Recently I suggested that Edgeio will fail despite the fact that it’s a brilliant application with great folks behind it. Brilliant? Yes – it’s got a beautiful interface (check out that geocoded slider!) , great Buzz (how many companies are cited in blogs this often, plus backing from Jeff Clavier and Michael Arrington plus advice from Yahoo’s Zawodny? Great idea in theory too – capture listings automatically from blogs at no charge using a simply tagging feature, allow users to modify at the site or thier site, and only make money when you add value. Create a sort of blog listing community from the exploding bloggers!
BUT….Unfortunately for Edgeio I think all the folks working on it have Silicon colored glasses. These work well for companies that are already in the loop, profitable, and can make their own market spaces (e.g. Yahoo, Google, Amazon), but Edgeio will have a lot of trouble building community outside of the “buzz” area of Silicon Valley. Also, and I think most importantly, Silicon valley is so enamored with the *potential* of tagging content that they can’t realize people from Peoria simply will not tag stuff. Nope. They’ll wait a little longer until Google and Yahoo start doing this for them using the personalized search models under development now and which we’ll see a lot more of when MSN deploys it’s new search in a few months.

CONTRAST THIS with the ultimate in Web 2.0 design and deployment: Craigslist.com!

But WAIT, say you who remember so well THE WELL and the days before Web 2.0.  In fact the days before Web 1.0.  Craigslist came around at Web 0.1 and THAT is why it’s ALSO the killer 2.0 style site …personified….literally.   Like the early web, Web 2.0 is about natural community and natural information exchange much more than anything else… JUST LIKE web 0.1 was about natural communities and natural information exchanges of unADULTerated content (or adulterated only when it was the adult community involved in the adulteration. (Continued next post)

CNN’s Web 2.0 coverage covers some of the new upstarts in the internet world.  I think it’s a great list of interesting representative companies and trends, but the storyline implies incorrectly that the next Google may be amongst these.  I suppose it’s possible that Amazon, listed as an “incumbent to watch”, could eclipse Google if it’s Open search and sharing of search APIs takes off in a much bigger way than it appears to be doing, but I’m wondering if they are hyping the wrong aspect of 2.0 here.    The point is that these companies will NEVER get “huge” like a Google or MSN.  Rather they’ve carved out niches and want to be the best in that limited area.  There’s HUGE money to be made in almost all traditional (and many non-traditional) niches by bringing the power of the internet both in terms of website and email values and general online efficiencies with all the good stuff the internet brings to the table…for free.