Category: Web 2.0

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Web 2.0 Logos Analyzed

FontFeed has done a great analysis of Ludwig Gatzke’s Web 2.0 logo collection, looking at them from a typographic perspective. In addition to my own obvious observations (sans serif, bright colors), they grouped the logos into three distinct categories: The Softies, The Futurists, and The Classics.

There is no official standard for what makes something “Web 2.0”, but there certainly are a few tell-tale signs. These new sites usually feature modern web technologies like Ajax and often have something to do with building online communities. But even more characteristic among these brands is their appearance. Web 2.0 sites nearly always feel open and friendly and often use small chunks of large type. The colors are bright and cheery — lots of blue, orange, and what we jokingly call the official color of Web 2.0: lime green.

Read The Logos of Web 2.0

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Web 2.0 Logo Madness

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Thanks to Ludwig Gatzke for photoshopping this wonderful collection of logos. This Part II image includes a bunch of new Web 2.0-ish companies that were missed in the first iteration, including (in alphabetical order):

30daytags, 3bubbles, 43 People, 43deals, 43Places, 8by1, 9rules Network, AidPage, AjaxWhois.com, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, askeet!, Asoboo, Attensa, AttentionTrust.org, Avvenu, BitBomb, Bitty, BlinkList, Blinksale, blo.gs, BlogBridge, Blogdigger, BlogMarks, blogSpirit, Blogtronix, Browster, Bryght, BubbleShare, BuddyMarks, Bunchball.com, ButterFly, Buzznet, CalendarHub, Campaign Monitor, Campfire, Central Desktop, Chuquet, Citadel, claimID, ClickCaster, CLOSO.com, Cloudalicious, Clusty, co.mments, coComment, Consumatin, Current, CustomScoop, Dabble.com, Diggdot.us, Dodgeball, Doostang, Douban, Dropcash, DropSend, EchoSign, Edgeio, egorrss, elgg, eMessenger, eSnips, Etsy, Eurekster Swicki, Eventful, EventSniper, EvolvePoint, Favorville, Feed Pile, Feed2Podcast, FeedBlitz, FeedButler, FeedFeeds, FeedLounge, Feedpath, FeedPing.com, FeedXs, Flock, Fluxiom, Fold, Fotki, FotoFlix, Friendster, Fuzz, GiveMeaning, Glendor Showcase, Gliffy, GooTodo, Goovite, Gravatar, Grokker, hanzo:web, HipCal, Hubpages, IceRocket, Immedi.at, Inbox.com, Indeed, iNetWord, iOWEYOU, ispott, Jamendo, Jobazaar, Joyent, Judy’s Book, Jyve, Kaboodle, Kajeet, Kosmix.com, Kratia, Krugle, Kulando, LibraryThing, LifeLogger, LifeType, LinkedIn, Listal, LiveJournal, Loomia, Lovento, Mabber, Magnoto, MailBigFile, Meetro, Megite, mightyv, Mint, Mofile, Mologogo, Mooflex, Muiso, Multiply, My Tickler File, MyBlogLog, MyEmail.com, MyMe, MyProgs, MyStickies, Near-Time, Newroo, NewsIsFree, NewsMob, Nooked, NowPublic, Odeo, Ondergrond, openBC, OpenID, Orkut, Pageflakes, PAGUNA, Pbwiki, Peerflix, Performancing, Photobucket, Photocase , PicPix, Placeopedia, Plum, Plurn, Podbop, Podserve, Podtrac, PreFound, Prosper, PureVolume, putfwd.com, Qumana, Rabble, RateItAll, RawSugar, Readio, ReminderFeed, Revver, Rojo, Rrove, RSS MAD, Seekum, SendSpace, Sharpcast, Shutterbook, SimpleTicket, Six Apart, Skype, Slawesome, Slide, Socialtext, Sonr, Sphere, Sproutit, Spy Media, Squeet, STICKAM, Stickis, StikiPad, Surf Tail, SWABBA , Swagroll, Sxip, Tagalag, TagCloud, Tagzania, Talk Digger, Talkr, Tangler, Textamerica, The Form Assembly, ThePort Network, ThinkFree Office Online, TimeTracker, TitleZ, TracksLife, TRACTIS , TravBuddy, Trulia, Turn, Userplane, V4S, Video Bomb, VideoEgg, Vongo, Wallop, Weblogs, Inc., Weblogs Work, WideWord, Wikalong, WikiMatrix, Wikispaces, Windows Live, Wists, WordPress, Xanga, Xmail Hard Drive, YackPack, Yahoo! 360°, Yellowikis, YouSendIt, Zaadz, Zingee, Zipingo, Zoho, Zoho Chat, ZoomTags, Zooomr, and Zopa.

