Opinions are like blogs, everybody has one.
I love to read the debates in blogland about Web 2.0.
“What it is” depends on which part of the blogosphere cafeteria you hang out in.
The cool kids are all bashing the entire thing. “Why call progress and new technology anything? The web has been changing since day 1!”
The geeks haven’t even noticed. They are too busy creating custom tag cloud scripts by the dozen for corporate America giants who are seeing the opportunity about a year too late.
The media hacks are bouncing the term around without a clue as to what they even mean by it.
Others have adopted the term as a wakeup call that enough “new stuff” is happening all at once on the web, making for such profound and sweeping changes, that it ought to be called something.
I’m sitting with the kids at that table in the cafeteria. Or maybe alone at the table next to that table.
Here is my opinion on what Web 2.0 is, and some justification for why I use the term regardless of what the cool kids think because that’s how I was in high school. Why change now?
Web 2.0 is the sum of major technological advances in:
- publishing platforms (heavy on the RSS and Blog please),
- search (content may just get to be King after all), and
- linking (tagging, social bookmarking, the people have spoken, junk like that)
These advances are happening in all 6.5 corners of the web from the major players like Google, Microsoft, down to the shiny new social networking sites that pop up every 5 minutes.
I am a marketer, so I enjoy certain powers of insight and foresight that the altruistic cool kids (bloggers with nary a Google Adsense search box on their sites) just don’t get.
When Google is done with its apparent evolution toward letting their visitors help rank sites (ORION) and Microsoft launches Vista and IE7 leading to RSS and autodiscovery capabilities hitting every PC on planet Earth, maybe some of the cool kids will say “Yeah, this evolution of the web DOES deserve some recognition as being a bit busier than usual!”
There are lots of things no one knows. Not even me. The social networking phenomenon, from early file sharing (remember Napster? Power to the people!), to the Diggs, De.lici.ouses, Technoratis, MySpaces, TagWorlds and the like, is total chaos.
It looks organized with tag clouds and people going around burying stories of their arch enemies, but it is utter pandemonium. No one knows where the social networking thing is headed, but it certainly ain’t going away.
We’ve tasted the power our little networks have given us and we ain’t giving up nothin’.
While it’s funny to see the talking heads on CNN read silly little Web 2.0-laden statements off teleprompters, there really is something going on here that literally affects the world of marketing and website promotion.
The internet marketing community is still licking its wounds over Adsense spam sites being thrown out of the engines. And that was over with for all but the geekiest and most financially fortified a year ago!
Therefore, my chicken little battle cry for everyone to wake up and take notice of the changes a’comin’ needs a name!
The sky is gonna fall hard on tens of thousands of people who are building sites and marketing them with, forgive me, “Web 1.0” technology and know-how.
So here I sit among the cool kids, the geeks, and the mixed bag of nuts who each have their own definition of what Web 2.0 really is and I can’t help but think “Who is actually preparing for the neat and scary stuff coming up in the rearview mirror?”
Here’s another funny one: All the gurus of internet marketing, well ok, the vast majority of them, are leading their flocks over the edge of the cliff with outdated publishing and marketing tactics. And not even Web 1.15 tactics at that!
Here’s some of what’s coming that affects anyone who markets anything online. You can call it Web 2.0 or give it a sign for a name like the guy formerly known as Prince 2.0. I don’t care. Just don’t use the debate to ignore the changes!
- Google is progressing fast and that means, according to real and actual tests, that content is finally getting its crown. Don’t have good original content? Then you don’t have a business anymore.
- And guess who changes when Google changes? Yep, Yahoo and MSN will have to give a damn again.
- Microsoft, love ’em, hate ’em, who cares? They are going to put RSS on the map big like and help to make it the backbone of information flow on the web once and for all. Care about that, because your business depends on how you react.
- Squeeze pages are out, relationship building through good content and telling the truth are officially in, although Seth Godin and others have been harping on these facts for years.
- Cheating is over as a viable way to do business. (Wait, when was cheating, black hat, whatever – EVER a viable business plan?)
- White hat is in. I make it sound cooler though by being the first to call it “Extreme White Hat!” (Devil fingers raised to the sky!)
What is Web 2.0? If nothing else it is a red flag to online business owners that something’s up. No one has ever given a name to fast changes on the internet before. That has to count for something.
The caution I throw out to my readers is this: Don’t get caught up in the silly debate about a name. Change, profound change, is happening that very few people I know are actually monitoring and testing new methodologies and strategies for. (Yeah, I ended that sucker with a preposition – deal with it!)
The way we market through information publishing to sell products and services is evolving hella fast. Some people get it and are already tagging their posts and keeping public bookmarks at De.lici.ous. At least they’re trying.
Most, unfortunately, are choosing to believe their gurus will take care of them and come out with a “Damn I Screwed Up” Generator to bail them out of something they could have been prepared for.