eBiz Tomorrow by Chris Salazar

Webware, from one of my tweets, just reported that Jonathan Swartz has declared an end to blogging!  Wait just one minute, its not near, and won’t be for a while.  But like anything else, it will come to an end.

However, the end of blogging just means we’ve all moved to something better…whatever that might be who knows.  It’ll be something more eye catching, more advanced, and most importantly MORE INTERACTIVE.

Instead of trying to predict blogging’s successor, we need to prepare ourselves, just like we do for earthquakes, for the coming of something new that will take us by storm.

How might we do this?  I’ll jot down some notes and ideas, but please add in your own input as well.  I want to be prepared…I dont want to fall off the web 2.0, web 3.0 radar!

1. Keep up with your blogging:  its not easy, and I’ve fallen off many times, yet its important to stay in the loop.  You’ll find it more easy to see signs of change…and you’ll know who to follow
2. Stay in tact with tools that either compliment blogging or are just as interactive like Twitter:  twitter is the most effective way to not only reach a large audience but to keep up with industry trends
3. Research, Analyze, and Predict the future: this will keep you on your toes and keep you mentally ready for the move
4. Have open discussions with peers about where the blogging industry is moving and how to get there:  wherever you go, you gotta bring your network with you.  Why not move together?
5. Keep your emergency pack ready for drastic changes:  computer, internet, research, and most importantly your willingness to take risks and stay interactive

Although this change might be easier for individuals, I’m skeptical of how corporations will adjust.  This process will be slower and more difficult, but is it worth it?  Or should corporations stay put and not panic, and wait for the kinks to pave out?

Ah!  This is exactly why web 2.0 is entertaining, it’ll never stay the same, it’ll never be easy.

Jeremiah recently reported that his blog post has been translated to Hebrew, and I’m happy to report that my post on Social 2.0 and How to utilize its full potential in business bas been translated to Spanish here!

This is great for me.  Not only do people read my content, but some feel that it’s worthy enough to translate late into a different language.  This is awesome and definitely gives me a lot of motivation.

Thanks to everyone for reading.  Look forward to more collaboration in the near future!

For some reason I never thought I would hear the words “passed away” or “death” and social media in the same sentence. Ha, I was wrong! It turns out, social media is not just for the living, but also for those who have died.

Respectance, a social networking site that keeps the memories alive, has found a way to help loved ones who have lost someone. What’s the most difficult thing about losing someone? Is remembering all the GREAT things you did together. Here’s your chance to keep the memories alive!

You can explore tributes, photos, members, videos…all kinds of stuff…

According to Venture Beat, they just received$1.5 million in funding! I’m completely down for using this as a way to keep photos and tributes, but to browse other people who have died…I’m not too sure. Although some have said it might make it easier to heal…it might be a little freaky at the same time!

Other interesting opinions about Respectance:

• Some call it emo-social media
• Mashable is a fan of the social network for the dead
• Blognation says this is for people to “heal and share memories of their loved ones, while finding others with similar experiences“

A good idea? YES, definitely. But, how will it withstand? Who knows. But, what do you think?

Marshall Kirkpatrick announces that eBay is set to integrate blogs and wikis in the already successful platform. It sounds like a good idea, especially since it’s already community driven! They are just becoming even more sticky, I suppose, but will users really benefit or even use them?

Steve Rubel makes a convincing argument that users can actually use these blogs to talk more about products, sellers, collectibles, and even listings. I’m an avid eBay user and seller, so I think this is a great idea. On the side, my family and I sell and collect rare oldie music (link to our eBay seller profile)…I’ve even started a blog for us to promote our newest release. Perhaps it will be a bit easier to engage users if we had a blog on the eBay platform, but here’s my feelings:

• Will users even participate? I’m sure a great deal of them will, but for all the others, is blogging a value-add service?
• Its good for research purposes. You can tell a lot about a person from their blog. Are they nice to other users? Do they have a loyal fanbase? Do they even respond to users?
• eBay’s global community will be broken down into several micro-communities. This is good, b/c each community can create its niche. I know my dad would love this…he’s passionate about oldies, and whats better than to talk with other passionate people?
• Easy for advertising. Ah ha! I know once we have our next CD out, i’ll be scouring the blogs on eBay and commenting like crazy advertising our new release. Yep, ill be using it for commercial purposes…is that what eBay wants?
• How flexible will the platform be? Can I post pictures, sound clips, and videos? How will the comments workout (i.e. will there be a spam blocker?).
• MOST IMPORTANTLY - Keywords will come up in Google Search. Yes, this is the primary reason why I’d start a blog. Already eBay listings come up pretty high, but adding a blog will just make my chances of attracting outside customers even higher! My google ranking as a seller will sky rocket to the top! Thats of course, if im the only blogger. =)

Believe me, I’ll be keying you in on my experience with my new eBay blog. Who knows maybe I’ll even see you there!

Here’s how eBay is already embracing social media:

• eBay Chatter
• eBay Developer’s Wiki

Thanks for everyone who visited my post on Facebook and MySpace, especially Jeremiah who devoted a single post to me.

I’ve set a milestone for me, as I became the 6th fastest growing WordPress blog! This is a big step for me as I continue to engage myself in the blogosphere.

Take a look at this:

Now I just need to keep writing to keep all of you coming back. But, I just wanted to thank all of your for comments and support!

