Web 2.0
My IT dept. installed Tiger for me the other day. I'm typing this from a widget on my dashboard. Fancy! (Except it needs to be hacked -- I can't change the user icon or add tags.) Widgets are fun (if you're on a PC, google Konfabulator -- it's the WIndows version of Widgets).
Widgets are user-created APIs. You want to see the gas prices ranked in order on your desk top? There's a widget for that. You want to send text messages to your friend's cell phones? A widget for that. Plus a million others and more are being created every day. If you don't see the one you want, you can just make one.
Widgets are also interesting because they are evidence of the thing I am most passionate about right now. Lemme 'splain ...
When everyone started using the web back in the early 90s, that was the building phase. We were scrambling to put up web sites as fast as we could. Brand managers still thought in terms of broadcasting and publishing models.
Web 2.0 is a term that's being bandied around now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
Instead of a few people publishing and broadcasting to the masses, the web has become more about users creating content and sharing it with each other. Blogs, RSS feeds, podcasting, social networks, wikis -- there is so much innovation happening -- especially in these last couple of years since geeks started coming out of our caves after the Dot Bomb. And now the pot is really starting to boil.
Earlier this week I downloaded a Firefox extension called Greasemonkey.It's like Tivo for the web. Essentially what it enables you to do is write JavaScript that will jack with anyone's website. It's just client-side, meaning only you see the changes. The server still serves up the web page like they had intended. Only you can delete stuff, add stuff, whatever you want. They even have a GUI toolbar you can download called Platypus. Download Platypus (just Google Platypus and Greasemonkey -- you'll find it) and you don't have to know how to write JavaScript.
So for example, you can delete all the ads from the online version of the New York Times. Or take the sponsored content out of your Gmail. I did that. It took me like 5 seconds. You can also improve user interfaces, change the look and feel of a graphical design, merge content from sites you like (i.e., add links to IMDB on an Amazon page).
What does all of this mean? It means that broadcasting is dead. It means that niche markets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_tail) and highly targeteed, interconnected, user-requested content and advertising is the way of the future.
More specifically and more importantly, what this means is that the internet and all interactive media is FINALLY beginning to be designed with the principles of interactivity in mind. We are finally breaking away from trying to force users down a path. And people are finally starting to understand that usability is everything.
The dot com days were fun, yeah (esp. in Silicon Valley), but they were nothing compared to what is about to happen.
Widgets are user-created APIs. You want to see the gas prices ranked in order on your desk top? There's a widget for that. You want to send text messages to your friend's cell phones? A widget for that. Plus a million others and more are being created every day. If you don't see the one you want, you can just make one.
Widgets are also interesting because they are evidence of the thing I am most passionate about right now. Lemme 'splain ...
When everyone started using the web back in the early 90s, that was the building phase. We were scrambling to put up web sites as fast as we could. Brand managers still thought in terms of broadcasting and publishing models.
Web 2.0 is a term that's being bandied around now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
Instead of a few people publishing and broadcasting to the masses, the web has become more about users creating content and sharing it with each other. Blogs, RSS feeds, podcasting, social networks, wikis -- there is so much innovation happening -- especially in these last couple of years since geeks started coming out of our caves after the Dot Bomb. And now the pot is really starting to boil.
Earlier this week I downloaded a Firefox extension called Greasemonkey.It's like Tivo for the web. Essentially what it enables you to do is write JavaScript that will jack with anyone's website. It's just client-side, meaning only you see the changes. The server still serves up the web page like they had intended. Only you can delete stuff, add stuff, whatever you want. They even have a GUI toolbar you can download called Platypus. Download Platypus (just Google Platypus and Greasemonkey -- you'll find it) and you don't have to know how to write JavaScript.
So for example, you can delete all the ads from the online version of the New York Times. Or take the sponsored content out of your Gmail. I did that. It took me like 5 seconds. You can also improve user interfaces, change the look and feel of a graphical design, merge content from sites you like (i.e., add links to IMDB on an Amazon page).
What does all of this mean? It means that broadcasting is dead. It means that niche markets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_tail) and highly targeteed, interconnected, user-requested content and advertising is the way of the future.
More specifically and more importantly, what this means is that the internet and all interactive media is FINALLY beginning to be designed with the principles of interactivity in mind. We are finally breaking away from trying to force users down a path. And people are finally starting to understand that usability is everything.
The dot com days were fun, yeah (esp. in Silicon Valley), but they were nothing compared to what is about to happen.