Oh the pundits are raving about Web 2.0 – the latest buzz phrase to describe the next generation of the Internet. In short, Web 2.0 is merely a catchy marketing phrase developed by a marketing company (O'Reilly Media) to label the next generation of the World Wide Web (best represented by new social media such as blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasting and social bookmarking).

 

Now every pundit and prognosticator who fancies themselves a leading mind is writing about and espousing about the virtues of Web 2.0 with many predictions and insights into the future of our online lives (and now, myself included J). Ah, so much hype

 

I will however spare you any predictions. I like the approach of my friend and fellow blogger Mark Evans who writes about his favorite Web 2.0 applications (Must-Have Web 2.0 Apps..and Some Much-Needed Pragmatism). Some of my favorite 2.0 applications include:

 

  • Skype – who doesn’t like to VOIP?
  • Technorati – the dean of the blogosphere.
  • del.icio.us – social bookmarking site.
  • My Place – the next generation of Geocities.
  • Google News – news subscription service offered by the big G.
  • Talk Digger – tracks who and what is being said about your web page, blog, etc.
  • My Yahoo! – Yahoo! Has been around a long time, and so has its personalization portal My Yahoo!. However, RSS has revolutionized the personalized portal space and My Yahoo! Keeps getting better and better.
  • Writeboard – a free wiki service. While I’m sure there are far better wiki solutions this one is free and I understand its limitations.
  • Plone – a free content management system (CMS) platform. The next generation of Zope and open source CMS.

In addition to those apps, some other applications that Evans likes include:

 

As interesting as some of these new tools are, many won’t likely see profitability. They’re cool gadgets with little real business promise (sound familiar circa 1999… anybody remember the iSniff and the proposed Snortal?). Cool just doesn’t cut it in the absence of strategy and a defined plan.

 

 “The big problem, however, is too many of them have adopted a "build it and they will come" business model based on the idea that you attract a critical mass of users first and then come up with a way to generate enough revenue to build a viable business,” says Evans. “Unfortunately, this is a flawed premise because once you offer a service or product for free, it's difficult to get users to pay for it. Far too many Web 2.0 start-ups also seem to be relying on (Google) AdSense as the foundation for their businesses. That's fine if you're an enterprising entrepreneur hoping for a few bucks to help pay the mortgage but it's not the revenue stream to build a real business.”

 

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