News Flash: Web 2.0 is so over, and nobody has made any money. Large social networking sites have yet to give brands a method of monetizing,
and the tired business model of “get funded then get bought by Google”
has been a bust for both the Googles and the startups (see Feedburner, YouTube, and DoubleClick).
So companies need to do something different, which means that we are
on the frontier of a shift in online communication and activity. The
first shift was when this little online bookstore called Amazon took over eCommerce, and the second shift was when a war between MySpace and Facebook became worthy of Wall Street Journal coverage.
The third shift is already starting to take place, and it’s likely
that only the biggest companies (like Google and Facebook) are poised
to make it, due to the resources web applications will soon require.
Here is where the future of web applications is headed:
1. More automation
People are just plain tired of trying to keep up with social media.
Or at least I am, and I work in social media! Web applications need to
get more automated than they already are, and they need to do the
obvious things I forget to do.
Like when I visit a website three times, I want my feed reader to
automatically subscribe me to it. When I share posts, I want my feed
reader to automatically publish those links to my Twitter account
sporadically throughout the day, and a roundup of links to my blog
every three days. When I comment on an article, I want my feed reader
to automatically subscribe me to the comments.
As a former web software developer, I know this stuff isn’t difficult, so why aren’t companies doing enough of it?
2. Customized customizations
you aren’t like me. Maybe you want to publish links from your feed
reader to Twitter, but not to your blog. Maybe you want Twitter to get
updated right when you share. Maybe you don’t care what anyone else has
commented, you just want to share your opinion.
Companies: it takes simple if-then statements to manage these
customizations and make everyone happy. It is so easy to create these
settings; it baffles me why it isn’t done already. With the fast-paced
creation of new web applications, your customers will find a solution
to their unique problem. Make sure the solution comes from you.
3. Fully integrated management tools
My head is spinning with the number of accounts I have on social media sites. OpenID is trying to solve the problem with one login for everything, and FriendFeed is trying to aggregate accounts into a lifestream. These companies are sort of on the right track, but have a long way to go.
Meanwhile, we’re all exhausted from generating useful content on all
these sites. I should be able to generate content once and have it
pushed everywhere else without setting up a ton of third party
applications that still only do 75% of what I want. Companies that
succeed will integrate with all the big web applications, not just a
couple.
4. Complete solutions
do not want to purchase a can opener; I want to purchase a swiss army
knife. And then I want to be able to detach and reattach each piece, so
the swiss army knife doesn’t weigh as much when I carry it in my purse.
Give me a full solution to my problem. I don’t want to hack around with
three one-off third party applications to get your product to do
something useful (ahem, Twitter).
And if the big companies don’t want to build it themselves, let the
API companies build it, and then buy their solutions. Startups with
their own product or website are out - the new way to get acquired will be through tightly integrated API development with already established communities.
5. Virality with purpose
It’s a lot of work to sniff out good stuff to read and good tools to
use. It’s much easier when that work is done for me, by people I trust.
So people need an easy way to share items, and people need to be
selective in what they share so that they can really add value to their
community, and going viral needs to go to content that actually deserves it.
Very very good algorithms, combined with trusted friends that I
opt-in to, can take care of this - the data is there already, it just
needs to be managed. Companies that create a decentralized rating
system that can’t be scammed will be the ones to get my business.
6. Localized communities
it isn’t clear right now why huge social networks aren’t working for
some types of businesses and professions, let me give you a hint.
Because, as a company, creating online ties to a stranger who doesn’t
live in your area rarely holds enough benefit to make the relationship
worth nurturing on a regular basis.
I’m not talking about reading the blog of some smart person from Boston
when you live in Kansas. That’s okay. I’m talking about companies
trying to sell products and themselves to people halfway across the
country. There is no point in connecting me to a job that suits my
interests when that job is in San Francisco and I’m in Chicago. There
is no point in trying to sell me a custom-made gown when I would have
to fly to Florida to get measured first.
If the trend of Web 2.0 was connecting everyone to everywhere for
everything, the new trend will be connecting people to other people in
their area based on interests.
7. Expedited functionality
Growing slowly in social media is not an option anymore. Seriously. The way in which the world is changing is exponential, not linear.
If you’re not hiring a massive team of developers for your startup, you
will probably not catch up to the big guns. With all the change that is
coming for web companies, the most established Web 2.0 companies may be
the only ones to still matter in the future of the web.
Companies, look around. There is no shortage of people with ideas to
improve your web applications as we make the awkward transition into
the next frontier of web applications. Above all, listen to your
customers because, to be sure, there is no shortage of people with
ideas to improve your competitor’s products either.
Da : Mashable - Monica OBrien
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