Is Web 2.0 and the really useful free services we have come to depend on over? Is the “free is good” rapid growth period coming to an end? The really well-written ReadWriteWeb blog, which covers Web 2.0 quotes Chris Shipley in Demo.com as opining that the Web 2.0 cycle has come to a close. In her own blog, she goes on to say,
Unlike the Dot Com cycle before it, the Web 2.0 phase hasn’t created tremendous business value for entrepreneurs or their investors. But the social Web – the true definition, we think, of this most recent wave – has sparked tremendous innovation. It has given us the “operating systems” for social networks, the culture of conversation and engagement, the discipline of rapid and disruptive development, and the technology basis on which to build reliable, scalable Web applications. In short, it’s delivered a platform on which to build the next phase of the Web.
Welcome to the Distributed Web. If Web 2.0 established the infrastructure and culture of the social Web, the next cycle will be all about delivering Web content and applications to the point of consumption. This next phase is not about aggregating content or visitors to a single Web site; it’s about disseminating information and applications to the users where ever they may be – another Web site, a mobile device, a consumer electronics gadget.
The Distributed Web changes the game for content creators, Web advertisers and marketers, media sites, and consumers. As content and application providers focus on serving consumers where ever they are, they will need new techniques to syndicate content and audit their audience.
The GoogleGazer affirms in part and dissents in part, and is too old to have an opinion, in part . He agrees that Web 2.0 has not [yet] lived up to its hype, and certainly concurs that the “distributed web” is the “next big thing” as usage migrates from Microsoft-taxed desktop domination to a plethora of distributed devices and technologies. The GoogleGazer does not believe, however, that free is dead or that Software As A Service (SAAS) has peaked at all. On the impact of social computing, the GoogleGazer’s three adult children assure him that social computing networks will continue to grow like topsey, notwithstanding all of the privacy concerns inherent in the whole world knowing all you do all the time. He is just too old to get it, and as an only occasional-participant, he doesn’t feel qualified to have an opinion.
In general, however, the GoogleGazer is reminded of Samuel Clemens’ (Mark Twain) famous statement upon reading his prematurely printed obituary. In the New York Journal, in 1897, Twain said “The report of my death was an exaggeration.”; it was also thirteen years premature. Somehow, pundits are always rushing trends along, and have but limited attention spans. The GoogleGazer believes that for Web 2.0, the best is yet to come.
Filed under: disruptive technology, Social Networking, Software As A Service (SAAS), Software as Services, Web 2.0 Tagged: | Chris Shipley, Demo.com, disruptive technologies, Microsoft, New York Journal, ReadWriteWeb, SAAS, Samuel Clemens, Social Networking, software as a service, The Distributed Web, Web 2.0