Part 2 takes a more liberal view of what is Web 2.0 (is there a conservative view?), choosing to include Web 2.0 applications, products and websites rather than companies.

A few things struck me as I looked at these names. First, it’s probably bad karma to use the word “bubble” in your Web 2.0 startup. Second, there are a lot of companies that made the picture mostly because they had a logo, and Ludwig was kind enough to include them. They really don’t rate such attention.

So what companies are worth your attention? You tell me. Which of these new ideas, if any, strike a nerve with you? Have you used any of them?

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Yahoo! shares AJAX libraries with developers

Yahoo! is really on a roll lately. The company seems to be infused with a double-shot of Web 2.0 espresso. They are acquiring the right companies (Flickr, del.icio.us, Upcoming). They’ve avoided a lot of the negative press that Google has attracted lately. And now, they’ve given web developers access to a rich library of AJAX goodies under a generous open source license.

On their new Yahoo! User Interface Blog Nate Koechley announced two new libraries. The Yahoo! Design Patterns Library “offers our thinking on common interface design issues for traditional and rich Internet applications” and the Yahoo! Interface Library “is a collection of industrial-grade JavaScript utilities and widgets.” In both cases, it’s the same code they use to power their own sites.

What will you find? Lots of simple-but-elegant solutions like a Netflix-style click-to-rate pattern. Rather than taking the user to another page or making them jump through hoops to rate something, they just point and click, without leaving or even refreshing the page.

The drag-and-drop modules pattern gives you the ability to create custom modules that users can drag around their page, rearranging content to suit their needs. The navigation tabs pattern gives you a clean, well designed interface for site navigation. These are just a few examples of what you’ll find.

Of course, some developers will argue that they could code these themselves, which is true. So why bother with Yahoo’s libraries at all? Because it let’s you leverage the good work that other people have done and focus your attention on the specific goals of your website or application.

And isn’t that what really matters?

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Amazon and the Kitchen Sink

Amazon is a big online retailer, and I’ve spent untold thousands there since 1998. I still shop there regularly, but had not really paid much attention to what the’ve been doing with their website. Until today, when I noticed a user editably “product wiki” section. I did a little more digging and found they’ve added a slew of Web 2.0-ish features.

Of course, they are already well known for their customer review functionality, but now there is a ProductWiki, customer lists, tags, and Customer Discussions.

They’ve thrown in everything, including the kitchen sink. Unfortunately, they’ve degraded the consumer experience in the process. How so? Take a look at this image, which shows the entire top-to-bottom of one web page for James Frey’s book A Million Little Pieces. The full-size image is 766 pixels wide by 11, 234 pixels high. The HTML alone weighs in at nearly 100 KB, not counting images, CSS or other externally linked files. Who the hell is going to read through all this crap? And is my mom really going to know the when to leave a review vs. a discussion? Or whether to tag or add to a list?

Amazon has done some remarkable things in online retailing, but they’ve fallen victim to scope creep, or Web 2.0-itis, or some other malady that’s bloated their product page beyond comprehension — with a million little pieces. It’s time for Bezos & Co. to take it back to basics.

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Bubblicious?

Yes, Web 2.0 is over-hyped. Yes, talk about another “bubble” is silly. Or is it?

Aqeel at BigBlueBall pointed out this story on Wired about a guy who has started a company that will sell rooftop advertising, ostensibly for viewing via Google Earth and Google Maps and other sites with satellite imagery.

Colin Fitz-Gerald runs a roofing business in Massachusetts and has started a company called RoofShout to create promotional messages on rooftops.

“I’m currently launching RoofShout.com with no money, no real experience running a business on the internet, and no real solid business plan,” Fitz-Gerald said. “But I figure there’s a lot of blank roofs and a lot of advertising that could go on the roofs.”

