Excavating the foundation

Looking at the Foundation Attributes that Brandon Schauer identified, let’s consider how these elements are qualitatively different for Web 2.0. As the original article mentioned, some of these aren’t new – there have been a number of first generation web sites which have had these present; and there may well be examples in non-internet activities and businesses. What differs is the way that these reinforce each other and the strength of that reinforcement.

User-Created Value : The norm in most physical goods or services is for the first time use to have maximum value; this is reflected in the depreciation of used versus new. There could well be cases where there is a short learning period, in comparison to the useful life, so that the maximum user value lies a little way down the road – but there does come a point where value drops. About the only exception is where scarcity plays a role – property, or old books or stamps, for instance.

Against this, let’s look at some examples from the Net. Search is a good candidate – in early days, directories rather than unstructured search was the norm, with the idea that people knew exactly what they were looking for and could navigate down a hierarchy. But what if you don’t know EXACTLY what you’re looking for, or are flexible in your requirements? Beach holidays, for instance? Or suppliers of reinforced pipes? Rather than wade through multiple listings on many different directories, wouldn’t it be easier to just search using related words that have a unique interaction with this? And to be able to refine through the results, with additional precision?

It started there. But once it is possible to do such a search, it suddenly becomes much more useful, and usable. To the point where it makes more sense to google the meaning of a word, than to hunt for a dictionary or thesaurus. Or where you use the fragment you remember, to locate the precise quotation you’re hunting for.

As Ken Krugle commented two days ago, search is probably a developer’s most powerful tool today.

Even if it’s just to find a 24 hour delivery service for hamburgers in the middle of the night.

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