Web 3.0 and the Widgetized Web

Personalized start pages and web widgets have been on my mind a lot lately. As I add these gadgets to my Windows Live, Netvibes and Google.com/ig pages, I am spending far less time other sites. In fact, it's now possible to add so many collapsible modules to your tabs/pages, that you rarely need to go anywhere else. The fact that both Google and Microsoft allow you to port these pages to a mobile device is an added boon. The future of the web (dare I say Web 3.0?) will look just like a Swiss Army Knife and it's going to be extremely disruptive.

Here are a few screenshots of the widgets that are embedded in my personalized Google home page. These modules are worth pointing out because they enable you to conduct business without ever having to leave the page. Many widgets are just glorified RSS feeds. These babies are truly notable because they are indicative of what the widgetized web will look like in the years ahead. You can see a future where these pages become as essential as a Swiss Army Knife is to a camper.

First up is the Google Reader widget. Using this feature, you can whip through all of your Google Reader RSS feeds. Google let's you browse feeds by label, star items and view individual feed items without ever leaving the page. This has reduced my need to visit the actual app when all I want to do is scan some of my favorite feeds.

Another indispensable widget is from Bitty Browser. This tool lets you embed literally dozens of Web sites inside your start page. You can even add multiple instances of the widget and customize each one to open up a different site.

In my case, I have a Bitty widget automatically open up the mobile version of my personal Socialtext wiki. I use it add notes to my wiki, record entries in my private daily business diary blog and even search through the archives. Socialtext even lets you add feeds to your pages for quick browsing. Again, I do all of this without ever having to go to the Socialtext URL.

A critical widget I keep on my personalized dashboard is from Box.net. Using this module I am able to download/upload files and more. It turns your start page into a hard drive.

Last but not least, weather has a big impact on my day. When I am in NY, it can affect my commute. When I am traveling, it obviously can have greater ramifications. I have a separate tab on my Google page just for weather information. As you can see below, it not only includes the forecast, but current local temps, sunrise/sunset times, phases of the moon, local radar and even a live camera image from a school near my apartment. Again, all of this streams to my Swiss Army Knife page without ever having to visit a weather site.

Now I am not your average user. Like many of you, I am a tinkerer and an early adopter. I like to play around with new sites. So the majority of Web users aren't using personalized start pages just yet...but they will. And as we all get hooked, there's going to be a real boom in widget innovation. The picture-in-picture Web is in the first inning and as it takes off, we're going to see some dramatic changes.

Widgets and gadgets are going to be just as disruptive as RSS, blogs, Wikipedia, social networks and other recent developments - perhaps even more so. The reason is that as people begin to get familiar with these tools and the widgets get more sophisticated, we will spend less time going from property to property. This means that over time big web sites will generate fewer page views, which means that advertising CPMs could plummet.

So what's a content site to do? If you widgetize your content, you run the risk that people will mostly access you off their start pages. If you don't, your competitors will. This is why big media sites are wisely creating their own start pages. The idea here is to get the users hooked now so they don't go anywhere else. By keeping them in the fold, these web sites will be able to hold on to their users and serve up ads.

But what if the advertisers themselves get into this game. What if big brands start creating Swiss Army Knife start pages packed with valuable coupons, deals and more. What if brands turn themselves into a platform and allow individuals to embed RSS feeds and media widgets to these pages? Boy would that turn the tables, huh? Maybe the media will start paying brands to feature their content.

All of this is just the beginning. But the future is clear. Widgets are going to upset a lot of apple carts. The future of the Web looks like a Swiss Army Knife.

Comments

[JesseCiccone]

Steve,

Thanks for the useful tips.

Did I get this right...you use three personalized start pages?? Doesn't that kinda defeat the purpose?

I'm currently using Google and just getting familiar with it, but my goal was to pick THE BEST option for efficiency and managing information overload. Now you're telling me I need 'em all. Help!

[Steve Rubel]

Jesse, good point. I really use three to try out different features. I mostly use Google's. - steve

[drew olanoff]

I've seen the future, and the future is www.goowy.com

[Stuart Bruce - BMA PR]

Interested to see you prefer Google. I've also tried all three (and others) and I'm moving towards Netvibes and Windows Live. Windows Live is the one I show to none techy people - they love it's power and ease of use. Google and Netvibes might be technically better but they don't have the same polish.

[B.L. Ochman]

what a really useful and insightful post. thank you steve!

[Mike]

Didn't we go through a "Personal Start Page" phase already?? Granted this one is different, but isn't this what portals were supposed to do back in the day?

[Dino Baskovic]

Steve, I got as far a 'Web 3.0' in your headline and immediately dismissed the article as hogwash. :)

[Mark]

Steve - very interested by your post but I have a quick question...

The thing about a start page is that it is a tool and like any tool, people will use it only until someone else builds another tool that works better. It may be that a big brand could build a start page that briefly captured consumers interests, but for the start page to be a true success, the principle hook would have to be because first and foremost, the brand's start page works better than the other start pages out there.

I feel it is unlikely that big brands will be able to rely on advertising, affinity, loyalty and promotions to maintain consumer usage of a start page, particluarly when they will be competing in a market place where companies like Google are spending BIG bucks on usability testing etc. and consistently improving and perfecting their products.

So how do you see the big brands getting round this? Do you think we will see stronger technology partnerships between big brands and tech-centric companies? - sorry, that was two questions ;)

[MonkMojo]

Great post, I live out of my google start pages, It's how I got here!

For blog widgets this is a cool site:

http://www.widgetbox.com/

[Rusty]

Thanks, great post.
Nice widgets I use google's start page and I didn't now about all these add ons.

[beno]

PAGEFLAKES.com is also almost better than others ! I use it from their Beta version, it is just super great ! Test it.

[wsktb]

It seems you have seen the WebSwissKnifeToolBar... so many coincidence...

Judge by yourself on http://blog.wsktoolbar.com/?page_id=9

[Andy Headington]

Hi Steve, I've been reading your blog for a couple of years (on and off) but just popped back today to catch up.

What a post that was! SO glad it got my attention. I think you've got a wonderful perspective on what is happening in the industry and could show real insight into the future of the web. Been using Google ig for a year or so and feel naked surfing the web without it.

Perhaps we will see the likes of MySpace, YouTube or eBay start pages in 2007? My mind is trying to take it all in... :)

[gregt]

please let's not start throwing "Web 3.0" around just yet.
there's still plenty of "Web 2.0" hype to ride :-)

seriously though, the web you are talking about here ("widgetized" and "3.0") is the semantic web; a machine-friendly space of structured content that allows disparate services to interact without service-specific programming to do so. we are not even half-way up the "hump" of the semantic web aka "Web 2.0", so - hold your Web-versioning horses!

[SK]

web 2.1
www.skimoff.com

[widget the of web]

check out the http://www.widgipedia.com, widgets directory and best web 2.0 site