A number of recent articles have suggested we may be heading for the second web crash. Most of these theories are base don the inflated prices being paid for barely profitable companies because they fall under the category of “social media” or because they are the latest phenomenon on the web. Others are quoting the fact that advertiser supply is outstripping demand and many websites are being left with unfulfilled inventory.
But does this signify the beginning of the end? I don’t think so. I’m not saying change isn’t around the corner, but at the end of the day many companies are yet to fully embrace the potential of the Internet and so there is still growth on the horizon as far as I can see. I agree with the comments about inflated prices, Google is unlikely to ever recoup the $1.65 Billion it paid for Youtube unless it can come up with a more innovative way of monetising its traffic. Similarly, although it is a profitable network, Microsoft paid a massively inflated price of $240 million for a measly 1.6% share in Facebook which it will never see a return on (in my humble opinion). But this does not necessarily mean that we are seeing a repeat of the dot com collapse. For a start, Google and MSN can afford it, they have VERY large warchest built up from years of successful ventures.
More likely, for me, is that we will see a fall in the ad prices demanded as inventory grows and needs to be fulfilled. This may mean the demise of some smaller players in the market but those with a strong legacy and a solid proposition will survive and continue to prosper. In any industry you are at risk unless you have a solid offering and the Internet is no different, just because a few bedroom companies go out of business doesn’t make it the end of the Internet!
All of this can only be good for advertisers as the market levels out, and potentially dips a little, so will the prices. Bring it on I say!
Just as people are getting to grips with the so called web 2.0 phenomenon already there are people within the internet market touting the arrival of web 3.0! hang on, what happened there? did I miss something?
Apparently, where as web 2.0 was about engagement and interaction, web 3.0 is the “semantic web”, where computer intelligence interprets information without use intervention. An example given by Ruth Mortimer of brand strategy, is that of search engine spiders and how, with the emergence of web 3.0, will be able to interpret context and meaning of text within a page rather than simply looking at code without meaning, hence giving a more sophisticated search result.
But where did web 2.0 go? I think there is a real danger here of people getting ahead of themselves and predicting the future before theyve mastered the present. Many companies are yet to embrace the web 2.0 ethic (and some even the basics of online!) and to go around touting the revolution is scare mongering in the extreme unless it is given some context. My advice to companies reading these articles would be to look at your webstie from a customers point of view, decide what they would want to see, what they would want to do and provide this functionality. If you get the basics right to start with and put in place an infrastructure solid enough to support it you will be in a strong postion to embrace whatever new technologies are around the corner.
It has been reported this week that the rise in traffic to social networking sites has coincided with a drop in traffic to web mail sites such as yahoo mail and hotmail. This has sparked discussion about the use of social networks for communication sparking of the demise of web based email. Obviously this is an overreaction, as tends to happen with the press, but it is an interesting point all the same. Where is the need for personal email accounts when you can be in touch with all your friends through myspace, facebook, or whichever else is the network of the moment. This led me to consider what are the limitations of social networks which could be the saving grace for web mail solutions? So I compiled the list below:
- Reach: although the social networks have huge user bases they are unlikely to cover everybody you know, yet most people will have a functioning email address. There is therefore likely to be at least a few people within your group of friends you cannot contact through your network of choice.
- Flexibility: you can write what you want in an email, and can attach any type of file you wish, making it a much more flexible solution than the networks. They are however catching up through the various plug ins and applications that are sprouting up daily.
- Privacy: emails are more private than wall post, although facebook has the facility to send private messages as well.
- Length of message: wall posts are more like the text messages with emails as the phone calls. more detail can be added and more information contained and explained, the phone call still isn’t dead despite the popularity of texts.
I’m sure there are more to add to the list but none that I can think of right now. It will be interesting to see if the trend continues though and what this means to the email portals. Falling usage must also results in a fall in advertising rates and available inventory??
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: friday answers, friday fun, yahoo answers
I’ve decided to add a new feature to my blog for a little fun. You see, I’m a big fan of Yahoo answers, it’s interesting, useful, interactive and most of all, hilarious! There are some real comedians on the site and although it probably annoys the hell out of the people asking the questions, I find it highly amusing when I come across comedy answers to posted questions. So moving forward I am going to post some of the best of yahoo answers on my blog each Friday, just for giggles. Here are the first offerings:
Question – As a christian; how would you approach a homosexual?
Answer – from the rear of course!
Question – Since there is no marriage in heaven, do you think that we will lose the feelings for the opposite sex?
Answer - We all get 75 virgins! WOOOH!
Question – What is Hell Like?
