Red Door Interactive's director of information strategy defines Web 2.0, explains why marketers should care, and then lists his favorite Web 2.0 apps.
When asked by Newsweek for an opinion about Web 2.0 start-ups, Guy Kawasaki replied: "When people say to me it's a Web 2.0 application, I want to puke."
Kawasaki's the founder of Garage Ventures and knows a thing or two about technology start-ups, the internet, and, one might guess, puke. For my part, Web 2.0, as famously defined by Tim O'Reilly, is a concept that I find easy to understand.
So when Newsweek oversimplifies Web 2.0 for its audience, and thus loses much in translation, I want to puke too. As a venture capitalist, Kawasaki doesn't have much patience for repetition; the more business plans that come his way with the term Web 2.0 in it, the more prone to emesis he becomes.
The rest of us are not that far ahead on the internet technology curve. As a web developer, it's important for me to help people understand what we're talking about when we talk about Web 2.0. As marketers, Web 2.0 offers much by way of disseminating your brand through additional channels. I wrote about that in some detail not too long ago.
Web 2.0's darling concept is the Long Tail, which allows us the ability to tap into vastly more direct, one-to-few channels of communication. Some call it micropersuasion. Whatever you call it, the long tail effect is only a sliver of what Web 2.0 makes attractive to media. At the same time Web 2.0 helps you connect with like minds, Web 2.0 makes mobility happen. Paypal, staying true to its founders' intent, is now the first real mCommerce (mobile commerce) contender in the United States. The next time the friend-that-never-has-cash-when-it-comes-time-to-split-the-check-at-a-fancy-restaurant pulls another disappearing wallet stunt, tell him to whip out his cell phone and paypal you with a text message instead.
Web 2.0 is also international. As Thomas Friedman calls it, Web 2.0 -- the technology, culture and business of it -- mashes geography into one, big flat world. Coordinating efforts of marketing teams in all of your major international markets can be facilitated inexpensively with a little love from Social Text (an enterprise wiki) and Skype (free, clear calls from and to anywhere in the world).
If you're a media outlet, why not consider what Ross Mayfield calls Buy-Side Publishing? iStockPhoto has, and it's more than the graphic design and photography communities that love them for it. License for share and re-use was what made this little stock photo company an attractive acquisition in Getty's portfolio.
It won't be long before you're abandoning your traditional media-buying, which will include more planning, but lead to better measurements and lower margins. Web 2.0 is nothing if not results-driven in real-time.
Still, though, what is Web 2.0? To answer that question, I'll let the Web 2.0 do the talking. Here's a primer on all things Web 2.0. It's written in outline format in order to aid in its usability (a central tenet to Web 2.0 philosophy). Bookmark it. Tag it. Roll it. Share it.
Articles (Orientation)
What is Web 2.0?-- Article by Tim O'Reily that started it all.
Web 2.0 Newsweek Article-- Web 2.0 according to Newsweek.
Web 2.0 Definition in Wikipedia-- The official user-tested definition.
API Definition in Wikipedia-- APIs put the "Web service" in Web 2.0 services.
AJAX Definition in Wikipedia-- AJAX adds some wow factor to Web 2.0 services.
Books, reference and essential reading (Background information on Web 2.0)
Wisdom of Crowds-- By James Surowiecki (book site here), the New Yorker's Financial Page staff writer.
Cathedral and the Bazaar-- The socio-economic view of open source development.
The Long Tail -- A term coined by Chris Anderson, Wired's editor in chief.
The World is Flat-- By Thomas Friedman, foreign correspondent to The New York Times.
Wikipedia.org-- The ultimate Web 2.0 reference.
Tech Crunch-- The penultimate reference-- A Web 2.0 blog (i.e. the Gizmodo of Web 2.0).
Picks and Axes (For building Web 2.0 services)
Script-aculo.us-- Javascript libraries for AJAX effects.
Ruby on Rails-- A scripting language (ruby) and framework (rails).
ONLamp-- A reference site for open source technologies such as Linux, Apache, PHP and MySQL (i.e. technologies with which many Web 2.0 plays have been developed).
Ajaxian-- Blog and reference for AJAX development.
Web standards-- Without which AJAX would be much, much more difficult.
Opera and Firefox-- Two standards-compliant, Web 2.0 developer friendly web browsers.
