4 Emerging Trends of the Real-Time Web

My op-ed on the real-time web is up at Mashable. HatTip to Adrian Chan, Dave S. and John S. for providing their insights on this piece. Check it out, comment and retweet if you can :)

4 Emerging Trends of the Real-Time Web

There is a lot of hype surrounding the real-time web, and much of the feeding frenzy reminds me of the RSS space four years ago — though there is a lot of potential, there is also a lot of noise. How do you navigate through it all and which developments should you be paying attention to? What are the emerging trends for companies and entrepreneurs to watch for? Here are four real-time web trends that I’m tracking.

Real-Time Collaboration is Ripening
Real-time will play a major role in the future of online collaboration. We’ve seen all the hype around the new Google Wave platform, as well as the growth of Twitter and Twitter-like communications (such as Facebook status). On the business side, SAP’s Gravity, a prototype of real-time collaborative business process modeling within Google Wave, is a good example. But I see this as the tip of the iceberg.

Companies that are more efficient have an advantage whether within their walls or with their customers. Imagine being able to make real-time changes with your colleague in another city and graphic designer at your local Kinko’s to finalize a presentation and print it hours before your meeting. Or working with your manufacturer in Nanjing, China on changes to your new BBQ grill design and seeing if it’s possible in real-time. Or game developers in Korea and Dallas story boarding a new video game concept in a new real-time game development application. There is massive potential for real-time collaboration across almost every discipline, and I believe there are an incredible amount of exciting possibilities here... (full post)

Google’s Lively: Another ‘What If’ at Google?

My guest post at Mashable just went live today, "Google’s Lively: Another ‘What If’ at Google?"

As most readers here know, my wife works at Google, but to be clear I never told her about this post until it was completed. I never asked her for information or insights about Google or Google's products related to this piece.

Anyway, check it out! Feedback, disagreements, etc. please :)

Also thanks to Adrian and Ana for feedback and help on this article.

Twitter, Tina Fey, and the Future of Micro-Blogging

My op-ed at Mashable went up today. It's a light piece that I had fun with. Thanks to Jill for editing and TechCrunch's Mark Hendrickson, who provided his feedback. Check it out!

Twitter, Tina Fey, and the Future of Micro-Blogging

When the sitcom “30 Rock” began its run, some of my friends weren’t wild about Tina Fey, the show’s star and creator, saying she should “stay in the writer’s room” or that she “looked too mousy.” A few months later, however, those same guys were talking about how hot she was. Fey has since become a mainstream darling. Twitter is Web 2.0’s Tina Fey. Not so attractive initially, Twitter got better the more you looked at it. Case in point: Although I tested Twitter as soon as it launched, I eventually ended up sitting on my account because I wasn’t enamored by early adopters and Silicon Valley geeks listening to each other talk. Today, that situation has changed: While the echo chamber still exists, Twitter seems to be reaching a critical mass that will push it into the mainstream... (full op-ed)


UPDATE: From Compete's blog, "Twitter Traffic Explosion: Who’s behind it all?"

VentureBeat's MG Siegler has a related post, "Mainstream imminent? Twitter traffic almost doubled from February to April." I wonder where the idea for these posts came from? :) Probably coincidence.

UPDATE II: Learning 2.0 has a response and more thoughts here.