The Internet is coming into its own as a location. Many, many people spend more time exploring, shopping and being entertained on the Internet than they do in their geographic locations.

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I got spammed today. By a Web 2.0 company.

I thought that was rather funny - using a Web 1.0 method (badly) to advertise their Web 2.0 training sessions - to me, of all people. I’ve been a little skeptical of Web 2.0 in the past.

I marked the message as spam. Usually emails featuring the term “Web 2.0″ provide as much value to me as emails featuring “penis pills”. They’re pretty similar, apparently. A lot of wild, exaggerated claims, followed by nothing. Is e-mail spamming the final death rattle of Web 2.0?

The pitch is full of the usual superlatives and breathless invocation of the next big thing.

“Don’t let your business fall behind! Over 1100 business and technical professionals are already benefiting from attending Web 2.0…events. Shouldn’t you and your team be among them?“

No.

Fall behind what?

According to the e-mail, Google is a Web 2.0 company. As is YouTube (currently being sued for squillions). And MySpace.

So there you have it.

Didn’t make much sense to me, either.

A report from Forrester Research states the bleeding obvious: the enterprise aren’t interested in bleeding edge technology from start-ups.

They never have been.

The enterprise is interested in longevity, mitigating risk, integration with legacy systems, and having someone to sue if all goes belly up.

“CIOs prefer buying a suite solution from larger, incumbent vendors rather than best of breed apps from smaller firms and startups. The report authors noted that the “deck appears to be stacked against small, pure-play vendors; integration issues, longevity concerns, and the occasional lack of polish send CIOs looking for other options.“

Interestingly:

“CIOs saw relatively high business value in RSS, wikis, and tagging and relatively low value in social networking and blogging“

The later two, blogging and social networking, are about media and promotion, which is an area that isn’t of much interest to corporates, outside their marketing departments.

The reality is that Web 2.0 technologies are more likely to find their way in to the enterprise via larger companies.

Further reading: Rough Type, Read Write

Search engines solve a problem.

Finding relevant sites can be difficult. Search engines make that process easier.

The problem with search engines is that they return a long list of sites. The searcher must then wade through sites in order to find the most relevant site. In theory, the most relevant site is #1, but as we all know, that often isn’t the case.

Google made a few dollars by leveraging the wisdom of crowds. They looked at the number of back-links pointing to a site, then gave each back-link a score.

Marketers find search engines interesting because wherever there is attention, there is money. Search results command a lot of attention, so there is money in appearing in the results, in the right place, at the right time.

Social networks, like search engines, leverage the wisdom of crowds. And as these social networks grow in popularity and influence, there is money in appearing high on the lists the networks produce. Appearing high on these lists is fast becoming the new SEM. The skills required have a lot in common with public relations.

For those new to social networks, the following are the most popular “engines”/sites:

• Technorati - tracks 63.2 million blogs. Technorati is the recognized authority on what’s happening on the World Live Web, right now.
• Digg - Community news site. Users contribute stories, which are voted upon. Those stories with the most votes rise to the top.
• MySpace - community site which enables users to share photos, journals and other media.
• YouTube - enables users to share videos.
• Del.ico.us - Similar to Digg. Features community news.
• Reddit - Similar to Digg. Features community news.
• Flickr - Photo sharing website.

The key to social networks is timeliness. They provide a snapshot of what is happening today. There will be a new list tomorrow. And the next day. Search engines are focused on the historical. Search engines are mostly concerned with cataloging and archiving.

The problem with marketing in this space is the make-up and desires of the audience. Social networks center around social topics of discussion, which may or may not have commercial imperatives. So, social networks aren’t going to suit all companies, products and services in the same way search engines do. Putting a social spin on your product or service is the key.

How do marketers appear high on the lists and command community attention?

There is no one optimal approach, as all communities have their different quirks and agendas. One thing all social media sites have in common is the desire to share. Think about what would make someone share one piece of information over another. Read Seth Godin on being remarkable, and viral marketing strategies.

