Tristan Louis has compiled some excellent comparison charts of products across the Big 4 Internet companies - Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and AOL [nb: Tristan's site was down when I checked, but you can also access his post here on Google cache]. The charts are worth poring over, but the crux of them is this:
"Google does innovate in some spaces but has largely innovated in order to gain entry in markets that already existed. As a rule of thumb, they've been very smart at breathing new innovations in those markets. However, their competitors are generally quick to notice and are catching up."
Jeremy Zawodny outlines his Google is Building Yahoo 2.0 theory in response - which btw I had the pleasure of hearing first-hand last month when I visited the Yahoo! campus. Jeremy wrote:
"...it's as if someone decided to re-invent more and more of Yahoo's popular services in random order, giving them a fresh user interface, less historical baggage, and usually one feature that really stands out (such as Gmail's storage limit or Google Talk's use of Jabber)."
Scott Gatz, who is Senior Director of Personalization Products at Yahoo!, also weighs in on his blog:
"Google is replaying Yahoo’s playbook circa 1996. Back then, we simply looked at what people were searching for and then built services that they wanted. Filo called the query logs “our to-do list”."
A lot of other people are saying that Yahoo! should focus on producing their own 2.0s - e.g. Dave Winer and Om Malik.
My take is that of course the Big 3 (I think we can discount AOL from this level of competition) have a very similar product line - because they're all building 'portals'. It may not be currently fashionable to call them portals, but basically Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft are all trying to integrate products and services into one-stop shops for their millions of users.
Of course Yahoo! has been doing that for 10 years or so now, although Microsoft has been no slug either with its MSN offering. Google is relatively new to this game, so it appears like they're copying the other two. But I see it more as a generic product and service line that any big player hoping to be an Internet Portal needs to pad out.
What's of more interest to me is the 2.0-izing going on in each of the Big 3 right now. Dave and Om are right to point out that this is what each of the Big 3 should be doing. I think Yahoo! is already doing that with their media focus; and Microsoft is making all the right noises in its Windows Live and Office Live announcements.
I'm not sure what Google is doing, other than continuing to create portal products (some of them killer, like Gmail) and generally scaring the bejeebers out of Silicon Valley start-ups with beta experiments like Google Base. Everyone is waiting for Google to announce a cohesive and integrated Web 2.0 plan of attack, but Google isn't talking - even Sergey Brin at the Web 2.0 Conference didn't get drawn into the portal debate. And that's what makes them so dangerous!
Rebecca MacKinnon has been at the Chinese Blogger Conference and has come away from it wondering if "Web2.0 is potentially a very Chinese thing." She explained:
"One of the most important words in the Chinese language is “guanxi.” It means “relationship.” Whatever you think about the term “Web2.0”, the point is that social networking and relationship-building are at the core of today’s most exciting web innovations. The Chinese happen to be the most natural and skilled social networkers on earth."
Censorship is an issue in China of course and Rebecca outlined some practical measures to work around that, in her thought-provoking post. And I loved how Rebecca ended her post:
"Another thing about this story: it’s not so much about what the internet is “bringing” to the Chinese, or how the internet is coming in as an outside force and “changing China.” The real story is about how Chinese users are taking the connectivity, tools and applications, internalizing them, and making them their own."
Also check out China Web2.0 Review's post about Intellectual Property Issues in China’s Web2.0 business, in response to a comment someone left on my blog the other day.
As part of my analysis of the Microsoft "Internet Services" memos, in ZDNet I dug into the details of what Ray Ozzie wrote about Office Live:
"Ray Ozzie's memo indicates that Microsoft is still internally questioning the approach for Office Live. Should they web-enable traditional desktop personal productivity tools like Powerpoint? A web-based Office will be - should be - a much more collaborative suite of tools than its desktop equivalent. It won't simply be a re-hash of the desktop products - because to take advantage of the two-way, open and collaborative nature of the Web, Microsoft product designers and engineers will need to re-think Office functionality.
Ray Ozzie more than anyone is certainly aware of that need, so it's interesting he pegs Office Live as a "portal for productivity". In the 90's a portal was known as a central place on the Web, where users could quickly access a variety of different services and websites. I think Ozzie may be extending the meaning of 'portal' to mean the Office Live suite of web-based tools and services.
The technologies he mentioned in the memo, RSS and XML, are often used nowadays to remove the necessity of a central portal website. With RSS for example, users can publish and subscribe to different forms of data. So with Powerpoint, the Office Live version of that tool could potentially become my portal to the Web for all presentation content that I have an interest in." [Read full article on ZDNet]
I'm interested in your thoughts on what Microsoft could do with Office Live, seeing as they don't appear to have settled on a plan yet.
Remember Ning.com, the service for building and using social applications? I've been waiting for a really interesting app to come out of that - and this may be it. Anytown Marketplace is the creation of the exceedingly clever Jonathan Aquino. Jon described it as "a Craigslist-like app that you can clone and customize for your city if it doesn't yet have Craigslist." The Ning blog wrote:
"You can now set up your own Craigslist-style marketplace for free and without any coding (as the app owner, just drag-and-drop categories where you want them, then add, edit, or delete right there on the app).
