If Britney Spears Twittered...
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Recently, I wrote a post in Hebrew about Israeli news portals and how they are still far behind in terms of technology and web 2.0 features. I noted that it is their responsibility to teach mainstream users about the new web in order to help them understand that there are better ways communicate and to make their users' lives easier, especially during daily browsing sessions. For example: there isn't a single Israeli news site that allow its users to watch videos with a flash player experience. Users are required to download an activeX plug-in for Microsoft Windows Media Player. I'm sure they go along without complaint because they simply don't know there are other options that don't require extra work.
Who should really bring old media users to use web 2.0 services or at least bring them understand that something has changed on the web and they need to move on with it? In my opinion, major news sites, celebs and musicians have the potential to play leaders in this forefront.
News Sites
News services were actually the first to notice the necessity of having a site that includes; blogs, sharing features, cleaner layouts and overall, the necessity of offering better user experiences. In Israel, it's unfortunate that not only does the news stress you severely, but their site interface stresses you even more... hopefully this will change soon, because we've started to see the dawning of a new approach.
Examples of services that have made a bold decision and changed completely include: USA Yoday and BBC. But these giants are not alone, all the big US newspapers have added some tools too or changed their sites to offer a more social approach to news consumption. One of the cleverest ideas that I've seen lately, came from MSNBC news. They released a whole new page, full of interactive widgets, games and other goodies that allows users to read the news the way it suits them as individuals while bringing them together as a community. If you haven't tried it yet, I recommend you start here.
Celebs
Seven months ago, Oprah Winfrey released a video message on Youtube announcing her new Youtube video channel, where users are able to watch exclusive videos (some of them made by Oprah herself). Over 1,767,724 people watched this video alone, 1,276,854 viewed this channel in general, and 35,501 people subscribed to this channel. Now, I maybe taking a wild guess here but it's more than probable that more than 50 percent of these viewers didn't know about YouTube to begin with but Oprah brought them there. Before Oprah opened the channel she explained (on a whole show) the YouTube phenomena. For us web geeks, it's a trivial commonplace thing, but not for the rest of the world some people still don't use the web, nevermind youtube. The cool thing about Oprah is that she keeps on discussing YouTube every now and then on her show, and I'm sure that every time she mentions YouTube, more people try out the service. Unfortunately, Oprah's channel looks better than the site itself, which SURELY NEEDS a redesign badly.
Speaking of YouTube, I'm a fan of Boston Legal, and they mention YouTube as a video service on the show not only once in a while but constantly! I'm sure this helps to bring more users over from old media into the new fold.
Another example, (again YouTube): Celeb Jessica Alba taking part of a stare game: 4,611,461 users watched this video! The video was posted on YouTube but the game took place at 'ibeatyou' which is web 2.0 service for people who like challenging other people. I was doing a little research and noticed that most of Jessica Alba's web pages, (those that don't have anything to do with the new web, not in the design nor in its features) are linked to this YouTube video. As a result, more users are exposed to web 2.0 world. Needless to say, the site itself got huge traffic.
Musicians
Finally, we examine musicians and their part in this movement. Musicians have always played a key role in cultural revolution and they do so on the web as well. We've seen a new web trend from some of the coolest artists around, where they allows fans to freely download a whole new album, or a song, just as it releases with no strings attached (pardon the pun). This is definitely a new approach when it's come to music and legality on the web. I can think of at least three musicians who have done this with their music: Radiohead, Coldplay, and the fabulous Nine Inch Nails.
However, only Coldplay seem to take this a little bit farther by launching a new site that features web 2.0 elements (it still however needs further refinement, if you ask me...). Yet overall, it looks like Coldplay hired someone who knows a few things about the modern web. On their new site, you'll find links to a Facebook page, a YouTube Channel, a Myspace account, and you can listen to most of their new album from their very nifty widget player:
To bring it full circle, if Britney Spears opened a Twitter account;
Hopefully, more old media users will soon come to understand that they can do more than just passively read and listen or search on the web. There's so much more out there on the net. It's just waiting to be discovered and explored. It's the new frontier.
