Web 3.0 or Not, There's Something Different About 2009
This week I gave a short presentation at a local event, Webstock Mini, in which I looked at some of the trends we're seeing in Web Technology this year. The presentation is embedded below. I gave the term 'Web 3.0' a bit of a ribbing. But my overall theme was that there is indeed a difference in the products we're seeing in 2009, compared to the ones we saw at the height of 'Web 2.0' (2005-08).
In 2009 we're seeing more products based on open, structured data e.g. Wolfram Alpha. We're seeing more real-time apps e.g. Twitter, OneRiot. And we're seeing better filters e.g. FriendFeed (and Facebook, which copies FriendFeed - er, I mean is inspired by).
In a nutshell here are some of the new or noticeable trends that we're seeing on the 2009 Web:
- Open data
- Structured data -> smarter
- Filtering content
- Real-time
- Personalization
- Mobile (location-based, so you could say that's smarter use of data too)
- Internet of Things (the Web in real-world objects)
I pointed to Google's announcement last week of Search Options and Rich Snippets as one recent example of some of the above trends.
Because this was a relatively short presentation, I didn't go in-depth on these (and other) trends of the Web circa 2009. So we'd like to ask your help to fill in more details. Please leave a comment with your thoughts on the trends I mentioned - and what you would add. Also tell us what products you've seen this year that are doing something new and 'not Web 2.0'.
I'll do an update post later in the week, hopefully presenting a fuller look at current trends thanks to your comments.
For more on the above trends, check out these recent ReadWriteWeb posts:
- Understanding the New Web Era: Web 3.0, Linked Data, Semantic Web
- Linked Data is Blooming: Why You Should Care
- Introduction to the Real-Time Web
- 3 Models of Value in the Real-Time Web
- The Man Who Made Gmail Says Real-Time Conversation is What's Next
Cartoon screenshot from Geek And Poke (see full cartoon in the presentation).
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Real time conversation is happening with EtherPad.
Open data -Open for who ? Try to export your data from Facebook,Twitter,Myspace, Frindfeed, Google, etc,etc. In fact I think that so far Web 3.0 could be seen as the rise of the totalitarian entrepreneur. Members raise the wealth and value of entrepreneurs created share cropping schemes and receive nothing in return for the value that they bring.
This is out own; as we have allowed the propaganda and non logical arguments against open source to win the day. Today we use and give real value to applications are closed source, and because of this we have given our power of choice away.
Mark Z becomes a billionaire and gives nothing back to the user and developers that have given him the ability to high jack this wealth.
I wonder if another trend we aren't seeing is towards 3-D and more user-created content. In terms of hours of user engagement, Second Life is the most used social application on the planet. Inside of Second Life there is such enthusiasm for not only building and scripting 3-D objects but a return to some simpler forms of entertainment. Avatars gather for live storytelling. Roleplaying games echo D & D around the kitchen tables of our youth, and singer songwriters share songs live from their home studios while chit-chatting with the virtual audience.
Richard I agree there is something different now. I think we've hit a plateau. Not in the negative way of "we're not innovating" or "nothing is changing" but rather in terms of we have seen the launch and development of the "big ideas" recently. Now our opportunity is to take those big ideas and tool and make the new things that will be Web 3.0, or at least 2.5.
We are seeing more real-time searching, better meta filters, better more stable web-based apps. I think this is a tremendous time to make something amazing.
Great slide, very informative.
Anyway, you forgot to mention the efforts companies as Mozilla are putting in creating web 3.0 apps, like Ubiquity.
I think big companies will make the difference from web 2.0 in the short time, but "indie" ideas would gain success in 2-3 years.
Online trends that reflect real-world trends:
--Geography matters. Local=good, whether it's food, small business or Twitter friends.
--Filters=good. People seem to be longing for a shakeout in many different businesses, with quality rising to the top (remember that word quality?). Real frustration with noise and overload exists, thus making the search for structured data and personal filters more important.
--Real-time is huge. Many companies are built on timed data dumps, with the timing affecting workflow and cash flow, but the always-on generation will soon pressure businesses to provide real-time online information. Banks that don't post real balances in a timely way, or insurance companies that take weeks or months to process paperwork, or government agencies that don't provide timely transparent data will face pressures from millennials demanding faster, more accurate information.
