The Rise of the Web Natives
The term Web natives refers to people who are increasingly comfortable with life online. These Web natives are more likely to use tools such as social networking; blogging; instant messenger and other instant messaging tools to maintain and increase their sphere of contacts and associates. For them online life has become a primary part of their social behaviour.
Users create, not just consume!
Increasingly users are contributing content rather than just consuming it.
Exploit the Long Tail
The Long tail refers to the increasing prevalence of marketing which targets very specific niches. Given the increasing prevalence of users who are connected to the Internet ,who use Internet connected devices, Web savvy marketers have begun a land rush to gain the marketing advantages associated with these niches.
An excellent example of long tail marketing is what has been done by Amazon.com. Amazon.com does not limit its product list to top 40 and a bestseller titles. Amazon.com lists as many titles as it can which allows it to appeal to the broadest audience imaginable. Amazon has aptly demonstrated that at the Internet scale even niche communities are very large and well worth the attention of marketers.
Users can enrich your data
Websites that decide to use Web 2.0 as a marketing strategy allow end-users and the general public to contribute comments and content to their websites. RRather than presenting a liability, if properly moderated, "harnessing the collective intelligence of users" allows these website owners a sensitivity to the opinions and views of their customers which they would not otherwise have.
Agile Engineering
- Incrementally develop your product; short release cycles
- User forums and feedback environments allow Web 2.0 marketers and digital product developers the luxury of responding with incremental development of their products. Having a community relationship with customers permits a conversation dynamic to take place.
"The Perpetual Beta"
Products supported using Web 2.0 feedback structures can be in a state of perpetual beta. The products never really reach a completed state and yet avoid the stigma up being unfinished. This is possible since it is understood by the participants that the quality of the product is the larger responsibility of everyone involved. For more information on a collaborative and open source development check out Wikipedia's article on when Linux. At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux
Maturation of the browser
The Internet browser has become much more than a document viewer. Technologies such as ex-HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and a host of a server side technologies such as cold fusion, PHP, Ruby on rails, and others have opened floodgates of possibility for developers who want to develop for the Web 2.0 paradigm.
The browser has become, among other things, the perfect online collaboration tool.
RSS and Content Syndication
What is RSS?
The acronym RSS stands for "really simple syndication" RSS is a simple standardized format for publishing listings of frequently updated works. These might include news feeds, news headlines and blog listings. These listings are commonly known as feeds. Subscribers to feeds are automatically notified by of the program they use to subscribe to their RSS feeds whenever there are new articles or available updates.
Blog services and environments such as Blogger and Word press allow blog contributors to automatically generate RSS listings which can be subscribed to by the public. The ease of that in which RSS content is made available for syndication qualifies it for consideration under the Web 2.0 banner.
Services such as Bloglines allow users to subscribe to a wide and customizable menu of RSS feeds from a variety of publishers including traditional media sources such as CNN and others.
Noteworthy Examples of Web 2.0 applications and Sites
The following are noteworthy examples of Web 2.0 applications which are changing the way we consume and contribute content. You'll find that this list further underscores the extraordinary prevalence Web 2.0 in our everyday lives.
Ipods, Podcasts and Music 2.0
If the MP3 was the death knell to the music industry then the iPod and the podcast nailed the coffin lid shut on traditional radio. Rather than having to cruise around the dial looking for something entertaining listeners and can program their iPods with a custom menu of content on virtually any topic, commercial free.
Music lovers need not suffer the indignity of listening to top 40 radio where three to 400 songs steadily rotate 24 hours a day. They need only load up their iPod, plug in, and enjoy hundreds of hours of commercial free music from their own collections or the iTunes Web store.
Again, the control of content has been wrested from the traditional media outlets. As a result the iTunes service has become the largest music distributor, ahead of such giants as Wal-Mart and Best Buy. All this fueled in large part by the collaboration and customization which Web 2.0 has made possible.
Here's some more fun statistics:
In the 2008 "Lets Rock" event at Apple Steve Jobs reported the following:
" July 2008 US MP3 market share: 73.4% iPod, 8.6% Sandisk, 2.6% Microsoft, 15.4% other
" iTunes has over 8.5 million songs, 125k podcasts, 30k episodes of TV shows, 2.6k Hollywood movies and 3k applications for iPhone and iPod touch
" App Store: 100 million app downloads in 60 days
" App Store: More than 3k applications, 90% priced less than $10, 600 total apps are free
