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06/01/2009

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Jo

As a relative newcomer to UK I can attest that web 1.0 is pretty bad here. When you want to find ordinary things then not only do you get down to Yellow Pages, you get down to local directories and local knowledge (ask).

The font of all wisdom in my village (won't name the shop) responded to Web2.0 idea with - we've tried all that.

I think we have to split the landscape up a bit and have more finely tuned predictions for different parts of the economy.

Alastair

Hi Sinead,

I think this proves that the internet is NOT the be all and end all of life itself. There I said it, shoot me down.

It's still merely a channel, nothing more nothing less.

I also proves that mobile comms and technology has a LONG way to go.

Sinead Bunting

I agree Alastair.

We find (depending on the brief) a multi channel approach is often the best solution.

Is it just me, or does the music and the actual JR Hartley Yellow Pages ad itself, pull at the old heart strings?....I get more and more sentimental..

Alastair

the old hovis ad used to cut me up.

Alex Hens

Nice post to kick us off into the new year :) - and absolutely agree that too many people see the start of the year as a license to try and seem clever by saying this or that will be "big", knowing that they're seldom (if ever) likely to get held to account for ridiculous often naive spoutings 12months later (although there's a thought - maybe a post generated from a blog archive trawl to find some of the more silly and banal "predictions" that have been cast out there in past years - could be amusing).

A certain Mr William Henry Gates III said "We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten." Maybe he knows a thing or two ☺

It's an unfortunate truth that those who shout loudest about these things tend to have a vested interest in the success of that which they're shouting about - so salt is often required by the ladle full. And whilst many new technologies or platforms benefit from rapid initial expansion when they tickle the fancy of early adopters (the kind of growth that gets the VCs all hot under the colar) so they too can tend to hit their ceiling (often blindly) with alarming speed, or indeed witness mass migration of 'their' users as the trends & fads that saw their early success evolve and switch them to the "next big thing". The Internet is, in humankind terms, like watching evolution in petri dish - blink and you'll miss something.

A case in point is how these lifestream aggregators are going to distort the social media business model (in I think probably all if not certainly most instances) before it’s even seen that business model make even a tiny percentage of the returns investors have gambled on them making. If you’re using an aggregator to maintain your profile on various social media spaces then how are they in turn supposed to sell advertising to people who are seldom actually in that space. It all becomes very interesting / challenging indeed (depending which side of the fence you’re on).

We’re in a whole world of unknown – it’s exciting for sure, but I say evangelists will lead the way whilst pragmatists will win the day. Life’s a marathon not a sprint after all, just a shame that media, politicians and the City / Bankers seem to forget that (and target & reward themselves accordingly).

:-/

John Whitehurst

It is also worth thinking back to the beginning of search ... the basis of collation and the early search was human.

Development of complex search tools like google only worked with a critical mass on quality websites.

The user experience ... especially integration of online search activity (i am including desk and mobile based search) with the real world can still be poor.

Google is only as good as the information it feeds on ... i can see mobile integrating with other digital formats easily over the next year ... but the holy grail is the integration with the real world.

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