As discussed in our e-marketing class, most people view Web 2.0 and it's features as a useful business tool which enhances online collaboration. There are, however, some skeptics that criticize Web 2.0 and call it a "silly waste of time."One of the proponents of Web 2.o is Rearden Commerce CEO Patrick Grady. About Web 2.0 he say, "It's a 'best of both worlds' scenario, where employees or customers have all the useful features in one place that they need to do their jobs more effectively and make smart choices, but where the corporation still has the ability to control and manage what's being offered." Web 2.0 has also introduced new technologies such as wikis, RSS (really simple syndication) feeds, Web APIs (application programming interfaces) and Ajax.
On the other hand, some people do not view Web 2.0 as useful. Kevin Walker, CEO of SimpleTuition commented, "It's about wasting time. A lot of people killing time watching inane videos. A lot of people killing time with dumb-dumb blog entries. A lot of people killing time complaining about their stay at some random Holiday Inn." Another opponent of Web 2.o is Miki Dzugan of Rapport Online. She speculates, "Someday soon they will discover that advertising that is consistent with how a Web site is being used is more effective than the print or TV-style interruption advertising. They'll probably call that 'Web 3.0.'"
Whether you view at useful or not, it's undeniable that Web 2.0 has changed the way business is conducted online. With the introduction of blogs and photo and video sharing tools the Web has become saturated with user-generated content, causing e-marketers to create new ways to focus their marketing efforts online. Whether that focus will change again in the near future is yet to be answered.
2 comments:
What exactly does Kevin Walker mean when he says "useful"? If he means useful to people's daily lives, then no it's not really useful. It is essentially filling time doing kind seemingly silly things. But the real question is...is it effective? And does it provide benefit to the customer? The answer to both of these is yes. And from that we can probably conclude that Web 2.0 (marketing ploy or not) is a good thing. The benefit provided to consumers is basically on a personal level. They get to have fun doing interactive activities such as posting theories about a certain confusing TV show, or telling the Amazon.com world how much they loved or hated a product. They get to feel apart of something. The benefit to marketers is of course increase interest and awareness of a product and even spending less resources on marketing. So useful? Perhaps not. Beneficial? Definitely.
We agree that Web 2.0 has changed the way business is being conducted on the web. Kevin Walker is right in a way that people do waste a lot of time watching entertaining videos, but for businesses Web 2.0 has many advantages for the business. Businesses have to make use of Web 2.0 to their advantage and not for leisure time.
Post a Comment