Web 2.0 Advantage
By Dean Higginbotham, CTO Mall23.com
We're in "Web 2.0" now. Is this a good thing? Who knows. If it's anything like "Web 1.0", careless companies are in for a world of hurt. How do you manage your company, and direct your customers in this new-fangled 2.0 world without getting caught up in another - possibly mini - dot-bomb?
Use Technology Wisely
This goes back to the saying of "don't use technology for technologies sake". Right now there is a whole slew of tempting new technologies, with Ruby and AJAX at the forefront. Both have their places, but your clients won't necessarily be better off using them. Many people are learning now that CSS is not the be all, end all it was originally made out to be (see "Dvorak" link below). Not necessarily because it was a fundamentally poor idea, but simply because in the real world, with multiple browser interpretations and bugs, using extreme CSS became problematic. The same can be said of AJAX: great technology if used properly (Mall23 uses AJAX extensively in its manager), terrible road hazard otherwise.
Remember Past Mistakes
Today many of the 2.0 sites are essentially revamped dot-bomb era sites. MySpace is a new incarnation of GeoCities, ZiXXo is a new flavor of online coupon, 30boxes is, well, basically, Outlook. Some are successful (MySpace), others might not have such a long shelf life (Tick - TickSpot.com), most will be gone within a year. At the core, people have not changed all that much since 2000, which, in turn, means that if a concept didn't work in 2000, it probably won't work in 2006.
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Did You Know...
- The first email was sent in 1972 by Ray Tomlinson from a Model 33 Teletype device. He chose to use the @ symbol to indicate the location or institution of the e-mail recipient.
- The first Internet "search engine" was created in 1990 and called Archie - used to search ftp archives. The first web search engine was developed in 1993 and called Wandex.
- SSL was instituted in 1994 and according to a Verisign report, 93% of online shoppers felt that it was important for an e-commerce site to include SSL.
- The word "phishing" was coined by hackers in 1996 who were attempting to steal AOL passwords.
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Take Advantage of New Marketing
Remember the last Mall23 Mailer - blogs? Take advantage of them, or better yet, the concept. Remember to communicate. Remember to use the good new venues. Remember to keep your focus. For example, use Del.icio.us, Digg, Technorati and MySpace. But, don't go overboard and try to master every social network, blogging site, or bookmark system. You will soon be overwhelmed, and, much of your effort will go nowhere - with umpteen clones in each space, pick only the biggest and best.
**Regarding the "New Marketing", try to think out of the box and combine methods and sites. You could just go around and plop your URL into all the bookmarking systems, or simply add a blog to your site. But what would happen if you combined those? For each blog you wrote, add it's URL to the bookmarking system under a different header. Or, better yet (this is my little secret), write your blog and submit it to Digg. I actually take this one step further: write the "blog" and email it as the Mall23 newsletter, use it on the Mall23 site, and then submit it to Digg -- who knows, you might get lucky. The more mileage or bang for your buck, the better!**
Be Cynical But Be Positive
.After all, this is a new era. With unimaginable new opportunities. Come up with a good idea, keep your cool, profit, and have fun. Enjoy life!
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