Google CEO Eric Schmidt was recently at the Seoul Digital Forum and he was asked to define Web 3.0 by an audience member. After first joking that Web 2.0 is "a marketing term", Schmidt launched into a great definition of Web 3.0. He said that while Web 2.0 was based on Ajax, Web 3.0 will be "applications that are pieced together" - with the characteristics that the apps are relatively small, the data is in the cloud, the apps can run on any device (PC or mobile), the apps are very fast and very customizable, and are distributed virally (social networks, email, etc).
Here is Schmidt's full answer via a YouTube video uploaded by Seokchan (Channy) Yun (via Orli Yakuel):
Recently a Forrester report was released stating that the iPhone "signals the beginning of the end for the mobile Web as we know it today". The report suggested that re-designing sites for the small screens of mobile phones would become "a thing of the past", because of the iPhone's advanced technology such as zooming.
Some people came to the opposite conclusion, including Dave Winer who said that the "iPhone view of the web is not optimal for the user." Dave noted that if he was given a choice between a site optimized for mobile use and "the extra work you have to do to zoom in and out and scroll in all directions to read a page laid out for a big screen on a tiny one", he'll go with the site designed for mobiles.
Forrester sent me a copy of the full report, which I'll try to summarize here.
Koonji is a social website that allows anyone to create an interactive guide on any subject. For example, you could learn how to sell your house or how to toilet train your cat. Koonji brings to mind a number of comparisons. Like About.com it provides people-powered guides to specific topics, like Squidoo each guide contains links to relevant websites and products, and like Instructables the Koonji guides follow a step-by-step format.
I would say that Koonji's approach is probably most like Instructables in that in encourages discussion, though for creators of guides on the site it probably will feel more like Squidoo.
According to an article in the Financial Times today, online ads are expected to outsell those in print newspapers in the US by 2011. A study by Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS), FT reports, predicts ad spending online will grow to $62 billion over the next three years, compared to $60 billion for newspapers.
The bad news for American newspaper publishers, though, is that Internet ad growth at traditional media outlets is also slowing -- so they're being squeezed on both sides. Separately today, the New York Post is reporting that the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNET, and other premium web publishers have all seen slowing ad sales over the past year. "Online ad growth at the Washington Post fell to 11 percent in the second quarter, compared with 36 percent a year earlier," writes the Post's Holly Sanders.
Guest article by Greg Linden, founder of personalized news service Findory and author of Geeking with Greg.
Google has received much attention, not all of it positive, for its efforts to personalize search.
In this article, I will briefly describe personalized search, why Google and other search engines are trying to do personalized search, the approach Google is taking toward personalized search, and other approaches to personalized search.
Personalized search is showing different search results to different people. Personalized search uses each searcher's past behavior to try to understand intent and what is relevant to that searcher.
In 1991 Geoffrey A. Moore wrote a book that became widely read and quoted in the business community and turned into a theory - Crossing the Chasm.
Moore argued that there is a gap that exists between the early adopters of any technology and the mass
market. He explained that many technologies initially get pulled into the market by enthusiasts, but later
fail to get wider adoption. So to create a company that is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, entrepreneurs need
to come up with strategies that will help them build a bridge across that gap.
The reason that the book got so popular, and was studied in MBA programs and talked about in top-tier VC firms, is because its analysis is right on the money. There is a big difference between people who are willing to try new technologies and the rest of population, which tends to be much more conservative.
It's fascinating watching different Web platforms utilizing each other, for various reasons. First it was Netvibes with its Facebook widget, which was mostly a cheeky move to get Facebook users to switch to Netvibes for their homepage. Now Firefox has gotten into the act with an Add-ons sharing app called Rock Your Firefox. In this case it's more about Firefox wanting to tap into Facebook's 34 Million users and create a social network around Firefox add-ons.
When I first installed the Rock Your Firefox app, I wasn't too sure what it was for. But I soon discovered its main purpose is to be a community list of Firefox add-ons, where you can share your favorite add-ons with other Facebook users. Likewise you can see which Firefox add-ons your friends are using. A social network for Firefox add-on users, basically.
Based on log file evidence from a friend who runs a personal website, Rich Skrenta claims that only 11 search startups are actually crawling the web. He wonders where all the alt search engines are? For some reason, Rich doesn't link to Charles Knight's Top 100 Alt Search Engine List in asking that question, but to Don Dodge's post linking to us. Nevertheless, this brings up some interesting questions: why are only a few of the hundreds of alternative search engines crawling? Are many of them using a licensed index? Are many of them using alternative ways to get their data?
Feedbuddy is a social network that was bound to happen: one built around RSS feeds. It's actually not a bad idea. As the site says, "subscribing to and reading special RSS-feeds characterizes you and your very special interests." Or in other words, the type of feeds you read has a lot to do with what interests you, so it follows that anyone with a number of feeds in common will likely be someone you share interests with.
In practice, however, Feedbuddy isn't much of a social network. The site is dead simple, and probably shouldn't be categorized as a social network at all. It's more of a rudimentary matchmaking service.
An email arrived yesterday from the guys at Animoto proclaiming that their application, which launches to the public on August 14th, would lead to the "end of slideshows." Those are rather sensational words, but after taking a look at their app, they might just be right -- at least in terms of what's hot among the social networking set.
Animoto is a web application that renders unique photo montages using impressive motion graphics, effects, and transitions from photos and music that you upload. The software will render something unique on each pass, and the results will be radically different depending on the style of music you choose (i.e., fast paced rock will result in a higher energy, faster video than a slow, trippy electronica song).
