I found Seth Porges’s post through Stowe Boyd’s blog. Stowe calls it “the weakest argument against Web 2.0 yet”. I agree.

Seth writes:
“Web 2.0 is/was a bit different. If the defining trait of the first Web cycle was the stupid animated GIF, the current “It” sites all have one thing in common: They are, to varying degrees, reliant on user-generated content. Without your neighbor/classmate/sister/girlfriend’s tireless devotion to keeping her profile up-to-date, MySpace would merely be a place for FOX to promote its properties. Without a horde of news junkies yearning to see their username in digital print, Digg would be an ugly page of yellow and white (and their new profile feature would be a joke).

And that is why the Web 2.0 era will come to end sooner rather than later. Because if there is one immutable law of humankind, it is that we are really, really lazy.

Right now, the bubble that the Web exists in is not so much a financial bubble as it is a time bubble. There is still a novelty for a lot of people associated with finding friends on social networking sites, Digging their favorite stories, updating articles about the history of pinball, and leaving comments on their favorite blogs. But that will wear off. People will revert back to the things they used to do: like Minesweeper and work.”

Are you kidding me Seth? Web 2.0 will die because we will no longer feel a need to connect with others, be too lazy to update our profiles, and would rather revert back to single-player computer games and work? 

I do agree that maintaining up to date profiles on all your social networks does require effort and soon solutions will need to be found in order to allow users to do this more easily. However, until that happens, Web 2.0 will continue to live on regardless because people care much more about connecting with others, voicing their opinions, and being heard, than they care about being lazy. The human race would not have gotten as far as it did if laziness was our primary attribute.

I am so tired of hearing certain people who have no idea what they’re talking about speaking about the death of Web 2.0. If you’ve been reading my blog, you know my belief regarding Web 2.0 - Web 2.0 a better and more effective way for us to act upon the same human needs that we’ve always had such as connecting, communicating, and receiving feedback from others. Social networks, blogs, and podcasts, represent our new way of communicating and interacting with the outside world. The need to communicate and receive feedback from the outside world has been with us since the dawn of time. This need is not going anywhere. Once people received the ability to vote, upload, and create content on the Web, there is no turning back. Web 2.0 is here to stay.

I do believe that today we see too many Web 2.0 products that are practically offering the same services and that at some point soon the process of “survival of the fittest” will take place in our Web 2.0 world. During this time we will see only those Web 2.0 services which best accomodate our needs  outlast their competitors. We will view the fall of many startups and the rise of a few dominant ones in each sector. The strength of these dominant leaders, such as Facebook and MySpace in the social arena and LinkedIn in the professional arena, should not be underestimated. These services will flourish, improve, and lead us to better, more customized and personalized Web solutions in the future. These Web 2.0 platforms will not disappear - they will simply improve to better and more effectively satisfy our needs. Web 2.0 will not die - it will simply evolve.

Thanks to Ludwig for the pic.

I just finished reading an excellent post by Brian Solis regarding conversational marketing.

Brian writes:

“If it’s one thing that we can learn about Social media is that people and the markets they represent have rallied against marketing and slick marketers and have demanded personalization, transparency, and sincerity.

Social Media is about breaking down barriers to engage in conversations.

Conversational marketing isn’t a bandwagon or a golden ticket. It is a call for reform, evolution, and humility.

We’re witnessing the shift from B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to consumer) to P2P (peer to peer) marketing – or better described as conversations between people, not companies doing their best impression of adults in the Peanuts cartoons as they talk to audiences in a monotone, robotic, insincere voice, “wah wah wah wah wahhhhhh.”

No longer are companies controlling the message to their audience but the audience has taken control over the conversation. Each social media platform has its own unique audience with its own opinions and ideas and the marketer must find his place within this network. People are not looking for catchy slogans or traditional advertising technics - they are looking for sincere interaction with the community.

Many traditional marketers have a hard time understanding this new form of conversational marketing and this situation provides a great opportunity for those marketers who are social media experts to step in and lead the way.

However although there are quite a few people who call themselves social media experts, only a small number really understand the art of conversational marketing. This type of marketing is influenced mostly by sociology. As Brian writes: “Relationships are the new metric for ROI.”

