Imagine this .. You are surfing the web, then your browser says to you, “Hey Ian, you might like to look at this website”, or “Other people have been talking about this site, would you like me to take you there?”.
Often we go to websites because of recommendations from friends, and increasingly sites like Del.icio.us are allowing us to review and visit webpages under various classifications called tags. The beauty of this is that you can find a websites that other people have tagged with the same classification. This allows you to receive suggestions of topics, or articles that match your interest.
Most of you would have started to see the small orange RSS button starting to appear on many websites. RSS (really simple syndication) helps people stay in touch with a lot more websites as they are notified when a new entry is made without having to surf to every website.
Technologies that allow users to rate and comment on websites are also starting to appear. Shadows is an example, and it allows users to comment and rate webpages, thereby helping them to tap into other peoples opinions .. hence the word conversation.
Taking this one step further is the new browser application called Flock. I spent some time reviewing Flock last night, and believe it is a great example of how the web is moving from a library of pages, into a true conversation. Here’s a summary of Flock’s main features.
So .. what is the web saying to you, and what are you saying back?
