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
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.
Digg is no longer a Social “News” Site
As much as I have enjoyed Digg over the years, it is officially no longer relevant as a social news site. The concept that social “media” can be pictures, videos, podcasts, or articles is great, but what I witnessed tonight was both enjoyable and sad.
Being a Good Social Media Friend and Finding Other Good Ones
In the real world, we pick our friends based upon certain traits and conditions. We want people we can like who have shared interests and who have a certain proximity to us. The Internet has changed the proximity aspect of friendship, but we still need to be able to interact with our friends in some way to truly be friends.
In social media, “friendship” is more of a way to get votes for your submissions than to interact with others. There are certainly those who make real friends through social media. Some of the people I interact with on a daily basis were people I met on social media sites. Still, the bottom line in social media friendship is “vote for my submissions and I’ll vote for yours.”
There is something skewed about this concept, but we’ll ignore it for this article. Instead, we’ll accept the fact that most social media friends aren’t really friends and focus on how to be a good one, as well as finding other good ones. Read more
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
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
Name that Nerd
Everyone knows a nerd or two. Do you know the top nerds in the world, and by top, I mean the people who took visionary nerdiness, elbow grease, and luck and translated it all into billion dollar companies? Below, you will find 15 faces (nine singles, 3 doubles). Most readers will be able to name 3 or 4. Real techies can name 5-10. If you can name more, you are a true guru. All 15? Well, there’s a special place for you. Read more
Stop Clicking Banners and Maybe They’ll Go Away
Is it you? Are you the one who clicks on the banner ads on social media and social networking sites like Digg, MySpace, Reddit, Facebook, Propeller, and everywhere else (except Mixx, where I haven’t really seen them yet)? I’ve been looking for whoever it is that still thinks they’re the 9,999th visitor or that they really just won a free Xbox 360. When I find this person, I have one word.
Stop.
It’s 2008. Banner advertisements, as wonderful and beautiful as they were before the turn of the millenium, are now worthless. Or are they? They still seem to be on just about every website (this one included, though I don’t know why I bother since nobody clicks on them). I would think that most people, especially the astute, tech-saavy readers of social media and users of social networks, are immune to them and barely register that they’re even there. 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
Rose Demonstrates that New Digg Algo is “Fair and Balanced”
Three weeks into Digg’s promotion algorithm updates, it’s becoming clear that the ‘playing field’ has been leveled. Even the site’s creator appears to be on equal footing. - Decepticrat
It isn’t the first time that a Kevin Rose submitted story failed to hit the front page of Digg, but last week, Kevin did something that he had never done before. He missed the front page. Twice. In a row.
On top of this, his current submission is not faring very well. It still has 12 hours, but is currently at an anemic 32 Diggs after 12 hours — not your standard KR submission number. Read more
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