Why Google is failing - Google "web3.0"

I just googled the term "Web3.0". Funny enough, the top ranked site (after wikipedia) is a blog post from 2006 telling us that Web3.0 is all about a three dimensional web. And I thought that web3.0 was all about personalization and the semantic web.

This is another proof that Google isn't really as good and interesting as it used to be. I hope that they'll be succefull in improving their search engine, because I really like Google!

Web3.0 definition from 2006.

SonyEricsson Xperia X1 an Apple IPhone killer?

SonyEricsson has launched their newest and cooles cellphone ever, the Xperia X1. It's pretty obvious that it is their answer to the IPhone, with a huge screen and tighter Internet functionality. On the technical side, everything seems really impressive: Better screen resolution than the IPhone, faster Internet connection, built in GPS and a better camera.

But that just isn't enough. The Xperia isn't near as attractive as the IPhone, no matter how impressive it's technical specifications. Because IPhone is cool and has a great interface. SonyEricsson is far from cool, and with a Microsoft Operating System, you can be sure that the interface wont be nearly as good as the IPhone interface.

Whereas Apple has one of the best brands in the world, SonyEricsson and Microsoft has not. Well, not when it comes to cool gadgets anyway. SonyEricsson are great for business phones, and Microsoft have a much better product base with Windows, Office and their servers, but they just aren't cool.

My guess is that the Xperia is an overpriced phone ju between the business segment and the young hip segment. And as always, branding is everything, not reaching any segment totally successfull is nothing.

Why is Widsets so slow and how should it compete with IPhone?

I recently wrote about reinstalling widsets on my phone, and now that I've been using it again for a while I am still a happy user. However, with the last update, it freezes for a couple of seconds while starting (and loading new content), and it also feels a bit slower than before. Of course, it might be just my phone or my connection, but I've never had this problem before.

Recently I also thought about building an app for a professional site where I'm a part of the development team, but I figured that the user count is still to small.
The API however, seems really good, so here is what I'd like to see:

1) More users: Partner up with mobile operators, making the widset program preinstalled and hopefully even with a shortcut. The advantage for the mobile operator is obvious, the preinstalled user could then match their needs, and have a operator custom background etc.

2) Better incentive for content partners: When a widset widget is developed to provide content to a site, widsets should provide a "stand-alone" version of the program to the developing partner. The stand-alone version would then be installable and maby even branded by the third party site, containing only content from the third party.
Everyone would be happy then, the developing partner gets a branded javaprogram that he's happy to market on his own site, plus all possible users using the normal widsets program. Widsets on the other hand, will get more content for their software, making it more popular, and a large database of potential customers.

Web3.0 - How the semantic web will bring you more visitors

So you've got loads of user generated content, you have connections to foreign APIs as Flickr, Twitter and their likes. Now what do you do with it? This is what the semantic web is all about: Bringing order two the information overload on the net.
When people ask me about the symantic web I usually say that without it you have data, with it you have information. By standardizing content tagging and publishing it on every site, web content becomes a huge information database.
Publishers may gather information from various sources, arrange the information and integrate the content on their website.

Example
Let's say that you have a travel site where users write a travel diary. People write about where they lived, where they ate and where they partied. In a perfect semantic environment another service (let's say a vertical search engine as urbanshortcut.com) could then use this data as an extension of their own. A query could be "Show me restaurants liked by people who doesn't like Burger King", with results from the travel diary.

What's in it for me?
Well, hopefully you can enhance your own site to get more and happier customers. And hopefully people using your content as a database will give you credit for it, or even kickback based on the quality and amount of data.

Is the semantic web really exciting?
In the long run the semantic web is extreamly interesting for all of us, since it will totally change the way people gather information. But as for now, the usability of the semantic web and information tagging is a bit limited. What every publisher should do is to mark their content as much as possible, preparing the web for more advanced usage.

Web3.0 - Why every website should focus on personalization

Where web2.0 was a lot about services talking to each other, user generated content and social networks, web3.0 is mainly about making the web personal. By generating custom content for each visitor, based on their own and matching peoples historical interests, the web experience will be richer and more interesting than ever.

Incentive for websites
The main incentive for websites to make their content personal is obvious - Increased revenue.
Personally matched content leads to longer visits, increased pagecounts and a better match to advertising. Of these a better match to advertising is the important one.

Example
Say that your current great content meant 3% ad-clicks per 1000 pages shown, a better targeted advertising could very well mean an increase to 4% ad-clicks. Since your content is also better matched than before, it's not unlikely that pagecount or visiting time increases with 5%.
These numbers aren't exagerated, but gives you a revenue increase of 40%.

Branding is everything - Future of media networks

In the age of user created content, free distribution and easy-to-copy application development branding will be more important than ever.
For trusted sources like morning newspapers this is a matter of survival: Aggregate the best content fitting your niche, create in-depth content and gather a social network around what you do best, and brand that content and network or loose your visitors and subscribers to another source. The origin of the content wont matter, only the quality and the critical view. Any source will do as long as you remain true to your brand.

This is a very big and difficult situation for TV-networks and newspapers. In five years, when distribution is a non issue, they must compete with every person on earth with a good taste and good reputation, in an environment where their brand is more vulnerable than ever.

OpenID - continued...

Well, since I'm a blogger I wont apologize for jumping to conclusions. Anyway, I just went back to a OpenID-site and hey, now it was a pretty great to be connected through OpenID - since I was allready logged in to my OpenID-provider, I actually just had to fill in my OpenID username to login. No password to remember, that is pretty nice!

Plaxo, Propeller and OpenID - Much ado about nothing

Ok, so now OpenID-sites are starting to pop up, this time alone I've found myself register on two sites supporting OpenID. Great, hah? After entering my OpenID, I've been transported to my OpenID-publisher, logging in there, then pressing "let them access my data forever" and going back to the registry process again.

But hey, in both cases I've been asked to fill in my email and loads of personal details. Then why use OpenID at all? Sure, my password is a little bit better protected, but the registry process, which isn't that fun to begin with, has only been prolonged by OpenID.

Of course, I get that I'm a sort of early adaptor, but I'm still a little bit disappointed. I thouth that with OpenID using sites where I'm not registered would be like a simple login-process, and registry pages a thing of the past.

I'm really looking forward to the day when I can download my Google or Yahoo OpenID manager, keeping my registry experience is a simple popup complete with a "trus this site with your OpenId?"-window.

Anyway, I'm still happy that both Propeller and Plaxo uses OpenID, since it definitely makes the web easier to use!