The next internet revolution
Companies that have barely adjusted to Web 2.0 – the user-generated content revolution which made it possible for anyone to become a publisher – may not want to here this but the digerati are already talking about Web 3.0. In essence, Web 3.0 is the customisation of the internet. Using services like Facebook, millions of internet users will use people they know or trust to help them navigate the billions of pages on the web.
Travis Katz, one of the founders of MySpace, says: “In the future, every page will be personalised. If I’m planning a trip to Paris, you shouldn’t see 900 hotels. You should see six, based on where you’ve been before, the places you’ve checked on Facebook and Foursquare and places where your friends are stayed”.
This revolution recognises the fact that none of us have the bandwidth, desire or need to embrace the internet as a whole – or indeed, to understand any more of it than is strictly necessary. This may be liberating for consumers but it does mean that businesses need to embrace this revolution or risk being stranded in on the hard shoulder of what they used to call the information superhighway.
For many companies, one of the most painful aspects of social media is that they feel it diminishes their control of their brand. But Katz says: “People are always talking about your brands in ways you can’t control. All social media does is forcibly eliminate the illusion that you have control of your brand.”
