Article Reviews for Web 2.0

Its been a little bit since i have posted, but during this time I have found a few articles related to our class I would like to briefly review. I'll post these on our digg account as well.

Article #1
The first article I am reviewing, is titled "Web 2.0 Expo: The Power of Less" written by Thomas Claburn from InformationWeek. The article goes over an expo that is currently taking place (Nov. 16-19) in New York. The theme of the expo is "Power of Less" focusing on companies that have small budgets and getting hit hard by the economy. Twitter, is an example of the expo's theme in that it was built with one central "narrow idea" — simply put, it allows you to do just one thing, post messages.

When you really think about the many tools we use, they are fairly simple and I do think that is their strong point. Perhaps we like to overcomplicate things and need to keep things minimal and to the point. These minimal tools are so powerful to developing a business in so many different fields. With smaller budgets, businesses have gotten creative and challenged themselves with ways to enhance their brands. At the expo they review these minimal use issues; how people are utilizing these tools such as social media programs like Twitter; and how these web 2.0 have evolved.

Its amazing to think how much web 2.0 tools have progressed in the matter of a couple years. This leads me to my next article I found going over the history of the internet.

Article #2
"The History of the Internet in a Nutshell" by Cameron Chapman is a summary of when the internet got started and how its evolved to present time. Can you remember your first experience with the internet? I remember way back in the early 90's when my older brother was using the earliest versions of the social networking program AOL. He was showing me how he could talk to other people around the country and I was deeply fascinated by this technology at the time (I was a kid).

The first date listed is, 1969: the birth of the first network to run on packet switch technology, called Arpanet. The article points out that "they were the first hosts on what would one day become the Internet." To think how old this technology actually is. Did you know that email was firs developed in 1971? Prior to World of Warcraft and Second Life, a text-based role-playing world was created in 1979, called MUD. The first worm attack occurred in 1988...there is always someone trying to do something! 1990 marked the coding for the World Wide Web and its protocol. In 1993, the first easily accessible public web browser was launched called, Mosaic.

It is in 1995 where commercialization meets the web. Within in the next few years, the first we-based mail service (Hotmail) is launched as well as the ever-popular Google to online file sharing with Napster. Finally we read about everything that leads up to the highly interactive and user drive Web 2.0 applications we are using today.  To think how much technology has evolved and how much earlier then I thought a lot of the technology was created such as the first e-mail. What do you think the future holds to the internet?

Article #3
My next article I would like to review is analyst Tamara Barber's opinion on why online communities should be accepted as a research tool. "Market research catches up with Web 2.0" begins by discussing the term Web 2.0 and its meaning. When I first learned about the term about 5-6 years ago, I thought it was more a graphical thing as the articles I was reading online were about how to create the Web 2.0 look. Once I delved deeper into it, I soon discovered it was a term used to coin interactive user driven sites or applications found on the web. Unfamiliar with the web 2.0 look? Take a look at the 2009 web design trends from my favorite online magazine, Smashing Magazine. These trends are carried out through many of the web 2.0 sites, apps, etc we see online. I think its important when putting out a design that you are aware of trends.

Getting back to the article, Barber gets into depth on how Market Research Online Communities should use social outlets to review the feedback of people's opinions on brands and companies. By research companies utilizing these outlets, in my mind, I think they would save themselves a lot of money but not having to make cold calls with surveys or creating them. The information is right there and easily accessible. How often do you find yourself reading reviews for a product? I know I like to, as you get a sense of real world users of the product and their experience with not only the product but often good reviews of the company you are buying from.