A few observations from the Web 2.0 conference:
- Google’s influence was almost everywhere. On the positive side, as Mary Meeker pointed out, Google has given many startups an advertising-based business model: while the company generated $1.4B in Q2 revenue, Google also paid out $494M in the same time period to thousands of partners (though programs like AdSense, which lets publishers easily serve ads; Google and the publisher split the proceeds)–more than enough, in many cases, to pay the bills. On the negative side, Joe Kraus noted that Google’s habit of leaving products in “beta” may work for them, but it’s often a dangerous example for others to copy. Basically, thanks to Google’s core advertising business, the company has sufficient surplus cash flow to finance dozens of internal quasi-startups, even if all are eventually shut down. Typical startups, on the other hand, don’t have the luxury of a padded bank account. Therefore, they need to immediately think hard about measuring the right metrics and quickly getting to market with revenue-generating products–startups can’t stay in beta forever.
- Google also released an RSS reader. It’s pretty, but I won’t use it as my regular reader until it’s usable when I’m offline. For now, then, I’m sticking with NewsGator.
- Yahoo had a few intriguing developments, also. I liked their Tech Buzz Game–”a fantasy prediction market for high-tech products, concepts, and trends.” I doubt I’ll actively participate, but it’s interesting to see what others are betting on. For example, the Rumor Mill says the (hopefully) smart money is betting that Apple will soon release a video iPod. Separately, Yahoo also demonstrated a novel search system that sorts based on whether you are looking for commercial or informational results. Give it a try.
- I had a very favorable impression of Macromedia’s new Flex 2 development platform (click here to find out about the pending alpha release). While there was a lot of talk about Ajax’s potential to enable web applications, Flash is still useful and, in any case, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Certain applications, like MeasureMap, use both to very good effect.
- On the startup front, I had two favorites. First, Zimbra, a messaging and collaboration platform I wrote about earlier. Nice functionality (mouse over an address and a corresponding Google Map pops up, mouse over a date and Zimbra pulls up your calendar appointments for that day, etc), and looks like the team thoughtfully architected the server, as well (one small example: only one copy of a particular attachment gets stored per server; certain other email servers store one copy per user). It’s being marketed as a Microsoft Exchange competitor. Second, I liked Zvents, a local events search and events web service. For now, though, Zvents only covers the San Francisco area.
More Web 2.0 info via Richard McManus here and at TechCrunch here.
Update (10/12): Looks like the iPod Video bets at Yahoo paid off…
Left by Digital Media Review - The future is not what it used to be on October 12th, 2005