My bad. Leave out that bit of information. Restating what I meant in point 2 is that there is a large applicant pool, and ideas are just one factor. Doesn't YC choose based mostly on the applicants themselves? The idea is hardly relevant. One of the factors in funding "smart" founders I think is that they know when to abandon an idea and select another one.
RFS1: write a crawler to gather as much information as possible on trending topics, rank the sources, then have a writer look through the autatically gathered data and use his intelligence and skill to put it into a nicely flowing story that makes sense?
1) I think there are several people without ideas but who also want to be polymaths. So they would become wrapped up in whichever RFS they chose.
2) I think the applicant pool is getting large enough that it is worth the risk. pg said the applicant pool was eclipsing 1000. The first round had, what, 220? And most of those companies were successful. If I were to apply, I would stick with one of the 5 ideas that I have brewing, and I think a lot of other people would stick with their ideas too.
http://blogmaverick.com/2009/02/25/will-mobile-pdas-phones-r...