ivantohelpyou

Here are more takeaways from the Web 2.0 Expo, thinking about how the web's going to be different from a user's perspective.

Mobility Applications

The phone is the new browser.

Google SMS – Text your query to GOOGL, and receive a flurry of texted responses back with the results. Make sure your plan can handle the deluge. You won't get millions of results, but for a request for a movie time, I got back six texts.

TellMe – Has an SMS component like Google SMS, but also has a voice-recognition component. Dial 1-800-555-TELL for a demo.

Mozes - From the FAQ: "All you need is a keyword and Mozes let’s (sic) you send and receive all kinds of mobile messages to and from friends, favorite bands and social groups using your mobile phone and/or your personalized Mozes page on Mozes.com." The organizers of Ignite Expo (see related post) used the service's API to enable the on-screen mobile-phone voting. Although I still think that voters should be encouraged to make their own choices without being influenced by the leader board, it's still an interesting application of the service.

Social Networks

Yes, it's official. There's a social network for everything. (Well, almost everything. I'm still waiting for a social network for antisocial personalities. Oh wait, that's the Internet.)

Confabb - A social network for people who attend conferences like the Web 2.0 Expo.

Instructables - Build stuff and share with others how you did it.

See below. Many of the media sites have an social networking component.

Entertainment and Media

The rapid buildup of our digital infrastructure and online social networks will be a wonderful way to distract us from the crumble and collapse of our physical infrastructure and deteriorating personal connections. That is, unless sites like Vancity's ChangeEverything can attract more eyeballs than sites like YouTube and CollegeHumor.

Media sites to watch (in no particular order, and all taken from a presentation by David Berkowitz):

YouTube – Wasting your life one clip at a time.

MTV – Still relevant after all these years. Who'd have thunk it.

magnify – Build your own video channel.

Sling – A lawsuit waiting to happen.

BrilliantButCancelled – Interesting use of the term "brilliant." Like the DVD extras without the movie.

Innertube – Brought to you by CBS. Still irrelevant after all these years. Who'd have thunk it.

Joost – Aggregator of quality content such as Fight Network, Braindead, The Soccer Channel and Bridezillas.

Meevee – Free, personalized TV guide that also includes Internet-only programming.

Jumptv – It's like getting one of those satellite TV packages for foreign-language content, but without the satellite.

Brightcove – Now partnering with media companies like Hearst, WaPo, Time, Rodale to create video channels. In the meantime, watch Jessica Simpson, Batty Britney and National Lampoon videos.

Mobitv – Get live TV on your mobile device or laptop.

Stumbleupon – Add a toolbar that watches you surf and makes recommendations for other pages you should explore based on patterns and trends among the other users. (c.f. Google Web History, via Battelle; Netcraft)

Veoh – Yet another online video platform, but with investors like Michael Eisner and Time Warner behind it, maybe it'll do something interesting. Like put the complete Sopranos online.

Revver – Like YouTube, but there's a way to get paid if people watch your videos. Don't quit your day job.

Collegehumor –Parent company Connected Ventures is now 51 percent owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, adding it to a well-considered portfolio including Ask.com, Citysearch, Domania, Evite, LendingTree, Match, Ticketmaster and more. Sure, Google wants to organize the world's information, but IAC just wants to own a focused category-killer for every event and milestone in your life. Impressive.

Search

Speaking of IAC and Ask.com, I liked the local search features of AskCity. You get to draw a red line around the areas you'd like to search, create an itinerary for the evening, and share it with friends. I'm going to be writing a blog post about local search for SmallBizResource in the near future.

Labels: media, mobile, search, social networks, Web 2.0