Cheers!

For some reason when I think of eBay, the first thing that comes to mind is Community. Looking at what they’ve done over the past (acquiring companies, branching off), each move has been community based. Take a look at Craigslist or even StubHub…community is the central driving force.

Now, eBay is going back to the community giants — bloggers. But, this actually makes sense; its not something put together at the last minute just to be like everyone else. It fits with their company, it fits with ebay users, and it fits with bloggers.

What am I talking about? Well, eBay launched widgets that can be put on a webpage/blog to advertise or link to their listing. This is a perfect way to cross-reference listings with blogs to keep the commmunity involved.

eBay is doing a great job at keeping its users glued to their site. They arent just worried about hits per day, but rather returning users per day. They’ve provided a platform + the glue to keep the users coming back. They’re sticky!

What would I like to see on ebay?

• Why not add widgets to ebay listings which link to other blogs/sites who talk about the specific product being sold (i.e. link to cnet news, video blogs, tech crunch, etc).

I’m curious to see the reaction from the blogging community.  This stuff really excites me!

Just announced, one of the largest web companies, Yahoo! will offer their users with unlimited data storage starting May 2007. Jeremiah has been talking a bit about the online data storage industry as several companies large and startup have been entering. He argues that companies will pay us to use their storage…SURE, but we get paid at the cost of providing marketers with our personal information. I’m not too sure how the trade off works out, especially for those, like me, who hate telemarketers and giving my information away for free. Yet, I have a feeling this industry will be taken more seriously now that Yahoo! has joined the club…and who knows, maybe Hotmail will join too?

Its interesting how storage in general has evolved in just a few years, starting off with Yahoo! Mail the 4MB version, to SanDisk’s introduction of the 2MB flash card for the Canon PowerShot, to HP announcing the 160GB storage capacity for its PCs, to Apples announcement of the 30GB iPod , and now Yahoo’s unlimited email storage!

Yahoo hopes to set the stage and make it possible for users to have unlimited data storage. Hey, that would be the day, when I’m worried about “how” I’m going to fill my storage, rather than how much I have left. Will I fill it with useless stuff? Probably, but at least I can have the whole cake, and not just a piece of it.

On a serious note, I think Microsoft Outlook needs to take a big hard look at their storage capacity. At least I know for my company, I constantly get annoying email saying I’ve surpassed my storage limit…maybe Yahoo! will enter in the corporate world and be the next Outlook killer? Or how about Google?

Update: Allen Stern questions if it can really be unlimited?

AHA! There’s always a catch….

After reading a very interesting article by Andy Dickinson titled “Tools or Behaviour” he provoked an important point that I think many people miss. He cited Kevin Anderson from the Guardian, who argues that YouTube is not popular because of the video, but there’s something else intriguing about it. Do I agree?

This really comes down to understanding the customer. I’m sure the YouTube guys realized that video was big, but whats even bigger is “Community.” Yes, sure its been a broken record as many many bloggers constantly talk about community…but the reason why they talk about it is not because its buzzy, but because its worthy of a conversation.

Take a look at this snapshot of YouTube’s Community section…they are on to something:

Video has been around for a long time, take News stations (like ABC News), they’ve had News videos for years. Take MTV, they’ve had music videos since before I was born. So, Any is right, its not about the Video per se, and perhaps its not too much about the advertising. What its really about is the users (community) have complete control over what they see, share, save, and post on their own sites (myspace, xanga, blogs, etc). Adding a YouTube video to MySpace is practically dummy-proof…and with even more time, saving a YouTube video into an mpeg file is just as easy.

So where has this concept of sharing evolved? Well, from the earliest signs of sharing, back in the Napster file-sharing days, it became apparent that users want control over what they do online and IF they find something they like they want to send it to their friends, colleagues, family, etc. It’s not about the video, or the blog, or even the podcast…its about empowering the user.

I’d argue that today’s success with community tools and social networking sites is about EMPOWERMENT! The 2000’s era, should be the era of EMPOWERMENT…the years when users were in control, when users formed communities, and when users took over the internet!

Yep, the time is near…I graduated and now I am on the verge of starting my career. These past few weeks I have been jobless and homework-less, but now its time to start REALITY.

Graduating from SCU after 3 long years and 1 quarter, I felt relieved, and ready to move on. Yet, now I find myself feeling timid and scared about starting to work full time. Of course, I have been at Hitachi for a while now, but its different now. Expectations are higher…the bars are set higher now. Its time for me to work for my money.

As you may suspect, I will have more time for blogging and more ideas. No more homework, no more tests…(at least for now until Grad School).

Wish me luck!

It’s definitely amazing how MySpace is growing not just in the United States, but globally.  What many thought was just a fad, it is here to stay…at least for a while.  Although MySpace is available to anyone around the world, they are now creating special localized versions of the site in other countries including Japan, UK, Ireland, Germany, France, and Australia.  Who would have known?

Also, MySpace is joining with News Corp and Softbank Corp. to help fund the $5 million it will take to create the localized version in Japan.  Found of MySpace, Tom Anderson, says that he wants to create a “global community” where people can interact anywhere in the world.  YES!  GREAT IDEA!

What’s interesting is Softbank currently owns close to 40% of Yahoo! Japan and Softbank CEO adds that there is a possibility for a joint venture between the two companies.

How about that?  Yahoo and MySpace merging…