Why Web 2.0 is really search again.
Posted on August 21, 2007 in Information Theory | Comments (0)
One of the thing that is interesting about the current crop of Web 2.0 startups are that people are often just splashing the veneer of social networking and then copying an existing site. This has resulted in the usual glut of Youtube clones.
What many people often miss about social networking is that people are using social networking in a lot of different ways but one of the people are using social networking sites is as a type of lens for information. This is best typified by a site like Del.ico.us where the social bookmarking site operates much like a filter, chosen by the community at large to fine the best resource on a topic. This human filtering mechanism helps through the huge amount of information smog out there on the net. (Thanx Adsense!) . The best Web 2.0 plays (Digg comes to mind) serve as filter for the site's users and will typically offer resources useful to that audience. The topic specific portions of Digg carry fairly relevant information to their target audiences and for those users, often provide a leaping off point for both discussion and the best way to do something. This goes back to the one of the killer applications of successful Web 2.0 applications, providing users the ability sort through the data smog.
