Archive of thenextweb.com
Written on 16th April 2009
12 COMMENTS 
Anne Helmond, hard bloggin' scientist
Moderator and conference organizer Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten asked Andrew Keen to address the following question in his keynote: Why do you love the web?
Note: written from the (I/we) point of Andrew Keen.
We are living in a critical moment in history. The post-industrial is clearly different from the industrial age. Technology is not interesting because we can use Google but because it is the midwife of change and the cause of consequence of that change. Our history is based on places like the Westergasfabriek where the conference is taking place. We are in a new age which is born by the internet.
Johannes Vermeer - Woman in Blue Reading a Letter
Intimate media
Why I love this woman so much is because it’s so intimate that it manifests media at its best. The woman is reading, concentrating, it is an essential manifestation of media. She has emerged herself in the letter, that is the best kind of media. Twitter may be real-time but this Vermeer picture is both real-life and real-time media. It doesn’t have a business model but it nonetheless reflects the two core features of successful media: intimacy and trust. It is transparent and profoundly deep. When we look at it we are thinking: who is she, what is she reading?
Media has to change. Technology has resulted in power, not to the people but to the individuals. “WE ARE INDIVIDUALS” (Jeff Jarvis) is not so much an ideological statement as it is a core sociological and anthropological statement. The end of the industrial revolution is the shift of power from the institution to the individual. The new age is the age of the isolated and empowered individual. This is also the paradox because the individual is no longer able to concentrate and lives in a virtual reality. This is a new revolutionary, transformation age where we are the product. The fact that we are individuals is both the power and the paradox of the individual age.
The question then becomes how do we make sense of this, how do we transform meaning to make it work? The Dutch and people in Amsterdam are experts of transformations. The conference venue, the gasworks (Westergasfabriek) is reinvented as a meeting place. Amsterdam has industrialized late but it industrialized successful. It is no coincidence we are on the edge of reinvention.
So what has to happen to media in this new age? We need trust, we need to do away with anonymity and we need intimacy. Human beings are good at sending messages.Technology may have changed but the basic nature of communication hasn’t changed. My biggest concern is that the change was not going to be successful, that the old world was being replaced and swept away. Web 2.0 doesn’t work, it’s flawed, it doesn’t create revenue. If we want to recreate the newspapers, they’re fucked. We want reliable information but also intimacy in the new age of the individual. We need to reinvent a medium which gets beyond amateurs. Web 2.0 is finished. Even Techcrunch, the leading cheerleader of the Web 2.0 industry, has come to the conclusion that sites like YouTube don’t create revenue, it doesn’t work.
I am deeply encouraged by Twitter, so encouraged that I ask you to follow me @ajkeen – This is the future of individual media in the age of the individual. On the one hand it is inspiring to build your own broadcast network but it is also worrying because it duplicates inequality. The mass age was egalitarian, the individual age is unequal. The future is the age in which the individuals become brands. We need technology to enable these brands, people with talents, on the network. Twitter is the beginning enabling technology.
Web 2.0 is dead and Twitter is the symptom. It is the end of web2 .0, it represents a final nail in the coffin of business models built out of amateur content. We are entering a time with a new kind of professionalism and expertise. The new age of the individual which truly empowers smart talented people.
Written on 6th April 2009
4 COMMENTS
David Petherick, Contributing Editor, United Kingdom
Every year, the Tokyo Underground map is used as the basis to redraw a map of the web by IA Inc, mapping the 333 most influential web domains and the 111 most influential internet people. The result is stunning, and fascinating.
Thie map is in its ‘final beta’ stage, meaning you can still add comments and criticism to amend the map’s final appearance before it goes to print. It is available to view as a large scale 2.6Mb PNG file on Flickr.
Only 1,000 maps will be printed – you can reserve a copy here by sending an email.
Written on 27th February 2009
3 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Web 2.0 Expo Europe 2009, an annual conference held in Berlin, has been cancelled due to the uncertain economic climate.
The event, produced by O’Reilly Media and Techweb is one of a select few European focused tech conferences other include; TheNextWeb conference (ours), Plugg, LIFT, LeWeb and FOWA.
