Web 2.0 and Social Networking, All Rollocks?

[jess1]

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Web 2.0
So what do we think about the new buzz words, social networking and web 2.0
Correct me if Im wrong but what was compuserve forums back in the day, what was a4u back in the day, virtual places and the alikes, is this new?

I have just had a friendly chat with a mate of mine who so got into twitter and “web 2.0 and social networking” that she changed her lead generating website into some thing so unrecognisable and has lost the plot completely. What was once a clean coherent website that did exactly what it said on the tin has turned into links to twitter, facebook and a personal blog which is all about everything except what she does.

The point about social networking is that its time consuming, facebook for example, its such a great place but in order to build contacts you have to put the time in, this is a little part of the message that seems not to be filtering through to some people.

I hate this “new” buzz word, its old news, its been done before and it’s rollocks.
Stick to the path and beware the moon aka Web 2.0, oh gimme five minutes with that man who coined the phrase.

So what do you think are you enraptured with this or does it grind on your nerves?

[scifind]

Must admit that I have been taken in by Facebook lately. It is great for keeping tabs on what a wide variety of friends and associates are doing, but I don't think it will replace forums and personal communications / address books. The worst thing about them - from a personal point of view - is the distracting games and widgets, that are basically time wasters (Ive beat your movie quiz score on facebook btw!)

[Aceicol]

I always remember when I was speaking to someone about Web 2.0 before it was a huge buzzword and before I was familiar with the term, I thought I'd wing the situation and just pretend I knew what it meant (having worked with IT and marketing people who always bull**** with acronyms). When I mentioned that I'd used Web 2.0 in University but wasn't familir with the software anymore, I got a strange look.

Now I hear people talk about Web 2.0 all the time and the term makes me cringe.

[jess1]

Scifind: Yup...those apps are just great but as u say, I missed a business conference call cos I was petting and feeding my virtual bunny Is that a challange?

Aceicol: "I thought I'd wing the situation and just pretend I knew what it meant" Lol too funny. "When I mentioned that I'd used Web 2.0 in University but wasn't familir with the software anymore, I got a strange look" So does this mean you are working on Web 7.0 (lap tops that can take themselves without the user to meetings and cut the deals, imagine two putters talking "blip blop bleep bleep" "bllep blop blip blip" translation... "been on face book lately?" "Yeah prefer myspace, we got time for a portion of chips?"

[Qui Gon Jinn]

I am not wholly convinced by Web 2.0 as anything trully innovative, but readaptations of existings ideas aggregated together, except, and I may be wrong on this that it is merely "user dgenerated content" in the sense they provide it all. ie they do all the work for you & you provide the platform for this.

What are your thoughts on the monetization of these sites for affiliates apart from hoping to be bought out? Yesterday was myspace, today is facebook, what is tomorrow?

Web 3.0 Was that mentioned as virtual realms at affiliate summit?

Shall we make up our own, i dunno, Web 3.14 v 2

[tbp]

I agree with you totally Jess!

For me A4U is enough of a distraction to my work, without having anything else to distract me as well

I just don't see the point in all these things really, yes its nice to having loads of online contacts, but does it actually do you any good in the long run? Again, the same with knowing what your friend is doing 24 hours a day, all very nice, but whats the point?

I think the worst thing on the net is myspace, really can't see how its become so popular. 99% of the myspace pages i`ve seen make me cringe, absolutely hideous looking things, and reminds me of my early days on the net, when you had to hand code html, and huge colorful fonts were all the rage. Why are we going back to that???

Some of the things that are classed as web 2.0 I do like, such as Ajax, which can make the website experience better, and is genuinely useful if done properly.

(Just read my post back, and I really do sound like a grumpy old man lol, and not even 30 yet!)

[3wdl]

I disagree tbh - I'm a massive fan of Social Media sites and whilst some of the concepts are nothing too new, the way in which the sites and build, the creation of AJAX and the popularity of these sites are certainly leading the way in which people now use the internet.

Have you see the figures on how many searches are done on Facebook??

As I said - the way in which people are using the web is changing dramatically & sites like MySpace, Facebook, Bebo et all are areas where affiliates should be looking at using for their marketing techniques - they will only continue to grow after all.

