Origins, Facts, and Fiction about Web 2.0 and Online Strategy – Part One

Okay, sometimes we really must post humorous information because the world is just too serious a place. And besides, today is Saturday. Unfortunately, for some people, we need to post a sarcasm warning. Times are tough and it stresses out sensitive individuals, particularly those who are angry that it takes so much effort to make a few million. So here's your warning: SARCASM IN EFFECT.

This article is about the origins, facts, and fiction concerning the internet. This is Part One of a series of three. There is absolutely no truth to it. As you know, the internetS is a series of tubes. (In reality, it actually is.) Here goes.

The Web (or Web 1.0) – this is online stuff. Back in the day, you went to Yahoo and AOL. Companies were tripping over themselves to get a web page created. Your phone did not ring while you surfed the Web.

Web Media – this is online stuff, too. Used to be Javascripted animation, that annoying page art-with-sound some web designers still insist upon using for the landing page of their client’s website (as an example). Sometimes you will see that Javascript thingy open in your taskbar when this garbage is coded into a webpage.

New Media - Today, it’s called New Media, and it is mostly video. It is coded better to stream better. That means it plays right away without you waiting for it to download. Professional animation geeks use Adobe Flash, but various site builders use similar intelligent coding. In reality, there really is no “streaming” done much anymore. Most people’s computers have the players necessary to watch files, or the files are linked and neatly coded in embedded players. Server bandwidth and hi-speed internet takes care of the rest. Whatever that means (tubes). How cool is that?

Web 2.0 – this is online stuff, too. As recent as this past decade. This means all those cool “interactive” sites and applications that everyone uses is brainless to the naked eye. It incorporates New Media and Social Networking. Biggest experts are five year-olds and internet entrepreneurs. It is a mystery to everyone else, including politicians and people who get graduate degrees in Computer Sciences. After all, the Web is one big happy world-wide market. Programmers are just a necessary evil.

Texting – this is the 21st Century version of Morse Code. You must learn the correct abbreviations or no one will understand you. Applies to tweeting, also.

Social Networking – this is the “interactive” stuff mentioned above. I use quotation marks, because I really consider user-participation online to be bi-directional, not “interactive.” Examples are Facebook and Twitter. The ancient versions were instant messenger services (Windows, Yahoo, AOL), chat-rooms, and things like MySpace (which basically started the revolution of online “friends” as some sort of popularity contest, and became a great way to market to a particular demographic).

Viral Marketing – this is what happens when WHAT you do or say or offer online takes off like a hot potato. There is no magic internet fairy. It can be manipulated for a cost (time, money, human resources) or it can be quite organic. More on this later.

SEO – stands for “Search Engine Optimization” (or, "Something Everyone Offers") and was very huge in the dark ages of Web 1.0, whatever that means. You could buy SEO software to help you set up keywords and submit your site to 100’s of search engines. These are useless today. Google, or DMOZ actually, “crawls” over the content of your web page. But if you’re not saying much relevant to what you are trying to convey or sell, your site will be buried way Off-Off-Off Broadway into the swamps of New Jersey. Yes, title and description matter, too. Refreshing your website with new content is helpful. Content is king. You can pay someone to “trick” your site up for $5,000, but much of that doesn’t work anymore.

Blogging – this is kind of Web 1.5 in a way. Considering people, especially Westerners, are all afflicted with ADHD, the blog has moved back into its rightful place as the personal web page of the early 1990’s. Most people and businesses that start a blog will let it fall off after a few entries. Successful blogs do continue to emerge, for sure, as it is useful for alternative news from the more serious writers. (The Huffington Post is one example.) Work-from-home bloggers that make money through click and affiliate programs have flooded the blogosphere. The better ones have something useful to say and sell. The rest… well, if it looks like spam, smells like spam, tastes like spam…

Forums - Many techie people still keep blogs, but you’re better off joining a serious forum where these folks are most helpful talking shop with other forum members. This is where you will learn lots of useful stuff about whatever subject you’re interested in. There are forums about everything imaginable.

Vlogging – this is blogging using video or at least adding videos to your articles. It helps to keep your readers entertained, so throw a video at them now and then.

Podcasting – this is a kind of amateur broadcasting, but online, as it has become available for anyone to do. Lots of people (and companies) will stream audio, like an interview, on their websites or blogs. Radio stations and newspaper media use it on the web.

Tweeting – ah, finally. The 140 characters that killed the blog. Twitter may be the best or the most annoying thing to have ever come online. Now THAT’S the kind of stuff that makes something special – ya gotta either love it or hate it. You need private citizens and commercial interests alike on social media like this one (and Facebook), because after all, if it can’t generate money, why bother?

Facebook – Use this or go back to the chat room… which both Twitter and Facebook may one day turn into after something cooler takes their place. But because so many application creators have invested in making cool stuff for these sites, it may take a while… or maybe not. You can invite hundreds and thousands of "friends," but if you do it all at once, Facebook will get mad at you. They prefer you become a paid advertiser.

Smartphones (Mobile Web) – this is where it’s all going real fast. Third World countries are computing and communicating almost 100% by smartphone. Get with the program.

Online Strategy – this is my favorite and combines all of the above. This is like watching a hockey game and commenting on the great strategy even though the puck changes possession every two seconds. More on this later.

If you want to add your own Web definitions, that would be awesome. (Keep it Rated G.)

The next segment will expound on "Online Strategy." Hope you had fun reading! Please come back.