Marketing on the Smart Web

according to Tim Berners-Lee in Outside the Lines – CNET News and although the article was published last year, it still contains great examples of some of the features the smart web will bring. TBL is a true visionary, and one with a great track record of delivering on his ideas so this is not just idle speculation.

The comments by Google’s director of research are very revealing too. Will it really take 50 years for intelligent digital intermediaries to become a reality? Who knows, maybe less. What’s clear, is that the implications for the travel industry will be significant and transforming as we slowly but surely move forward with new technology developments that will make it happen. Exciting stuff!

in this interview with The McKinsey Quarterly – Google CEO Eric Schmidt talks about a wide range of subjects like Strategy – Innovation and also touches on the Long Tail, on which he has some thoughts that are contrary to the conventional thinking about that topic. He is not the first to emphasize that for most businesses it is essential for success to have a position in both the head and the tail. Here is the link to the actual interview. Worth watching.

is their entry into the virtual world until now the pretty much limited to Second Life. Although I’ve never been a fan of Second Life and their numbers haven’t shown strong growth lately, the Google effort might renew the interest.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YbwfOucET8[/youtube]

How it will affect the way businesses are marketing themselves remains to be seen. Seems to me at least another medium competing for people’s already limited time and attention.

according to this presentation by Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker, reported in Tech Crunch

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Here are some more figures that show the rapid growth rates of he major social sites:

* YouTube + Facebook page views > Google or Yahoo page views (and may be bigger than both combined)
* 6/10 top internet sites are social (youtube, live.com, facebook, hi5, wikipedia, orkut); none were on the list in 2005
* YouTube has 258 million users, 50% visit weekly or more
* >50% of Facebook users log in daily, 95% of Facebook users have used at least one third party application
* Skype revenue is $1.67/user/year, up 9% Y/Y
* 14 million photos uploaded daily on Facebook
* Google + Yahoo = 61% of U.S. Online Ad Revenue
* Google: $4.4b ad revenue in Q4, paid out $1.4 billion to partners
* Yahoo: $1.6 billion in ad revenue in Q4, paid out $429 million to partners

The impact this has on overall media consumption, social interaction on the web as well as consumer buying behavior seems evident and another clear indicator how important it is for organizations in any industry to pay attention to what is being said about them on these sites. The challenge is to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff, break through the clutter to get to the essential stuff impacting their business.