Artwork, web projects, and updates to LiamDaly.com
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Squidoo
Internet marketer Seth Godin's latest creation, Squidoo, went into Public Beta today and I've been busy creating content on their site.
Squidoo clearly pitches itself as part of the Web 2.0 architecture though it's not as if there will be a clear seam in time as we move to 2.0 Comparisons have been made with Wikipedia - though as each page is solely owned by its creator it is clearly not a wiki system. It's probably more accurately compared with the cumbersome About.com only taking advantage of some of the latest web distribution technologies. Effectively it's likely to be a true online encyclopedia of expert pages stroke portals. They call each page a Lens, and as a self-professed expert - or Lensmaster - you write the content, build the links, harness the RSS feeds, add images and you're done. Only it has a commercial slant.
Even without the encouragement to include your own affiliate links and target advertising revenue, Squidoo would be destined to be jumped all over with thousands of useless basic link pages simply because of its likely (or believed) importance in the likes of Google's PageRank system. Google isn't that stupid, and neither do I believe is Squidoo - but what matters is how users respond to it. Its power is in its emulation of the greater web and the role of popularity.
Much quicker than Wikipedia it could become a major tool of research, or it could stay as an equivalent as a minor directory like Zeal, or a poor man's dMoz and be a necessary task for webmasters in growing web presence rather than the direct income stream many are presuming. I'll post some of my Lenses at a later date.
Squidoo clearly pitches itself as part of the Web 2.0 architecture though it's not as if there will be a clear seam in time as we move to 2.0 Comparisons have been made with Wikipedia - though as each page is solely owned by its creator it is clearly not a wiki system. It's probably more accurately compared with the cumbersome About.com only taking advantage of some of the latest web distribution technologies. Effectively it's likely to be a true online encyclopedia of expert pages stroke portals. They call each page a Lens, and as a self-professed expert - or Lensmaster - you write the content, build the links, harness the RSS feeds, add images and you're done. Only it has a commercial slant.
Even without the encouragement to include your own affiliate links and target advertising revenue, Squidoo would be destined to be jumped all over with thousands of useless basic link pages simply because of its likely (or believed) importance in the likes of Google's PageRank system. Google isn't that stupid, and neither do I believe is Squidoo - but what matters is how users respond to it. Its power is in its emulation of the greater web and the role of popularity.
Much quicker than Wikipedia it could become a major tool of research, or it could stay as an equivalent as a minor directory like Zeal, or a poor man's dMoz and be a necessary task for webmasters in growing web presence rather than the direct income stream many are presuming. I'll post some of my Lenses at a later date.
And Here's The Stuff I Wrote Earlier:
