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Content Tagged with Editorial + Web20
Bubble 2.0?
The sky is falling! Every publication has to have it's resident curmudgeon. It's a franchise, and PC Magazine's is held down by John Dvorak. Now he's moaning about a dot-com bubble redux involving Web 2.0 based companies.
Each of these bubbles had a distinctive theme. For the dot-com bubble, it was e-commerce—it really should have been called the e-commerce bubble. Everything was focused on how the Internet was going to destroy all existing brick-and-mortar operations. We were told that you'd be buying sandwiches over the Internet and having them delivered the next day by FedEx. Everything was about "eyeballs" and finding ways to attract customers, whether they bought anything or not. Every article in every newspaper in the country parroted the litany as to how you'd be out of business in a year or two if you were not present on the Web in a big way. Of course, this was all crap.
The current bubble, already called Bubble 2.0 to mock the Web 2.0 moniker, is harder to pin down insofar as a primary destructive theme is concerned.
He goes on to scoff at the various concepts that are in vogue in the Web 2.0 space, all of which could come tumbling down in a crash.
- Neo-social networking
- Video mania
- User-generated content
- Mobile everything
- Ad-leveraged search
- Widgets and toolbars
Most of the Ajax/Web 2.0 activity I see right now is existing companies retooling their online presence to take advantage of some of the new technologies and ideas.
Sorry Dvorak, no bubble here yet.
Predictions: Ajax in 2007
It's the time of year to be posting random predictions for 2007. Here are 2007 Ajax predictions from Dion and myself, please post your own in the comments.
Dion predicts:
- Ajax beats AJAX in all but bad newspapers.
- Someone tries to coin Ajax 2.0.
- A large amount of apps have flash AND ajax, and users don't know or care.
- Many frameworks consilidate or die.
- A widget api means componts can run on many frameworks using one api.
- Ajax wpf/e interop.
- Dashboards become front boards.
- More desktop apps get written with javascript.
Michael predicts:
- 2005 was the year that developers learned all about Ajax and by 2006 everyone else in the industry had caught up. In 2007, is is mainstream users who become acutely aware of the trend towards rich applications inside the browser, and discover that even word-processors and spreadsheets - along with a wide array of workplace applications - can be webified. At the same time, users remain oblivious - and rightly so - to the underlying technologies that power them.
- The boundaries of Ajax harden, with most developers gaining a clear understanding of what it can and can't do with modern browsers and managers in a better position to decide on application architecture (whether to use Ajax, Flash, desktop, etc.).
- More attention on Ajax accessibility due to some government report or court case.
- Google Office. Finally!
- Backlash against Google Office as managers learn that their data must be hosted externally in order to use it. Pressure from bloggers and some analysts to make an Office appliance that can live behind the firewall, but it's not happening in 2007.
- The advertising and media communities finally become aware that page view metrics are no longer the only way, but generally treat it as a problem and fail to see that the situation is actually better than before.
- Several fringe technologies heat up as developers notice they are already being used in some applications and learn how to apply them: HTTP Streaming (Comet), Virtual Workspace (Live Scrolling - never-ending scrollbars), Cross-Domain JSON (along with JSONP, JSON APIs, JSONRequest, and a general lack of awareness about the JSON security issues), Unique URLs (bookmarkability/back button), Lazy Registration (personalized functionality before formal signup). Comet in particular ... it may be 8 or 9 years old, but it's big news in 2007.
- Other fringe technologies grow, but remain, well, fringe. Such as Host-Proof Hosting and applications involving offline storage.
- With its excellent documentation and pattern language integration, the Yahoo UI library becomes the standard weapon of choice among mainstream developers seeking a pure Javascript framework. In the Java world, GWT makes great strides as the platform becomes richer and design patterns emerge.
- Mobile web development continues to suck.
- Javascript increasingly recognised as the world's most popular "second language" and becomes popular as a lingua franca to describe generic programming concepts. Several attempts at server-side Javascript frameworks.
- IE7 causes more than a few headaches.
- Firebug is installed by pretty much any developer using Firefox.
- CSS is back, baby! Echoing the recent mass adoption of Javascript, developers who previously had a fleeting familiarity with CSS now become fluent practitioners.
Best wishes for 2007, however you play your Ajax!
A Web 2.0 WTF from TheDailyWTF
Just a quick one to add a little humor into your Ajax coding experience from The Daily WTF:
The story tells the tale of an effort to get a new CMS at a company, one that was a bit more Web 2.0. Of course, the maker of the CMS didn't quite think of the implications of those with less than stellar connections and, well, you'll just need to read to understand the complete "makes me want to slap someone stupid" moment that comes later.
Enjoy!
Are all AJAX homepages doomed?
In this new article, E-Consultancy asks the question "Are all Ajax homepages doomed?"
Dozens of personalised homepages have emerged over the past 18 months as developers started to programme lovely drag and drop interfaces, allowing users to customise the layout of their personal homepage. Cool technology, great use of AJAX, but is there trouble ahead?
They talk about the closing of Fold.com as just the start of "the end", the passing of the facination with the whole "Web 2.0 desktop" idea. One reason of this decline, he states, is the lack of a business model for them, with only a few managing to garner enough interest for some funding (such as NetVibes).
He also notes that just because something is a great product doesn't make it a great business. He suggests a move from the "just a desktop" idea to something more communal, more socially interactive to draw people in and give them something fresh to see and do each time.
Can an AJAX homepage solve a problem? Sure, but perhaps we need to see an implementation on an existing website with a solid business model. You know, Tesco, Amazon, eBay. Maybe we’ll create something for you, fine E-consultancy reader, to allow you to customise our homepage.
