Web’s Best Blog

If you’ve found yourself knees deep in Web 2.0 fun, here’s another website that looks very promising.

Jumpcut.com has just teamed up with search engine giant Yahoo! to make videos more available to users. Not one to be left behind I figured I’d register an account to see what it was all about.

Jumpcut allows registers users to create their own videos, complete with some basic editing tools for free. Their interface integrates with Flickr.com and Facebook.com so you can import images from your existing photo gallery or you can upload video from your computer.

After you’ve uploaded your video or pictures you can add music or other audio, as well as adding titles and special affects. (I don’t believe that any other website offers these types of editing tools for free or if there are, I’ve never found them.) The popular website Youtube doesn’t offer any sort of editing tools, just a place to upload them once you’ve finished them.

I’m planning on spending a little time there to see what they have to offer, and I’ll be sure to publish the finished product and any other feedback I have on this service. We’ll see how things go..

Interesting article in Valleywag about Myspace.com and some interesting facts most consumers probably aren’t aware of.

2. MySpace.com is Spam 2.0. MySpace has spawned an incredibly successful twist on the age-old art of self-promotion, allowing–even encouraging–the marketing of everything from bands to businesses on their site. Essentially, they’ve opened up a channel through which to solicit and promote everyone and everything, most importantly the individual. The whole site is, in essence, a marketing tool that everyone who registers has access to.

It’s hard to argue with that point as well as others made in the article. MySpace.com is apparently living large on a made-up ethos.

This could be the case for untold Web 2.0 companies. But it shows us the truth: good old-fashioned spam (aka marketing) worked in building the huge following.

I think Netscape just might be the worst mess of an “open forum” I’ve seen in my days on the internet. Netscape, a failed portal, has been transformed into a Digg-clone, which is now led by Jason Calacanis, a man who makes some bewilderingly clueless statements, considering his role in “the blogosphere”. Today he ponders “Why doesn’t the right participate in social news?.

In this post, he hits on a few reasons about why maybe no one from “the Right” is posting at Netscape:

We are having an internal debate at Netscape–which is staffed overwhelmingly by liberals–about why the right isn’t participating in the social news trend.

Maybe the fact that Netscape is staffed overwhelmingly by liberals has everything to do it. Perhaps it has to do with the liberal-leaning stories that make up the bulk of the front page news. The fact they’re using paid submitters, and Anchors who “pin” stories has a lot to do with it, especially since they have admittedly left-leaning views.

Why would a conservative bother coming to the “New Netscape”? I guess the answer is, they won’t bother. Jason, in his inimitable wisdom opines that it might be because “Republics aren’t as quick to adapat to technology”. Or maybe it has to do with skewed content on the fakest looking “social news” website this side of the Mississippi.

More importantly, it’s really interesting how “Politics” is the sole topic being discussed at Netscape, despite the fact they have unlimited tags and tons of spammy sub-domains set up to handle most other common subjects. Why is “Politics” the only popular subject?

So, to me, we have a number of distinct issues conspiring to make Netscape a bit one-sided:

1) The “Anchors” have a liberal-bias
2) The “Submitters” hired from the other social news websites have a liberal-bias
3) There is no “actual community” of people at the website to begin with to counter the influences
4) The site is self allows the “Anchors” to sticky threads as if they’re on a forum

All of this leads to a Front Page that looks unlike all others in the social news space. Reddit and Digg do not have anywhere the number of political stories that Netscape does. But let’s not act like the reasons are complicated about how this happened. The way they set the site up is what caused the content to be the way it is.

Finally Calacanis hits on something I agree with:

Of course, I hate politics, politicians, and the whole slimy process… I know very little about it and don’t like being involved in it.

I couldn’t agree more. But that’s why I don’t build a “social news portal” with a bigtime political bias. Giving too much editorial control to people who are “really into politics” when you aren’t doesn’t seem like the answer either.

Alright, let’s face some of the facts. Ajax interfaces are cool, and functionality is King, but these lamer Web 2.0 websites appearing daily now seem exactly the same. No wonder Michael Arrington is expanding out of just chronicling Web 2.0, he already knows the end must be near.

When you have sites like The Web 2.0 Logo Generator, and you realize just how accurate it really is, you know other people are starting to wonder the same thing.

Do you like my new Logo?

Can another goofy calendar website really get funding? Your guess is good as mine, but if you take a realistic look at some of these sites, you’ll realize there’s very little chance of monetizing them.

Now you can get a Web 2.0 T-Shirt.

This could mark a real turning point in the development of Web 2.0

I know we can’t predict the future, but we can always speculate. That’s part of the fun of being human. And I have to tell you, I can’t imagine that the way things are going right now will be the way things are in the future. Personally, I think most of “search” is a doomed concept, and I’d encourage anyone to spend more time learning viral marketing than SEO. But I say that, and in a way I’m being hypocritical, because I still make most of my money using these “outdated ideas”, and a very small percentage is coming in through new means.

