I've been writing about Web 2.0 for close to 4 years now. Then I realized I've not really described it enough to give an ordinary Website reader a good sense of a typical look and feel of a Web 2.0 site. Good thing someone has done that for me in 12 ways. Slayerment puts it like a prescription on how to "Web2fy" a site:
"1. Replace esomething.com with MYsomething.com
Your web site is not web 2.0 if it has some lame "e" in front of it. We all know your web site is electronic! Let's make it personal with a friendly "my" :).
2. Increase 10px font to at least 12-16px font
Nobody likes squinting their eyes, and no it doesn't look good. Get rid of the small text and replace it with some easy reading text for us productive people.
3. Change categories to tags
Why would somebody want to read your site if it's categorized into specific sections? Your content should be dynamically tagged so everyone can keep track of which is more and less important. Get a tag cloud!
4. Change your news section to a blog
People want to know what's going on with your company besides just formal news. Write something thats cool, funny, stupid, whatever! 1/2 the battle is keeping the audience entertained.
5. Change email a friend to RSS subscriptions
When was the last time you emailed a friend? Have you ever used it? Me neither. Get rid of that worthless feature and get people subscribing to your site via RSS or even...
6. Change bookmark this to social network this
With sites like del.icio.us and Digg you should not be having people bookmarking your site only for themselves to see it. Get your site out there in front of everyone with social bookmarking and networking!
7. Change user account to user profile
Nobody wants a boring user page with just their username and email (Yes, I'm talking to you Amazon). They want a full blown personal page that tracks their whole life and tells the world about how great they are. Get your users involved!
8. Change crappy hard-coded HTML to Semantic HTML with CSS
Your design is cool and all but how do you update it? How do you change it? How does it allow for new content to be added (which is the most important part!)? Get rid of your angst ridden layout and get some semantic HTML styled by CSS in there that is super light and better for everyone - please!
9. It's visitors not HITS!
Once again, this is not the 80's and we don't care about your hits! All that matters is the visitors (Yes, short for unique visitors) and the conversions. Get some Google Analytics on there and stop with the hits talk already.
10. Add comments
People want to contribute and share. Let them! It's better for your users and for your search engines.
11. Change esite.com?id=5235&sort=desc&useless=this &one%20more=still%20useless TO.. mysite.com/meaningful-title
Need I say more?
12. Change custom built site to open source CMS
Come to think about it, just get rid of your whole site and download Drupal or Wordpress and start rocking some free theme. After all, people really don't care what your site looks like that much. They would much rather visit to a terrible looking site with compelling content than a beautiful site with pitiful content. Do it right!"
So if you're wondering what site could benefit from those steps, perhaps the Asian Business Directory.
It's not an either-or proposition. Anyways, I've always maintained that there's beauty in finding the sweet spot.
No comments:
Post a Comment