Contributor Veit

Web 2.0 The Magazine

A Journal for Exploring New Internet Frontiers.

Contributor-veit

Web 2.0 is rapidly becoming a mobile world. With the rapid spread and popularity of 3G Smart Phones with their many apps, Web2.0 applications have migrated to these mobile instruments. In fact, I Phone, Blackberry and other smart phone users have become so used to the Web 2.0 applications on their phones that they hardly sign on to their desktop or even their laptop computers, except for serious work.

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, AIM, Amazon, Yahoo and most other communities all have mobile versions and, in addition, the apps stores offer hundreds of apps that work with the major services. There are apps that make it possible to write Blogs and post them on the major Blog sites right from the smart phone. You can get your e-mail from Google, Yahoo, or Safari browsers, since all of them provide mobile access.

Web 2.0 Goes Mobile by Stan Veit

In the world of computer games, the major providers have rapidly moved their multi-player games to the small screens. Zynger, the community game giant has opened their most popular games Mafia Wars, Poker, and Scramble to thousands of smart phone users.

Not only can players engage in the games, but they are encouraged to buy things to enable better playing, or even to buy “cocktails” for fellow players. Zynga has

tapped into a massive revenue steam and they also advertise new games to their existing players. Right now they are pushing a Vampire game to their Mafia and Poker players, a masterpiece of marketing.

The Social Networking and Utility apps are priced from 0.99 to $16 but several of the providers use a graduated price scale where they suck you into their web with a Free or $00.99 “Lite” version which interests you but frustrates you so that you buy the full version at an increased cost. In the popular Mafia Wars you need to upgrade your capabilities to remain in the game. This can be done by skill or being patient, but it is simpler to buy the capabilities. In fact Zynger runs “sales” to encourage players to upgrade.

Amazon has parlayed their success with the Kindle e-book reader into the world of smart phones making it possible for those with a Kindle account to read their libraries on their smart phones. While the smaller screen is not as comfortable to read from, it is possible to read your current book on your phone without carrying your Kindle. Amazon has also provided a free smart phone app to permit access to their main website where all of the many products sold by Amazon are available.

The upgrading of many more types of smart phones to 3G capabilities has vastly increased the market for Web 2.0 applications. All of the consumer applications and some of the enterprise applications are providing downsized versions for the smart phone market, In addition a new variety of computer, smaller than a Laptop and larger than a smart phone, called the Netbook is attracting many buyers. These 10-inch screen computers with medium speed processors and limited storage provide enough capability for most of the casual applications needed for web computing. With the addition of cloud applications, they are finding their place as the ideal portable computer.

The latest version of the Netbook has a 10-inch screen that has several modes. One of these modes is the same as the Kindle screen which provides clear black characters against a white background. This is promoted as a rival to the Kindle; however, without access to a vast library of books it can not compete.