[getvisible]

I agree with you James.

There are so many strands of social media. Social networks in the form of blogs and newsgroups, even the old Google Answers have enabled a massive growth in "user generated content". This content has allowed a more open dialogue between consumers and between consumers and business.

Review sites and blogs, and sites like this, enable people to openly discuss the merits and faults in businesses and play a huge part in influencing people's buying processes. Has anyone here not promoted a merchant because of a negative review here? Has anyone not bought a PC from Time in the past because of dodgy reviews in forums?

That's the negative impact. On the positive front, you have sites like Facebook and Squidoo where users generally create postitive content about companies, people and products.

It is essential for companies to monitor their brand online - call it e-PR if you wish. I've written a nice article for a client about why it is important to conduct "Social Media Optimisation" (being published next week). In it I talk about how Sony conducts SMO and found a lot of negative online press in the SM world and managed that bad press and put a positive spin on it.

The funny thing is that every merchant, network and agency on here is conducting social media optimisation - they just aren't aware of it.

For me Web 2.0 is just a tool that makes Social sites a medium that the average internet user can emerse themselves in to make their social interactions online easier and more complete. But I'm happy for people to view Social Media Optimisation as rollocks as it allows us "believers" to steal a lead

[loquax]

the way in which people are using the web is changing dramatically

Yep, there's thousands of people wasting good surfing time petting virtual rabbits - that's got to be a giant step in some direction

I'm not a great fan of Facebook - and I am over 30 and grumpy so fully agree with tbp's points above.

Jason

[scifind]

Scifind: Yup...those apps are just great but as u say, I missed a business conference call cos I was petting and feeding my virtual bunny Is that a challange?

I won't make this a challenge as I can see - a few weeks down the line, with 300,000 points each and exhausted the questions database and not done any work in the meantime.

Think Ill just keep it to keeping people's contact details and just keeping in touch with people and not petting bunnies, doing quizzes or zombie biting people.

Also how many peoples social lives would it cripple if one or more of these types of social network sites fold?

[DavidCartlidge]

But I'm happy for people to view Social Media Optimisation as rollocks as it allows us "believers" to steal a lead

Anybody who conducts SEM work should have social media as part of their plans, if they don't then they are behind the times.

However, Web 2.0 is not Social Media, it is just a phrase coined so that the "believers" can convince clients to part with their money for the latest and greatest

How the web works now, and how it will work in the future, was all mapped out with the birth of the WWW, that is WWW 1.0 - just because it has taken a few years for technology to catch up with the vision does not make it something new, or warrant a new name (Web 2.0)

[Mogga]

Its probably compltely frustrating if you've worked in the media and previously got paid for reporting, photos and articles. Now people give it for free.

[Steved]

For me web 2.0 encompases anything that users can control on a site with regards to the information they post or receive. This includes RSS which I find very useful for keeping up to date with most of my industry blogs and site updates in one place (in my RSS reader) without having to visit each one separately.

I agree with Jess that a lot of other web 2.0 stuff is just time consuming fluff. I think that beyond the 16-25 year age group most of us will get tired of being in constant contact with others and bar a few useful applications, like the social bookmarking, photo and video sites, most applications will go the same way as the majority of the dot com bust lot.

[Frostie]

Have you see the figures on how many searches are done on Facebook??

Do you not think that this is simply down to that its 'new' and is gaining a lot of media exposure lately? Do you honestly think these figures will continue to grow or remain the same in 12 months time?

Personally, I dont see it happening... Reason? Well I know a load of people who over the past 6 weeks joined face book and were busy busy busy on it. Out of 6 people who sit close to me, I have just asked, and 4 of them said they are bored of it now, it was a fad and therefore will probably leave it for a few months before going back on.

Currently, there are new people joining who will take their place, and keep the number of searches up, but when these people also get bored of it, it is not possible to sustain in my opinion and we will see a drop off.

Personally, I prefer LinkedIn as its a lot more business focused. Thats all I want a 'social network' for tbh.

[zinc]

It's all just a re-badge - the design style people are adopting is unique, everyone calls remote javascript AJAX (which developers have been doing for years). Web 2.0 = getting people involved aka "The social web"

It's just a movement, there is no new technology here...

IMO of course