No experience? No business plan? Sounds a lot like the bubble days.

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Dodgeball

dball_social_header_mini.gifI was reading Flock Radio and came across FactoryJoe’s reference to Dodgeball. Not the game or the movie, but the mobile social software. The idea behind it is that you can connect to your friends, and friends of friends, via your cell phone. You get notified when they are near you so you can meet up. I’d heard about Dodgeball before, but hadn’t gotten around to checking it out.

The service is currently available in 22 cities across the U.S., including nearby Los Angeles and San Diego. While those are nearby, I don’t spend enough time in either location to make it very useful. But if you live in an active metropolitan area like San Francisco or New York, check it out.

Oh, and I’m Jeff H. in San Diego.

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Hooray Web 2.0

My friend Bryan Harney tipped me off to this one…

What does the Web 2.0 look like? Here’s one person’s logo-fied view of the Web 2.0 world. Ludwig Gatzke assembled a great collage of logos from Web 2.0 companies (by his own judgement). Those represented include:
30 Boxes, 30gigs, 43 Things, AirSet, Agatra, ajchat, Alexa, AllMyData, AllPeers, AlmondRocks, Associated Content, BackFence, Backpack, BaseCamp, Bayosphere, blinkx, blish, Blogbeat, Blogger, Bloglines, Blogniscient, bluepulse, Blummy, Boltfolio, browsr, buzznet, Cafepress, CalendarHub, castpost, Chatsum, Clipfire, Clipmarks, clipshack, congoo, Dabble, del.ico.us, digg, diigo, dogear, dPolls, EgoSurf, eskobo, Extra Tasty, Facebook, favoor, FeedBurner, feedmarker, Feedsky, Feedster, FeedTier, Filangy, Flagr, Fleck, flickr, Findory, FireAnt, fotolog, Frappr, Fruitcast, furl, gabbr, Gather, Gcast, gmail, gOFFICE, goowy, gravee, Grouper, Gtalkr, Gumshoo, HomePortals, Hula, iKarma, inods, inform, imvu, Jambo, JellyBarn, Jeteye, Jookster, Jots, JotSpot, kanoodle, kiko, KnowNow, last.fm, lexxe, LookLater, lulu, MeasureMap, meebo, MeetWithApproval, mefeedia, Memeorandum, Mercora, mozy, MyBloop, MySpace, MyVideoKaraoke, NativeText, Netvibes, NewsAlloy, newsgator, Newsvine, Ning, Noodly, OddPost, OmniDrive, ookles, openomy, Opinity, Orb, Ourmedia, oyogi, Pageflakes, Pando, Pandora, Pegasus News, Phanfare, picturecloud, pixagogo, Planzo, Platial, plazes, PodDater, Podzinger, ProjectSpaces, Protopage, PubSub, PureVolume, pxn8, qoop, quimble, RallyPoint, rbloc, reddit, rememberthemilk, renkoo, Riffs, Riya, Rollyo, RSS Mad, shadows, Shoutwire, ShoZu, shutterfly, SimplyHired, Simpy, Skobee, smarkets, smugmug, SpinSpy, Spongecell, Spot Runner, Squidoo, Squishr, Standpoint, Streamload, StrongSpace, StumbleUpon, Suprglu, Ta-da LIsts, tagyu, TagWorld, TailRank, technorati, theadcloud, Tinfinger, Topix, Trumba, veoh, vimeo, vizu, vSocial, WebJay, Wikipedia, wink, Wondir, Wordcast, Wrickr, Writely, Xdrive, Yedda, yakalike, Yelp, YouTube, Yub.com, yubnub, Zazzle, Ziggs, zigtag, Zimbra, ZoomInfo, Zoozio, zoto and Zurpy.

I take issue with a few of the entries (Alexa?), but one thing is clear; Web 2.0 = playskool-colored logos + sans serif fonts. There also some notable exclusions, such as Skype, Flock and Upcoming.

I looked at a few Web 2.0 sites from a design perspective a few months ago, and now I’ll be starting an in-depth analysis of these companies this week. If you’ve got a Web 2.0 example to add, please leave a comment.