Recently, I wrote a post in Hebrew about Israeli news portals and how they are still far behind in terms of technology and web 2.0 features. I noted that it is their responsibility to teach mainstream users about the new web in order to help them understand that there are better ways communicate and to make their users' lives easier, especially during daily browsing sessions. For example: there isn't a single Israeli news site that allow its users to watch videos with a flash player experience. Users are required to download an activeX plug-in for Microsoft Windows Media Player. I'm sure they go along without complaint because they simply don't know there are other options that don't require extra work.
Who should really bring old media users to use web 2.0 services or at least bring them understand that something has changed on the web and they need to move on with it? In my opinion, major news sites, celebs and musicians have the potential to play leaders in this forefront.
News Sites
News services were actually the first to notice the necessity of having a site that includes; blogs, sharing features, cleaner layouts and overall, the necessity of offering better user experiences. In Israel, it's unfortunate that not only does the news stress you severely, but their site interface stresses you even more... hopefully this will change soon, because we've started to see the dawning of a new approach.
Examples of services that have made a bold decision and changed completely include: USA Yoday and BBC. But these giants are not alone, all the big US newspapers have added some tools too or changed their sites to offer a more social approach to news consumption. One of the cleverest ideas that I've seen lately, came from MSNBC news. They released a whole new page, full of interactive widgets, games and other goodies that allows users to read the news the way it suits them as individuals while bringing them together as a community. If you haven't tried it yet, I recommend you start here.
Celebs
Seven months ago, Oprah Winfrey released a video message on Youtube announcing her new Youtube video channel, where users are able to watch exclusive videos (some of them made by Oprah herself). Over 1,767,724 people watched this video alone, 1,276,854 viewed this channel in general, and 35,501 people subscribed to this channel. Now, I maybe taking a wild guess here but it's more than probable that more than 50 percent of these viewers didn't know about YouTube to begin with but Oprah brought them there. Before Oprah opened the channel she explained (on a whole show) the YouTube phenomena. For us web geeks, it's a trivial commonplace thing, but not for the rest of the world some people still don't use the web, nevermind youtube. The cool thing about Oprah is that she keeps on discussing YouTube every now and then on her show, and I'm sure that every time she mentions YouTube, more people try out the service. Unfortunately, Oprah's channel looks better than the site itself, which SURELY NEEDS a redesign badly.
Speaking of YouTube, I'm a fan of Boston Legal, and they mention YouTube as a video service on the show not only once in a while but constantly! I'm sure this helps to bring more users over from old media into the new fold.
Another example, (again YouTube): Celeb Jessica Alba taking part of a stare game: 4,611,461 users watched this video! The video was posted on YouTube but the game took place at 'ibeatyou' which is web 2.0 service for people who like challenging other people. I was doing a little research and noticed that most of Jessica Alba's web pages, (those that don't have anything to do with the new web, not in the design nor in its features) are linked to this YouTube video. As a result, more users are exposed to web 2.0 world. Needless to say, the site itself got huge traffic.
Musicians
Finally, we examine musicians and their part in this movement. Musicians have always played a key role in cultural revolution and they do so on the web as well. We've seen a new web trend from some of the coolest artists around, where they allows fans to freely download a whole new album, or a song, just as it releases with no strings attached (pardon the pun). This is definitely a new approach when it's come to music and legality on the web. I can think of at least three musicians who have done this with their music: Radiohead, Coldplay, and the fabulous Nine Inch Nails.
However, only Coldplay seem to take this a little bit farther by launching a new site that features web 2.0 elements (it still however needs further refinement, if you ask me...). Yet overall, it looks like Coldplay hired someone who knows a few things about the modern web. On their new site, you'll find links to a Facebook page, a YouTube Channel, a Myspace account, and you can listen to most of their new album from their very nifty widget player:
To bring it full circle, if Britney Spears opened a Twitter account;
- She would be very upset to find out that this name is already taken,
- Perhaps, people would not think she was so...crazy. She's a twitterer, just like you and me.
- But seriously, she could really influence tons and tons of users to try the service.
Hopefully, more old media users will soon come to understand that they can do more than just passively read and listen or search on the web. There's so much more out there on the net. It's just waiting to be discovered and explored. It's the new frontier.
