the Web Chef's e-Bytes

Web Tidbits - Wikis, Web 2.0

ReadWrite Web has a great posting called the World of Wikis.  The article explains the history of wikis, offers suggestions on what they can be used for and provides links to wiki creation tools.  For another resource on wikis see my recent article in Wisconsin Technology Network "Joining the wiki waki world".

In other recent news McKinsey research released on March 22nd "How Businesses are Using Web 2.0" and reported by Business Week finds that large corporations are wary to invest in web 2.0 technologies.  The research found that of common web 2.0 technologies that well under 50% planned to invest in them.  Among the findings of those using or planning to use specific tools were the following:

• Social Networking - 37%
• RSS - 35%
• Podcasts - 35%
• Wikis - 33%
• Blogs - 32%
• Mashups - 21%

The disheartening results were attribued to fear and lack of familiarity with the technologies.  Not to surprisingly smaller more entrepreneurial companies were found to be more conversant and willing to adopt these new technologies.

Web Tidbits - Web 2.0 and Unethical Behavior

Web 2.0
Statsaholics has an interesting ranking of 952 Web 2.0 Companies sponsored by Seth Godin that ranks them according to their Alexa rank and how it has changed over the past 6 months.  YouTube was number 1 followed by Myspace, Orkut, Wikipedia and eBay.

Seth Godin has a good reminder about the definition of mashups, a term he claims that the mainstream media doesn't "get".  For more on mashups see my article "Would you like your data and (music) mashed?" in Wisconsin Technology Network. 

Ethics and Behavior
Michelle Miller at WonderBranding for Women has an interesting posting linking to an article in the Hartford Courant about Best Buy's Internet shenanigans.  According to her posting the author of the article found that Best Buy had created a dummy intranet site that allowed in-store personnel to rebut claims when told that the BestBuy.com web site had a lower price.  They'd pull up the intranet site showing that the price was higher.  If this story is proven to be true it shows a blatant disregard for ethical behavior in pricing across distribution channels.

Search Engines
Not to be kept in 3rd place, Microsoft has announced a plan to "pay" companies to use Windows Live Search according to a posting in WeirdTechNewsHub.  The plan has Microsoft offering "service or training credits" based on the number searches in a sample of corporations that use Windows Live Search.

SimpleHuman blog had a posting about GoogleGuide, a resource to help you use Google more effectively.

 

Enterprise Mash-ups

Business Week has released an article “When Companies Do The Mash” reporting that businesses are increasingly using mash-ups or what they also called composite applications to enhance their business operations.  The concerns about mashups referenced in the article include:

• Security
• Reliability
• Scalability

The article also discusses how both Intuit and Microsoft have integrated outside services into their accounting packages. 

To learn more about mash-ups see my article “Would you like your data and (music) mashed?”, 8/25/06

Web Tidbits

Online Video
Click Z reports that NBC has launched NBBC or the the National Broadband Company to distribute NBC created content while providing additional advertising opportunities.  This will allow NBC to have greater control of their intellectual property and to generate additional advertising revenues.

Online Advertising
ClickZ also reports that Miva will be offering inline advertising where ads pop-up when a user mouses over a keyword in a story.  The ads are similar to those offered by Vibrant Media's InteliTXT according to the article.

RSS in Marketing
Steve Rubel at Micropersuasion has an interesting posting on the growing awareness and utilization of RSS feeds for marketing purposes.  He links to a ClickZ story "Real Life RSS Marketing" referencing many uses of RSS feeds in marketing.  For other marketing uses see some of my previous postings and links to RSS marketing feeds.

Package Tracking Mashup
Steve Rubel also had a link to an interesting mashup site - PackageMapping, that allows you to map your package location based on your UPS, DHL, USPS or FedEx tracking number.  For more applications of mashups see my article on Wisconsin Technology News about mashups. 

New Column in Wisconsin Technology News on Mashups

Wisconsin Technology News has published my new article "Would you like your music (and data) mashed?".  The article gives an overview of mashups, describes mashup resources and links to various examples of mashups that might be of interest. 

This is the fourth article in a series of columns called Buzz Networks on Web 2.0 techniques and resources. 

The other articles introduced the column and Web 2.0, discussed RSS and reviewed blogs.

Sony Catches a Fish - $119.92 per Visitor

In what might at first appear to be a return to the heady days of the Internet pre-dot bombs, Sony has acquired Grouper Networks, a closely held online video site.  Sony is paying $65 million for the company based on the immense potential in the user generated video space. The Wall Street Journal online (subscription required) reported that comScore Media Metrix statistics indicated that last month Grouper had 542,000 unique visitors, making the acquisition cost $119.92/unique visitor.  Interestingly IT World quotes "Grouper claimed to have 10 million unique visitors in July"... HMMM... is it 1/2 a million or 10 million?  If 10 million the acquisition cost for current unique visitors drops significantly. 

The acquisition will supposedly link in nicely with Sony's expertise including the possibility of  "mashups, where users could lift parts of Sony content and mix it with their own material to produce a new video" according to the Wall Street Journal.

The acquisition has raised further speculation about YouTube and whether it will be acquired by Yahoo!, Time Warner or NewsCorps according to Russell Shaw at one of ZD Net's blogs.