Web 2.0’s Highlights March 7, 2006
Posted by theexpress in blog, internet, open source, social, web 2.0.5 comments
I try not to post too much to what others say around the web, especially when it involves the collective term Web 2.0, but I found this picture, and it really puts the internet around us in perspective. The Web 2.0 term has been around for quite a while now, and most of the web buzz has been around it. There is no specific grounds for it, but it just refers to the new breed of websites out there that have a more interactive approach to the internet. Just looking through this picture, one can probably see that they are more involved with the new web that they would think.
I find it amazing that in this short time, we have all become so attached to not only the internet that has been around for ten years, but Web 2.0 in specific.
I briefly counted through the web sites that I am a part of or have been to, and with only looking at a fraction of the picture, I recognized dozens of them. Even those that have never really heard of Web 2.0 have probably been to some of the more popular sites like Wikipedia, Skype, and our beloved WordPress. The new web connects us in a way never before done. Years ago, the world seemed so much bigger, but now, you can say that you were talking to someone halfway around the world without batting an eye. This picture is just an example of how we all opened up around the world (which could be another post in itself) and how our lives have changed through the internet. There is a link here from the artist’s flickr page and it has some of the different sites linked on the picture.
Companies Eyes Open March 2, 2006
Posted by theexpress in blog, business, internet.add a comment
Ever since the blogosphere encompassed the internet, companies did not act on the goldmine that they received. It is full of countless blogs that offer unbiased advice that can really tell the company what the consumer is interested in. Like I mentioned in a previous, the amount of weblogs on the internet just keep growing and it feels like there is no end in sight. A light bulb has just clicked in their minds that they might want to take full advantage of this while it is still red hot.
Thats why companies are now starting to employ crawlers to scour the internet and find anything in blogs, forums, or social networking sites that may be related to their products. The demand is so high that there are even companies forming that specifically cater to the other companies that need the crawlers. Companies like BuzzMetrics have programs that fetch comments and posts all over the internet and break down the data into related groups. The data then goes to the companies that are those specific fields. It allows large businesses in any industry to capture the buzz around their products or find out what they can do better. Hopefully, the info will be used by more and more companies and everyday products out there can be geared to the consumer much better.
Even companies like NBC saw foresaw the low Olympic viewer ratings because of this technology. The highest buzz was right after the torch was lit, then the chatter went down and down. It was at its worst when people proclaimed that they’d much rather watch American Idol than the “boring” Olympics. But we can all see that as the blogoshere grows, so will the demand for companies to cash in on it. But “cashing in on it” has a bad connotation. Remember, they are doing it to hear out opinion, so the cashing in is really the fruits of our web chatter.
Weblogs: Everyone’s Doing It February 20, 2006
Posted by theexpress in blog, internet.add a comment
On February 6th, technorati posted its newest results on the current state of the blogosphere. Then on the 14th, the second part of their findings was published on their site.
The results are shocking. The illustration shows that since March of 2003, the number of blogs on the Internet have doubled four times. I know personally that this cant be too far fetched because in the past two years, I have created five different weblogs. Along with this one, I regularly post on one other, so it shows that it is so easy to create, and forget about, blogs in minutes.
According to technorati, there are 50,000 blog updates every hour and 1.2 million posts a day. The rate currently holds that a new blog is created each second and the current blogosphere is sixty times larger than it was three years ago. Weblogs are even starting to edge out mainstream media sites when they look for their news.
You can see the usual suspects when it comes to the latest news on top. The New York Times, CNN, and The Washington Post top the list, but when you look a little further down, you’ll see that there is a change in tide. Popular blogs like Boing Boing and Engadget are showing up on the list and their counterparts are only going to show up more.
For a more detailed summary, check out “State of the Blogosphere” part one and part two on technorati.
