Web 2.0 Revolution

I fell asleep in Bechtel Lounge today and when I woke up, I overheard some professors talking about Web 2.0. They were talking about how blogs would eventually come to compete with the corporate media (NY Times, c|net). I looked up the Web 2.0 concept and I really think everyone should read it.

Bloglines is one of the hottest trends on the web right now. Newspapers and online news sites like news.yahoo.com simply have way too much content. In my case, the only section I actually read in the newspaper is the front page and the comics. Bloglines is the newspaper of the future. I can quickly and conveniently scroll through new stories, and only topics that interests me is delivered to my account. In this case, I have sites like KnightTrader for market news, HardOCP for tech news, Reuters for real world news, etc.  It’s like having a personalized newspaper availible for me 24/7.

Technorati is also a promising concept. It’s basically a search engine for blogs. The only problem is that there are way too many blogs out there, making Technorati search results annoying to look through.

Finally, sites like digg and del.icio.us are changing the way content is spread over the Internet. They’re based on the concept of social bookmarking, in which users "vote" on news stories or websites that they think are interesting. Popular stories are then promoted to frontpage, where the masses can read them. I visit digg everyday, but at the moment, it’s really only good for killing time. However, the "social bookmarking / voting" concept is amazing, and I can totally imagine this concept being bridged to other platforms.

The future of the web lies in decentralization, empowering the masses to contribute to the evolution of the web. Just look at Wikipedia. I can’t believe that the concept actually worked. I like to try to brainstorm ideas on how to cash in on this paradigm shift… Like, I’m so jealous I hadn’t thought of digg, or bloglines, etc. Oh well, hopefully, I’ll get lucky and think up the next big thing.

Whats Hot: del.icio.us, digg, Bloglines, Drudge Report, Technorati, Wikipedia, RSS Feeds

What’s Not: Corporate Media, Newspapers