February 22nd, 2006

Web 2.0 Needs Killer Apps for AVERAGE PEOPLE

by Scott Karp

Leave it to Umair Haque to distill down to a sentence what I’ve been banging my head against the wall trying to convey about Web 2.0:

Web 2.0 cannot live up to its (enormous) potential to create value that’s structurally disruptive until and unless technologists understand consumer dynamics.

Web 2.0 can’t live up to its game-changing potential until and unless the geeks step outside and think outside their own box of geekery.

I’ll take another shot at a one-sentence problem statement (although I know I won’t do as well as Umair):

Web 2.0 needs to build killer apps for average people.

Who are “average people”? Get up from your computer and walk outside — they’re everywhere. You can recognize them by the way they talk about technology — they appreciate technology that makes their lives easier, but they NEVER get excited about technology for technology’s sake.

I’d love to see an example (I’m sure one exists — at least I hope) of a Web 2.0 start-up that began by conducting extensive market research to identify a real consumer need and then created an application to meet that need. My sense is that most Web 2.0 apps take the reverse approach — they are solutions in search of problems.

For kicks, here are a few of the many dozens of ways I’ve tried to say this previously (to varying degrees of success and/or infamy):

Web 2.0 Is Not Media 2.0
News 2.0 My Mother Can Use
Too Much Media

Topics: Web 2.0

  • It's an interesting notion that non-geek "killer applications" are needed, but why should that be so? The most useful web 2.0 stuff I have seen (which I appreciate as a user or consumer) is all database-backed stuff. The *functionality* is often beyond the conceptual framework of the average user, never mind the implementation being beyond the conceptual framework of the average user. What the world does not need is more complex stuff that only serves as eye candy. That to me is just a continuing assault on my senses.

  • I'm waiting for the web 3.0 era to come and finally get all the business on line!

  • totalgeekette

    I agree absolutely, and I hope you keep exploring this topic. I think there are some web2.0 (whatever that means at this point) apps that could work for the average user, they just don't get too much web2.0 buzz either because their taglines are less sexy or because they spend their PR and marketing efforts elsewhere.

    Just think of the difference in blog coverage between edgeIO and Oodle. One is sexy and "from the edge", the other does that same thing but is a "classifieds search engine". One is idealized by bloggers, the other one is used by grandmas in Dallas...

    The question then is -- where do we geeks find out about the less sexy yet innovative apps?

  • Get up from your computer and walk outside.

    Blasphemer! Heretic!

    :-)

  • Frankly average people need Web 2.0 and Media 2.0 products that are simply better versions of what they use now. They need curation and editorial hand holding. Mediation of content is probably the single most important feature a new media startup can have to appeal to regular consumers.

    My mom doesn't need know memes or have personalised content. She needs a regular place and regular products that improve on her life now.

    I am biased (business development for just this sort of venture) here but I think that sites that give local information, that target the exact needs of a consumer in a way that is obviously mediated for them by a real person as opposed to being randomly generated and propped up by attention data, and that looks familiar to them (like a newspaper) will do a lot more to help the moms of the world than a fancy meme generator.

  • Scott,

    For web 2.0 to become something more than an interesting thing to talk about among an insular group, it needs to be down-geeked and made consumable by non-geeks.

    I think there are companies out there that are starting to do this (to some degree), the reason they don't show up on the radar of geeks is because they don't appeal to geeks.

    I wrote about a service called Posima in a post exploring it's disruptive potential to traditional web site management/development. Is this a web 2.0 application? It feels like it. Is it popular among geeks? No. What geeks want or use is so far beyond what this service offers that it is not "sexy" - it's not "geeky". It is, however, useful and possibly even very beneficial to non-geeks.

    The down-geeking of web 2.0 companies needs to be done to make them consumable by the non-geek population. To successfully commercialize the products, the geeks will need to do what may be impossible for them - ungeek the product.

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