Why pay for anything with Web 2.0
Posted on May 23, 2008
Filed Under 2 Point What? | Leave a Comment
In the latest development of our stealth 2.0 company- we are going to need to be able to grab thumbnail screenshots of various links. This could of course be done with a dedicated server setup to snap and deliver, but no need to do that yet in our scaled and controlled infancy.
Thus we looked to services on the web to deliver. Our criteria was the following.
- White Labeled - meaning no ads or domains on the shot
- Prefer that we would own or cache the result and serve it ourselves - or a very very low rate for them to serve it as we would have an average of 5 shots per page impression with millions of impressions so a price per shot served could get expensive.
Spending some time searching on the web came up with a few choices
- Websnapr - They give it for free with an ad and white-label for a fee (somewhat expensive)
- Webthumb - Better prices and I think they would allow to cache
- Amazon/Alexa Thumbs - Best prices - about 20 cents per 1000 - but no caching
These were all ok- businesses trying to provide a service for a price - but then I came across the new web 2.0 entry into the field. Web 2.0 meaning that they will give you for free what others make you pay for.
Shrink the Web gives up to 250k snaps for free and allows us to cache with complete white labeling. Everything we were looking for for no cost. By the time we get up to 250k snaps we will be ready for a dedicated server as well. Not bad
This brings me to the point regarding Web 2.0 and everything being free.
You can see what is happening in the landscape is that TV/Newspaper/Radio is slowly being eroded by the new media web landscape. Meaning that the billion $$$ media giants of today are being replaced by companies started by two guys in flip-flops. These guys being able to get the users.
What this means is that there are hordes of venture capitalists who are willing to throw horrendous hordes of money at anybody that they think could be the next hit - the logic being that with a 1 million dollar investment there is a chance that these guys may be the next CBS and worth billions.
Due to this landscape - money is being thrown left and right for the sole purpose of providing the user with lots and lots of free service in order to gain their attention and loyalty.
It is all a matter of where the music stops.
There is Nowhere to Click
Posted on May 20, 2008
Filed Under 2 Point What? | 1 Comment
What amazes me so much about so many professional (sometimes multimillion$) websites is how they forget to include a clear call to action.
In case you forgot - the call to action is what you want the user to do once they hit your (landing) page. What is your best case scenario for the user? This is your call to action.
The design of the page and the site need to made in a way to drive the user to this result. People that engage in PPC (pay per click) advertising know very well about call to action because they are paying anywhere from 10 cents to 10 bucks for each visitor - therefore they clearly optimize the result. Even if you are getting organic traffic- it is leaving money on the table not to do so. So let us now look at some sites and their ability to properly implement call to action. I will focus on a web 2.0 social site as that is my current project and I have had time to study the competition.
CASE STUDY:
UBER - Uber is a hosted make your own webpage social place thing for cool artsy people. Kinda like MySpace with a degree in Fashion Design. Upon hitting their front page everything above the fold drives me to the little red button that says ‘Start your Website’
(for you that don’t know - the fold is the place where you have to scroll down on a web page )
What about below the fold? They have some AJAX that will show you cool sites to browse if you click it - but for the purposes of our discussion that is irrelevant as we are assuming that you only get a split-second to capture a browser. Even so - these only show some handpicked editor pages - but there is no obvious (meaning there may be, but I didn’t find it) option for browse and explore.
Meaning that a first time browser to UBER only gets one choice in their split second. All they are allowed and recommended to do is ‘Create your own Website’ If they had no intention of creating their own website that day then they are lost. UBER is relying on the idea that people will come to the UBER site already pre-introduced by a friend or something and will show up with the need to create their own site.
FAIL
What UBER does not realize is that people like to browse before they buy. Meaning that the best way to get someone to create their own page is to give them tools and encouragement to browse others pages.
RECOMMENDATION:
Forget about ‘make your own website’ taking up your real estate - if people want to do this, they can look in the header or footer. Focus on exploration. I mean look at My Space with its horrendous design
But they are doing something right. The entire front page is devoted towards exploration. People want to waste time. By giving the users that tool go and explore- MySpace will have users asking to make pages in order to emulate those that they have already explored.
