The Modern Internet – Ideas that Change Everything
I’d like to take you for a walk with me through the internet. We’ll take a few websites that are and have changed the internet. You should recognize all of them. If not… you lose. Start using them.
Alright, so we all know what Google is. At least from the user’s point of view. But a lot of people have asked me across the years, “How does Google make money?” Have you ever given Google any money? Chances are you haven’t. And Google, in creating a website that was free for the user, took the internet from a place where stores were set up on every page to a place where good ideas win, and millions of little choices decide where the money goes. Thanks go Google, there’s money in being free and liked. And Google makes billions of dollars each year. How do they do it? The idea is called “Adwords.” (Random side note – this month Adwords marks its 10th birthday!)
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There is an example of a Google search. You see the top results, based on Google’s amazing formula to the left. But then to the right there is another column are sponsored “Pay Per Click” advertisements. Meaning each time you click on one of those Google makes a few cents. Traffic is worth a lot, and people are willing to pay Google for it. Usually the fee paid is between $.10 and $1, but for some phrases (for example “Gambling”) the per-click fee can even get up to a few dollars for click.
But that’s not all. Google knows what you’re thinking about, even when you’re not searching. Look at this screenshot from my Gmail inbox
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Note that the Ad at the top is offering something about Entrepreneurship. That’s because Google’s “Web Crawlers” have looked through my emails and found what I am writing and receiving emails about, then it targets advertisements to me accordingly. I only see the ads that I am likely to click on. But Google isn’t selfish. Now any website that has visitors becomes profitable – it throws a few Google ads off to the side that automatically target themselves to the user based upon the content of the webpage. When you click on those, Google gets a piece, the website gets a piece. Google made free profitable.
Mark Zuckerberg, you sly dog, you created something addictive, my friend. Facebook has an interesting story. Originally Mark Zuckerberg hacked into Harvard Business School’s account, took the pictures of each of the students, and put it up on a website for people to rate (somewhat similar to hotornot.com). Harvard figured out what he was doing and shut him down. But you can’t just shut down a good entrepreneur that easily – Mark just offered the option for people to upload their own pictures. Later he had them enter some information about themselves, and then let them connect to each other adding “friends.” Interestingly enough, the website now most well-known for “Social Networking” became a Social Network after it had been around for a long time — actually that was one of the last additions. But now it’s not doing half bad. Check out these stats, courtesy of Facebook itself:
- More than 500 million active users
- 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
- Average user has 130 friends
- People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
That’s some serious internet power. But to me, as a frequent advertiser on Facebook, that’s not even the most impressive part, or the most attractive part for an advertiser. Let’s take a look at the back end a bit.
When working with Stubtopia.com, an event ticket brokerage firm, we loved Facebook. Why? Let’s say we’re advertising for a concert next week, we’ll say Radiohead. It will be held in Manhattan, and only those 21 and older will be admitted. I can set my ad to appear only to:
- Those within (x) miles of Manhattan
- Those that are over 21 years old
- Those that like Radiohead
That’s some targeted marketing that is unrivaled anywhere in the world. No wonder Zuckerberg is worth over $4 billion now.
Digg
Who hasn’t ever been to digg.com? Raise your hands. OK, you with your hands raised, write this one down. Digg’s idea is simple but beautiful, and that internet practice has been named “internet democracy” or “e-democracy.” It’s a seriously powerul idea. Here’s an example of a “Digg”
We’ll take you through it chronologically. A website is submitted, and pops onto the “recently submitted” part of the site. If you like it, you digg it up (+1) if not you Bury it (-1). If it gets a few buries quickly it disappears. The higher it goes, the more people see it. The front page is made up out of the recently submitted things that have a lot of digs. These are the websites that are, by popular vote, the coolest, the funniest, the most interesting… whatever. They have the most Diggs, they must be good.
And this is a very interesting part of Digg from an entrepreneur’s perspective. Digg’s founder, Kevin Rose is not a super-nerd programmer. He was heavily involved in computers and the Internet, had a good idea, and paid someone to create it. Turns out it was a good idea — he made $60 million in 18 months. That’s the power of collaboration.
Speaking of collaboration…
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a combination of two words: wiki (a computer document that can be edited by multiple users) and encyclopedia. An encyclopedia that anybody can edit, that’s a bold, innovative idea, Jimmy Wales. Wikipedia is trying to answer one major question. Can you make sure things are correct without any professional controls? Can people, by sheer quantity, figure out for themselves, and in an automated way make sure information is correct? Apparently it gets pretty darn close. In fact, an investigation in Nature found that the material they compared came close to the level of accuracy of Encyclopædia Britannica and had a similar rate of “serious errors.” And where did I get that information? I stole it right off of wikipedia.com like a dad-gum theif. Now the debate is raging about whether or not Wikipedia should be accepted as an official source, but we won’t discuss that here. The fundamental question is yet to be answered: Can you trust the masses less or more than an academic?
Project Gutenburg
Named after the inventor of the printing press, we have another evidence that collaboration is powerful. In this case, books were published, and when their copyright ran out they were digitized by thousands of volunteers. That means over 33,000 ebooks are available for free. What can you say about that? Check it out at http://www.gutenberg.org, and note that the home page is a wiki.
Other websites worth checking out
Grooveshark free internet radio, for $3 download the iPhone app, no need to buy an iTunes library anymore
Pandora another free internet radio site. Choose a song or artist, and the “music genome project” finds other stuff that’s similar. Even combine artists and find new music you’ll love
Tumblr a microblogging platform that allows users to post text, images, videos, links, quotes and audio to their tumblelog, a short-form blog. Users can follow other users, or choose to make their tumblelog private. The service emphasizes ease of use.
Mint allows you to simultaneously track every major bank account: checking, savings, credit cards, loans and investments.