Aside from the technology perspective, another point worth mentioning is the greater focus on real, defined business models that can actually generate revenue. Maybe one of the few positive results of this terrible economy is that web products that don´t have sustainable revenue models are quickly dying or can't find funding...
I have been really impressed with the advanced in mobile content and the whole apps movement. I mean look at one of the newest ones - it combines GPS, the camera, and the web. You could be traveling in a particular destination, hold up the phone in video mode, and you'll see snippets from wikipedia or another source telling you about that famos building your standing in front of.
Richard,
I agree - the linked data flowers blooming concept of emergent properties
I think the issue of Web 1 vs Web 2 vs Web 3 is similar to the difference between Data vs Information vs Knowledge
Its the connections between the items - the richer the connections and the context the more we move from data to information to knowledge.
As the connections between "things" on the web develop the more we move from web 1 to web 2 to web 3.
I guess we could say that 2009 is where we think we see Web 3 - the rich connections resulting from Open Data initiatives.
Agree with Babak:
"web products that don´t have sustainable revenue models are quickly dying or can't find funding..."
I think we'll see many innovations in "revenue models", companies will begin working together to acheive this.
I agree we are seeing the beginnings of a shift towards something new--the personal databank/data(cloud). I've put some slides up on the idea here:
http://wearetheweb.wordpress.com/2009/05/17/what-the-web-wants/
http://abaltat.com
Royalty free music generated by computer, editable in GarageBand and syncopated with your Video.
>* Structured data -> smarter
>* Filtering content
RSSBus Server, and RSSBus SharePoint WebPart
>* Mobile (location-based, so you could say that's smarter use of data too)
Yahoo's PlaceMaker
From a web-innovation standpoint some products are more innovative than you think at first sight. This has to do with the Bits-to-Atoms-issue, a type of very usable "mixed reality" like in e.g. **Evernote** or **mir:ror** of violet.com (benfit of the letter one I have no experience, but it is rfid entering the consumer sphere).
From the tech perspective both are rather trivial, but new use patterns and user benefits emerge. Same of micro blogging. It is so trivial and simple and _because_ of that so powerful.
There is a new **granularity**, "atomicity" and a kind of "chemistry" on the way - like when you can jump in twitter from persons to hashtags to new interesting persons and their social bubble in - of course - realtime, and this is the "new lightweight" to give honour to the 2.0 veteran O'Reilly :)
Web Oriented Architectures are redefining ROI and TCO for enterprises.
WOA = REST + WWW
, where WWW = web technology stack (HTTP(s) + HTML + XMPP) and REST = a software design pattern defined by Fielding that is exemplified, in part, by:
* Everything is stateless, resource, has a URI, only representations are exchanged...
Specifically, this is revolutionary for the enterprise because it makes scaling dramatically easier, extensibility very simple and low cost, RAD more achievable, extracts value from existing systems and SOA infrastructure....
A *very* brief PPT I used during GlueCon explaining somewhat what I'm referring to can be found here: http://www.slideshare.net/Roebot/what-is-woa-presented-at-wwwglueconcom
I believe that success in the near future olucağına mozilla works fine system, but a little heavy
Richard, I also agree.
Realtime sharing of experiences is another trend. For example, RSS reader for live video streaming.
tokbox and meeting24.tv may be one of such services.
I liked this a lot. I've just started encouraging more conversations about this at work in our university library as we contemplate our own future.
Already we have started moving on a mobile presence; we're looking at how we can personalise our web interface and provide improved filters/recommendations; doing more real-time online service (using Meebo (now) and Twitter (soon)); and enhancing & extending the search interface for our "catalogue".
Your presentation is easy to follow and ties in well to the other recent writings of people like Greg Boutin. More people need to read this now!
Welcome to web 1.9.8.4.
Closed source companies like twitter, facebook, myspace, and frindfeed do not have to listen to what the users that generate value for them say. This is because you, the user that have given your content and helped put money in the closed source companies pockets own nothing…Not even the content that you have added to thier silos….Try to easlity export your content to test this out….Becuase you the closed source application user does not have any ownership of the application, the “owners” can do what they want….And becuase the twitter application is closed source, the owners never fear the possiblity that you might create your own version with the fetaures that you want. You might not do this, but I beleive the fact that you could would have a dramatic effect on the how companies treated the users tha gave them their billion dollar valuations.
