2005 — The Year of the Blog
…says this site.
So how do you stand out being only one of a gazillion blogs? This site has some useful tips. I have not yet tried all of them, but will do later.
Will there be any spot on the web without Google?
Google offers hosting for Wikimedia projects is one of the headlines of the last couple of days.
Just to be more precise: Wikimedia is:
a super project of free content wikis and a wiki engine called MediaWiki that runs them. The Wikimedia wiki projects so far include (oldest first): Wikipedia, Sep11wiki, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikibooks, Wikisource and Wikispecies.
John Hokes hopes:
that this is a good thing in the long run, and that there are no grand schemes to slowly assert any control over the content and day to day operations of Wikimedia in a negative way.
paidcontent thinks more along the lines that I am thinking about:
A possible tie-in with eternal beta Google News? Google Answers? Something completely new?
Let me just recap of a few areas that Google has now moved into:
1) there are, of course, all the search related functions: keywords, images, maps (new), TV programs (new), groups and news.
2) Gmail: you can store 1GB of your emails (and Google even suggest not to delete any of them)
3) Blogger: Google purchased blogger.com (my very own hoster of this great blog) offering free&easy blogging for users without a website and hosting environment
4) Wiki: Google might now also be hosting the wiki projects.
See the pattern? In the not so distant future, Google will know exactly what webusers
– write to each other (over a history of 1GB, including your „social network“ and the stuff your network talks about),
– search for (regarding all sorts of media!),
– blog on about, and
– what is worked on and talked about in open wiki environments.
No other company will have such profound data on what’s really happening on the web. What the users, who as an aggregate mass, are doing and wanting.
And if there are any other areas on the web, where Google has no part in, I am sure they will soon move there, too.
Given this load of information it is only a matter of computing power (and time) to aggregate comprehensive user trends and profiles. Once they have their ear in every corner of the web, they will have a competitive advantage that I fear we don’t fathom yet. We are in the information age, the whole web is about information. And those that manage and utilize the information best, will win. Obvious as it is…
I personally think that Google is soon on its way to overtake Microsoft in terms of relevance and mindshare for the everyday PC user. And they will be a powerful player as far as information on the web is concerned. Not only search, for which they already have cornered the market, but everything regarding intelligent information management.
Is this good or bad? Sofar Google has not charged any money to the everyday user (at least that I know of). If they continue to make money by (relevant, thank god!) advertising through, e.g. Adsense, then it’s fine for me. I don’t mind a little advertising as long as that means free content.
But if they manage to get even a near-monopoly on information management on the web, they might exploit this and charge users for content. Even though I don’t think this is very likely, the danger exists.
Are You Ready for the Cyborg Consumer?
asks Sean Carton of clickz. I have already hinted at that in another post. This article of Sean says what I wanted to add in a later post about the all-ways on consumer, who is in control of where and how he communicates, as well as how he can be reached by any communication, expeciall including advertising, or, more to the point, dialog marketing. And by that I mean (and Sean writes) not the traditional location targetted Marketing of direct mail, but the individualised addressing of the ever more mobile target group. So that’s what communication and advertising will have to move to, if they want to keep up with the increasing geographical freedom of communication, that people will enjoy.
Sidekick II
BUUUAAAH!!! Why do we germans always lag behind when it comes to the coolest toys&trends? Being a gadget freak myself, I am sooo fascinated by the new Sidekick II, even though I already have a blackberry!
What bothers me most: T-Mobile is a german company, yet we are supposed to get excited about the latest „push-to-talk“ feature of phones!!
Bad Idea Jeans: Bloggers as Models
Gawker has a post about levis jeans looking for Bloggers as Models. I ask myself the same question as probably most people out there: why? Do they just want to jump onto the blog-bandwagon? Being „cool“? Will it be cool, just because it involves bloggers?? Or what is their objective?
I am curious to see how that develops and what kind of blog-posts I will find around the web concerning this marketing gig. Will keep you „posted“.
Gmail Drive shell extension
An interesting tip I found at Lifehacker: the Gmail Drive shell extension. Now you can use the 1GB of your Gmail account as a normal drive on Windows, using this little app to access it like any other drive on you PC. However Lifehacker warns not to store any sensitive information.
The plus-point: you can access 1GB of your data from anywhere on the web, no matter what internet cafe your sitting in…
And if you don’t know anyone who can invite to Gmail, look at this other tip from Lifehacker.
Wo ich sonst so bin...