But that doesn’t change the fact that the whole internet business is changing. It always has been, since the earliest days, and it probably always will. Because the internet is one market that I think of as “hyper-competitive”. You have a world full of brilliant people who have very little barriers to entry, and you better believe they’re launching internet ideas all day, every day. No way will this target stay still.

So if you are still trying to survive in an outmoded paradigm, might I suggest you start tap-dancing right now and try to save yourself? There’s still time. In the next few years a number of new disciplines will likely emerge from the tattered remains of their predecessors. Whatever they look like, exactly, won’t matter. What will matter is that you stay on top of it, for the sake of expanding your business. If you don’t, you’ll face a shortage of customers.

The best thing for any business )(online or off) to do is to execute for their paying customers. Making your regulars come back time and again is the surest road to profitablity. If you always have to market to get new people, your advertising costs will stay high. Word of mouth from satisfied customers is always you best route. Rather than spend 10 minutes today working on “Search engine marketing”, I suggest you double check your customer systems and try to improve people’s experience in ordering from you. I feel that will give you a greater boost than spending time on attracting new prospects.

AOL is the newest mega-business to enter the content arena with ferocity. It’s understandable why a move like this could be attractive to them. Running an internet access business (especially one that’s still heavily reliant on dialup infrastructure) has a great number of expenses. Access customers need a lot of support (both technical and for billing) and fixed telecom costs are high.

To a company like AOL, they may see the content business (especially as its’ represented by Google) to be a highly lucrative arena. Indeed it is, but there’s a number of potential troubles for any company attempting to live off such a business model, not the least of which is, the volatility of pricing in advertising, and the nascient nature of the market. Google, MSN, and Yahoo understand the troubles, in the form of click-fraud, and have formed an alliance to combat a growing problem that threatens to destroy the entire system.

AOL is saving money as part of the plan, laying off 5,000 workers. But giving away free storage space and free email is hardly earth shattering news, or particularly profitable. How much of a boost exactly these free services will be to AOL’s bottom line remains to be seen.

If nothing else, the plan is grand in its’ scope and new in its’ vision. AOL, as a giant and expensive dialup provider represents the old internet, which is decaying daily. The “New AOL” or better yet, re-invented AOL promises to embrace all things “Web 2.0″ as part of their overall strategy? Will it work? I tend to doubt it. But one thing I have to admit to be happy about: the fact that no more trees need die in the making of the obnoxious AOL free disk offers. At least we can finally see an end to that era, once and for all.

I think one of the most amazing phenomena about online is how certain websites truly inspire passion among their users. In fact, all the best websites do it, and it’s one of the keys to success for any modern venture in Web 2.0.

I think setting off to do this is not a good plan. If you remain attentive to user’s desires, and enter into a serious dialogue with users, you have a chance at succeeding. But the main thing you have to do is put tools in the hands of your most creative and productive users.

User-generated content is becoming rampant on the web, but not all of it is of high quality. In fact, some of it similar to what you scrape off your show when you step in horse droppings. But that doesn’t usually stop anyone from entering it. It’s not so much the quality of the user-generated content so much as it is the passion with which it was entered. Many times, flames and arguments go the longest. Why? Because they’re fueled by their emotions and engage in what they’re saying.

Giving people a voice is working as a viable means of traffic generation, and there’s no doubt the trend will continue. But eventually the crowd will become consumed by hatred if all of their passion remains unchecked. Then we have to consider the role of editors. In that sense, the new user-generated websites are an evolution, but will also required empassioned system administrators.

I think we can expect more of the same. We’ll see many more companies touting revolutionary widgets find startup capital. I also think we’ll see new website emerge that aren’t the current darlings. Some of the companies that have been at the forefront of the movement may die off, and be replaced by newcomers.

And mostly we’ll see tons of new innovation. Ajax development will continue, and developers will continue to work on making surfing a totally fluid event. As data becomes as fluid as water, applications will approach becoming a thing of beauty, and the companies with the most useful products will thrive.

I also think companies that are just plain popular will continue to lead the way. Despite the best efforts in planning, it can never be pre-determined which sites will be the big hits, but it’s safe to say it will be the ones that users find the most useful. Usability is becoming more than just a marketing mantra. It’s becoming a necessity for anyone who wants to compete.

What do you think the second half of 2006 holds for Web 2.0?

thumbd continues to evolve in its’ early existence. If you haven’t already, please register an account. It’s free and easy and the premise of thumbd is quite simple. It’s a website where you give a “thumbs up” to works that you consider to be of extra-ordinary quality. This can be one of your best blog posts, or the work of someone you admire. One a story has been submitted to thumbd, other members surf it and vote on it. If you get enough thumbs, you make the main page.

Right now it’s very easy to make the front page of thumbd. You pretty much only need one thumb to do it. So, either vote for yourself, or recruit another person to vote for you. thumb is a chance for the best article pages to get extra recognition, but it only works if enough people participate.

thumbd is not yet one week old and has registered 20 members. All thumbd articles are converted to RSS for maximum exposure, so feel free to subscribe if you’re in need of a constant stream of news.

Thanks to everyone who has already stopped in and registered. We’re still looking for beta testers, development participants, and users, so please stop by at your leisure.