1.       What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0, as it has been coined, ultimately redefines the Web as a distributed computing platform instead of a network for merely serving static content. The proliferation and standardization of new technology that enable this movement is critical to the future of the Internet.”

2.       How can blogs work to shorten sales cycles?

Provide information that supports or repeats formal documents and marketing material to move client though buying process: Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action.

3.       Please define Web2.0 PR?

The use of new read/write SAAS tools to reduce the cost and enhance the efficiency of the PR process to generate earned media dependably and talk directly to consumers.  

4.       What is the business value of blogging?

embedded journalism, new compelling content, thought leadership, explore and interact, gain visibility, shorten sales cycles, access early adopters, reduce media spend, leverage editorial coverage, integrated marketing

5.       What blogging tools do you find most useful?

·                Two-way blog communications: comments and trackbacks

·                Platforms: Blogger, Blogware, WordPress, TypePad, MovableType

·                Blog Monitor: Technorati, Google, BlogPulse

·                Feed Readers: MyYahoo, MyGoogle, Bloglines, Rojo, Pluck, PubSub

·                Post: BlinkList, Del.icio.us, Digg it, Furl, Reddit, Simpy, Spurl, Yahoo MyWeb, WTF

·                Blog Search engines: Bloglines Technorati, Daypop, Blogdex, Moreover, Yahoo, Popdex, Blogflux        

·                URL Submissions: Google, Yahoo, Dmoz

·                My RSS Feeds: MyYahoo, Google, MNS, AOL, Bloglines, Newsgator, Technorati

·                Search: Altavista, Lycos, A9, MSN, AOL, Teoma, Clusty, Wisenut, Gigablast, Yahoo,

·              Google Tools: googlefight.com 

6.       What's next for Blogging?

Web 2.0: the second generation of rich internet-based services—such as blogs, social networking sites, wikis, communication tools — that emphasize dynamic online experience, collaboration and sharing among users  will emerge on the enterprise driven by bottom up demand.

7.       Will there be Web 2.0 convergence?

Blogging and social networking will merge. Social networks don't promote conversation; they track your connections. Blogs will become a person's online profile becoming almost as necessary as e-mail is today. Social networks will become grafted to blogs. Wiki's will continue to be important following Wikipedia. User-generated content has exploded onto the scene -myspace, facebook, eBay, and Flickr. Topic specific wikis will spring up on a variety of web sites. Google will deliver a multi-community version of Wikipedia. The difficulty it is to build a vibrant community that contributes to the wiki.

8.       How will search emerge?

RSS is going to be extended as a search tool. Developers have to build all tools on top of RSS data to make it useful to everyday users. Want to search through your RSS feeds for a particular keyword? There is lots of room for improvement in utilizing RSS data.

9.       How do you use SEO?

Optimize website with key terms, blogs get great rankings because they have good content that is new all the time.  Use key word and phrases in marketing programs.

10.    Where do you like to play?

Websites that need to be refreshed are an interesting starting point to engage a Web2.0 PR campaign.  The journalistic PR urge can drive strategy and a company’s brand forward.

Flickr
del.icio.us
Local.Live.com
GMail
Google Calendar
Google Spreadsheets
Digg
YouTube
Yelp
Blinklist
Bloglines
Basecamp
Writely
Dimewise
Kayak
Spurl
LibraryThing
Last.fm
NetVibes

Robert Weisman has written a great piece on the Boston VC pursuit of promising Web2.0 companies. Some informative quotes from the piece:

"Unlike the dot-coms of the late 1990s, many of which counted on the proliferation of online eyeballs to overcome shaky business models, Web 2.0 companies aspire to profits, cash flow, and recurring revenue. Their embrace of new technologies and open-source software like Ajax, enabling the creation of richer Internet interfaces, has dramatically lowered operating costs. And they have sought to spice up static content with interactive and multimedia technologies -- like weblogs, wikis, or podcasts -- that enable two-way conversations.

Google is the poster child for Web 2.0

What the Web allows you to do is have second-to-second information about user interactions. Every click is information, and that information can drive your business.

 .... the hottest field in technology today: the second wave of Internet start-ups known as Web 2.0."

For more see: http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2006/08/07/wheres_web_20?mode=PF

Pageflakes Adds RSS Reader

JavaScriptSearch
Monday, August 14, 2006; 04:58 AM

Pageflakes, a leading player in the rapidly-growing AJAX-based personalized internet startpage market, announced the release of its new RSS reader.

Pageflakes's RSS feed manager.

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" and is a technology used by hundreds of thousands of blogs and other web sites to deliver so called content "feeds" to users. The user simply enters his favorite feeds or selects some popular feeds such as The New York Times, TechCrunch or Gizmodo from the feed directory. Pageflakes (www.pageflakes.com) then automatically monitors all feeds for updates and puts all articles on the user’s page.

To fit everyone’s taste and personal reading habit, the new RSS reader provides a variety of different views. In Outlook View, the screen is split into three panes, letting users read their RSS feeds in a similar way like many users are used to read their emails. Newspaper View puts all articles on one large virtual sheet of paper. By scrolling down, users can quickly navigate through the daily information overload. The Website View lets users view postings in their original context and formatting.

Additional features include an "all-feeds-in-one" option which mixes postings from all of the user’s feeds into one virtual feed, the ability to save articles for later reading and various sorting options.

"Pageflakes is all about personalization and customization," said Ole Brandenburg, co-founder and CMO of Pageflakes. "Just a few days ago we announced the release of a variety of customization options, including various color and page layout themes. Launching such a versatile RSS reader once again shows that Pageflakes wants to provide users with a broad variety of options to choose from."

Web2.0 has enabled the banal to be scattered across the globe consciousness. Great content is required to get noticed and make an impact.

"Banality in the mouth of a failed businessman or an unpublished novelists sounds banal; in the mouth of  David Rockefeller or Phillip Roth the same words acquire the weight of oracle." - Lewis Lapham

"Drearily commonplace and often predictable; trite: “Blunt language cannot hide a banal conception” (James Wolcott).

Source: Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.

Main Entry:   banal
Part of Speech:   adjective
Definition:   commonplace; tired or petty
Etymology:   Serbo-Croatian ban `lord, ruler'

Use people as a social lens to find new products to recreate the serendipity and discovery that comes from shopping in the real world.

Seeding your network with minor celebrities and icons who have agreed to curate the Web for their favorite products.  This can influence real-world influencers will help set the tone for the entire service. Opinion leaders who others will follow.  

This is an excellent introduction to Web2.0

What You Need to Know About Web 2.0By Steve Apiki

August ...   more »