Archive of thenextweb.com
Written on 16th April 2009
4 COMMENTS 
Anne Helmond, hard bloggin' scientist
Klaas Verbeken starts his Pecha Kucha presentation titled “Porn & the future of the web” with the obvious question: Who has downloaded pr0n? The greatest common nominator in mankind is sex, however sex doesn’t sell. 40% of all downloads are porn related. We currently have sharp high-quality HD Video but we want DVD because people don’t want to see all the actual details.
Porn is the drive behind a lot of innovation online such as video conferencing with naked ladies and live chat. However, sometimes technology doesn’t get adapted such as the multi-angle cameras that were only used by the porn industry. There are billions of dollars flowing in and out of the porn industry which led to the development of SSL techology.
The big question is: to pay or not to pay. We are currently not paying and preferring user-generated porn such as YouPorn. We choose for free content. It’s hard to get a monitizing model right.
Consumers of porn are becoming both producers and competitors in the case of Sellsumers where you can sell your sextape. A final example of a technology “invented” by the porn industry (AdultFriendfinder) is IP-to-geo translation. This currently drives the web with Google redirecting all our services to our local domain again.
Long live innovation, long live porn.
Written on 9th October 2008
11 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
You’ve probably heard of Wakoopa before, it is one of those names that make you think… What??? WaWhat? But afterwards you’ll remember it. It gets more tough when you have to explain what they do. Up until now Wakoopa has been a popular tool for the more technical gifted among us (formerly known as nerds) who use the service to track their software usage and to discover new software and games. Now Wakoopa broadens its audience to all web savvies by tracking web apps.
Should you buy that pro account or not?
The trend of desktop software finding web equivalents has started some years ago, and really catched on the last couple of months. The “Cloud” has become Buzzword no.1. Therefore it’s the obvious move for Wakoopa.
Let’s take a closer look at what this means. First of all, you’ll get insight in your own usage of several services. Are you as much on Twitter as you say you are? Should you buy a Flickr pro account? What is the social network you use the most? Wakoopa knows.
Transparency in the web app market
But wait, there’s more! If Wakoopa is able to get a critical mass, it will reflect the pulse of all popular and unpopular web apps. Nowadays, VC’s, journalists, and bloggers depend on the press releases of startups and crappy Alexa ratings to get an idea of how popular a service is. Wakoopa could be the ultimate resource to discover new hot web apps (and the ones that are heading straight for the deadpool).
Recommendation Engine
Furthermore, Wakoopa is working on an improved version of their recommendation engine. They’ve hired two recommendation experts to get this done. According to founder Wouter Broekhof the engine is already in the testing phase. With the new data flowing in from web apps they will be able to give personalized recommendation on the use of your software, for desktop as well as web applications.
Are they tracking porn sites as well?
A friend of mine recently admitted to only use Safari to fulfill his online adult needs. He also uses Wakoopa…, you do the math. When I heard Wakoopa started tracking web apps, I realized privacy-related issues would become even more relevant. Especially since your Wakoopa profile page shows up high in the search results. How do we know Wakoopa doesn’t track sites or web apps we rather keep private?
Well, to ease your mind: Wakoopa Lead Developer Menno van der Sman told me Wakoopa only tracks tools that are mentioned in Crunchbase, and they filtered out sites like YouPorn.
Disclosure: Wakoopa is our sponsor
Written on 27th August 2008
1 COMMENT
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
After six months in beta, the “YouTube for hotels”, Tripr.TV, has officially launched today. The Dutch start-up allows users to post video reviews of the hotels they’ve visited, promising a commission (averaging $10 per booking) when another user books via their video page.
Tripr.tv has recently been funded by Greenhouse Innovation, venture capital firm of Mr. Sander Andreae and Mr. Marc Duijndam. Duijndam is former managing director at Google and now works for eBuddy.
Jan Kooman, Tripr.TV CEO says in the release that his service gives potential guests a better idea of the hotel “Moving images are much more realistic than the, often outdated and glamorized, pictures which hotels themselves show. Our way, potential guests can really trust the hotel. When you’re filming for Tripr.tv, you’re actually walking around your room. Everyone can see the truth.”
I disagreed with Kooman when I first reviewed the site in January, and I still do. Sure, movies give a better idea of how a hotel looks like. But you got to remember that users will shoot mini-commercials, so that more potential guests will book via their video page.
Put those homemade movies in context
That doesn’t mean I consider Tripr.TV to be a failure. Far from that. I think the whole videotaping your hotel room thing is good way to structure user generated content. These hotel rooms movies would otherwise wind up as long forgotten YouTube movies and the creator wouldn’t make a penny from it.
So I say, more initiatives like Tripr.TV please. Put all those homemade movies in context, like YouPorn (Wiki link) did with sex videos and Tripr.TV with hotel videos. But just don’t claim it’s unbiased. There’s no such thing as one definite truth.
Written on 7th April 2008
6 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
This is a live screenshot from a Turkish television show where the host wants to type in ‘Youtube’ (on a story about hidden camera recordings of some government officials) but gets a few unfortunate suggestions from his browser Auto Complete feature:
previously Dugg here.
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 
