The end of the hierarchy?

I recently attended a meeting with the folks from Google, the primary purpose of which was for them to "pitch" the benefits of their enterprise search appliance, particularly their OneBox solution. When you look at their apps and how they can be used now within an organization-- branded email using Gmail, calendars and web page building features in conjunction with their search solutions, it became clear that Google is looking to expand its presence from the public side of your interactive brand to the private side--your intranet.

Part of Google's argument/rationale for why their solution is so great, and what I found to be most interesting, was their belief that the hierarchy is a failing model for finding information. You web developers and information architects have all experienced some level of information hierarchy hell. You spend countless hours researching and planning an intuitive information hierarchy only to have a user or two come back and question why you organized things the way you did. The basic rule--people process and organize information differently, so you can't please all of the people all of the time. What seems logical to some, may not be to others. Here was Google's argument, and their solution was of course search. Granted, the search engine needs to be smart enough to find relevant matches--and not many do it better than Google-- but search creates significant efficiencies when trying to locate data across multiple sources. And, most intranets are typically comprised of content stored across a variety of systems, databases, etc. So, Google's argument certainly seemed logical.

As I thought more about this I started to think about the public-facing side again. As Widgets take greater hold and the adoption of RSS continues to increase, the corporate website could very well become more of a portal with limited-to-no need for traditional navigation.

The scenario would go something like this: Company A's customers use a search engine to locate content stored in databases, files and static pages. They tag or "subscribe" to the content they want/value (as they would a feed) and select from a variety of widgets to pull, manage and organize that content on Company A's homepage. (The could even pull some of it into their Google home page) To retain some control, Company A might designate certain content or Widgets as mandatory areas on their homepage that cannot be edited or removed. (For example these areas might be saved for promotions, news etc. whatever.) With this scenario, the user experience, the whole content location and subscription process, exists without traditional navigation.

Widget and RSS implementations are on the rise. With these technologies, as content increases, the number of unique web pages decreases and the need for traditonal navigation becomes less and less necessary.

Is this the beginning of the end for hiearchical navigation?

How sweet it is

On the musical front I have been listening to Buddy Guy's Sweet Tea disc a bunch lately. I highly recommend it.

More on the fourth W

As promised in my Nov 7th post "A Fourth W" I'm going to take a moment to talk more about the potential use for Widgets (also referred to as gadgets) within a business/corporate website. I was checking out KickApps and got to thinking about how businesses might leverage such a technology. Here's just one method I came up with:
Extranet: Are you an agency or company who need's to share video with your clients? This tool would provide you with a secure and simple method for doing so.

A great resource for widgets is Widgetbox which can best be described as an online widget marketplace. Here I came across the "DirectCallBack" widget under the communication section. With this widget businesses can talk to the visitors of their webpage, while they are looking at it. Ideal for customer service and sales.

And these are just a couple examples. The collective power of worldwide programming is producing some pretty cool gadgets, I mean widgets.

Ready to shape the future?

As you can imagine the world of online collaboration and discussion is not limited to the social networks (mySpace and the like). There's quite a bit of discussion going on out there and I thought I'd take a moment to point your attention to one where we all could make a difference. The site, willyoujoinus.com sponsored by Chevron was designed to engage people in an open discussion about the future of energy. Here is a description from the site itself.

"We need your help.

At Chevron, we believe that innovation, collaboration and conservation are the cornerstones on which to build this new world. But we can’t do it alone. Corporations, governments and every citizen of this planet must be part of the solution as surely as they are part of the problem.
And so, we ask you to join us.

Let this website be the vehicle that helps to close the gaps between our diverse philosophies and open the minds of us all. There are many factors in the new energy equation, and we encourage you to consider all of them. We call upon scientists and educators, politicians and policymakers, environmentalists, leaders of industry and each one of you to be part of reshaping the next era of energy."

While I am not a fan of "big oil" per se I do applaud Chevron for opening the lines of communication and their use of the Web to do so. Lets just hope the discussions remain objective and that they (Chevron) actually listen, learn and put the learnings to good use.

CNN- Another Example of Web 2.0

CNN's iReport service is another good example of how an organization is leveraging Web 2.0. iReport allows everyday people (CNN viewers) to send, share and see their stories on CNN. Through this participation CNN is not only getting their audience involved with the CNN brand they're also addressing an increasing demand for fresh content--without having to really pay for it. While this content, in most cases, is no subsititute for good journalism, it may provide the spark that inspires or the depth that makes a good story great.

Tone Matters

I thought I take a moment to scribe some thoughts about music, my true passion. I've recently been listening to Gavid Gilmour's last release "On and Island" (if you don't have this one and are a fan of Floyd, this is an excellent disc and you should get it). Anway, as guitarist (check out some of my work here) I've always been pretty particular about guitar tone--mine and others and Gilmour's rates up there with one of the best tones (to my easrs) out there. There are a couple of tracks on this disc in particular where David's tone is just awesome...one of which is a song called "The Blue." The slide work and liquidity of both his phrasing and tone really exemplify the song's theme and demonstrate just how critical guitar tone is to the composition. I've done some research on David's tone and find Gilmourish.com to be a great source for setting up your rig to replicate his tone...of course you'll need to be able to play well too. Happy Jamming!