I picked UBER for this case Study because they have a fantastic tool for creating sites, but to put it this way - I have been to their site maybe 10-15 times and most of the time I just stare at the front page and then leave.
THERE IS NOWHERE TO CLICK.
Rise of the Mentat Search Brain
Posted on May 17, 2008
Filed Under The Startup | Leave a Comment
The idea is that currently search engines are powered by giant AI brains - computers programmed to select the best of the links -based on numbers of inputs then covertly shaped and rated by their in-house teams. This is good to a certain degree and G is in the everlasting process of mastering this method
However it be not the only market. If we reference beloved F. Herbert, then we can discuss the Mentat model - Mentats being of course humans pumped up with various aroma in order train their brain to replicate the processes of the computers. This of course due to the nuclear development of AI which made computers hyper-intelligent but without the moral framework (read soul) in order to exist in harmony with humans who they viewed as inferior.
Coming back to this present reality; we can look at the natural evolution of search. Del.ici.ous has the right idea but too many dots (sic) in their name to be mainstream. (read this more ways than one) But their model being that humans select what is their favorite sites and mark them - the more humans that mark a site - the higher it shows up in the delicious results for that keyword search.
Take a search of my current home of ‘Thailand’ for example
Google computer results are the usual suspect of a Gmaps at the top of where is Thailand- along with some nice photos - then the official tourism site, wikipedia, cia factbooks, Bbc
All good and sterile results considering that ‘Thailand’ is a highly generic term and the user could be searching for anything.
But compare to the user generated results of delicious. There at the top we have a backpackers guide to Thailand - then we have a hotel reservation service which has been spammed in there through exploitation of human bookmarking.
After this we have links to Thai recipes, some random record label that happened to be tagged as Thailand, some photos and a guidebook.
All in all comparing the first page results of G to Delicious we see a few things
- G is assuming that by searching for ‘Thailand’ we are searching for generic factual information regarding this term. As a result this is what we get
- Delicious is returning results of anything that humans tagged as ‘Thailand’ with minimal sorting and AI via other factors. Since the majority of Delicious users are younger and mobile - thats how we get a backpackers guide on the first result as opposed to maps and wiki facts.
The point being that with D - the results are shaped by the users input - so the results are only as good as the other users within the system.
This leaves us to the major cross-roads between D and G. Overly objective versus overly subjective.
So where is the solution?
Well the solution is literally the 40 billion dollar question for the person or team that can come up with the right answer. Both models are perfect, yet flawed. The winner will be that who is able to take the best of both of these worlds and with the correct twist create the ultimate search and organization experience.
Without saying too much at this point, I have founded and been working vigorously for the past 6 months on a concept that will present the solution to the described problem. Within the next month we will be beginning a limited beta testing in which to perfect our system. I will need the best and the brightest of my readers to help with the testing.
Some traits that we will need
- Those involved on the front lines of the industry - pushing the web towards its natural (r)evolution. Those that play with the new toys as they are put forth, embracing the best and discarding the rest. Those who want to see a better web and have the experience and knowledge to give constructive criticism in order for us to achieve this way.
- People that are do internet marketing for a living and frequently do the directory, article, link-building thing. Even those of you are into OMG!!! Spam. Why am I asking? Because we need help to perfect the system to only allow quality links in our system. And who better to ask than those who work on the weaknesses everyday. (if you help I may even throw in some permanent PR6 backlinks
) - Common non-savvy users - The type of person that turns on their computer 3 times a week and reads yahoo news and checks the auctions on ebay. We need to test out usability and cleanness of interface
- Anybody who would have a little bit of time to use and evaluate the system to make constructive criticism. We will need 50-100 users for our first run and would hope that each would devote at least 20 minutes to evaluate a first impression and give us basic feedback. (of course if it is compelling you will spend days)
We can say that we will be ready early-mid June. If you can offer your help please send an email to me at
neyma (at) webgenome.com
and we will be in touch.
sdc, partner
Posted on March 2, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Here you may find sdc
Genome of the web surplus shop - For your needs from big to small, normal to extra special. We have east to west, north to south everything you could ever think of. Come and have a look for yourself..
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Deal of the Day
