The Web, Take Two
By: Eric Reyes
Web 2.0 offers real results to marketers looking to gain more control of their message.
Like new confections spilling out of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, the brain trusts at Web companies big and small over the last three years or so have spun out a brand new Web. Like candy, this version of the Web is flashier, full of speed, comes in a cool wrapper, has good stuff inside and is highly addictive.
But unlike the dot-com crash of six years ago, it seems these new companies (and some old ones thinking in new ways) have figured out how to make the Web user king, keep the eyeballs and make money.
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WEB 2.0 GLOSSARY
Ajax: The technical way interactive Web applications are created. The Ajax code is what makes Web pages feel more interactive or more complex but without the use of lots of bandwidth. It makes sections of Web pages refreshable without having to redownload the entire Web page.
Mashup: A term to describe two or more applications or websites combined to create a unique user experience or product. An example of a mashup might be a site that has the look and feel of Amazon.com but the functionality of eBay.
Mobile Web: Refers to getting access to the Web over a mobile device, typically a cell phone or a PDA. With the introduction of .mobi domains, website owners can design and modify Web pages so that they are easier to read and access from devices with smaller screens and inconsistent bandwidth.
Podcast: Usually an audio file that mimics a radio show. Podcasters upload their "shows" for download or as a feed to be heard through computers or in portable media players. A podcast is generally a discussion on a single topic (personal or commercial in nature), an interview or a collection of music.
RSS Feed: A format that allows certain content to be pushed to your computer. Newsletters, favorite blogs or columnists and news sites use it when they have frequent publishing schedules. Users can subscribe to a feed and receive only that information they sign up for. Usually, Web users must install a feed reader to subscribe to the content.
Social Bookmarking: Usually offered by sites as a way to store and share content and search links. These sites act like "favorites" would in your Web browser, housing links to feeds, videos, products you're shopping for, maps and other Web destinations. You can share these links. Examples are sites such as Reddit, del.icio.us and Digg.
Social Media: Typically video, audio or other content that users can interact with. Social media applications can be found at sites that include destinations such as Wikipedia, Second Life, Digg, MySpace.com and Flickr. The media can usually be shared, rated and oft times edited by visitors. | | Think about what has happened since 2001: Google has put search front and center; online affiliate marketing was born; smaller computer programs on websites have made shopping and collaborating easier; and user-generated content has redefined entertainment and online marketing. With redefinitions come labels, and since 2004 these innovations in the Web experience have been called Web 2.0 – to mean a second generation of Web-based services and technologies.
Angel Djambazov, marketing and business development manager of affiliate management tool Popshops, says, "Web 2.0 lends itself to more interactivity between the user base and the site."
Web 2.0 also has been called the "participatory Web" that involves consumer action, not just reaction to your website or message. Web 2.0 has been called the explosion of video – homemade and commercial video slathered freely and easily across the Web. Web 2.0 has also been called the rapid rise of blogs (highly personal websites), widgets, RSS feeds and the podcast.
Web 2.0 is really all these things. Tim O'Reilly – founder of O'Reilly Media, publisher of technology books – coined the term and in essence meant it as a perceived shift in the Internet as platform.
He has defined it this way: "Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."
Where 1.0 was HTML Web pages you read like a book, 2.0 is Ajax-coded pages where mini-programs are swirling away on your desktop telling you the weather, what to eat, showing you videos or – most important to marketers – reporting your traffic. YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, craigslist, Wikipedia, Digg, Photobucket and del.icio.us would all be considered Web 2.0 sites.
Adapting for the 2.0 World
For online marketers, now is the best time to be in a Web 2.0 world. There are hundreds if not thousands of companies who claim their technology or service is Web 2.0-enabled. Pundits say it's not just another bubble. Venture capitalists are expressing their confidence with their checkbooks, sending $844.4 million into Web 2.0 companies last year, according to Ernst & Young and Dow Jones VentureOne. Advertisers are also coming on board and they are predicted to spend $1.5 billion on online video alone by 2009, according to eMarketer.
Mike Moran, author of Search Engine Marketing, Inc., says there are three main changes for marketers and advertisers in a Web 2.0 world: You can now target even the smallest group; you can measure every single message's effectiveness; and you must change your message in response to what customers say and do. Fortunately, he says, Web 2.0 helps you do all of these.
The most recent Web 2.0 lightning rod is the widget or Web widget. It is a kind of mini-program that can be embedded into a Web page and operates separately from your website. Widgets can contain anything from updated weather to interactive ads, videos and photo slide shows, to calendars, feeds to games and polls. Widgets are often Adobe Flash or JavaScript, which make them lightweight and easy to embed.
Because widgets are transportable – meaning a thousand folks can place the same widget with the same information on a thousand different websites – marketers are nervous of the threat to their business. "Widgets allow for individuals to take or use parts of the content from a marketer's site and apply that content to their own Web page," says Sam Harrelson of CostPerNews.com. "Of course, that can be threatening to a large segment of online marketers.
"For those marketers attempting to monetize their sites or programs with page view metrics, it should be threatening." He says that YouTube did not become a major Web property and bring a billion-dollar price tag because it just had funny clips of people doing funny things. Continued on Page 2...
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