Web 2.0: Jeff Bezos
: Jeff Bezos shows Web 0.0: the original gray-and-blue Amazon page with no search box on the home page, nothing dynamic, nothing personal. Web 1.0 is Amazon today, he says. Humans create the content but computers place it all, allowing the whole site to be customized. Web 1.0 was making the “interface better for humans,” he says. Web 2.0 “is about making the Internet useful for computers.” He says we’ll see a lot of APIs opened up to do more sophisticated things. He shows Amazon Web Services, now used by 65k developers.
They also just announced in beta Alexa web services. (If only they could get it placed on enough users’ sites to make the data more valuable and reliable.)
He shows off things created with Amazon web servces. MusicPlasma.com, from France, allows you to search a favorite band and see the relationships. Try it.
This is “clustering.” See earlier post and quote from Esther Dyson on “clustering.” This is the 2.0 future. It’s about trust and authority and organization….
Another: Scoutpal allows you to scan a bar code of a book so you can see whether it’s cheaper on Amazon. He charges $10 a month for the service. “If this was something somebody at Amazon.com thought of”… they’d have to hire a developer and let it compete in priorities and who knows how long it would take.
Instead, let the people create.
Next: A9 plug. New and not yet “exposed” is a sophisticated history service that lets you search your search and site history. I wish someone would let me search my existing browser — not a9 — bookmarks, too.) What’s most cool is that in searching from multiple sources of information, you can mix web results with results from Amazon’s full-text book searches.
Bezos says it’s Web 2.0 but it’s still Day One.
O’Reilly asks where we will hit the point of tripping over each other with ripping, mixing, and burning all this content and people will complain that their businesses are being hurt. Bezos says there have to be business models for these things.
O’Reilly says that he and Bezos first met when they were butting heads over the 1-Click patent. He suggests that it should be opened up to similar Web Services development since he has millions of customers in a trusted relationship.
Bezos says the wallet is also open. Is it?
[We haven’t heard the patented Bezos laugh once yet. I’m in the room when it happens. It’s like Mt. Saint Helens erupting. I guess it’s a more serious time.]
Bezos says he has a strong incentive to keep inventing because his customers will be loyal to him only until someone offers them a better service.
O’Reilly says the search got worse when full-text books were added. Bezos says they can tell whether they’ve hurt search because they see immediately whether they’ve hurt sales.
O’Reilly mentions Rutan’s space effort and asks whether Bezos plans to go up in space himself. “Absolutely,” he replies.
Bezos says searching inside the book is all about sampling at the point of sale. If you give a sample of ice cream at the store, it’s that. If you give it away at a park, it’s branding.
The guy who designed the effects in Matrix says to Bezos that he’s good at thinking in 10-year chunks. So he asks Bezos what’s coming in massive multiplayer gaming. Bezos says we may be in such a universe right now.