Closed source applications like twitter, facebook, myspace, and frindfeed by their nature assume that you the user are a stupid child like slave that needs to be told what is good for you. Closed source companies like twitter, facbook, myspace, and frindfeed by their nature create the framework of a share cropping system where you the user/content creator work their fields, and obediently follow their rules.
That's good because, it means that christians everywhere must have to update from being Jesus-2.0 into Jesus-3.0 just to be in sync with moving from Web-2.0 into Web-3.0 . In moving with the trend, I will jump the bandwagon and shift from being in the Atheist-2.0 crowd into Atheist-3.0 .
Hey Falafulu Fisi STOP TALKING NONSENSE! FOOL....
JiPi said...
I am a fool
You didn't get the sarcasm? Anyway, some people do.
I'm sorry, I love RWW, but you guys have been consistently misusing the term "real-time". For the record, none of those sites you mentioned are doing REAL real-time, they are simply doing interval-based polling for new data on the server.
You can't "Push" to the browser yet as it would require a socket to be opened and left open, which is possible yet. However, the closest we can get to the REAL> real-time web is with technologies like BOSH servers and APIs like strophe.js. Check out http://obama.collecta.com to see the best example of pushing to the browser. Hint, it uses long-polling, not interval polling.
If the mentioned services and applications are considered Web 3.0, then I'll be severely disappointed. Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and some of others aren't really an "Open" system. They just offer a one-way stream back to their closed system, in the form of an API. It seems like there's just an ongoing battle to dominate the "cloud" and grab users. Facebook, Twitter, Salesforce, Google, all of them. The problem is, as "william" mentioned, try extracting your data--it's probably difficult, or impossible to do.
To me, Web 3.0 is all about data portability and owning your identity and content. Being able to take your data and content to different web services, showing it off, connecting and sharing, but still owning control of it.
I'd much rather see more decentralized systems, but it's just not convenient for most people, and convenience will win...
You may also be interested in some of the research that my firm is doing around the intersection of technology and real estate, looking at the convergence of smart devices, converged networks, intelligent buildings, and smart grids which will help lay a foundation for the Internet of Things:
http://clicksandmortar.wordpress.com/
http://thehammersmithgroup.com/research.html
All the best,
Constantine
How could we bilieve that the time of 'Web 3.0' is coming?
Wolfram Alpha just launched, but we don't know what will happen in the search engine world.
It seems that twitter conquers everywhere. But it truly change my life?? NO.
Many widgets come and gone.
We enjoy the web life. But all of us not update to the 3.0 yet.
I`m writing an article about Branded Humanity right now. I think Branded Humanity is something that characterize communication in a digital era year 2009. In short Branded Humanity is when a brand communicates in a human voice with the consumer. When the tone is human and not corporate. It’s where the brand creates a human relationship to your consumer – a tighter, more personal and trustworthy bond through the use of personal, digital communication. The consumer will feel more confident with the relationship if the brand acts like a peer or a friend. Branded Humanity is in the intersection of social technology, people, and corporate communication. When implemented in a real, trustworthy and honest ways it will help communicating your brand.
A simple query will return a list of results, products that have been sorted by relevance to the given keyword(s), price, rating, available discounts, or popularity.
FB copies Friendfeed which copies Drupal! http://drupal.org
RDFa is happening. Mention it at SxSW and you got mostly blank stares. Google changed that, but we haven't even seen the real changes coming from structured data and the semantic web. Drupal's adoption will be part of a rising tide, imho.
Let's hold our horses. From a CK Prahalad perspective, the trends you outline certainly comform to R=G, where compannies are putting Resources of the Globe at the disposal of its custoemrs. The interconnection of APIs is what makes this possible. Now, what I would call Web 3.0 is when N=1, meaning that the personalization is precise to what I am doing right now. When "what's on my mind" in Facebook results in the reconfiguration of the web to attend to my immediate wants, then we will have Web 3.0. But not before.
Web 3.0 is MOBILE MOBILE MOBILE. We are entering a world in which every question can be answered in a second--once you get your mobile phone browser up. What does this mean? Once you add the future of transactions via mobile (see for example @Jack from twitter's plans for selling--and eventually buying--via Iphone http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/08/nuts-twitter-inventor-about-to-launch-his-next-project-code-named-squirrel/) you get an entirely new way of life.
