Web 2.0, What Now?
December 17, 2012 by 1 Comments
|How well is Web 2.0 stacking up amidst evolution of web medium?
Blogs, podcasts, social media and many user-generated sites and channels can simply be roofed under the big Web 2.0 umbrella. Once one of the most-discussed and talked-about trends in the information superhighway, this web phenomenon that is also often dubbed participatory web became a household name for many businesses, digital advertising and online marketing companies, media establishments, and many people.
After the advent of many recent changes and innovations, what have transpired after this categorical label to describe user-generated digital media started in 1999? Obviously, the tides of change have tremendously affected the many specific fields of web design and development and the lives of application developers.
Now, let’s take a look at Web 2.0’s babies and see what to expect:
Blogs.
While this web format has tremendously revolutionized the way people use the web, blogging has quite lagged behind as the preferred medium of choice among many people. In the past, blogging is personal. Even a single person can launch a blog, such as journalists who had finally found a medium to compete against the more established news media. But when blogs became very popular in recent years and after realizing the promise it can offer, companies open up their own pages to directly reach their customers.
Blogs are here to stay but may adopt a new, different format. The rise of micro-blogging formats like Twitter is already showing us what the future might be like. The future is also being mirrored by the rise of multi-author blogs with focus on niche topics like technology, cooking, gardening, photography, and many of the like. While the blogosphere will continue to revolve, most of the digital personal journals will be replaced by its more collaborative counterparts. Companies are already picking up this trend and opening up their own where they can communicate their brands to their target market.
Social Media.
From a mere social sharing tool, the social networking platform has evolved into a more intimate network to connect with friends and close family members. But the future dominant function of social media as it is already evidently emerging is one that is related to broadcasting. Not in an organized systematic type of broadcasting, but that of personal broadcasting or life-casting.
People will thoroughly maximize their use of social media to increase their social currency or popularity. This can be done by posting and sharing more of what’s on their mind, their experiences and happenings in their shining best moments. Those with accounts at Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Linkein, and Tumblr are sharing far more than ever before their views, commentaries, experiences, and even hidden thoughts. Brian Solis, a popular tech guru, calls this as the “Statusphere” phenomenon.
Crowd-sourcing.
This online transaction exchange system – whereby a person or a company airs or post their problems online over a certain community where willing and able group of unknown people come up with solutions – has gained popularity in recent years. Design agencies and advertising firms alike crowdsources its digital and creative requirements, such as brand logo, graphic design, copywriting taglines, and many of the likes. This online trend has also expanded to now include crowdfunding, where startups look for financial funding or support that will help them realize their dream project or companies.
Today, crowdsourcing continues to expand, spreading to cover other activities that include purchasing, buying, and even rating servicing. Recalls to mind eBay, TripAdvisor, and other similar online enterprises. In non-transactional areas such as knowledge aggregation, the concept of crowdsourcing continues to grow. Crowdsourcing and many of its variants will continue to spread to other niches but it will adopt a more socially-aware or conscious stance. Crowdsourcing websites that are more socially-conscious and socially-responsible might just become trendier next year.
How user-generated sites or Web 2.0 stacked up over the years remains to be seen. Recent advancements in technology continue to change work, home life and play and bring the next level of the state of things to come in participatory online media to even greater heights. Blogging, crowdsourcing or crowd-funding, and social media especially shows marked signs of evolving and continued growth.
What the Foiled Mayan Apocalypse Can Teach Us About Building a Website – 7th-media
Posted January 7, 2013 8:26 AM[...] Web 2.0, What Now? [...]