Are you as a marketer able to build many long lasting relationships with other members in the network? This is the key to conversational marketing. Engaging in conversation with individuals - commenting on their content, sending them personal messages, interacting with them.

Marketers must remember that they are not welcome within social networks. Many are seen as intrusive if they do not truly know how to become members of their community. Marketers need to earn their right to become members. How can they do this? By learning as much as possible about each network and its members - their likes, their dislikes, their views, etc. Think of each network as a country with its own culture and remember that you are entering a living, breating community made up of diverse individuals.

Doc Searls  writes: “The framing for conversational marketing should be conversation, not marketing. Think about what you want in a conversation, and let that lead your marketing…[conversations are] about paying attention, not getting attention.”

In the end of it all, the success of your efforts in any network will depend on how much you give back to the community. The more you give of yourself, the more you’ll get back.

 Thanks to Somethin’ New for the pic.

After I published my last post regarding the psychological aspects behind Web 2.0’s success, I received a great deal of feedback from you guys. One of my readers, Ahuvah, told me about the post that she had just written entitled  How The Internet Ruined My Social Skills.

In her post, Ahuvah writes:

“Facebook replaced the phone calls and emails. Why pick up the phone and spend money when you could share your entire life via one site? My pictures, videos, blog posting, email, etc. are all displayed and sent via Facebook. I check Facebook more times a day than I’d like to count. I could chose to read the messages, flick through the pictures and read my friends walls to see what is going on with their lives without ever having to directly ask them “How are you?”
The downfall is that now in order for me to really connect to my friends I need to start all over. I need to learn how to have a conversation that does not bore me with the details. I cannot scan a conversation looking for the key points. I need to remember that people communicate differently in person then they do online.”

Ahuvah adds that technology is great but we should always remember that technology does not replace face-to-face connections. 

I can relate to this post as well. On the surface, it seems that many of us are so used to online relationships now that we forgot how to have deeper relationships in which we invest more in than just a poke or sending a drink to someone. It seems that we are all in a sort of ”me” phase right now. We upload links, pictures, videos of ourselves and scan our friends’ information for what interests us, looking for the “key tags”, but not necessarily really “listening” to what they have to say. Then again, is it even humanely possible to deeply connect with as many friends as we each have on all the different social networks?

My opinion is that Facebook, Twitter, and other such platforms allow us to connect on some level with many more people than we ever could have before these platforms came into existence. And it’s not only more people that we connect with, but more people from all over the globe. Most chances are that we would have never even met those people if we did not have these platforms. Therefore I think that we as humans are trying to find new ways to adapt to this new situation of sustaining as many relationships as we have today.

No longer is the question of “what is Karen in Australia up to”? relevant. We all know what Karen is up to if she updates her Facebook and Twitter status on a regular basis and let’s us know about her daily activities. So yes, perhaps I don’t go over every single detail on Karen’s profiles, but on the whole, I know more about what Karen’s doing on a daily basis than I would have known if I did not have these networks.

I do think the point that Ahuvah makes regarding the fact that nothing replaces face-to-face connections is important. Of course there is nothing deeper than a meeting between two close friends sharing personal details with one another. However, I do think that in this age of technology, we are growing accustomed to sustaining many types of relationships with different people in our lives. With some we meet on a regular basis, others we may poke and send Facebook messages to on a daily basis, and yet with others we may only have a “blogging” relationship where we comment on each other’s posts.  This is a new age for us - an age where we can connect with more people than ever before - and we need to learn how to do that without losing our “core” relationship skills.

What do you guys think? Do you feel that your relationship skills have deteriorated due to social networking? Did you forget how to sustain deeper relationships with people or are you just adapting to the new situation at hand?

Thanks to Honest for the beautiful pic.

I have recently read Yarden Lewinsky’s post regarding Web 2.0 and The Evolution of the Ego. This is a fascinating article written in Hebrew and I wanted to share its key ideas with you. Since Yarden is a Medical Doctor specializing in Psychiatry and also has been involved in a few internet projects, he has a deep understanding of the human psyche and in this post he uses his knowledge to interpret the reasons behind the high usage and popularity of Web 2.0 platforms as we know them today.