Answer – its in northern england and its called crew
Answer – Warm most of the year. Windy in March. Great Mexican food. Great night life. Not a whole lot of high culture. Taxes are way too high. Nice people. Bring your English/Spanish dictionary.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Radiohead recently attempted to revolutionise the way music is sold by offering their latest album In Rainbows through the website, with the purchaser choosing how much they wanted to pay. The minimum cost of which would be 45p for the handling fee. Apparently of the 5000 responses they got to the survey of purchasers asking how much they paid a quarter admitted to being freeloaders and taking the album for the minimum price. The average price paid for the standard album was £3.88, not bad really considering this figure is 862% above what they could have got away with paying.
But will this spark a trend for music sales? will other artists follow suit? I remain unconvinced. For a start the model only works through the artists own website, where the perception is that the money is going direct to the people who made the music. It would never work for a retailer such as hmv as people would be much more inclined to pay the minimum if they thought that the “middle man” was taking a cut.
I do though see it as a good test of honesty and perceived value. I recently spoke to some people who refused to download free music from the internet as they felt that the artists had put in a lot of time and effort in producing it and so should be recorded through a real purchase. These are the sort of people who undoubtedly paid a lot higher than the 45p minimum. I also think that by giving people the option of choosing how much they pay you are tapping into their conscience and getting a real view of whether they are a “free-loader” or not.
Interesting to note that the album will get a full cd release as well and so radiohead were not pinning all hope on this model. Maybe it was just a publicity stunt, who knows.
How much would I pay? I am not sure. Certainly more than 45p, probably more like £5, that seems like a fair figure for a full album. It will be interesting to see whether the trend actually does catch on and this is the model which revolutionises the music industry.
Filed under: Uncategorized
It has been reported throughout the Internet this week that due to pressure applied through a group set up on social networking site Facebook HSBC has performed a U-turn on a proposed change in student overdraft rates. The plan was to abolish the interest free overdraft for recent graduates and replace it with a 19.9% interest rate. But after the group was set up on Facebook opposing the change which attracted over 5,000 members HSBC decided against it and refunded anyone who had already been affected.
Is this a sign of things to come or just a product of the current frenzy around social media? HSBC claim it shows “they are not too big to listen to the needs of customers.” But what was it that actually convinced them to make the change? The 5000 people who joined the Facebook group, or the fact it received national press attention through the BBC and countless other news sites?
My guess it is the later and rather than a sign of people power it is the weight of the news networks which has forced this move. HSBC more concerned with their image in the eyes of the masses rather than 5000 students on a website.
It does go to show however how the medium of social networking can be used to add weight to a greivance and force action. I’m sure we will see plenty more of these groups sprouting up in the coming months but suspect not so many will get the mass exposure needed for them to have any great impact. In the meantime HSBC earn brownie points for listening to the “little people” and a few skint students get to live interest free for another few months!
Filed under: Uncategorized
There have been a couple of instances recently which have made me consider whether we are giving away too much personal information on Facebook and other social networking sites.
The first was when I got an alert on my Facebook homepage with a little broken heart symbol next to it letting me know that somebody I knew had changed their status from “in a relationship” to “single”. Now the person in question was not somebody I am particularly close to, I know this person, but do not necessarily consider them a friend, and certainly not a close friend. It got me thinking, if I changed an element of my status as personal as whether I was in a relationship or not, or possibly something even something more so like whether I like men or women! (not that I am thinking about it!) then would I want it broadcast to my whole friend list? No is the answer.
There are certain things I want to keep to myself and a select group of close friends and family, and within my friend list I have old friends I have not spoken to for years, casual acquaintances, and friends of friends I have met once or twice. I don’t particularly want to reduce my friend list significantly to avoid this as there may come a point when I want to contact these people but I certainly don’t want to be broadcasting my private life to them. So what’s the answer to this conundrum? At the minute I don’t know, I’m hoping the people at Facebook might find a way to sort that out for me!
The second instance was on the long drive home from work when I was listening to the radio. There was a discussion about how it was possible to access other peoples Facebook accounts and a caller pointed out the amount of information that was contained within your profile and more specifically if you collected that information you could pretty much steal someone’s identity. I was a little dubious at first but then when I looked into it they were not far wrong. If you are a “friend” of somebody or they have a public profile you can pick up their full name, their date of birth, their town of birth, their partners name, and in some instances mobile number as well. Not a bad start if you want to try and pass yourself off as somebody else! Coupled with this is the fact that most peoples passwords to accounts are based on information such as this so if you try enough combinations you may be able to guess their current passwords as well!
I guess the moral of the story is, keep your profile private and be careful who you call a friend!
Filed under: Uncategorized
I cant belive the cheeky so and so’s use this as a way to get a link to their website!
