Marketing Hipster

CEO of Google Eric Schmidt was recently asked at the Seoul Digital Forum what his thoughts were on Web 2.0 and now Web 3.0… Wow, we are already getting into Web 3.0? I didn’t think we were even close to finishing with Web 2.0. His answer is interesting, he compares Web 2.0 to Ajax and likens Web 3.0 to small apps interconnecting with each through multiple mediums and the data is in the “clouds”.

It was a pretty good answer, but if I could throw my two cents in. I think what Web 2.0 has not completed yet and what Web 3.0 should take to a whole new stratosphere is all about the level of control.

The limitless control that users will have on how and what they do on the web. To me that is what this all about. It is me being able to shop the way I want to shop and not how some web developer thinks I want to shop. It is being able to read news, watch videos, communicate with others when and how I want to do it. It is about officially slamming the door on companies and web sites that make assumptions on what their clients and customers want instead of just actually asking them and even more importantly, listening to their answers.

What do you think? What’s Web 2.0 and 3.0 to you? If you want to watch Eric Schmidt’s answer, the video is below.

Technorati Tags: Google, Eric Schmidt, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Ajax, control

I stumbled upon an interesting new site called Fichey. Fichey aggregates the most popular content from Del.icio.us, Digg, Downfly, Reddit and StumbleUpon. Through their flash interface you are able to move from page to page without having to go to each web site and wait for it to load. The flash interface gives you a picture of a web page and then if you want to interact or read more than the picture shows, you can click a button and you will be brought to the actual site.

The interface is very similar to the interface of the iPhone and it is a pretty cool experience. It took me a little bit to get use to that I could not click on links on the pages itself, but it does allow you to surf and read a whole lot of content very quickly. The one thing that Fichey does not do compared to a StumbleUpon, is there are no social bookmarking, reviewing or commenting. Pretty much, the most popular content is shown and you view it and then move on.

When I first looked at it, I did not think I was going to do dig it because there was no interaction, but I found it to be a good user experience and I enjoyed being able to just check out all the pages quickly and easily instead of having to go through all these voting sites to see what is hot.

Check it out, let me know what you think.

Technorati Tags: Fichey, Del.icio.us, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, iPhone

Nielsen/NetRatings has changed the way they rank and rate web sites. They announced that they will now be ranking websites based on how long users spend on the site and not by just how many page views a web site has. Using this new ranking system, AOL has propelled over and past rival Google to achieve the number one position.

“This new measure will report the total time spent for all visitors and provide a better understanding of users’ total engagement of Web pages and volume of traffic” Nielsen said.

This is great news as many of us in this industry have believed for quite a long time, that a web site’s effectiveness needs to be looked at on a much lower and more detailed level than just page views. Even more importantly, these new measurements could have an effect on how online advertising is priced and sold. Very soon web sites are going to be held to a higher standard than just a plain old CPM rate.

Another reason that I believe this sort of metrics will become standard in the very new future is because of the new technologies that are coming out. Ajax is an example that automatically refreshes content without having users refresh a page. Using page views as a success metric is already obsolete, in the near future, more people will start understanding that.

Technorati Tags: Nielsen/NetRatings, AOL, Google, page views, CPM

I know I am coming way way late to the game on this one and I am sure most of you have already seen this video on Web 2.0. I watched it when it first came out and to be honest I was not as impressed as others were. I took a second today and watched it a couple more times and it grew on me. If you have not seen it, it is worth watching and if you have seen it, you might just want to watch it again.

I was always a huge Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor fan. They were always on the cutting edge back in the day and it looks like the years have not changed that. Nine Inch Nails have launched landing pages on the web to stir up some buzz on the release of their new album on April 17th.

These are not ordinary pages promoting their new album, they are pages that discuss big brother, military and the apocalypse. My favorite is this site, it looks to be a nice picture of a farm and could absolutely be a right wing election banner. But, if you click your mouse and roll over the page, it revels something very different. Give it a try.

Hat tip to Adotas

Technorati Tags: Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor

First off, I want to apologize for the lack of posts over the last week or two. Work responsibilities has taken a great deal of my time, but I am absolutely going to try to make sure I am posting on a much more regular basis. So without further adieu, let’s get to some news.

Dell announced the release of two new programs, Studio Dell and IdeaStorm. Studio Dell is a video application that allows people to view videos about Dell and it’s computers, technology and tech tips. While Dell IdeaStorm is to be an honest, a blatant Digg knockoff where people can make suggestions to Dell on their company, computers, etc. Now even though there has been some rumblings in the blogosphere about Dell ripping off Digg, I personally think both of these applications are a great step in the right direction for Dell. For a very long time, Dell was known for their customer focus and service, but between Dell shipping all their customer support to India as well as numerous other problems, they have lost their luster and their reputation has suffered.

In regard to Dell’s IdeaStorm, what will truly determine it’s effectiveness and success is what Dell does with this feedback. Anyone can ask for suggestions, but if you do nothing with it, very quickly users will realize that they are just yelling at the moon and move on. It’s interesting because some of the most popular suggestions are issues that I don’t think Dell can do anything about. For instance, bar none, the most popular and numerous suggestions are about Dell’s customer service in India. There are many posts of people requesting that Dell bring it back to the US. While I would love to see that happen, I think that will happen right around the same time hell freezes over.

One of the other great suggestions is Dell shipping their computers without all the BS software on it. I am referring to AOL, EarthLink, etc. Wow, I would not of even thought of that, but that is a great idea. When I buy a new computer, the first thing I do is uninstall all of those offers. Though just like the overseas call centers, the software offers add revenue to Dell’s bottom line and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

What will be definitely interesting to see is if Dell does anything with these comments or is this yet another example of a company putting all their efforts trying to make themselves look better instead of actually being better.

Technorati Tags: Dell, Studio Dell, Dell IdeaStorm, Digg

The problem with innovation is that an innovator usually has to be someone who is first to try something before anyone else. If the innovator tries something and it works, that’s when they are usually labeled an innovator. Though if you try something first and fail, you tend to be called more not so flattering names other than innovator. It feels to me even though it is early in 2007, that a lot of companies and marketers alike are all standing around this deep black hole named Web 2.0 and even though everyone is very excited about Web 2.0 and everyone has a great deal of ideas and opinions; no-one is willing to be the first to jump in to see what happens.

I was speaking with a friend of mine who is also in the industry and we were discussing an idea I had that I wanted to pitch to one of my clients. He decided to play devil’s advocate and started asking me questions as if he was my client. The conversation went something like this:

Friend: Hmmm, interesting idea Cord. Has this been successful with your other clients?

Cord: Well, this is something relatively new and in it’s entirety has never been done before to the best of my knowledge.

Friend: Can you give me some examples of companies that has done this and what kind of results did they receive?

Cord: As I said, what I am recommending has not been done before. There definitely are parts of this campaign that has been done and I can absolutely supply you with results they have received.

Friend: So what you are telling me is that I am going to be a guinea pig of sorts? Why should I spend my hard earned marketing dollars on an unproven commodity?

Luckily, I was speaking with my friend on the phone or he would of gotten smacked right in the face, just kidding. Though he did make some excellent points and those same points I have no doubt would of been brought up by my client. So the question is, how do get a client to stand behind a campaign that has really no past results to prove it’s worth?

Maybe for the time being, a bunch of us marketers could all just gather around that Web 2.0 black hole with our clients and start chanting, “Jump! Jump! Jump!” What do you think?

Technorati Tags: innovator, Web 2.0