Yarden refers to another post by Idan which explains the popularity of Web 2.0 sites like Facebook or Twitter: 

“Given the correct tools, people have a desire to talk to and with an audience or community. Chat, SMS, Email - all these are classic tools for one-on-one interaction (or one-on-few). Web 2.0 opens up new possibilities to talk one-to-many or many-to-many which answers a very basic human need people have in communicating with the outside world.”

Yet Yarden points out that this explanation still does not answer relevant questions such as: Why do people want to talk to and with a community? Is there one basic reason that can answer this question or are there a few? And if we can detect these reasons could we use them in order to build better products?

All the developmental psychological theories deal in essence with a person’s self identity and his relations with his environment. We understand that at a very early stage of human development the definition of self identity stops being dependent only on the person himself and starts being affected by his interaction with his surroundings. Every psychological theory defines this process differently, has different names for it, and gives different explanations regarding the mechanisms which affect this process. Yet if we understand the mechanisms which cause this and are able to detect which ones are dominant in every person, then we can better explain the behavior of this person in later stages of his life. In this manner we can explain why one person may be an introvert and another an exhibitionist.

It is very easy to claim that Web 2.0 is a technological revolution (specifically because of things like RSS, AJAX, API, and XML), yet this is not the case. Web 2.0 is simply a social progression based on the understanding of human needs (see my post entitled Why We Should Care About Web 2.0 where I make the same point). The claim is that technology changes human behavior in a drastic way. Yet in order for technology to succeed and become popular, it must imitate human behavior in order to satisfy our most basic needs and urges.

If we take the most famous sites in the Web 2.0 world we will see that these sites actually allow us to do what we were doing all along, even before the internet, but in a more effective manner. MySpace or FaceBook are based on the way in which we manage our social contacts, Skype is based on our need to talk with others, Google is based on the way that we rank things, Flickr is based on the manner in which we share experiences with others, Amazon is based on the way we talk about books, and Delicious is based on the manner in which we try to remember things.  In essence, the innovativeness of these sites does not come from the fact that they created something new, but rather, from the way in which they allow us to do what we’ve always done - better, more times, in more places, and faster.

Now we understand how these applications became popular. Yet we have yet to explain why we continue to use them. What brings people to use applications like Twitter every couple of minutes in order to let the world know what they drank, ate, or saw? Why are some of us inclined to become friends of other people who we don’t even know on all the different social networks and get updates on all their doings? Why do some of us share our most secret thoughts and intimate details in public blogs? The more popular these applications and platforms become, the more the term privacy diminishes from our language. Today almost everything is public and if it’s already public, then it might as well be distributed on a worldwide scale.

In order to understand this phenomenon we go back to the dynamic theories of man and the society in which we live. According to Kohut’s theory, in the first few months of a baby’s life, the baby expects his environment to provide him with all the essential components that he needs for self development. The “other” turns into what Kohut refers to as “Self Object” which provides the baby with the three most basic components that each person requires: Self value, idealization, and comprehensibility. Kohut also claims that throughout our lives we need the same “Self Object’s” feedback that we see in others around us. In other words, we define other people not as separate identities from us but rather as a continuous source of self satisfaction. When a man with a “defective” self image meets another person for the first time, he does not ask “who is this person? What’s special about him? And what do we have in common?” but rather, he asks “what will I get from him? How will he appreciate me? And how will he affect my self image?” Therefore this person is not able to to build a mature and honest connection with the other.

If we look at what’s happening now in our Web 2.0 world we may easily argue that the most prominent social trend of the last twenty years is narcissism. Our society emphasizes the idea of self potential, uniqueness, and self branding. We raise our kids under the impression that all are created equal and that everyone has the same potential to be rich or famous, even though it has been proven in many studies that this claim is not accurate and that the chances of someone from a lower social standing to become famous are lower than those of someone from a higher social standing. Furthermore, we show our kids that success is actually based on “luck”. You’ll be famous if they’ll hear about you on American Idol, or if you win Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, or if you’ll win the lottery. Thousands of teenagers try to get on American Idol even though we all know that only a few will actually be able to survive as professional artists. Yet we continue to glamorize celebs and forget that if we tell our kids continuously that they could become one of those famous people then their main focus in life will be concentrated on the everlasting search of fame and fortune.

