web 2.0, a general overview

Web 2.0 Explained • • • • Mike Goos Product Marketing Consultant www.linkedin.com/in/mikegoos July 24, 2008 Summary • Web 2.0 is not just a PR buzzword • Takes online community to the next level • Indicates significant trends with consumer trust, sharing, and user-generated content • Applies to future of consumer web and mobile application development • Leverages new behaviors of consumer and business web site audiences • Gives more control to users, lets them contribute content, and participate socially What is Web 2.0? • Term invented in Oct, 2004 by Tim O‟Reilly (of O‟Reilly Media) • Needed something catchy for a new trade show (Web 2.0 Conference/Summit with John Battelle) Perspective Corporation Web 1.0 Netscape – Mainly client (browser, email) and server software Web 2.0 Google – Mainly web apps and services, never packaged, never versioned, never ported Advertising Model Discovery DoubleClick (Dart) Domain Names Google Adsense - contextual Search Engine Optimization Photos Delivery Ofoto (Kodak Gallery) Flickr Akamai BitTorrent (P2P) – user sharing Why? (the boring explanation) • • • • • • • • Bandwidth is cheap (serving pages, pictures, etc) Server storage is cheap and reliable Personal computers are less than $500 Broadband connectivity to the internet from home is cheap Wireless connectivity is often free (Mountain View, CA) E-Commerce adoption has entered early majority GenY/Millen spending more time online than in front of TV Search centric vs browse centric behavior – Google adoption b/c of results relevancy – New browsers prominently display the search field/button • Internet is the platform (e.g., Amazon web services, Ning social networking, Microsoft Mesh) Why? (more memorable explanation) • • • • No longer hypertext/links (i.e., static web pages) More dynamic, becoming all web apps Better tools, platforms and frameworks People (especially new users) have more: – Trust (feel safe, often use an online identity) – Willingness to be open to those who you have never physically met (or will ever meet) • Social usages of the web expanding – Collaborating and sharing digital assets (pictures, videos, blog postings) – Social capital – pride in your UGC and web presence – Adding valuable comments, tags, and other metadata Less alpha, beta, then release • Apps are pushed, iterative dev process, constant user feedback, always changing, evolving • Less Waterfall and more Agile software dev processes • User-generated content (UGC) is king: – – – – – – Reviews Blog pages and discussion board posts Uploaded and shared photos/videos Metadata (ratings, votes, hit/miss) Tagging pages/assets Podcasts • Network Effects – value of the app or the data increases as more people own or use it – are happening • Viral marketing enabled with sharing and social media UGC Web App Success Stories • • • • YouTube – acquired: $1.65B by Google MySpace – acquired: $580M by NewsCorp/FIM Facebook – investment (1.6%): $240M by MS Craigslist – will not sell (online classifieds est to be a $15B market) • Common theme: – Collaboration-friendly apps – Let the app users contribute (taxonomy, KW density, relevancy, content, data quality) Online Community • 1996 = GeoCities chats, boards, web pages, widgets, targeted ads – Connecting people of like-minds • 2006 – Similar interaction between like-minded people but… – People share data and metadata without claiming ownership. • Wikipedia: no one claims copyright control over entries; we are breaking the traditional authorship rights. • Social Bookmarking/Tagging: Stumble Upon, Delicio.us • Voting/Commenting: Digg and Digg Labs Social Networks • • • • • Facebook – youth/young adults, utilitarian, fastest growing MySpace – youth/young adults, music/video focus, fantasy, escape LinkedIn – adults, professional, job seeking About 75 more sites claim to enable social networking How it works: – First, create a profile for yourself – Then connect with others thru people you know either directly or via 6 degrees of separation principle • Nodes • Ties – – – – Meet more qualified people than ever possible in the physical world Safe, convenient online meeting place (trust factor) Share ideas, experiences, and learn from people like you Stay in touch Social Media • Started with Consumer: – – – – Blogging Vlogging Podcasting One-click URL adding to social bookmarking sites • Add This • Digg This! • Stumble It! • Social Media for Business is growing too – – – – – Social Networks Blogs Discussions/Groups Wikis/Collaborative Workspaces RSS/Feeds • Continues with: – Mashups • Microsoft PopFly • Intel Mash Maker Virtual Worlds, the evolution of UGC • 3D avatars, communities and games – Full immersive worlds for 13+ teens/adults • Linden Research Second Life (market leader) – heavy client install (80MB); large footprint; resource intensive Gaia Online – self expression; anime style, “2.5D”, launching new MMORPG; 5.9M unique visitors per month, browser-based with Flash9 IMVU (mainly 1:1) – IM client install; 2 windows run simultaneously; micro economy to buy/sell digital assets Google Lively (launched 7/10/08) – chatting, etc works in browser window with option to embed rooms onto any web page; also can map videos to any wall in the room – Hired Mel Guymon, former founder of IMVU • – 3D communication rooms for 13+ teens/adults • • • • Habbo Hotel (“2.5D” hangout for teens – Shockwave player only) Viacom Virtual MTV (there.com private label) Ganz WebKinz (#4 most visited US gaming site) Disney Club Penguin Knowledge Adventure (new service coming 2009) – 2D games for children • • • – MMORPGs for 13+ teens/adults • • World of Warcraft Maplestory • The creative community creates and sells digital assets – – Catalogs of clothing, furniture, rooms, etc Micro-economies established Enabling Technologies: AJAX and Flash • AJAX • Asynchronous JavaScript And XML • Refresh relevant portions of the page • Closer to desktop app usability and performance • Script libraries for free – Yahoo Framework (YUI Library) – MS Framework (ASP.Net Atlas) • Flash • Flash is a player, a browser plug-in, an authoring tool and a format (SWF, FLV) • Flex development environment • ActionScript for client side scripting • Flash9 player penetration is now estimated at 97% • Adobe AIR for run time • MS Silverlight for run time New Way to Publish and Consume Information: Feeds • • • • Information is pushed to you based on your interests No need to remember sites/manage bookmarks Subscribable content via RSS or ATOM Lowering the usage barriers – Modern web browsers have built in support (Safari2, FFox3, IE7) – Portals like MyYahoo, MyAOL, iGoogle, NetVibes, etc convert feeds into user friendly modules • Diminishing scarcity – Content publishers (both bloggers and traditional sources of news/info) are creating feeds hourly – Search engines are accepting feeds daily (e.g., shopping skus, video-MRSS) The Long Tail • • The traditional cost of inventory storage and distribution is high, so only the most popular products are sold Long tail (yellow), products with low sales volume can collectively make up a market share that rivals the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters • # of times items were seen („popularity‟) Applied to NetFlix and Amazon business models by Chris Anderson of Wired in Oct, 2004 Total inventory of items Enablers: recommendation engines, peer reviews, tagging, ratings, comments • Long Tail works with web 2.0 because minority tastes are catered to, and individuals are offered greater choice at a very low production and distribution cost Mobile • Twitter – Micro-blogging: what I am doing right now – No longer restricted to IM client or desktop • Google Android – Open hand set development platform – Assumes location based services (even without full GPS penetration) More • Fantastic summary video – http://www.mikegoos.com/fcb.html • Web 2.0 – http://www.allthingsweb2.com/ – http://web20workgroup.com/ – http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0/ • Future – http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/there_i s_no_web_30_there_is_no_web_20.php