In the 2000's decade, we are seeing a large, diverse base of online users and we see new iterations of technologies that support different applications. Here are the biggest trends dubbed 2.0.
Application services - Web 2.0 focuses on services rather than software. Unlike the types of technologies that were introduced in the 1990's, application services don't require the end user to load software onto their computer. Services reside on the web. When the end user wants to participate or use a service they go to a web site. Most web services were not available 5 to 10 years ago. Remember when you needed to look up driving direction from a map? Or, when you wanted to buy a new house, you had to get listings from your real estate agent who found all the homes in your area, and then you had to drive past each home? Applications like online driving directions and MLS listings are examples of application services.
- Focus on “the long tail” - This refers to the portions of the population/market bell curve that reflect smaller markets. The tail can be very long - lots of potential users who are not being serviced by the organizations that service the core consumers. Through mass marketing, organizations focus on the center of the bell: That's where the majority of the people are. With so many people on the Internet it has become much easier to market to people in the tails of the curve. Specifically, there can be lots of people who are geographically dispersed with a like interest, but who are not interested in what the majority wants. These people's interests fall into niches for which it was not economical to have service providers except in the largest population centers. Netflicks is an example of a company that has become successful by marketing to the tail of the curve. Users can request old, “indy”, or foreign films not easily obtainable from local retail stores. Because of limited shelf space, the local Video rental stores have to cater to the general popular culture market, so they cannot stock all the obscure, non-mainstream films.
- Mashups - taking multiple technologies or services and providing new added value services. A site like Zillow.com lets you view an online map and see the price of houses in a specific neighborhood. Zillow.com access two different databases of information - maps and county assessment records, combining them into a new added value service.
- Enlisting end users to add value - End-user comments, blogs, and critiques may add value to generic information. Amazon was one of the first to stumble onto this. By allowing everyone to provide book reviews they added value to their service as a bookseller, made it difficult for competitors to replicate, and increased the value of their service. Wikis are a new form of this phenomenon. By providing the infrastructure and focus, a Wiki harnesses end users to add value to a web site.
- “Intel inside” - “Intel Inside” refers to branding core capabilities that the end user does not purchase. With the web, the Intel Inside strategy refers to providing the underlying value that is being used by others. In the web services space, Google has been licensing their search engine so that it can be locally hosted for intranet (local internal web site) searches. This further extends the branding for their services.
- Providing services above the level of a single device - the ability to provide web services that run smoothly on any configuration of PC or portable device. Installed software usually is designed for a single operating system (e.g. MS-Windows, Macintosh, or Linux). By providing software services through a web browser interface, operating system dependence is eliminated. This means the same service is accessible from a PC, a Mac, or a PDA.
