Three things set an Internet company above the rest: photo sharing, immediate and unexpected sense of value and familiar usability features writes tech investor Alex Taussig ^[1], a principal at Highland Capital Partners ^[2].

He suggests that Facebook wouldn’t be Facebook without photo sharing, which he calls “the most ego-expressive form of media,” and mentions other sites and apps cropping up that play into that, such as Instagram ^[3], Picplz ^[4], Pixable ^[5], Path ^[6], and Color ^[7].

Second, he says Internet companies that deliver more value than a user expects, and do so immediately can result in an addictive “OMG, yes!” feeling. One site that gave him such a feeling, he says, is Quora ^[8] where he posted a question and got nearly instant response from more than 25 people.

Finally, he says while early adopters might be comfortable fumbling around in the dark with all-new designs and functionality, most people like sites with features that are somehow familiar to them, such as Dropbox ^[9], which uses folders that many of us already know how to use.

Read more from Mashable ^[1].