When the MySpaces and Facebooks of the world of ‘online sharing’ came upon us with all the guns blazing, many (mainly the old schools) thought these are fads for the young and so will pass away soon.
Instead, as time passes, the Web 2.0 technology is spreading its multi-headed tentacles far and wide. A recent study by Forrester Research predicts that by 2013 the Web 2.0 apps will climb to a $4.6 billion industry. Did I mention ‘industry’?
Well, that seems an almost certainty. And of that $4.6 billion pie the major portion will belong to social networks, nearly $2 billion for them.
Why the corporate sector will sit up and adopt the new beast is amply answered by the amazing SightSpeed Video Chat that costs just $9.95 a month ($99.95 annually) for business. This package permits 4 persons for video conferencing, each located anywhere on the globe.
SightSpeed has personal free edition too for non-commercial use. The SightSpeed guy’s suggested ten top things to do with a webcam have speeded up my decision to buy a laptop armed with one without delay. The launch of its video mail for MySpace will be another feather in the cap.
SightSpeed is however not the first one in the field. It comes pretty long after Skype stole the first-mover limelight, and perhaps later than Google’s GrandCentral interest.
Skype was ordinary in the beginning, but with time it too provides lots of damning nice features. Look at its video conferencing facility as well.
In the meantime, away from online chatting, there is now a formidable claimant to the space hitherto monopolized by Yahoo’s Flickr. The Apr 22 News.Com report says that Photobucket “is making a significant change aimed to weave the widely used photo-sharing site more tightly into the Web 2.0 fabric” so as to match Flickr.
All in all, as the Web 2.0 phenomenon marches on, there is enough reason to think that the beginning of the surprise called the Internet has perhaps just begun.
The developments in the last decade have been so rapid and jaw-dropping that the erstwhile winners like the search engine optimization for websites no longer have the aura around them.
The signal is clear on the web horizon. Either take one or more social networking paths, or remain in the realms of history forever. The choice is yours.
Like this blog? Get daily posts by email.
Leave a Reply