Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed Musing about technology, finance, venture capital, & the money culture with Paul Kedrosky by Paul Kedrosky

• Home
• Speaking
• About
• Media

• Subscribe:
• 
• 
• 

Is Web 2.0 a Waste?

A reader made some provocative comments on an earlier post about Web 2.0, so I’ll repost them here:

As much as I love trying the new technology and services, very little has changed in how I use the web. Only RSS aggregation has truly offered me value. Everything else I enjoy trying out and then utterly forget it after a week. Meebo is a great example. Loved the service. Loved using it. Stopped using it a while back and had trouble remembering the name today. Gmail I still use but thread it through Outlook. Google maps and Virtual earth I use but ultimately because they have much bigger maps than mapquest. The satellite imagery I find useless. Checked out goowy last night. Awesome. I will never visit it again. I cannot think of one mashup that I have used beyond that initial curiosity phase.

Not to conflate Web 2.0 with mash-ups, but he makes a good point. Can anyone point to a mash-up that they continue to use after the first “Whoa, cool!” moment? I use Paul Rademacher’s housing maps service now and then (mostly to cringe at the prices of homes here in La Jolla), but as near as I can figure, that’s the only mash-up I use. And as far as technologies go, the only so-called 2.0 technology that has really penetrated my daily work/play life is syndication feeds, which I have waxed about many times.

So, does that means Web 2.0 is a waste, a sexy phrase to suck in venture capitalists? No, not at all, and while I’ll try to frame some comments later today or tomorrow, I’m hesitant to post more detailed thoughts on the subject as I would quickly end up talking my book (as we used to say in the brokerage business).

1

Lijit Search




Recent Comments

Archives

Select a Month... December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003

Hosting

• SuperbHosting.net provides affordable managed dedicated server solutions to small and medium sized businesses throughout the world. SuperbHosting.net has generously donated a dedicated server to ensure maximum performance, reliability, and scalability.