Scoble, Part 2: Slide's "unfair advantage"

We and others have had a fairly lengthy debate over the valuations bestowed upon gadget and apps makers like Slide.

Slide founder Max Levchin came into our Vator studios for an interview or two and did his best to explain that its business model would depend on getting to know Madison Avenue better.

In other words, advertising.

But there's one other aspect of that model that we hadn't heard before (at least I hadn't) we talked to Robert Scoble, who says that Slide is also charging other widget makers for the right to piggyback on its users.

That's making the company "a fair amount of bank," Scoble says.

The development makes sense, given that Facebook and other social networks are cracking down on spam-like features that developers once regularly used to spread their applications virally, and given that most developers of the Open Social platform are still trying to figure out how to make money on their widgets. 

Watch this to see Scoble's take on the Twitter business model  and look for another Scoble interview or two later this week.