The future of software is in hardware and branded web applications
Uno as Future Studies, Ideas, Online, Products, Web2.0
Jul|31|2008
Taking a look at this presentation at TED:
Kevin Kelly on the next 5,000 days of the web.
And it’s brilliant. Kevin Kelly orginally starts taking about something that most people call, or understand as, The Singularity. The Singularity is where all computers are connected in some way, and they work together and more importantly, they/it are/is smarter than all the humans put together.
One of the quotes: “By 2040 computer processing power will surpass the processing power of all the humans combined.”
Kelly mentions thinking of devices like your sneakers as “Chips with Heels” and cars as “Chips with Wheels”. I couldn’t agree more. The future of software, and specifically web software, is in tying the offline together with the online. It’s probably always been the case, but now even more so, as we’re finally moving into understanding how the potential.
Does anyone remember the Internet Fridge? Fantastic concept, but ridiculously expensive and it never really took off, most probably because there was never the concept of a web application for the actual fridge. I’d want to be able to “zoom” into my fridge, see what I’m buying, how often I’m buying it and what I’m wasting. Should I buy less cheese (because I’m not eating everything before the expiry date)? How long has that piece of chicken been sitting in the back there? Although I like the idea of mustard, am I actually using it?
A fridge that ties in with a web application and that can pick up on your consumption habits and deduce trends is much more exciting than one that just scans the barcode and orders new stuff for you (even if that is kinda sexy).
Nike is doing something similar now with Nike Plus+. It’s the “Chip with Heels” and it’s already here. How about uploading your recent trip into the Kalahari to a site where you can share that, and download other trips? If you were looking for an add on to your Jeep social network then there’s your idea.
In the next couple of years/months we’ll start seeing more apps that add value to users, advertising will move to the sideline and branded web applications will move to the fore.
The Singularity of constantly connected apps won’t come from a single source or actor, but consumers will start to want to be able to share their data on multiple sites. That will mean more open API’s and more need for interoperability. Right at the end Kelly touches on Data Portability when he says you’ll be able to sign in/up to sites without having to put your data in… again. That’s what Facebook Connect is taking mainstream now and what OpenID has been trying to do for the past couple of years.
More on the maturing web- and the decline of banner ads
Uno as Future Studies, Ideas, Products, Web2.0
Jun|30|2008
Friday drinks are great, drinks in general are great, but drinks with great minds are especially great. Last Friday we moze’d on down to Firemans Arms in Green Point for Beer ‘O Clock with Leezl, Tiaan, Herman and Clint. All people who I love working with.
I wanted to chat about how the web is maturing, how we’re seeing different apps coming from different players, and luckily Clint had already spotted what I was trying to articulate.
The web is maturing, and advertising is changing with that. Read this post by Jackson Fish Market on where they see the web going. The gist of the post is that display advertising is disruptive - placing an ad next to content is the print way of thinking about monetization, branding and advertising. Not only that, but it’s also disruptive. Users are on the site because they want to view the content, not the ad, and you are disrupting them with your popup, overlay, onionskin ad.
Enter the webapp. Web apps are places that people want to be, I want to be on tumblr, I love Slideshare and Last.Fm gets more eyeball time from me than books do. Not only those, but I was devastated when Mymilemarker.com shut down, how else will I track my ridiculous consumption patterns? (I just checked and it’s back up again).
So what that means is that people spending time on web apps want to be there, even if it is a branded environment. You have higher engagement levels, people want to be there, in fact, they even come back! What that means for an agency is that they need to rethink they way that they do branding online. Banner ads are actually really boring. Agency’s need to build web apps that are engaging, that fit with their brand, and offer productivity and utility to the user.
We’ve seen a few webapps already, but mostly not really thinking about “web apps” but still riding the “Social Networking is the be-all-and-end-all” mantra. It’s not about social networks, it’s about utility. Locally, the YoungBlood5 network was an example in a way (it had touches of being an app), but we haven’t seen anything that’s a solid application.
The future of agencies will probably see them building webapps and engaging environments, more so than creating banners, trafficking and managing e-mail campaigns.
It’s also why I get irritated by people wanting to “build social networks for everything”. It’s not about social networks, it’s about social applications. All applications need to be social in some way, but they need to be applications and offer utility.
Some examples of branded web applications (some/most border on Social Networks):
Specialised riders club (built on Rails apparently)
Nike Plus
Youngblood5
MTV Think:
StandardBank ATM locator
Why doesn’t Sasol bring out a MyMileMarker type app? Or VirginActive a health app (they already have the LifeZone stuff, but they can do more)? Rama doesn’t need a food social network, they need a web app that people can use to find recipes.
And finally, just because I know most people won’t read the article, here are Jackson Fish Market’s predictions:
- even the biggest brand advertisers will realize that creating and maintaining high quality web apps is not a simple proposition
- they will turn to their ad agencies and their interactive retinue to build these experiences
- more often than not, these folks will build sites oriented around expensive content, video, and the like
- brand advertisers will realize that they need the traditional creatives combined with deeper software expertise to make great online experiences
- some advertisers will bring this in house and in effect become software companies themselves
- some advertisers will work with companies (like ours) to deliver online experiences that have depth, quality, and utility (some of the agencies over time will build deeper expertise in this area — it’s harder than it looks)
- and whichever tactical choice a marketer makes, the bulk of online consumer software will be funded directly by brand advertisers