For my first 360 blog I thought I’d take the opportunity to talk about a few of the web services I use every day and why I think they’re important. Web 2.0 (I guess we should stop calling it that pretty soon: it’s just the Web now, eh), has given birth to an explosion in interesting and innovative interactive services. The three I’ve highlighted below are all a little older in Web terms, each having been around for a few years and each having been acquired by a larger more established corporation, but all three are widely adopted and among the best services out there.
Last.fm
Last.fm is an online radio service with a difference: its playlist is tailored to your preferences. Nothing terribly unusual about that concept, been around for a good while but what sets last.fm apart its elegance and accuracy. To get started you download a little plugin for your audio player (iTunes, Winamp etc), then every time you play a piece of music it keeps a record of it. Over time it builds an accurate profile of your listening habits and musical tastes, cross references against the many thousands of other folks using the services and makes recommendations accordingly. As a music fan it’s quite simply brilliant, and as somebody who used to be very involved in the live music scene but now needs to get to bed a little earlier in order to function the next day, it’s given me a new musical lease of life. Acquired by CBS last year, the potential for these guys is huge. Not too hard to imagine them streaming to your iPod or direct into your car, and the data they’re collecting opens the doors for a bunch more personalized services (and revenue). Radio is dead, long live radio.
http://www.last.fm/user/kaimac/
del.icio.us
Bookmarks have been the bane of the Web user’s life since the dawn of time (oh ok, since the Web started then). Finding a cool site at work, trying to remember the URL when you get home; or trying to remember a URL to pass on to a friend. I for one had one set of bookmarks on every machine I used, a massive disorganized pain. Along comes del.icio.us: super simple idea, community around online bookmarks. Save a little icon to your browser, click it every time you want to save a bookmark and it keeps a record online for you. Tags let you easily search and catalogue your marks, and the ability to browse your friends’ sets satisfies that innate nosiness. It’s this social piece that’s so fascinating: see an interesting keynote, check out the speaker’s bookmarks for an in-depth look at their interests. Have a friend or colleague whose interests match yours closely? Follow their bookmarks to stay up to date with their web life!
Flickr
Not too long ago organizing your digital photos was a nightmare. Folder after folder of disorganized and miscategorized images. Everyone had a mystery pool of images that they couldn’t quite remember taking, and trying to send friends of family photos was a nightmare: granny doesn’t like getting emails with massive attachments, and who can blame her? Then along came services like Flickr: only photo storage, categorization and manipulation. Super simple concept, executed beautifully. Upload your ‘sets’ of images (shots from a particular vacation may be a set, for example), tag them (‘vacation’ ‘belize’ ‘diving’ for instance), and you’re done. Send granny a link instead of a bunch of big files. Make your shots available for the public to browse if you want, or keep ‘em private. Millions and millions of images from all over the world. Simple yet brilliant execution, and granny's happy which is the main thing.
http://flickr.com/photos/kaimac/
Kai MacMahon is the Digital Director for the New York office. Contact him at kai_macmahon [at] jackmorton.com
Comments (5)
LastFM is similar to Pandora - also a great site. Radio is definitely a dying medium, which is sad. It's also particularly frightening given the conglomeration that occurred - especially given that radio is a public resource.
IHeartMusic is also a cool site - I've been listening to the new Coldplay album there (which is fantastic). Funny how times have changed - who would have thought users could legally listen to full albums - and before they're officially released no less!
Posted by Elisa C. Thomas on June 12, 2008 6:21 PM
Pandora is fun too, but I like the way last.fm works in the background, keeping a record of everything you listen to. It's neat to go back and look at what you've listened to over the last couple of years!
Posted by kai on June 13, 2008 3:54 AM
I don't know if I would say radio is a dying medium. I think it's gaining a "new life"--much like DVR devices we can get the radio programming we like whenever we want. I mean look how NPR and PRI lead iTunes in the podcast category. I now listen to a bunch of radio programs that I never would have been able to listen to before--long live radio!
Although I do agree about the big conglomeration of popular radio stations. I hate it when a DJ based in Houston pretends to be a Bay Area native.
Posted by Leesa on June 13, 2008 4:32 PM
I'm a big fan of delicious as well. On occasion, I've found that it can serve me better than Google when looking for resources related to a specific topic. The fact that actual humans have selected each link as something they want to save means so much less unwanted information in my searches. Who needs Google? :)
Posted by Evan on June 17, 2008 6:34 PM
Definitely agree Evan. On that same subject, Mahalo is really interesting too. Will be interested to see what Google do in response: you can bet they're looking at it closely.
Posted by kai on June 17, 2008 7:49 PM