Therefore what we find ourselves with is a full generation of ”little narcissists” who have been educated to think that their personal success is connected mainly to what other people in their surrounding think about them. And then we bring in the internet. On the Web, any average narcissist can find what he’s looking for: A few success stories of people who have become “famous” on the internet based on having thousands of friends on all the different networks, and the possibility for receiving constant, immediate, and limitless feedback is continued. From that moment on, every narcissist presents “his stuff” to the public without limitation of privacy out of hope for receiving acceptance and reassurance. Interpersonal relations continue to exist but turn into something less meaningful while the hope to “be discovered” becomes much more meaningful. In essence, the narcissist can now redefine himself, based on the response of others.

The most successful sites are those that have recognized these basic human needs which are deeper than needs such as “I want to learn” or “I want to talk/read”. It doesn’t matter that most of these people will never become famous. What matters is that these sites help us answer our most basic question as humans: Who are we?

People become members of MySpace or Twitter and write in their blogs because it gives them the feeling that they are famous. They check the statistics of the number of readers they have, how many comments they received, how many subscribe to their “broadcasts”, because all these stats strengthen their sense of self. This is the way they define themselves. All those services that we mentioned above do not invoke the human need for attention, but rather they satisfy it - the same human need that exists amongst all of us and that is affected by our society. Web 2.0 simply allows us to become more human.

 What do you think?  Do you agree with this claim? Would you add other factors into it?

Thanks to Niila Keshava for the pic.

360Gadget has launched its new personalized start page app for Facebook. If you’re a Facebookaholic like me, you’ll love this application. It allows you to do many of your other web activities without needing to leave the social network.

The application also allows you to subscribe to your favorite RSS feeds, search Google, and write notes for yourself. The page’s layout is customizable just like your Facebook profile so you can drag-n-drop and arrange the page just like you want it to look. But this isn’t the best part…the application also allows you to access your POP3 email account so you can read your mail directly from your Facebook page. Pretty cool ha?

Need some help in finding a good Italian restaurant in your area? Looking for a new addictive TV show to follow? TryThis.com is a new social recommendation and discovery site where you can recommend just about anything…products, services, even people.

Without even registering, you can browse through the “Stuff People are Asking About” and the “I Just Tried” sections of the site which will show you recommendations that people have already suggested or requested on the site. If you haven’t found exactly what you were looking for, you can also search for a specific topic and find what others have said about it.

There is a vast array of topics that are already being discussed…TV shows, news, bars, movies, restaurants, relationships, startups, marketing, etc. There is even currently a mock election to see who should be President of the United States next term. On Halloween, TryThis.com will contribute $1000 to the candidate with the most votes.

After the registration process, users are instructed to build their group of interests. During this stage, users are presented with a grid on the right side of the screen, and a search box on the left. Using the search, users can find products that they are interested in, represented by thumbnail images. These images can then be dragged over to the “Interests” grid, where it will save that product as one of the user’s interests.

It’s interesting to browse through the site and see what products and topics people are talking about. You can ask for a recommendation from the whole community or just from your friends. I like this feature because it allows me as a member to have some control over my own privacy. There may be be certain questions that I only want to share with my friends and not with everyone else.

When you post a request for a recommendation you are required to provide tags along with your request. This allows for a more organized site and relevant search results. When you post a recommendation about a specific product, you are are provided with the same drag feature from the Interests section. The search for the product is managed in the same way, and all you need to do is simply drag the desired product image to the small box below. During this process search results can be narrowed by store, with available choices such as Amazon, Buy.com, CompUSA, PC Mall and more.

TryThis uses the Digg ranking method for the recommendations that users provide, and also offers users the ability to just post comments about the topic if they do not have any advice to give.

Shoaib Anwar, co-founder of TryThis, tells me: “We’re working to add a lot of new features including categorization of requests and suggestions…plus to kick off the site, a point system to award prizes to users with good recommendations. We’re still working out the details but hope to introduce the contest soon.” Features that they are currently working on adding include:

1) New stores to recommend products from

2) Categories to help separate requests like “Looking for a date who enjoys Broadway Shows” from  “Need new horror stories to read”. One of the cool things about the site is that people can recommend other people to each other, so not only can you help your friend find a date, but you could potentially use the site to hire new employees based on friends’ recommendations.