The announcement was made via the German O’Reilly community blog and also notes that the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco will run between 31 March to 3 April 2009. Europeans can register for the conference with code “websf09eu” and be automatically entered into a lottery to win a free entrance ticket, three nights at a hotel and $1000.
As sad as it is, there are fortunately two upcoming European conferences worth noting; Plugg in Brussels on the 12 March and our very own TheNextWeb Conference in Amsterdam on April 15th, 16th and 17th.
via:
Techcrunch, O’Reilly Germany Blog
Written on 15th January 2009
5 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Dania & Gregory Gerhardt from
Amazee.com at Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco
The launch of Switzerland-based social collaboration network Amazee in September 2008 was perfectly timed. Founders Mr. and Mrs. Gerhardt wanted to help people making their dreams, ideas, and goals come true. Yes, they wanted to change our lives. And that very word, change, was pretty popular back then – for obvious reasons.
People are still in the “yes we can” mood. Especially those who are active in the world of Web 2.0. Those Facebook users, YouTube adapts and Twitter influentials have had a large share in the election of Barack Obama. So Amazee can use this sentiment to promote their start-up. It’s time to reach the masses, it’s time to go viral. Yes, we can.
In comes the Facebook app. Users of the popular social network now have the possibility to express their commitment to the good cause through a tab called “Amazee”. On this app page, they can promote the causes they stand for. Here’s the page of co-founder and CEO Gregory Gerhardt:
In the press release, he says: “With the new Amazee application Facebook will become even more of a platform for effective social change. On the other hand, Amazee project initiators can easily reach out for the ever growing Facebook community to gain attention for their cause and find the necessary support in order to reach their set goals.”
Although the app is a bit plain now, there’s enough potential to turn it into something big. Add a “Donate” button and fund raising 2.0 can begin. As long as you promise change, you’re on the good track.
Written on 30th October 2008
4 COMMENTS
Mircea Goia, Next Web US Webtipr
Continuing the series of articles about European Web 2.0 events I will stop again to Romania to present the oldest web festival there: Internetics.
(maybe I should stop using the word “Web 2.0″ once it’s declared dead now)
Internetics web festival was started 8 years ago and it’s held annually (this is the 8th edition). For this year, the festival started on 29 of October and it will end today, 30 of October. The registration of the web projects ended on 14 of September.
Internetics is structured as a competition between the best romanian websites in three main categories: Publishing, Services and Advertising & Communication.
Each of these categories have sections (examples: Publishing has Business, Sport, Lifestyle, News and others… Services has E-commerce, Financial and others… Advertising & Communication has the most sections like Corporate Promotion websites, Viral Promotion, Innovative Projects, Politics, Advergames, Banner Campaigns, Email Campaigns, Interactive Campaigns and others).
The winner of each of these sections will get a prize named “Internetics Icon”. They have two special more prizes for Publishing category (Publisher of the Year) and Advertising & Communication (Agency of the Year).
Another special prize is given to the Webvertiser of the Year and recognize the innovation and visionarism of the clients regarding the Internet as a communication medium. This last prize is given in cooperation with IAB Association from Romania (a subsidiary of IAB – Interactive Advertising Bureau).
The jury is formed by over 40 professionals from various industries which have ties with the Internet (GECAD Software, Rompetrol, Adobe Romania, Kanal D, Clickio, Grapefruit, Yahoo Romania, Totalsoft, ARBOinteractive, PCfun & FIT Distribution, Orange, Neogen, Trilulilu, Publimedia and others including independent professionals).
The festival has some powerful partners like Hostway, Microsoft, Cosmote, IAB Romania, iNES Group, Realitatea, Guerilla Radio, The Marketer, Business Standard and others.
Unfortunately, the website doesn’t have an English section. I know it’s a local event but still, I don’t think letting non-Romanian speakers know about this event would hurt.
In the next two months two more conferences will take place: RoNewMedia (web design) and NetCamp (web entrepreneurship).