When you clone it, it retains the categories youíll find on Craigslist, but you can also add, edit, or delete categories so your new marketplace app is relevant to your area."
I need to look into it more closely, but the concept sounds great. I only hope it can be exported to craigslist-less New Zealand! :-) Update: I'll be darned, there is a craigslist here.
Dave Winer has published a leaked email from Bill Gates and memo from Ray Ozzie. This comes from a source within Microsoft, who Dave Winer won't name.
In Gates' email, he outlines Microsoft's high level vision for Internet services:
"The broad and rich foundation of the internet will unleash a "services wave" of applications and experiences available instantly over the internet to millions of users. Advertising has emerged as a powerful new means by which to directly and indirectly fund the creation and delivery of software and services along with subscriptions and license fees. Services designed to scale to tens or hundreds of millions will dramatically change the nature and cost of solutions deliverable to enterprises or small businesses."
Ozzie's memo goes in-depth into the details of their strategy. I haven't yet digested it all, but his talk of competitors Google, Yahoo and Apple caught my eye:
"And while we continue to make good progress on these many fronts, a set of very strong and determined competitors is laser-focused on internet services and service-enabled software. Google is obviously the most visible here, although given the hype level it is difficult to ascertain which of their myriad initiatives are simply adjuncts intended to drive scale for their advertising business, or which might ultimately grow to substantively challenge our offerings. Although Yahoo also has significant communications assets that combine software and services, they are more of a media company and ñ with the notable exception of their advertising platform ñ they seem to be utilizing their platform capabilities largely as an internal asset. The same is true of Apple, which has done an enviable job integrating hardware, software and services into a seamless experience with dotMac, iPod and iTunes, but seems less focused on enabling developers to build substantial products and businesses."
Meanwhile, in 'official' company communications with the media, Steve Ballmer talks a little about their strategy with multimedia products like Xbox and Media Center - something which I have a particular interest in following (because I think they're going to be huge). Ballmer said:
"If you ask what will be the next very big business, I'd say probably tapped in there are the Live services and MSN, and then the Xbox and TV businesses. I mean, to be big numbers."
Interesting times...
The dotcom boom and bust has been voted the most influential Internet moment of the past 10 years, by organisers of the annual Webby Awards:
"Launched by Netscape's IPO in 1995, the dotcom boom spurred trillions of dollars in private investments into the Internet, new technologies, marketing, and fiber optic cable and led to the development of such landmark sites as Google. Though now often synonymous with failures like Pets.com and Boo.com, the dotcom boom and bust was critical to fast-tracking the spread and popularity of the Internet. In 1995, there were 16 million people online. Today, there are over 957 million."
It's true, people often forget the positive impact of the Boom and Bust. Companies like Amazon, eBay, Google and Yahoo! not only survived the bust, but came out of it much bigger and stronger. Unlike some sock puppets, which became dog tucker (photo credit).
Also two recent events made it on the list. According to Netscape News:
"The Asian tsunami in December made the top-10 list at number six, for marking the emergence of "citizen journalism" as, with news agencies racing to reach the hardest hit areas, the first accounts were largely provided by ordinary people armed only with digital cameras and internet access.
The Live 8 series of concerts against global poverty, watched live online by more than five million people, was listed in eight place."
Here's a site to keep an eye on - an English language blog about Web 2.0 in China:
"China Web2.0 Review is a blog dedicated to track and review web2.0 development in China. We will profile and review web2.0 applications, products, services and business in China, and track the buzz about web2.0 in Chinaís internet industry as well."
China Web2.0 Review has an interesting post about FeedSky, which is like China's answer to Feedburner (although more than that, according to the post).
Hat-tip Rex Chung for the link. It's great to see what's happening outside Silicon Valley and I hope to discover more international Web 2.0 blogs.
Flock has been getting a lot of flack from certain quarters. Mostly they're being (unfairly) tagged as a kind of symbol of the so-called Web 2.0 bubble. I've been dismayed by some of the venom that's been directed at Flock - some of it has been downright spiteful. I'm a bit saddened to see it's apparently prompted an outright ban of the phrase 'Web 2.0' in Flock's office. FactoryJoe wrote recently:
"WeÔøΩre viewed as a Web 2.0 poster child (and subsequently pegged for representing many of the things broken about it). Following OÔøΩReillyÔøΩs Web2.0 Conference it seemed that the phrase became a dirty word ÔøΩ as a catch-phrase, once it caught on with a wider audience it seemed to lose all relevance or meaning whatsoever.. Not like it makes much difference, but weÔøΩve had a ban on the phrase in our office stemming from around the same time."
Nice monitor! Photo by foolswisdom
I'm quite happy for Flock to go back to their Open Source roots and shun the Web 2.0 hype machine. No use going the Kurt Cobain route and letting the meatheads and metalheads get you down. But don't hide behind your Mac monitors too much, guys - the Web 2.0 community still loves you! :-)
UPDATE: Ben Barren tried to shield my eyes from this horrid picture, bless him, but I couldn't resist peeking...
