The popularity of Web 2.0 has made serious consideration of what kind of business model it would be able to provide.  In the early days of the Internet, this was also the problem that has been presented by its critics with respect to economics pointing out that there is no sustainable business model for the Internet.  However, since then, companies like Google and Yahoo which drive their revenues purely from advertising has proven such a business forecast false.

Web 2.0, however, because of the different structure it has of sharing and collaboration other than information retrieval, is also criticized by many as what kind of business model could fit.  Because of the fact that it is content driven, most of the websites and the contents are made by users and companies would not be able to advertise directly to those pages as in traditional methods of selling specific goods and services.

Understand that the highlighting points of Web 2.0 are we keys, blogs, social networks, file sharing, and a host of other user generated content.  Being a nonmonetary model of business, individuals are wondering whether or not such companies which focus on collaboration and user generated content would indeed gain profits.

The success of face book is only one of the various answers to such a problem.  Face book in just a few years had gained a net value of $22 billion outweighing in valuation most of the most popular online sites where advertising is controlled.  How is this so?

Understand that the basic business model of Web 2.0, like the traditional way of the Internet, is still advertising.  However, it is now targeted advertising through making use of keywords and search engine optimization.  Note that in blogs and social networks, there are sometimes small bars in the side with specialized advertising which are designed not to be intrusive to users who do not want them, but easily findable to those users which need them.  Organizations and other startups focusing on Web 2.0 collaboration technology may take advantage of such a model because of the popularity of such websites.

In fact, this is the reason why more and more bloggers today are leaving their full-time work in order to blog full-time to the use of assisted advertising methods that they integrate within their websites.
One way to describe Web 2.0 advertising architecture is through labeling it as social commerce and social shopping involving user generated markets where individuals may be able to set up shops located online and link them to other vendors sites which in turn pays such blog and social network owners as a method of sales promotions and direct it advertising.

Economics and its science is now shifting its academic focus towards research on the valuation implications of such social commerce and social marketplaces of having buyers and sellers online rather than located in traditional marketplaces.  This is being spearheaded by economists and researchers in the business school of Columbia University and the results would be published soon.

Bruno Auger

Tags: business, Web 2.0, social networking, advertising, academic, blogging

In discussing Web 2.0, it is an essential topic to cover that we discuss online applications because it is the rage these days.  Just two weeks ago, Google released its Web browser called Google chrome that has a special feature of dedicating special Windows freebies online applications.  Also, Firefox and Internet Explorer are continuously driving and modifying their Web browsers to fit such Web 2.0 model for use in online applications.  It is therefore a good thought to keep in mind in discussing online applications that its popularity is driving many of the major computer manufacturers and website owners to modify their existing products to address the needs of consumers and to drive their business model upwards.

What, in the first place, are online or Web applications?  In order to be able to understand it, we must first think of traditional off-line applications.  Off-line applications are those programs which we are used to in order to accomplish our tasks in the computer such as the word processors and spreadsheets of Microsoft, the Web browsers such as Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, media players such as iTunes and Windows media player, and a host of other programs that we associate with what they can do with a computer.

As the days of the Internet grew in popularity for sharing has arrived with such interactions online, users began to transfer such documents and files between one another and across a large groups.  For example, newspapers which traditionally edited articles among their writers, editors, and lay out artists through passing off printed documents, have suddenly discovered that it is more efficient and less costly to e-mail such Word documents and files to one another.  However, that is the limitation.

With online applications of word processors, however, such as the free service have below documents, writers and editors, as well as other individuals who need to perform in the project, could be able to collaborate with each other at real time, and activity previously impossible with off-line applications.  Then limits of such new applications found online could not be seen because they could range from writers, editors, to accountants using online financial applications, the photographers using online pictures sharing applications, to video enthusiasts and directors using online video sharing applications, and the list goes on.

However, one of the issues which definitely has to be addressed by users, creators, and developers of online web applications is the security issues which are involved.  Understand that documents and finances are sometimes sensitive only to private eyes only and making them available online creates the danger of hackers and other malicious users to be able to access them.  Just imagine a document of transferring gold bullion us from one bank to another and the various security details that would go with a convoy to be available to anyone who could be able to access it.  Also, just imagine the vulnerability of a firm when its cost-benefit structures of accounting are made available to its direct competitors.

 Bruno Auger

Tags: picture sharing, Web2.0, video sharing, Web Applications

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 is the term coined to defined the trend in the use of the Internet or the World Wide Web technology and the process of web design that has a primary aim to develop the creativity, information dissemination and most importantly, the link between the users. Since this concept was introduced, there had been existing sites and web based communities such as “hosted services” like different social networking sites, wikis and blogging sites. Many businessmen claimed that Web 2.0 had been successful in turning the essence of the Internet as an actual platform.