Nick Carr has an interesting couple of posts about a problem facing the web: perhaps bandwidth isn’t unlimited?

Video is big, both in terms of file size and popularity. But what happens when all that media hits the routers as every Joe Average starts to watch movies online ?

Will the web remain neutral?

What happens to the dream of Web 2.0? It is difficult to interact with your data when that data is jammed somewhere upstream.

Or are we just getting sucked into a sinister plot to regulate the internet? Perhaps there are network solutions. Perhaps new technology and infrastructure is required, and will be capable of handling the load.

Remind me the reason Google was buying up all that dark fibre?. The same company who just spent rather a lot of money on a popular video site…

Seth Godin keeps a running total, based on Alexa  data.

On a related note, Search Engine Journal has an excellent article about Yahoo’s acquisition of MyBlogLog:

“MyBlogLog is a hybrid between a blog analytics solution and a social networking environment which has recently swept the blogging world by storm. A ‘MySpace for bloggers’, MyBlogLog lets registered members congregate around communities set up by those members or the blog owners themselves“

MyBlogLog was #47 on Seths chart.

Google have signed a deal with UK broadcaster Sky Television:

“British Sky Broadcasting becomes Google’s first international partner for shared video, e-mail and content provision in a deal that could change the way television broadcasters deliver ads to consumers….Google will provide British Sky Broadcasting with technology to offer e-mail and video search and sharing technology for the broadcaster’s broadband product. They will also help Sky set up its own user-generated content site using technology it obtained through the $1.65 billion US purchase of video-sharing site YouTube in October“

In a related note, Movies-Over-The-Web are going to be a big part of the Hollywood revenue stream before too long. And Apple are well placed to capitalize:

“In fact, the research firm says that the iPod is also laying the foundation for Apple’s “Television 2.0” business expansion, with the advent of video capability and the sale of video programming on iTunes.“

What is the difference between SEM conferences and Web 2.0 conferences?

One appears to be about hot air, and the other is about an advertising channel that actually works.

“The audience at WebmasterWorld is not so concerned about the newest and coolest, nor are you going to see all those people who run AOL, Yahoo or Google. Who you are going to see is a cross section of the foot soldiers of the web. All those people who buy Google AdWords? They’re here….they’re hungy…a little scary. Nobody is dialing it in at this place“.

Less bull, in other words.

On a related note, it will be interesting to see what becomes of Search Engine Strategies. They had Danny Sullivan filling in the gaps between conferences by…well…just being Danny. There appears to be a void now that we know he doesn’t appear to be closely associated with Incisive Media any longer? Also, Danny is starting up his own website in the form of Search Engine Land.

Thx Andrew Goodman

The Web 2.0 love affair with Google may be coming to end. First they realise that Google is really their competition, now TechCrunch, a leading Web 2.0 advocate, receives a cease and desist letter from lawyers representing YouTube.

The problem?

“The offense we committed was creating a small tool that lets people download YouTube videos to their hard drives. We referenced the tool in a recent post that walked people through the process of moving YouTube Videos to their iPod“.

As Arrington notes:

“Of course, the irony of YouTube accusing others of copyright infringement is delicious. But I won’t go into that right now.“

Quite!

The Web 2.0 “revolution” appears to have lost momentum. You know things are on the downward slope when a topic of discussion was “what will be the online pet food of bubble 2.0″?

Reports from the latest Web 2.0 Summit:

• “If you were looking to learn something new this week’s Web 2.0 Summit was not the place to be”
• “there were few revelations, few moments where you had the exhilarating experience of seeing something that was about to change the world. Every conversation I had began with discussing the underwhelming nature of Web 2.0.”
• “I didn’t come away from the conference having learned much”

It sounds like the most interesting thing about it was that Lou Reed played live. Taking a break from Walking On The Wild Side, obviously.

Nick Carr exclaims (tounge-in-cheek) bring on Web 3.0!