Whenever I’ve been at work over the last few weeks, we’ve been having some great discussions regarding the web, successful web applications, and where the internet is going.
And there’s one thing that’s really starting to become noticeable.
Web Applications are Online Tools for the Offline World.
When the ‘popular’ internet began, some of the first ‘social’ websites were basic chat rooms. Where complete strangers, with no ‘real-world’ interaction talked online. It was a way of plugging in to those people you just wouldn’t meat in real life.
But in the last 5 years, that’s all changed, and the whole way we use the web has been turned on its head.
People were at one time quite happy with spending hours browsing through random people from random countries, until they realized that they were more interested in the people they spent time with in the really world.
We now use the web to improve our communication and interaction with our ‘real’ ‘offline’ world. And if you’re looking to build a successful web application, this is really where you need to start aiming.
Facebook is often quoted as being the most revolutionary web application of web 2.0, but it doesn’t stand alone in what it aims to do. Facebook is about communicating with friends. And, because there’s so many ways to do this on Facebook (pictures, videos, walls, status updates)… it’s a very tight community. But this can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming.
For me, flickr has become the best way to share my photos with friends and family, and, well, anyone I want.
I don’t have to accept them as friends, or send them 15 superticklepokes to interact with them. I just send them a link, and that’s where my photos are. Simple. I add my brothers, my work, my friends, and if I want to see pictures, that’s where I go.
There is a huge concern among web startups that anything they do, which aides interaction between real world people, has either been done, or could be done, by Facebook.
But, there is still a place in the market for good services which to a simple job well.
For example, within Facebook, any form of personal interaction requires users to be friends with each other. And, it is possible to create privacy settings and groups in Facebook. But, this can become a big job to manage. It’s often much simpler to keep Facebook for your close friends and family, and use other services to share things with a wider audience. Primarily of your friends and family, and people who are just generally interested in what you get up to.
I often think about what things I like to share with my friends and colleagues. These might be all kinds of things. A gig that I saw, a movie I watched, a band I’ve started to like, a news story I was interested in, a cool place to grab lunch near work, a really hot barmaid at a local pub.
We tell each other about these things because we think that it may help the other person if they’re interested in a similar thing.
All of these, and many more still have a place in the new web, outside of Facebook.
If you want to kick ass online…
Build a web application that gives online tools for sharing your offline world.