Noooooooo....
This week: Microsoft Live, Flash Maps and the Mechanical Turk, Web 2.0 meet-ups all over the world, 2.0 Blog of the Week - Supr.c.ilio.us.
The big news of the week was Microsoft's announcement of Windows Live and Office Live. My post entitled Microsoft Livens Up Web 2.0 summarized all the news and my thoughts. Here are some extras and links, to wrap everything up for the week:
No that's not the sequel to the Jude Law movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. It refers to the two other talking points of the week - Yahoo's new Flash-powered Maps product and Amazon's Mechanical Turk. TechCrunch had the scoop on Yahoo Maps and also covered the Turk. Mike's been on top of his blogging game these past couple of weeks!
Mechanical Turk is an Amazon.com web service that enables users to "complete simple tasks that people do better than computers [and] get paid for it." It took me by surprise because a) it was the first new thing we'd seen out of Amazon for some time; and b) what an innovative thing it is too!
Amazon was one of the first 'Web 2.0' big companies to emerge, in the mid-90's - if not the first. They were ahead of the curve in rolling out large-scale user-generated content systems, affiliate services, and APIs. So the Mechanical Turk may well represent the next generation of Web as Platform systems. We won't know for sure until we see if people actually use it, but I'm pleased to see that Amazon still has the developer edge to try new things.
Gerald Bauer emailed me to advise of a free monthly Web 2.0 event series over in Canada (Vancouver, BC) organized by the Vancouver Web 2.0 Forum. Here are the details.
Over in the Valley, there's an upcoming BrainJams event called Making Web 2.0 Relevant. It's on 3 December at SRI in Menlo Park and the theme is translating human needs into web 2.0. These are the folks who brought you Web 2.1 in SF and they're sponsored by TechCrunch and Zazzle amongst others. I hope there'll be some serious podcasting going on, so I can listen in!
Closer to home, my cousins in Australia are getting into the Web 2.0 BBQ spirit. Ben Barren advises of a Melbourne BBQ on 11 November, as part of the Long Tail Camp. Paul Montgomery discusses the beer etiquette involved in this event:
"The most popular beer at the event will be a key metric for the eventual fate of Web 2.0 in Australia. VB: not good, a sign of it being dull and low key. Stella: not the best either, indicates too many dilettantes. Heineken: cripes mate, stick to Aussie beers ya galah. Foster's: stop pandering to American stereotypes of Australia, no one drinks Foster's here. Carlton Draught, Cooper's Pale Ale or Cascade Premium: now you're talking, champ... dot com 2.0 millions await!"
Strewth mate, I drink Stella Artois! I guess that makes me a dilettante. Oh well, put another shrimp on the barbie and save a place for me at a BBQ soon. Melbourne is where Web 2.0 is at in Australia, plus I've been there before and it's a great city. So I hope to visit again in the near future.
I'm going to do something a bit different this week. Usually I do a Post of the Week, but how about a Blog of the Week? This week I want to highlight Supr.c.ilio.us: The Blog. In a phrase, these guys are Snark 2.0. They keep us Web 2.0 pundits honest and make sure we don't take ourselves too seriously.
I first noticed Supr.c.ilio.us a few weeks ago in one of my vanity feeds, when they made some snarky remarks about me. So of course I had to subscribe. And I've since become addicted to their fine brand of snark. Here's one of their recent posts, a definition:
"user created content
Abbreviation. Refers to users that do not receive health benefits, steady paycheck or attend the company’s x-mas party, yet are able to use a networked computer. Tracing back to the days of AOL, the term has been made derogatory (wikipedia? that’s user created content!), only to be revived recently (we scale by aggregating user created content globally and presenting it locally). Often found on CL, social networks, and splogs."
Also check out their meta tagging site, Supr.c.ilio.us. Keep up the great work guys.
That's a wrap for another week!
Interesting NY Times article about Yahoo!. Some key quotes:
"The idea that human judgment can improve a search engine's automatic findings is hardly new. From the dawn of the Web's history - that is, over the last 15 years - companies have invented tools to help users assess the quality and relevance of information, often by relying on others' opinions. Examples include Amazon's user reviews, eBay's feedback ratings and "trusted networks" created on many sites.
What is different is Yahoo's systematic plan to build "community intelligence" into nearly all aspects of its operation - and in turn, to entice users to spend more and more of their time on Yahoo sites, where they can see Yahoo ads. The clearest example, of many I heard about, can be seen at http://myweb2.search.yahoo.com, the beta version of a new search site."
(emphasis mine) Also a couple of great soundbites from Yahoo! staff:
"We're really about getting the average consumer to move their lives online."
"The value of the system is in the aggregate."
The word "system" was mentioned 8 times in the article - not sure if that was the NY Times reporter's particular obsession, or the word was used frequently by the Yahoo! people he interviewed.