3) Ability to discuss stuff that people have submitted in the “I Just Tried” section

4) A Facebook application within the next week that is similar to the “I Just Tried” section

5) A point system so users can be rewarded by each other for good recommendations and win prizes

6) A way to submit or request stuff right away via your mobile device

7) An advertising platform where vendors can give featured recommendations which would offer discounts to the users, but be subject to the same voting system as other recommendations — making it in the best interest of the advertiser to offer high quality benefits/rewards

One problem I found while testing out the site is that each time I submitted profile changes, a small dialog box popped up in the middle of my screen which essentially “froze” me from taking any other actions until the box disappeared. This was a bit annoying to say the least and should be fixed as soon as possible.

Another issue I have with the site is this: While it is great that you can discuss so many different topics, in my mind it also presents a problem. Many of the topics on the site did interest me, but many others didn’t. It would be good if TryThis.com found a way to filter out the “noise” for me based on my own particular interests, tags, behavior, etc.  So for example, if the system knows I am usually interested in Web 2.0, software, technology, social networks, etc., it would present me with this info on my homepage and not with other topics. Think of it as a customized homepage based on your own interests. The system would then notify me everytime someone made a new recommendation or requested a recommendation that was related to my particular interests. Just like Yedda, the knowledge community, filters out the vast amount of questions on its site that may not be of interest to you by sending you emails in regards to specific questions that relate to your particular tags of interests, TryThis could do the same. I think this would greatly enhance the site and encourage more users to sign up.

TryThis is only a month old so it still has some time to improve its service. Overall I liked the concept and the interface and I definitely think it would be worthwhile for you all to check it out.

Here’s a very cool video created by Yigal that I found on 5min.com. In this video, Yigal shows us how we can make Google images fly… 

Enjoy!

Dror Gill liked my How to Effectively Use Social Networks post so much that he turned it into a song. Thanks Dror! You can check it out here.

The lyrics go as follows:

Social networks are so great
A wonderful place to meet and mate
But there are a few simple rules
To make them really an effective tool
Virtual communities are made of live people
Each one is different - they are not equal
So if you want a social network to embrace
Put details of your life right in their face

Place tons of information in your profile page
Your interests, hobbies, links, and books - not just your age!
Upload the videos and photos that you took
And pictures of yourself - so people know how you look

If someone has an image of you in their head
It is much easier for him or her to become your friend
Don’t forget to add the posts from your blog
A full RSS feed, or only the log

Mash-up your profiles from other online sites
Add Twitter, Digg and Yedda to your Facebook tonight
Find people with the same interests and add them as friends
And you’ll end up running into them again and again

Show everyone on the planet who you really are
Be genuine, don’t pretend and you will get very far
Some people will like you and some people won’t
But that’s life, no matter what you do or don’t

Maybe you’re asking: What’s the best way
To make online connections, the kind that stay?
Through blogging or social networks? Which one should I choose?
My answer is simple: Use both or you loose

We have many social networks that seem all the same
Filing your details in all of them may seem insane
But if you don’t do it, you should know it is wrong
And that’s what I’m telling you in this song

If you are a company, follow the same rules
Be honest with your community, they are not fools
Admit your mistakes, tell only what’s true
Give personal replies to what they ask you

I said it before, and I’ll repeat it here
The borders online are not always clear
I think it’s a good thing, that on Flickr reside
Professional and personal pictures side by side

People like to connect with others who are open
If you allow them into your world, you will be well spoken
A rich profile is a sign that you’re socially aware
So show them all of our faces, don’t be scared!

In addition, since the GeekCon event (a short summer camp for geeks to relax, get creative and inspired) took place yesterday and today in Israel, Dror,  inspired a few other people to get into the groove. Together they created this awesome rap video - a revised version of the song, which you can check out on Jeff Pulver’s blog.

Thank you guys! So when do we get started on creating the clip for MTV?

If you had three million dollars to invest in any startup company, which one would you choose and why? Your answer can also include startup ideas that don’t exist yet…

Thanks to Dierken for this pic.