Talking Squares

From midnight tonight the commercial potential of the internet reaches right out to its very edges. Keith Teare's and Michael Arrington's much anticipated Edgeio promises to change the way of the web, even if it fails. By empowering bloggers and harnessing big business Edgeio brings a technology that, if not turning web commerce upside down, completely decentralizes it.

For me for example, it means I can post here about a painting I've finished, tag the posting with 'listing', ping Edgeio's server, and my painting is included for sale on their lists where people might search or receive feeds from instead of going to other central locations. You as a reader of this blog will see the same nonsense from me, but my tag in the code, is a cry for commerce that can be heard all over the world - because it gets matched with people who are looking.

It might not put Craigslist or eBay out of business, but they'll have to incorporate the same ideas in their systems - and fast. Meanwhile Edgeio takes a shortcut to reputation by linking directly to eBay's reputation system. We'll have to wait and see how it copes with the spam onslaught though, and what the SEO crowd might do with it. I can hear the pings Fernando.

Whatever happens the system of using tags and feeds to buy and sell from your own site, is surely here to stay. Indeed it's so stunningly simple it's hard to understand how we haven't arrived here earlier. Simplicity means savings. And popularity. Or wealth, as it's called in business.

Will the kids of tomorrow grow up singing ginny joe ginny joe, bring me back an edgeio  ?