Written on 27th October 2008
3 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Ronald Bien, a 21-year old designer from the Philippines is a fairly popular blogger with 706 RSS readers. He’ll probably welcome some more subscribers these days, since he posted one of those perfect linkbait posts two days ago.
Bien made a list the 150 most active designers on Twitter, including some European folks like Veerle (Belgium) and Bartelme Design (Austria). Apart from the list, the post only contains some words on why Twitter is great.
So, yeah obvious linkbait.., but who cares? A friend of mine, Floris Dekker, is a really talented designer who just got started on Twitter. Thanks to Bien’s efforts, he knows who to follow now.
There’s your inspiration for some useful linkbait. What kind of group are you going to make? Start-up heroes? Web 2.0 babes? Go for it and help like-minded people on Twitter out.
So if you’d excuse me now, I’m off to create a list of European tech bloggers on Twitter.
Written on 21st October 2008
12 COMMENTS
Ayelet Noff, Next Web WebTipr Israel
In these difficult economic times, it is important for all companies to become more cost-efficient. One of the ways you can lower your marketing costs is by turning to social media marketing (in case you’re not doing that already). Promoting your brand on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter doesn’t cost you anything (except for the salary of the person who’s doing the job) and is increasingly viewed as the best way to market your product to your target audience. Here’s a list of 35+ companies that are using social media to carry out their brand message, amongst them, Coca Cola, Cisco, Intel, Dell, etc.
Where’s your social media presence?
According to Phantom CTO, consumers even expect a social media presence from brands:
“The highlights of the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study came out recently. The results of the study point to a growing trend in how consumers want to be reached by businesses. The study found that 60% of American consumers use social media and of those more than half interact with businesses on social media websites. 93% of American consumers who use social media expect companies to have a social media presence and 85% of them believe those companies should be interacting with consumers through social media.
Cone Researchers say that the results mean that “Americans are eager to deepen their brand relationships through social media,” explains Mike Hollywood, director of new media for Cone, “it isn’t an intrusion into their lives, but rather a welcome channel for discussion.”
Some social networks statistics
Social networks ARE seen as a welcome channel for discussion by consumers. See below chart from Forrester as well which breaks down interest by age groups (Note: This research was done a few months back and percentages are probably higher by now):
Much like social networks, coverage in the blogosphere is also a great way to get exposure for your brand and targeting those bloggers who would be specifically interested in your product is the secret formula for receiving the exposure you need. Don’t forget that bloggers are opinion leaders and their “say” is a crucial factor determining your product’s success or failure. If you approach the right bloggers that you think would get added value from your product, and you are able to gain their devotion as users and writers, then you have received coverage directly targeted at the right audience, without paying a dime. (more…)
Written on 21st October 2008
9 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
As we reach what some people are calling the “end of web 2.0″ and (appropriately) the start of the next web – it seems like the perfect time to look back at some of the web apps from a few years ago and ask ‘where are they now…?’.
As a reference point, we’ll look at Dion Hinchcliffe’s Best of 2005 post.
Category: Social Bookmarking
Best Offering: del.icio.us
Status: Alive and well. Obviously acquired by Yahoo, not the dominant social bookmarking tool it once was but going strong all the same.
Runners-Up:
Status: Alive – but dying. Site is still live, not sure how many users but by the state of the homepage it doesn’t look like much care is being given.
Status: Dead.
Status: Alive. Site seems to be going strong with a decent flurry of bookmarks – but much more competition today.
Category: Start Pages
Best Offering: Netvibes
Status: Alive. Going strong although immense competition from both igoogle and yahoo. In April 2008 the company announced they planned to open source their widget platform, application programming interfaces, and iPhone version.
Runners-Up:
Status: Alive, just.
Status: Alive but Now Microsoft Live – hardly a success in the start page arena.
Written on 14th October 2008
23 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
If you’re doing something with technology and you’re not leaving comments on Techcrunch, using Seesmic, you’re an idiot. An idiot!
Gary Vaynerchuk is a vlogger with a good story. He transformed an ordinary New Jersey-based wine store into a world famous online media company (that still sells wines). As you can imagine, Vaynerchuk is recognized as an expert on personal branding. Hence the invites for conferences like Web 2.0 Expo New York and Blogworld Expo. During the latter he said the words I started this post with.
So I’m an idiot. I guess he’s right. The Seesmic comments on TechCrunch really stand out. Everybody can put a name to the face and after a while, people probably start recognizing these video commenters at conferences.
It worked for Loren Feldman, the infamous vlogger from 1938media.com who made fun of tons of A-listers with an army of puppets. I’ve the pleasure of welcoming him at BLOG08 in Amsterdam next week. When I tell people about his BLOG08 keynote, most of them say: “I know him! He’s the cursing guy from the Techcrunch comments” (yes he curses and swears a lot to make his points).
Will I stop being a non-vlogging idiot? And will you?
Since I know Vaynerchuk is right, I’ll have to get started with vlogging. I got the i-sight thing going on, a Seesmic account, and.., tons of excuses not to start. I’m in an office full of people, where do I record the videos? I don’t have time for it. It’s just plain scary. I could go on for a while.
Obviously I’m not the only idiot. You probably are as well. Why aren’t you vlogging? Why aren’t you leaving comments on Seesmic? And is it really the future of blogging?
I hope these questions will be answered during BLOG08, where not only Feldman will speak, but also vlogger and Mobuzz host GabeMac will make an appearance. But I also hope we can start a discussion here. Do you agree with Seesmic founder Loic le Meur, who told me during an interview that my blog conference should be about vlogging, as that’s the future? Let’s figure that out together.
Written on 13th October 2008
111 COMMENTS
Robin Wauters, Next web enthusiast & Plugg organizer
I’m someone who frantically scours the web for interesting new online trends, concepts, startups and projects at any given time of any day. It’s something I simply can’t turn off, I just have a passion for finding new stuff and find out if it resonates with me from a user and business perspective. That also means I come across a mountain of poorly executed websites and applications, or startups that have business models that you just know will never bring in a dime of revenue.
But what strikes me most is the awful names that are given to services and applications. I realize naming is a difficult thing, and finding the domain name to match the name or description you have in mind is virtually impossible these days. I also realize names don’t necessarily have to be descriptive enough to sum up what you do in one or two words, as long as it’s memorable and distinctive enough.
How many people would have considered ‘Google’ a good name for a search engine in the late nineties or even at the dawn of the new millennium? Or Yahoo! for that matter?
Update: per request in the comments, here are some interesting articles on naming:
Seth Godin – the new rules of naming
Folksonomy – 7 tips for naming your Web 2.0 startup
GigaOm – 3 rules for naming your startup
LSVP blog – Naming your startup
Startup Spark - Everything You Need To Know About Naming a Startup
TechRepublic - The dos and don’ts of naming your start-up
GigaOM - A Two-part Rule for Naming Your Startup
Seth Godin – Sloppy naming
Fort Worth Startup blog – Naming your startup
Entrepreneur.com – Naming your business
Name Ideas - Naming Your Start-up: Simple Do’s and Don’ts
Guy Kawasaki – The Name Game
But still, here’s a list of 15 startups I personally think have some of the dumbest names in the Web 2.0 industry (note that I’m not judging their actual service), in no particular order:
1. Adaptive Blue
Develops personalization technologies that leverage semantics and attention.
My guess is they absolutely wanted to use the word ‘adaptive’ but were unable to get the right domain name, so they just picked any color and magically combined the words into something horrendously unmemorable.
2. Thoof
Personalized/social news recommender
Thoof. Pfoof. Floof. Any startup that gets named after a farting sound deserves to be on this list. Enough said. Note: Thoof was reportedly deadpooled, but the domain now points to Reddit. I wonder if this was a generous last configuration of the owner or an unreported acquisition?
3. Weebly
AJAX website creator
Weebly has some ring to it, but compare it to the names of their closest competitors (Synthasite, Webnode, KickApps, etc.) and it sounds more like a kid’s toy, or an adult website. I’m guessing ‘weeb’ is supposed to make you think of the term ‘web’, but I’m really not sure. According to UrbanDictionary, it can also refer to a monkey penis or someone who would do anything to get some attention.
4. Yoono
Social link and tag sharing network
Yoowhat? A typical example of a startup so desperate to have a two-syllable name that they’d have picked anything that sounded remotely pronounceable. Except of course you’re likely to forget the name or the spelling of it after a heartbeat.
5. Zlio
Gives users the ability to create their own shops and sell goods from other e-commerce services.
A ‘z’ isn’t meant to be followed by another consonant, and there’s a good reason for that. It’s not only hard to pronounce – I personally tied a knot in my tongue -, it’s also extremely forgettable.
6. Diigo
Social annotation service
Using ‘ii’ in your name is never a good idea. There’s absolutely no way you can talk about your startup without having to spell its name for people to actually find it on the web. When I search ‘digo’ (the most logical keyword to use when you hear the name), you won’t find it, but you will come across an internet phone service on the first page.
7. Heekya
Social storytelling platform
Whatever a ’social storytelling platform’ is, it doesn’t even matter if the name ‘Heekya’ doesn’t even refer to anything. I would love to see their employees pitch normal people about their service in plain English. And what’s with the dots above the e’s?
8. Insala
Web-based software for organizations implementing talent development, management, and retention initiatives.
Is this the name of a trendy salad bar? An islamic prayer? Or is it a synonym for Innovation, Customer Responsiveness and Focus, Employee Satisfaction, International Reach, Entrepreneurial Accomplishment and Rapid Growth? You guessed it, it’s supposed to be the last one.
9. Jiglu
Automatically creates intelligent tags for your web content.
While Jiglu on itself is already absolutely meaningless, painfully undescriptive and just not very catchy as a term, the entire product line is named after it: JigluTags, JigluHood, JigluMedia and JigluEnterprise. As if it was actually meant to create confusion about everything the startup produces.
10. Mzinga
Bbrings white-label social networks to consumer research.
Just like ‘z’ isn’t meant to be followed by a consonant, it’s better not to put it after a consonant, either. The word ‘Mzinga’ makes me think of an African warlord, or an exotic Hawaiian dance routine, but it certainly won’t make me go “Aha, that’s that white-label social networking site creator”. Gotta wonder how to came up with that one.
11. Oooooc.com
Provides a marketplace for contents and services.
Much like Zooomr and ooooj, it’s just too many o’s. How do they refer to their service? Worse, how do they point people to their website on the phone? “No it’s 5 o’s, c, dot c-o-m, sir … No no no, 5 times the letter ‘o’ … ah crap.” If you want to be the next-generation eBay, you might want to consider changing the name first, guys.
12. ooVoo
Attempts to add the human experience into communicating online with improved video and voice communication tools.
Same story as Yoono: it may sound pronounceable, but the fact that’s is so damn hard to remember the name and the spelling thereof doesn’t justify picking a two-syllable word. I mean, it sounds like an evil spell or a character from Star Wars.
13. SocialThing
Synchronizes your personal information, content, and friendships so that you can post this information across the social web.
It’s really hard coming up with a good name that starts with ’social’ anymore these days, but if you’re going to do it anyway, why pick something so blatantly generic as ‘thing’? It’s like they couldn’t figure out what their own product actually did, and they just talked about it as some ‘thing’ they were coding. Oh yeah, and the exclamation mark thing was very cool in the nineties.
14. Sclipo
Social learning network for teaching through video & webcam.
Say ’sclipo’ out loud. Enough said, right? It sounds like a name that’s been incubated by someone with a speaking disability. It reveals nothing about the product, which is fairly niche to begin with. Nada, zip, rien du tout. The only thing it makes me think of is the Roman politician Scipio.
15. CrazyEgg
Advanced analytics to track what your users are doing on your website.
This one, like Weebly, has some ring to it and with so many competitors it’s probably meant to stand out just a little. But CrazyEgg? Crazy. Egg. Sounds like they really wanted to have a logo with an egg in it and found out crazyegg.com wasn’t registered yet, so they just went for that name.
Did I miss any good, well, bad ones?
Let me know in comments what you think the dumbest name for a Web 2.0 startup is!
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
