#143 - Google's Top Websites and What You Need to Know About Web 3.0

Think you have a pretty fair idea of which websites are the most popular today? Google recently shared its list of the top 1,000 sites developed from measurements within the Ad Planner feature based on category, unique visitors, reach and page views.

Strangely, the list does not include any data from Google or YouTube, yet the clear (and predictable) winner is Facebook with 540 million users, over 570 billion pageviews, and approximately 35% of all measured web traffic. This makes Facebook the world’s number one website. Yahoo.com is in second place, followed by live.com, wikipedia.org and msn.com.

Google released the list to point its advertisers in the direction of sites they should advertise on. It’s interesting to note that two of the major sites in the top 10 don’t even offer advertising – wikipedia.org and mozilla.com.

With all the hype of real-time search right now, it seems peculiar that Twitter doesn't rank higher in the list. It currently sits in the 18th position with only 5.4 billion page views. (Poor Twitter). Click here to see the ranked list. Google plans to update the list monthly for its advertisers. The chance of any of these top performers dropping out anytime soon is slim.

The buzz about Web 3.0
Apparently, we are at the beginning of what our technology industries refer to as Web 3.0, or the next generation of Web 2.0. Neither of these can be defined in concise terms since they do not consist of definite products or services or even a broad spectrum with structured guidelines. Regardless, I'm going to give it a try.

"Our globe's mammoth data archive could become even
more open to analysis across various platforms, making
online services - and the professionals who
understand them - even more resourceful and valuable."

A little history
When it first launched, the World Wide Web was merely an interface to access data stored on computer terminals or servers. Web 2.0 (a term that has been hotly debated) came out of the economic "dot.com" bubble bursting. It was touted then as the re-birth of the Internet. However, it only served to add upon established underlying principles of the World Wide Web (eg: HTML as a base language for all users).

Web 2.0’s contribution to the World Wide Web has been a vast array of services which facilitate collaboration and sharing. Most notably, with the advent of social networking sites, blogs, audio/video posts, podcasts, wikis, IMs, etc. More importantly, it also saw the rise of a handful of powerful search engines with the ability to delve into the innermost recesses of any web page and extract relevant data.

But, there was one catch.

Even the most powerful search tools still need the thought processes of puny human being to guide them to those pages and load them with generous doses of keywords so they may come up with the intended results. On the other hand, Web 3.0 is expected to transfer these thought process directly to the search engine software’s Mode of Operation - or brain. So, Web 3.0's goal is to create a World Wide Web where all data is easily understandable by all machines - just as we humans presently understand it.

Is this the dawn of Intelligent Computing?

The techies call it "semantic computing," and many speak about how Web 3.0 will open up an astronomical amount of web data to intelligent analysis. This would also enable machines operating on and from different databases and platforms to successfully exchange information with one another. Greater automation is another long-sought benefit.

Web 3.0 is likely in your future

Web 3.0 is essentially the next step in the evolution of the World Wide Web from a mere depository of information on interconnected networks, to a faster, more intuitive and more productive way of experiencing the Internet. Now, we can look forward to a greater assortment of web services, possibly characterized by a degree of artificial intelligence. Our
globe's mammoth data archive could become even more open to analysis across various platforms, making online services - and the professionals who understand them - even more resourceful and valuable.

What does all this mean to the common web user? To marketers? Journalists? Public relations practitioners? It may mean less use of our own intellect for researching data and making decisions. Doe the thought excite or frighten?

In my case, a little bit of both. What about you?

#136 - Tell me about your Social Media Life!

Breaking news! The focus of Life Lessons has now officially changed to reflect the many ways we are all living our lives in the social media spotlight. (Note the new blog title above - Social Media Life Lessons.) In case you're wondering what prompted this change, it's quite simple. Earlier this week I had a conversation with a prospective client, an executive VP for a non-profit organization in Nashville, and he remarked that more and more he found he was "practically living on Facebook."

It was not the first time I'd heard the comment, and it suddenly dawned on me that the real reason I blog is to explore and possibly even enhance knowledge of social media - be it with blogs, Facebook, Twitter, SocialGo, Squidoo, hundreds of online communities, forum discussions, RSS aggregators, various websites, or online news sources. What's happening in social media affects everyone. It has changed the virtual landscape of media from print to broadcasting in an amazingly short span of time - just one decade. The medium is changing and we need to change with it.

To better reflect the nature of this site, I have changed its title to reflect a focus on teaching important life lessons framed within the context of social media, including news and events of interest to students, everyday users, and social media practitioners. The primary goal is to keep you, the reader, informed (with an easy, interesting format) of changes in social media (which seem to be occurring almost daily). Each week, we'll focus on a specific lesson covering the most effective and popular usage of one social media tool or technique.

Feel free to leave topic requests in the comments section below! I'll put my best research skills to work to answer any reader questions or comments.

You can look forward to many more posts on how to leverage social media for PR, news writing, advertising, education, business and even personal use. So, please, take a minute to let me know what you want to learn more about or better utilize online. I will research and report on any aspect of social media you choose.

A blog is only as good as the conversation it fosters...I look forward to collaborating with you, communicating and educating in this blog space.

In other news...
There was major news in social media today with the announcement that Google is already re-tooling the new Buzz network to address privacy concerns raised by consumers - just day's after the network launched. Google plans to separate Buzz from users' Gmail accounts, according to a report at Search Engine Land. Personally, I applaud Google for taking quick action to address any security concerns. I do worry that this rocky start for Buzz does not bode well for the search engine giant's foray into social networking.

What do you think of Google Buzz? Have you tried it? Do you agree that it should be separated from Gmail accounts? Inquiring minds really want to know.

It's time to get this this conversation started! I look forward to hearing from you.