Archive for June, 2007
Has Web 2.0 jumped the shark?
TechCrunch today reports on a new service called MizPee that helps you find the nearest restroom when you’re out and about. Need I say more? (but read the comments, they’re hilarious)
Technorati Tags: Web 2.0, MizPee
From the no-surprise-there department: DRM-free music sells well
EMI senior VP Ellen Berkowitz reports that the “initial results of DRM-free music are good.” The company has been offering DRM-free versions of its music (at a higher price) on iTunes for a month now. Ars Technica has more details and analysis here, including the fact that while iTunes sales of albums such as Coldplay’s A Rush of Blood to the Head increased 115%, CD sales of the same album dropped 24%.
The problem with Web 2.0…
From the headline-writing school of “Why PR Doesn’t Work,” we bring you “Why there’s no such thing as Web 2.0” by Marc Andreessen. Joking aside, it’s well worth a read.
Web 2.0 is not a thing, says Andreessen. The way he sees it, we are now just witnessing the Web coming into its own, instead of trying to emulate existing things like newspapers, TV or brochures (remember them?).
The real problem, however, is not about whether Web 2.0 exists or not. It’s that Web 2.0, like numerous terms before it, has become industry shorthand for a trend – or a “space” – that everyone then latches onto and tries to copy/improve/invest in. Until the market dries up and everyone moves on to the next trend.
But – and this is Andreessen’s central point – you can’t build a viable business on a trend:
“It frankly doesn’t really matter which trends, or design patterns, you incorporate into your product. If the product is compelling to the market, it will succeed. If the product is not compelling to the market, it will fail.”
He advises entrepreneurs to forget about Web 2.0, trends and spaces and concentrate on developing that new and compelling product. If you build it, the trend will surely follow…
Technorati Tags: Web 2.0, Andreessen
