One of the frequent criticisms made of the Web 2.0 economy is that it is in fact not much of an economy!  This is in the sense that many of the big Web 2.0 successes are having a hard time turning their huge subscriber bases into correspondingly huge revenue streams. YouTube used to be a case in point, but this week we have seen both Apple and Amazon announce that they will offer YouTube users a way to purchase some of their wares related to the video they are watching.  Look at a video of people re-enacting the battle of Hastings and be offered a book on the battle from Amazon.com or a recording of period music from iTunes.

Sounds easy, right?  And that is why it works – it’s one of those ideas that seem intuitively obvious the second after one hears it.  It gets results by using the context of an act to anticipate what else a person might want to do at the very moment of executing that same act,  and makes following that impulse as easy as possible.

The lessons for a developer looking to build the next great Web 2.0 success include the following:

1. Let people do what comes naturally, that is wherever possible replicate a familiar “real world” way of doing things, even if it’s on screen.  
2. Place yourself in the mind of the user and imaging what else they might be thinking while doing this activity.  
3. Make it possible for them to immediately follow up on these impulses.

Here’s an example, this time using the communications and experience sharing capabilities of IMS to extend Web 2.0 apps.

On a social networking site a man sees that today is the birthday of one of his friends.  He sees that this friend is on a trip to a neighboring city for a few days, but is available now on his mobile phone.  He looks at his buddy list to see which of his other friends are also available now and invites them into a conference call, explaining the situation.  Then he calls the “birthday boy” and they all sing happy birthday as soon as he answers the call.  Several of the friends also send him electronic birthday cards or videos of themselves while they chat on the call. He also receives an electronic gift certificate for a dinner at a steak house located in the city he is visiting.

This example uses the presence and availability, location, call handling, group list management, and file transfer capabilities of IMS.  But it also follows the customary behavior of people at a birthday party, with the exception of all the contact being at a distance.

Of course an enterprising developer could package all of these activities together with a menu of appropriate related services such as graphics, musical services, gift purchase, etc, and use the birthday advisory of social networking sites to offer the service to people in advance of the actual event.

Do you have a favorite example of such Web 2.0 services, or an idea for a service you would like to see?  Please comment, and if I really like your idea I’ll mention it and you in my next column, and you can have your own shot at Web 2.0 fame!


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The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author, and in no way represent Ericsson AB's official or implied position on the issues discussed.