Remember when you played Scrabble and argued about a word because you didn't have a dictionary? Well, with today's in-your-pocket technology, you can settle arguments on baseball stats or find the closest pizza in seconds. This is a new world. Expectations are turned on its' head.
Did I say, MOBILE MOBILE MOBILE?
Thanks for the article & sharing the presentation.
I want to build on the filtering that RWW expects (and on Andria Krewson's good comments on personal filtering)
I suspect the friend aggregators that will win in the future will be the ones that add advanced 'reverse segmentation' (or personal filtering) to their offering.
Personal filtering (or reverse segmentation) differs from personalization; Personalization in my mind refers to personalized content filtering whereas 'reverse segmentation' for the lack of a better term, is where users, not companies, will identify the segments that make sense to them.
On a basic level separating the friends from the bff (like the extremely simple 'groups' settings in tweetdeck) and on an advanced level choosing whatever implicit or explicit profile filters exist - geography, analytics like interaction levels, type of relationship, etc.. to develop the segements that you would want to follow. I would love that kind a great control over my feeds. (maybe it exists?).
Anyways.. that's my two cents.
As a Unified Communication solutions provider, we are seeing more and more clients and partners focused on measuring the results they gain from social media and networking. Although most organizations look at this form of communications as branding and/or getting closer to clients, some are finding it effective in growing their new acquisition business as well (see All My Sons Moving & Storage at http://www.unified360.com/content/testimonials).
Please have a look at this 3.5 min video clip about linking data. It pushes the building industry to initiate the "Internet of Things (the Web in real-world objects)", and what's more, sets out a new form of consensual advertising to fund it. It is not very well known but I hope you agree it deserves an airing!
Chris
Will people ever stop pushing version numbers on the web!
It is a bad attempt to impose a wholly incorrect nomenclature on that which, by its nature, can not be classified in this way.
It's similar to giving version numbers to fashion, the weather, or human evolution.
Please stop it.
Alex, just 'cuz humans reason wrongly sometimes, don't expect us to stop. We are blind and groping in the dark. Includes you.
For the record, I am wearing underpants 3.0.
I agree, definitely something different. It's not web 3.0, but it is a staged progression from web 2.0 to web 3.0. We are probably a third of the way through at the moment.
I think web 3.0 will be about three things:
Greater context - we're just seeing the beginnings of this now with real time search popping up everywhere. I would include location and mobile in this.
Data portability - People owning a defined identity online, the rise of personal portals.
Platforms everywhere - Google will lead the charge with youtube, CSE and Wave.
In terms of where the opportunity is now, i think its with multi sided platforms. http://bit.ly/rDiF. There's also a big opportunity with online video and broadband tvs.
In terms of who has the biggest opportunity, its facebook and twitter. Facebook needs to learn how to innovate again tho, and Twitter needs to manage a gradual expansion of features (and get a clue how to provide a stable service!)
The peripheral things i hope will get a showing are facilitated collective action, decentralised working and social entrepreneurship/enterprises.
I think social networks integrating into each other is a major trend, as described in my blog post "5 social media trends in 2009".
Thanks for the article & sharing the presentation.
A simple query will return a list of results, products that have been sorted by relevance to the given keyword(s), price, rating, available discounts, or popularity
A simple query will return a list of results, products that have been sorted by relev.
one of my thought: collaboration (even between competitors) is a major trend, not only in internet, also in business territory.
After the world became flat, people just realised that no one can achieve better without collaborating with partners. Collaboration brings more resources,stronger distribution network, wider market, and extensive human network(connections).
So to survive and win, they have to compromise a bit: open data, share content, integrate tech (IE tab in firefox and firefox plugins in IE is a good example).Therefore, the ones standing out at large must be innovative and open minded. They must be able to provide useful content without bios, sweet and personalised service with less commercials.
Advertising industry is experiencing this change as well, traditional ATL ads and online banners and engagement won't work anymore, that's why I think the word "portal" will just equals to "content provider" soon, because online behavior changed totally! Softwares, plugins and gadgets will take over the leading position again. Advertising people need to think how to sneak into the world of "feed"...
Thanks for the article & sharing the presentation.
thank you very good ..
I am a fool
You didn't get the sarcasm? Anyway, some people do.
Will people ever stop pushing version numbers on the web!
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