Level of Uses of Web 2.0

Web 2.0 offers different opportunities to its users. There are different hierarchies of applications that denote the uses of Web 2.0. The first one is the application that you can use perfectly whether online or offline. An example of this is Google Maps wherein you can access information even you are not connected to the Internet. You can use the full feature of the application whether offline or online. Next are the applications that you can still use offline but there are additional features that you can use when you are online. One of these applications is iTunes where you can use it as a player while you are offline but you can access its store online. Third, these are applications that still can operate offline but there are many advantages when you use it online. Flickr is one of these applications where you can access its photo database online from its community of users. Lastly, these are the applications that only exist in the Internet. Web 2.0 made connections of different people across different geographical location possible.

Web 2.0 based applications are useful in making the Internet as a platform that serve as a venue where people can freely interact with each other. It allows the users to share information, use and reuse it freely. There are growing opportunities opened by Web 2.0 especially in the field of business and social networking.

Characteristics of Web 2.0

Websites that uses Web 2.0 allow their users to share information like photos, videos and music files. They allow different kinds of information sharing. As a platform, there are many software application that can be used to enhance the impact of the entire browser.

Web 2.0 also enhances the users usability of the websites. It enrich the participation and dynamics of the users in contributing to the information and content available in the site. By doing so, it promotes the collective intelligence of the users through gaining and sharing experiences that will be beneficial to all f them. From these, different businesses had prospered.

The development of Web 2.0 gave rise to the development of technology used in the Internet. It pushed the technological innovation to make the data processing and sharing more effective and more efficient.

Web 2.0 is a complicated and continuously developing innovation of technology. It serves as a way where people can use it as a venue of interacting and sharing information from one towards another.
 

Bruno

Tags: applications, technology, web sites, Web 2.0, blogging, Internet

Because of the continuous improvements in technology, processing power, and programming language today, the Internet and the way we use it is also evolving.  In just a decade, static websites which were used only by academic institutions and military personnel have now transformed into popular consumer use. From online encyclopedias that serve the masses of students and researchers, the travel websites that promote reservations, to e-mail, all of these websites provide not only the basic services that consumers are attracted to, but also gives a host of media rich content which has been one of the crucial factors in the modern popularity and boom of the Internet.

The World Wide Web, as it is now known, but is not anymore merely a detached form of information retrieval but a real life geography where in individuals are able to interact with each other in their community — a community slowly but surely expanding into a global one.

These recent innovations and improvements have led to the development of a term — Web 2.0.  Formerly, about two years ago, the term Web 2.0 had only been popular and interesting among circles of computer and programming enthusiasts.  Recently, however, almost any consumer which uses the Internet for social networking, research, communication, design — which is to say everyone — the term Web 2.0 is gaining popularity.

What is Web 2.0 in the first place.  It is a term originating from computer circles used to describe the recent improvements and changes as well as trends on the Internet.  It includes design, creativity, sharing capabilities, and the key word which makes it popular event along ordinary consumers and computer users, social networking and professional

The ability of Web 2.0 which differentiates it from the previous version of the World Wide Web is that it gives powers to users and consumers rather to the owners and designers of websites.  Enter action and a hands on approach by consumers is the key highlights of this trend and it is already extremely popular nowadays even though consumer users do not realize it.

A culture of participation is being built around new Web 2.0 designed and created sites which separates it from traditional old websites where the action of visitors are limited merely to gaining information from them without putting in their own input.  Some have even stated that Web 2.0 started as early as the time when the Internet began integrating within its structure for rooms and interactive discussions.  However, a difference of those forums with Web 2.0 architecture is that those in the modern version of the World Wide Web actually give power of information and not only opinion.

Modification of websites — which is every past designer’s worst nightmare — by consumers and users is actually given strength and highlighted as a way for people to reflect how the median voter theorem complies with everyday life — even the Internet.
This theory states that a large number of people will tend to deviate their decisions towards the mean — or the average — so that extremes are left out and the overall result is something that most people would find on average to be pleasing.

A designer may you build a website that is attractive to his or herself and to the stakeholders or the owners of the website, but it is not necessarily the case that the same website design would be pleasing to consumers.  Therefore, in the process of Web 2.0 and its collaboration mechanisms, designers are given the chance to make the most creative output while at the same time allowing for comments and suggestions to be made in real time.

There are many other applications of Web 2.0 technology and its concept, but participation is the key and highlighting phrase.
 

Bruno

Tags: Web 2.0, web 2.0 technology, web 2.0 design, internet