The new web is live, tagged, opinion-based and multimedia
We are often asked by the media and journalists what makes Blogdimension a different search engine. We, at “BD”, usually reply basically we focus on “Web 2.0″ content.
But we find it quite uneasy to explain about our positioning because the Internet content we give access to our users has no clear definition yet.
Q: What is then this still undefined Web content you call “Web 2.0 content”?
A: the type of content BD gives access to is characterized at least by one or several of the following aspects:
1) Real time and live web
- “Live web“: it means content that has a limited lifespan. It consists of RSS or Atom-like content which we could define as “As soon published, as soon consumed, as soon scrapped“. Typically it includes all the blogs, microblogs, forums, online news, podcasts, online videos… NB: our frenemies - from Technorati - also mention the idea of a “live web”.
- “Real time“: next step is to introduce the idea of a real time content. It is not so difficult to implement. The only limitation is technical resources (servers) because this process requires much computation and storage capacity.
2) Tags
- There is quite a big difference between Web 1 and Web 2. Previously, a content used to be classified not by the author but on the search engine side when it was indexed. Categories and topics were fixed and defined statically by the webmasters. Today, the author has an active role in sorting out the content by associating descriptive tags. Categories and topics are changing constantly. This new possibility makes now the web really live! One can notice this new phenomenon in tag clouds which are virtually booming on the blogosphere.
3) Opinion and subjectivity
- This kind of content has the peculiarity of aggregating users’ comments and viewpoints. That means something distinctive from general, informative, encyclopedic or commercial web. Of course, the latter can also include some opinion (personal comments, critics, etc.). In this case they fully enter into Blogdimension’s scope.
4) Multimedia
- In recent years, the web is going through an increasing amount of multimedia content. The success of online audio and video sharing services speak for themselves. Just carry out a basic search and you will consistently find a bunch of YouTube or Blogdimension video files and tons of podcasts from blogs or other online media mixed in the results.
Q: So, finally, what is Blogdimension’s contribution to the Internet search industry?
A: Blogdimension allows the user to search via a single entry-point mainly for:
- live,
- opinion,
- multimedia,
- and commented upon
web content.
At the end of the day, the question is: how to clearly define this new kind of web content?
We will definitely have to imagine a new concept. We at Blogdimension suggest “opinion web” or “popular web” because “Web 2.0” appears to be a rather technical definition. “User Generated Web” could also be an option for defining the New Web.
And, you? What is your opinion?
Thanks for your support.
The Team
