Is it smart to make a similar website niche to someone else?

[AceInfinity]

In my opinion barely, it depends. Simply because if you try to clone or use the same idea as things like Tumblr and Google+ maybe even SupportForums. The main users of this type of service will stick to what they know, most will not venture out to try to find a similar service that works the same, yet is not as established as the main site.

The mentality that people have with things like this most commonly as well would be "If they are both the same or similar, but one has been around longer and is a lot bigger of a site, why don't I just stick with the bigger community?"

So you have to step outside of the box and try new things that your competition is not doing to get an advantage almost.