Directories (Research, Reference and Intelligence-- Keeping your fingers on the pulse of Web 2.0)
Web 2.0 database - A web-based database of Web 2.0 plays.
Programmable Web API Dashbaord-- Meta-information about use and popularity of certain Web 2.0 API's.
WSFinder-- Wiki for Web 2.0 Open API's.
Web 2.0 Logos-- The logos of some 200 Web 2.0 services (Note: some might argue that half of these logos are from non-Web 2.0 companies)
eHub-- An ongoing blog of Web 2.0 links.
KoolWeb-- A user-generated directory of Web 2.0 darlings.
"Web 2.0"-- As tagged in Del.icio.us.
Those sites should serve you well in your studies. But they don't tell the Web 2.0 story all that well, do they? I'm a big fan of the show-don't-tell rule of story-telling. So what follows is a severely pared down list of the Web 2.0 winners in my mind. That is, the following services represent what I think are the best of what the Web 2.0 world has to offer right now. Certainly this is debatable, but in an effort to help others understand just what Web 2.0 services look, feel and taste like, the following will more than do the trick.
Amazon
Amazon.com Web Services-- APIs and SDK for extending amazon merchandising services.
Amazon's Mechanical Turk-- "Artificial Intelligence" web service.
Amazon.com S3-- On-demand database.
Google
Writely-- On-demand publishing / applications / word-processing.
Blogger.com-- Blogging
Google Maps-- Mapping
Google Calendar-- Calendaring
Google News-- News
Google Search-- Web Search
Google Adwords-- Contextual Advertising
Odeo-- Podcasting network.
Google Code-- API's and SDK's for extending Google services.
Yahoo!
Flickr-- Photos
Del.icio.us-- Tagging/Social Bookmarking
Yahoo Maps-- Mapping
Yahoo News-- News
Yahoo Search-- Web Search
Yahoo Seach Marketing-- Contextual Advertising
Upcoming.org-- Events management
Yahoo Developer Network-- API's and SDK's for extending yahoo services.
eBay
eBay Developer Network-- API's and SDK's for extending eBay's merchant services.
Paypal Web Services-- API's and SDK's for extending PayPal transaction services.
Sixapart
TypePad-- Blogging
Moveable Type-- Blogging
LiveJournal-- Blogging
Getty Images
iStockPhoto-- Stock photos
Independents
Digg-- Like Google news, except popularity of articles determined by audience.
Irows-- Spreadsheet service (i.e. MS Excel on line).
Thumbstacks-- Online Presentation application (i.e. MS Powerpoint Online).
30 Boxes-- Collaborative calendaring.
Youtube-- Flickr for your videos.
EVDB/Eventful-- Events management.
Sxip-- Identity Management.
Socialtext-- Corporate collaboration/wiki.
Bloglines-- Feed aggregator.
Technorati-- Blogoshphere search.
Basecamp-- Project management.
Dabble-- Database service (like GoogleBase).
Teamslide-- Web presentation service (like WebEx).
Wordpress-- Blog service.
Salesforce.com-- CRM-- Support and Saleforce automation service.
Last.fm-- Music sharing and social networking.
Webjay-- Music sharing and social networking.
Platial-- Places sharing and social networking.
iKarma-- Reputation management. Social networking.
iTunes-- Yes, a Web 2.0 services. You can take your music from the web to your computer, to your MP3 player all at once. And podcasts too.
Bit Torrent-- Social, anonymous, de-centralized file-sharing.
Of course Web 2.0 would be nothing without the innovation that occurs on the edge as a result of the openness of many Web 2.0 services. Innovations that take the existing services, combine them with another and thereby extend them both beyond their original explicit intent. For example, when videos and songs are combined in innovative ways, it's called "sampling," "mixing" or "mashing." By the same token, web service "mixes" are called "mashups," too.
Mashups
Fold-- Home page with a bunch of Web 2.0 apps mashed onto it.
Zillow-- Real estate mashup of map and real estate data.
Greasemonkey-- Firefox plug-in that allows users to customize the view (and in some cases functionality) of a website to one's individual needs.
HousingMaps.com-- Craigslist + Google Maps
eGoWalk-- Upcoming.org + Yahoo Maps
Had your fill? Digg it!