The Fourth Estate

Next Big Things

When Time magazine features Web2.0 as its lead story, you know the profit party is probably over. Or at least, the cutting edge is elsewhere. At Tim O'Reilly's ETech conference in San Diego last week there were a few ideas about where that might be. Although the agenda was eclectic, the underlying theme was self evident. Consumers are not just more connected than ever before, they are more connected to each other. In the next few years, that is going to lead to not only new ways of doing business, but also radical new forms of behavior. While you are waiting for those, here are five memes to chew over.

Don't Kill Bill

Following the tech market these days is a bit like watching a Japanese b-grade disaster movie. While Microsoft has long held the title as the heavyweight Godzilla, there is no doubt that the new 1000 pound gorilla is Google as King Kong. First it was search. Round one to the Kong. Now, if you believe the hype – the next showdown will be over web operating systems.

The Quick Brown Fox

Looks like the now infamous Internet "Mea Culpa" Speech was only Rupert Murdoch's warm up act. Earlier in the week, Fox revealed its plans for a new interactive division to be headed up by former online sports impresario Ross Levinsohn. So how does Newscorp planned acquisition of Intermix Media, which owns the community network MySpace.com fit in its broader portal ambitions?

2.0 Outakes

Robert Cringely had some interesting things to say today about the Supreme Court's ruling on P2P filetrading networks Grokster and Streamcast, and its implications on the emerging Web 2.0 meme.

Little Green Men

If you want to know where degree zero of the Web 2.0 world is - it is Gnomedex 2005 and you have just missed it.  The blogosphere is going crazy with speculation and comment, driven largely by Microsoft's announced plans to deeply integrate RSS technology into Longhorn. Exciting news, certainly. But also, a bit like getting a smile from a crocodile.

The trend is becoming clear. RSS is more than just a plaything for bloggers and news junkies. What HTML was to the Web 1.0, RSS will be to the emerging 2.0 zeitgeist - in which tagging, social networking, and consumer created and controlled media will be ascendant.

Fire In The Hull

If you think TiVo has got the network advertisers running scared, imagine a world in which not only advertising but the configuration of your product itself becomes a matter of choice for consumers. The genius of the Firefox browser is not just that it is wickedly fast, but that it also allows third party developers to extend its functionality. As you can imagine, when the world’s ubergeeks contemplate hotting up their browsers, ad skipping and site modification are at the top of their list. But this is not just a web fringe phenomenon. With global Firefox adoption rates now gaining momentum, publishers will soon have to accept that it will be readers and not editors who will decide not only what they look at, but also in what form and at what cost.