DISQUS

VentureBeat: Is Web 2.0 over and out?

  • Michael Lacy · 2 years ago
    I've been working on a site that addresses some of Peter's concern about interoperability and normalizing data across sites. Presently, i am aggregating all of my social network activity in one place and re-mixing all of the content, tags, etc. for re-distribution.

    Check it out if you're curious.

    http://neurokinetikz.com
  • Lynne Jolitz · 2 years ago
    If Alexa data is "notoriously unreliable", why are you using it at all, Matt?

    This would be like announcing that Google is leaving search to go into the free range chicken biz with a big headline "Is Search Over and Out?", while admitting that the source, Chicken Investment Tracking, is "notoriously unreliable".

    Of course, you *have* heard organic is big with investors, haven't you? :-)

    Lynne Jolitz
    CTO
    CoolClip Networks
  • Matt Marshall · 2 years ago
    It's unfortunate that Peter used the Alexa stats. Perhaps he didn't realize the extent to which this would stir debate. Since I'm trying to cover thoughts about this space, particularly among investors, I felt I should at least point to Peter's post and the discussion it generated. But its also necessary to point out that Alexa is unreliable, which Peter didn't do clearly.
  • Peter Rip · 2 years ago
    Well the Alexa controversy really is a bit of distraction. Perhaps it was a fallacious indicator. There is a difference between "reliability" and "bias" in measurement theory. I figured it was unreliable, but not biased, especially not to the negative. What I did not do was corroborate this with other free sources like Quantcast and Compete. My mistake. These services do not show the same drop off in traffic.

    I really was making a larger point about the lack of differentiation in Web 2.0 startups and the 'next major wave.' I certainly did not expect I was throwing a hand grenade into the room. My apologies for the distraction, but I stand behind my thematic observation (as do most of the comments on the original post, BTW).
  • Dave Evans · 2 years ago
    Agree with Lynne, stop with the useless Alexa data. Lots of other places to get data like Compete or Quantcast.
  • Sramana Mitra · 2 years ago
  • Phil Butler · 2 years ago
    Hi Matt,
    There is some evidence that startups are being channeled toward "suites" rather than single entities. I have been a big proponent of collaboration between some of these Web 2.0 entities.

    There is some resistance to these ideas, particularly with those that might be angel supported in their investor profiles.
    Other entities like Wikia-Search and hakia have expressed a desire to collaborate and are intending open sourcing their wares at some point.

    I agree with your excellent evaluation of the current situation, and have some of the same issues.

    I hope I helped in some small way in the discussion!
  • Santhros · 2 years ago
    What seems to be happening is that traditional corporations are turning their sight to the new media market generated by Web 2.0.
  • jc · 2 years ago
    If you don't have a business plan that can be monetized into actual revenue, you are just developing a feature for google,yahoo,ms. I don't see many web 2.0 companies that have a plan to monetize what they are doing. Even this pie in the sky data aggregation and integration issue: Yeah I see the point, but you can't boil the ocean mate. Fact, divergence in information is going to happen at a rate faster than any convergence efforts by any startup, and you can't monetize the effort of making this grand data integration. What you need to do is build a product that is worth paying for. A product good enough for users to reach in their wallet and pay for.