Satellite Radio Levarages Web 2.0

While listening to the Stern show on Sirius on my way in to work this morning (as I do most every day) Howard discussed the potential renewal of Jackie "the ex Stern show funny man" Martling's weekly show which has been running on Howard 101. (For those of you not familiar, Howard has built out two channels on Sirius--Howard 100 and Howard 101.) Howard aksed his program director Tim Sabien if the show would be renewed and Tim said that he had been monitoring the message boards on some of the social network sites like the Stern Fan Network, and reported that the feedback re Jackie's show was very positive and that he would indeed be renewing his contract. Howard joked a bit about the fact that his program director was making decisions about the channel's content by monitoring the boards, but the reality is, Tim is quite smart to be doing so. As I have talked about before, Web 2.0 is, in my opinion, more about participation then it is about technology and here is a fine example of how Web 2.0 is being leveraged to build a brand. By engaging with and listening to the consumer, in this case the fans, Howard, Tim and Sirius are creating a brand experience that is ever more relevant to their consumers/fans, becuasethrough Web 2.0 they know what their consumer's want and they deliver it to them which in turn drives brand loyalty. For those in the know, Stern fans are some of the most loyal fans out there. Businesses should be so smart about listening to their fans, I mean customers.

A fourth W?

Are we looking at transforming WWW into WWWW, the World Wide Web of Widgets? I was just exploring some of the discussions coming out of the Widgets Live conference and got to thinking about the potential impact widgets may have on the corporate website. As companies embrace user participation its only natural that they use/allow the use of widgets to enhance that particpation. Thanks to widgets, Web pages are shrinking, becoming more of a component and I can envision a day where the majority of a corporate site is built using a variety of widgets. More on this concept later.

A better way to search?

I was reading Steve Rubel's blog (Micropersuasion) and saw that he had a post about the search site Compete. Not completely familiar with the site I decided to check it out and what I found was indeed interesting. The search site, built on Yahoo's search technology, attempts to not only help you find what you are looking for, it adds additional dimension by providing popularity, safety and value rankings to help you decide which site is better for you. From a marketers point of view, Compete adds a level of intelligence where marketers can use the "snapshot" tool to see how their client's sites and their client's competitors site rank (similar to what you can do with Alexa) and use those insights to take whatever actions necessary to move their client's rankings in the desired direction. The design is clean (and clearly modeled after Google) and the interactive functionality is smart (modeled somewhat after what Ask is doing with their rollover tools). Looks like Compete took some of their competitor's best practices and applied them to their own solution, which is pretty much a competitive best practice. Seems the name fits.

User Generated Content and B2B Branding

I just recently returned from a trip to NYC where I attended the annual IAB (http://www.iab.net/) agency conference, and while I found much of the event beneficial, there was one subject (of particular interest to me) that was addressed (or not so) during one of the panel discussions which I believe will prove to have a significant impact on B2B branding and create a critcal shift in how B2B brands are built. The topic of the panel discussion was titled "Taking Control of User Generated Content." In the end, despite the strong credentials of the group, the panelists did not have time to really address the topic at hand.

Many of you are probably familiar with the term Web 2.0. (If your not, do a Google search, you'll find tons of references on the matter.) For some, this relates to various types of websites and technologies, and for others, like myself, its more about a concept, and that concept is particpation. I feel the idea of user participation is particularly interesting when applied to the B2B space, partly becuase most folks would typically equate the participatory internet with B2C practices (sites like youtube come to mind) and therefore the concept is largely overlooked or scary, but mostly for its potential to change the brand building landscape.

In my role as Director of Interactive Services for Moveo Intergated Branding, I have helped many companies shape and build their brands online, and the idea of user participation is becoming more and more exciting. Take for example the potential impact user participation can have on content creation alone. One of the constant struggles I see for both clients and web developers (not just my own) relating to maintaining a positive online brand experience is content creation- generating enough useful and relevant content at frequency that keeps the site fresh enough for users to want to come back. Now, consider the impact of opening up some of that content creation to the end-user. For one, you now have significantly more puiblisers then you did before. Two, if the forum for this user-generated content involves discussion capabilities (as with a blog or a board) you open up the possibility for your end-users to address many of their own concerns (think of the boards or sites you may have gone to find out how somebody solved a particular problem you are trying to tackle) without putting the burden on your organization to solve them. You also have the potential to gain a new level of insight into what your users (customers) think of your products/services, how they use your product/service, what they value and more. This is where I see the B2B branding lanscape changing.

Building on this web-based give-and-take, companies (brands) will have an opportunity to engage their customers and much deeper level then they do today, to the point where the customer actually becomes a participant in the company's product/service development process. Not only will this help a company (brand) deliver a more relevant product/service to its customer, it will ultimately increase the customer's preference for and loyalty to the brand.

What do you think?