or merely buzzy, has many analyzing this Web 2.0 as it develops. Today's pontification: SingleStat.us, a simple interface that notifies the pining masses when their off-limits love is on the rebound.

TechCrunch's review of SingleStat.us, which allows rabbit-boilers to keep a bead on their "friends'" relationship status as notifications appear on MySpace.com, met mixed reactions in comments section.

Though perhaps not as broad as an earlier incarnation known as Stalkerati (where lonely obsessive types can keep tabs of all mentions on MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, and image, Web, and blog searches), SingleStat.us is perhaps the latest application to take advantage of the thedo.tgoes.where.us trend, prompting many to charge that it is rid.iculo.us.

Just under $4 gets Preston Meyers-types unlimited notifications about Love-Hewitt's current level of desperation. The fee is waved if users spread the virus via their MySpace profiles. It's important to note also that a service like this has very little start-up expense.

The questions here, though, are whether something so simple andfaddishhas any real staying power and how long it takes before News Corp. rips off the idea and adds their own version. While some suggest all that is needed is a simple, intriguing, and functional idea to reach Web 2.0 immortality (either by saturation or through buyout), others feel it is the filling a self-reproducing need that will drive the success of the Internet.

Commentator Steve MacDonald harkens back to the dotcom bust in response.

Most of the stuff I see reviewed on this site is quite a bit more useless than the average dot-bomb of 7 years agoI've moved back into far more traditional territory. Big old hairy vertical applications for the transportation industry Just boring stuff like ensuring cargo gets where it is supposed to go on time. No VCs are looking at us. But guess what? We're profitable! Remember that word? We make a profit and we're seeing slow, steady growth as we gradually add customers who take their time to test our software carefully and ensure that it meets a genuine business need.

Whether or not SingleStat.us goes any further than a TechCrunch review is beside the point (it may or may not have a shelf-life, but there's little invested into something that could be wildly, if only immediately, profitable). What makes a web start up successful and who determines it?

The obvious answer is the end-user. The classic model is "find a need and fill it." The other is "keep it simple stupid." Google, Apple and Microsoft mastered the simplification of computer interfaces for the masses. Perhaps simplified stalking will have its place as well (even if a much smaller one.)

Imagine not having to put up with sleeplessness, thorny bushes and binocular strap irritations just to keep tabs on that special someone and her not-near-good-enough-for-her boyfriend. Just subscribe to a cheap web service and have the news delivered to your mobile email account while you check out surveillance equipment on eBay. Simple, need-fulfilling, a little sick, and low-risk.

And people like Christine like it:

If I were single and using MySpace to meet dates, I'd find the automated gossip of "guess who's available again?!" irresistible. And so would many of my guy friends. Any social network that facilitates dating, but isn't explicitly branded (like Match.com) for dating, could use this feature to boost their "mating traffic."

And durable likeability may, after all, be the x-factor. How else do you account for the continued salability of the Chia Pet? The Pet Rock was a flash in the pan. But the bushy green Garfield shall endure forever.