Web 3.0 is (probably) being built as we speak
Is consolidation the road to Web 3.0?
I’ve mentioned a few times on this blog that I believe the “Web 3.0″ revolution will be ushered in by Social Hybrids. We are starting to see large Web 2.0 companies getting eaten up by the larger Internet powerhouses — AOL/Bebo, eBay/StumbleUpon, Yahoo/del.icio.us, etc — but there hasn’t been a true consolidation of web properties that combines social media with social networking.
Are we seeing the Genesis of it now? Read more
10 Great URLs with Bad Websites
Sometimes, a URL leads you to exactly what you expect. Other times, it takes you to blank pages, advertising link pages, or just plain dumb stuff.
This list of 10 (plus 4 dishonorable mentions) includes excellent domain names with great type-in traffic (at least they did back in the day when people still relied on type-in traffic) that just don’t give you anything that you can use.
Our personal favorite: Hot.com takes you to a campaign video for Dennis Kucinich. Not all that hot anymore, if he ever was hot.
If Digg Won’t Listen to its Users, We Will
The Digg Town Hall Meetings so far have been like bad sex in a bad relationship. There’s too much time in between causing a buildup that has to be released. When the climax finally comes, it’s too short and completely disappointing.
Mashable.com, who hosted a live blog with the help of The Drill Down crew, put it very eloquently when they summarized the event:
If you were to sum up what we learned from Digg Townhall #02, I would have to say it was… er… well… Jay Adelson really, REALLY loves Vernors Ginger Soda.
They keep saying it’s coming. The changes are coming. Listening to the community is coming. In the meantime, the promotion algorithm seems to be in a regular state of flux — sometimes active members can’t hit the homepage with 200 diggs, other times they’re hitting 10+ times in a day.
Microsoft Buying Facebook would be like Exxon Buying Greenpeace
I’m late on chiming in on this one, but with a reason. I had to pinch myself first, then wait to see if I was getting punk’d.
As many blogs have stated, the rumor that Microsoft is pursuing Facebook is, well, just a rumor. Still, things like these don’t just pop up randomly (very often) without some credibility, especially when it makes sense as a ploy to pressure Yahoo. With that said, I still feel the need to point out why this won’t work. Call it abuse of the hypothetical, but blogs are made to explore the possibilities.
Many, perhaps most, Facebook users do not want Microsoft. They were a little upset when they purchased under 3% of the company. If that becomes 50+%, we will likely see a large-scale exodus. Sadly, it would happen right after Facebook passed MySpace on Alexa. Read more
Dating in 140 Characters or Less
I was talking to a friend the other day who was telling me about this girl he met at a coffee shop. She noticed that he had the same laptop as she did and sparked a conversation. They talked for an hour before she had to go.
“Did you get her number?” I asked.
“No, but I got her Twitter. That’s even better!” he replied.
Wow. What a world we live in.
How Digg is Dropping the Ball (limited to 3 issues, begrudgingly)
It’s been nearly a year now, but when Kevin Rose boldly announced that “you’ve made it clear” and “If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying,” in regards to the the HD-DVD key that was published everywhere, Digg was on top of the social media world with a true opportunity to be the site “for the people.” While the move to ignore a cease and desist declaration was a bit less bold than most understood at the time (it was everywhere at that point), it was still a public relations goldmine that Digg could have very easily parlayed into perpetual success. They just had to do one thing…
Listen to your people and deliver what they want.
Over the last year, Digg has focused on several issues. While all of these have importance, Digg has paid these issues more than enough attention. In most cases, they’ve paid too much attention them. Read more
Startups End Down - Bring Sexy back to Geeky
Read Mashable. Techcrunch. Any of the websites that follow startups. Trends emerge. Hopes are high. Hope is lost. Startup rises. Startup ends down. The question is, “why?”
Instead of going into any of the dozens of high-potential startups that we looked at from 2007 that aren’t going to make it through 2008, let’s explore one general theme. Startups aren’t as sexy as they once were. I’m not talking about sexy, as in porn or meeting “friends” online. The sexy that I’m referring to is the kind of website that you read about, try out, and say:
“Wow. I really need to use this.” Read more
Hybrids: The Potential Web 3.0
What is Web 3.0? What would you like it to be? Please express your opinions in the comments below.
Over the past several weeks, I have been privy to many projects in different stages of development. One thing that seems to hold true for many of them is that the developers’ idea of “the next big thing” is a hybrid of sorts.
Some are leaning towards social media mixed with social networking. Most of the social media sites have tried to head in this direction to some extent. All have fallen short. Most notably, the Digg changes a few months ago have turned from an attempt to socialize social media (with shouts and other features) into an unfair way to game the system. The results have been disastrous. Read more
The Breakfast Club (2009)
Before anyone jumps on me for writing a post that isn’t about social media, please read it all the way through. Then you can jump on me all you want!
In 1985, John Hughes wrote and directed The Breakfast Club. It helped push the careers of five rising stars to achieve relative success. These members of The Brat Pack were quoted, emulated, and launched into the yearly playing schedule on TBS 23 years after the film was made.
In this era of unoriginality in Hollywood, they really should considered making a new version that takes everything about the movie a little closer to the edge. Why? Read more
Linkjacking is Good, Bad, and Ugly
Linkjacking means different things to different people. Many see it as using the content on one site as the bait to get viewers to pass through your site, or even stay there and explore without going on to the primary content. Most of the time, there will be tidbits or summary information about the primary story accompanied by an interesting image or bit of photoshop magic that takes up most of the page.
To many, including Urban Dictionary, a true “linkjacking” requires that a person from the website doing the linkjacking also submits the story to an aggregator such as Reddit or Digg to drive traffic. I believe that websites and blogs that have a strong enough following to be able to “assume” someone will submit the story are also linkjacking, even if they are not the one’s doing the submitting.
The idea is to generate traffic from social media sites and even the search engines without having to write a ton of original content or do the research. Here is an example of a website that I like a lot, Engadget, which is notorious for linkjacking: Read more
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