There are some interesting thoughts brewing about a topic called Web 3D, a future vision of the web which resembles Second Life, rather than the 2D browsers we see today.
There are lots of reasons why Web 3D could come to fruition, but I want to pose three roadblocks that might prevent that:
- 3D environments are not efficient at representing lots of info. Spend some time immersing yourself in the 3-D environment of a First Person shooter video game like Doom 3 or Halo, and you’ll see why. 3-D worlds are great at making you feel like you are in a real environment, where there’s graphic and physical rules, and danger around the corner — but it doesn’t allow for what people do on th Web, search and gather large amounts of information, and multi-task.
- The Web isn’t an open platform (yet). What one technology will drive the 3d environment? HTML is a very simple technology, and yet look how hard it is for today’s sites just to work well on all the different Web browsers available. Not to mention, large companies want to keep their content and experiences under ball and chair still.
- Big business will be sluggish to catch up. Flash is a Web standard for displaying rich graphics on the Web, and yet how many big brands and major sites use it today? Big business is just slow, very slow, at integrating new experiences. If a 3D Web does become available, it will stay on the fringe of site experiences for a while.
The 3D Web that exists in Johnny Mnemonic, where he navigates virtual reality with motion-sensing gloves, is an awesome idea for the future of HCI, but it’s a huge shift in the way we interact with computers. But sometimes big changes happen in rapid bursts…
(a 3D web as envisioned in Johnny Mnemonic)
There have been a few awesome Web-only radio services to explode in popularity lately. Probably the two biggest are Last.fm and Pandora. But neither does a very good job of spreading their services “viraly” by allowing open aggregation of playlists and stations.
Last.fm’s facebook app focuses on showcasing your compatibility with friends’ musical tastes. And Pandora shows what your friends are listeneing to.
But what these services really need to offer is enabling users on other sites like Facebook, to get hooked on Web radio’s functionality, so they see value, and are motivated to participate. Seeing what my friends are listening to is cool — but not when it’s just a tacked-on Facebook app. So it’s really two things:
Social motivation of seeing what my friends like
+
Being able to find what I like IN-context, without leaving facebook
The one service that does this really well, is a simple “search-driven” playlist site called Project Playlist.
Users can add streaming MP3s from across the web to their own playlists, and then add it for others to listen to anywhere — Myspace, or a blog (see below). Viral works best when it’s simple. See?
JPG Mag - Social photo-sharring (a la Flickr), meets an artsy magazine; some really beautiful photos here.
RIP Odeo - Mega Blogger Om Malik reports on cannibalistic buy-out of Podcast start-up Odeo, which suggests what seems to have been a DUH! thing all-the-while — podcasting is very niche and has little future next to richer mediums like videocasting. One thing to note: the conversation about this move by Evhead is filled with questions about what will really happen to Odeo.
Byespace? - Via the On The Turning Away blog, the Wall Street Journal reports that there is a notable decline in traffic to Myspace and Facebook. Is this “seasonal” as the sites claim, a small tremor, or a the begin of steady shift?
Dear Reader,
Six Apart held a small party in Boston Tuesday, celebrating the release of Vox, their new social blogging service.
Mena Trottintroduced Vox by saying that: people want to feel a sense of privacy when they blog. So, Vox users can restrict access to their blog — just to friends and family.
I’m not so sure I agree that privacy like this is so important. I think many people see blogs as a soapbox for their personal views, ideas, and rants — they like the limelight of blogging.
Vox has a slick content-entry system. You can quickly put YouTube videos, Flickr photos, music, books, et al, into blog posts and comments. Mad props for a really cool visual look to Vox too, which is both unique to the site as a whole, but without taking away a personal feel to each blog.
In some ways, it seems just like LiveJournal 2.0. Limited profile info, small profile pictures, a “neighborhood” of close friends…. Will it eventualy help broaden the demographics of bloggers into the mainstream? Only time will tell.
- Ross
PS. Does soap still come in boxes?
