Emerging Web Trends and You

In the current Vanity Fair magazine, columnist Michael Wolff dissects for his readers the dominant and emerging narratives in the fights over the “Internet’s next big thing.” Wolff dissects the web trends and places proponents of various philosophies into at least four schools: the platform theory, digital behaviorists theory, the “pay as you go” theory, and the “magical machine” theory.

The Platform Theory

Facebook is a platform. Google is a platform. The iPhone is a platform. More are coming. All are fighting for dominance. Wolff explains that Microsoft was once the ultimate platform but the definition has become a “more metaphorical construct, suggesting not just functionality but a framework of behavior.” As various platforms fight for (transient) ubiquity, if you have a product, and you want your product to reach a wide audience, guess what: you must have your message delivered through the various platforms, especially the popular ones.

The Digital Behaviorist theory

The Internet changes the way we think. As Wolff puts it, it “alters the desires and habits and actions and reactions of the people who use it.” As this “altering” plays out, remember this: the Internet lets people express naturally, in whatever language they choose. And people enjoy publically sharing thoughts and even hobbies. Consider Digg, which lets people flag stories, which harnesses individual “autodidactic expertise” to turn a profit. Consider Twitter, a real-time database of what users are experiencing. It’s the alive Internet. Having just a static web page? So last decade.

The “Pay as you Go” Theory

Collegehumor.com. Thedailybeast.com. Soon everything under the Rupert Murdoch sun. These are examples of sites where fees are collected in traditional ways. The website has content. People want it. Ad space is sold, so advertisers get in front of a specific audience. In the real estate space, think Zillow.com. They come up with a cool idea, people come to the website, advertisers get to show display ads to a targeted demographic. It’s old-school, top-down marketing. And there is a place for this.

The “Magical Machine” Theory

To Wolff’s thinking, the “magical machine” theory could also be called the “build-your-own-platform” solution. Meaning the right machine could, hypothetically, “reclaim the distribution monopoly that was so rudely taken by the Internet.” Kindle. iPhone (again). Skype. Google. The “magical machine” is something that does not exist, but might. If realized, it will be a platform controlled from the top by a company, like NBC once was, before it (and everyone else) lost control of content.

Read the article. It’s pretty easy to grasp, written for a lay audience, and a fun read too. The reason we call attention to the article in such detail is quite simple: gone are the days where you build a website and are done. Today, you must be investing in a full, holistic, cohesive web identity. You cannot be monolithic, and your messaging will be pitted against an ever-engaged public, a public whose commentary about your company will be just as prevalent as your own messaging. Many of us are becoming pretty broken-recordish about this whole thing, but the way web trends are moving cannot be ignored, and to think the work stops once the site is built is extremely naïve, at best. Or as Wolff puts it, “it’s Google’s world and we just live in it.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 2:11 pm and is filed under web trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.