Microsoft is not allowing the grass to grow under its feet. As in the past, they have missed the start of an important new moment; this time web based services. But this is a company that can be spun sharply by a willful Bill Gates. So, in development are a list of new projects for Microsoft, old ideas for everyone else.

The important issue is that if Microsoft can successfully engineer a combination of desktop operating systems, and desktop based software, and  marry it to web based service, then they will continue to dominate the business and middle market. Microsoft are the default position because they are comprehensive. They make products and offer services that are good enough. Not perfect. Often, not brilliant. But good enough. This is a major challenge. But Microsoft should not be underestimated. Read their list and you'll see why.

Google has raised its flag (spotlit too) over its newish Santa Monica offices. (Yes, everyone hears the siren call and comes to LA and Hollywood eventually) But think about Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, maybe Skype. Has there ever been faster worldwide acceptance of new brands and companies than right now?

Chowhound has always been an indispensable chaotic guide to what was good to eat and where to find it in big city America. Run totally by consumer contributions, the good was sorted from the bad by the wisdom of crowds idea, reputation of posters, and constant testing of theories and posts by the range of readership. CNet obviously found that combination appealing. Chowhound's founders never had enough money. Were always asking for donations and short of cash.

The sale shows us that decent sites with a rusted-on community's are being acquired. CNet needed (read all sides comments) to keep extending its reach and to keep adding consumers, visitors and eyeballs. Advertising as the internet mainstay has won. That requires audience. So CNet approached Chowhound. Tells you everything doesn't it?

Chowhound's legions of contributors will notice big change. More professionalism. More ads. Maybe interesting combinations of service; tagged maps of mentioned spots, linked reviews, whatever, all coming as CNet pays for its newest, rawest fun buy and drives towards a new expanded group of visitors. 

 

The demand to provide faster broadband is going to explode off the charts pretty soon. The moment you commit to a fast/faster DSL/wireless/cable service is the moment you know you need even faster. We're now at Verizon's 3000 kbps download speed. (way past the T1 line level) Were at 1500kbps. Before that 780kbps. Dialup once. All not enough. Always, we needed more. Damn video downloads are taking too long. I'm now waiting impatiently for Fiber Optics.

Remember when TV was free? We went past the 125 bucks a month level a while ago. New service keeps getting tacked on. And we keep buying! That's the broadband experience. For the same reason. More options. Video and TV is going internet. So big internet pipes? You'll be buying them soon. 

Computers are boring. The Windows environment is crushingly dull. Most of us use the Microsoft Intel Computer environment unthinkingly. Bill Gates and IBM set up a paradigm we basically all live by today. Yes, its breaking down. Seeping to other environments, like phone. But slowly.

So what if you approached work computing a different way? The Brain showed different graphical ways of organizing desktop content years ago. But go a step further.

Assume games are the dominant idea amongst kids and hipsters because they're fun and visual. We can see!  The other players,  IM's, our ranking,  settings, the world of the game. Everything.  Particularly online where vast scenes are unlockable.

OK, so why not import the idea into a business setting? Why not create World of Work. Second Business. Taskscape? Why not make everyone live in PerceptricLand?

You log on via a browser, say Firefox. Get allocated an avatar. You voice that accordingly. Now your avatar lives, works, moves in PerceptricLand. I'm the boss, because I'm the company Chairman so I set the tableau's limits and what we work on. Or not. Depends what sort of company we run. 

But now we can all see each other, and what we're doing. Data is online, applications run in PerceptricLand from online sources. You see billboards of information (including ads!) as you move around. You collaborate with others by an inLand, online browser. And get this. Essentially, this is  what all the current crop of games do, this exact minute.   

Realizing that, guys are trying to make things happen. Like? Hive7. (which crashed my machine several times today)  Webtop technology.

Webtops are presented at B2Day. Some debated them as if they a dumb idea. But another Business 2.0 story fleshed out the trend and same writer Om Malik put the technical grunt into a second story. 

It's parallel worlds. MySpace's 60 million users inhabit a world of blogs, music, idea, connection.  Cyworld's 11 million Korean users are in the same notion. Ten of millions are living and building virtual worlds with the massive multiplayer games.

One idea is essentially word and machine based;  the other is graphical; audio, video, internet ideas. They are going to merge. Intuitively you know that. We already have a huge installed user base familiar and comfortable with graphical online experience who see no difference in sourcing applications, data, and work from the net.

How long? Years maybe, but it's underway. Web 2.0 took from 1999 until 2006 to get overnight acceptance. 

PerceptricLand!. Coming to your browser soon. Step by step.

Talk to anyone. We're all under siege from the number of emails we get every day. Time dealing with them is the killer. Hundreds pour into everyone's Outlook through a variety of addresses. From a hundred different spots. We need to cut back.

 

A Microsoft senior guy works on his email mountain for one hour a day, then deletes what he doesn’t reach. Reason? “They’ll write again if its important”. A senior tech exec automatically deletes anything CC’d to him.

 

Viagra, ink, breasts, Nigeria have taken their toll. That and; good idea at the time; must register to see the site; promotional; previous life;  marketing list; emails and their relatives. 

 

But as RSS use gains, regular keeping-in-touch list corporate email or  blog generated article email is going to get axed in favor of RSS info flowing to a blog reader.

 

Email, the other guy is in charge. She sends, you receive. RSS gives back control. People prefer the blog reader format. That message will probably take a while to percolate.

 

Colette Lewis writes Zoo Tennis about junior tennis. A very fine blog. Essential reading, really, for tennis devotees. But she misfired when she wrote “I've signed up to get my own ZooTennis feeds through Yahoo just to see how it works, but I think most people prefer just to get the emails. “ Nope. Colette. Common mistake. Thats about you. But swamped, you want easy. Anyway. Email outs and connections are last generation thinking.

 

RSS is today. Tomorrow. Automatic. RSS is going to win. Easy. It has to. 

Why don't airlines blog? They're in the customer service business. They transport hundreds of thousands of people every hour, every day. They have an urgent need to communicate. But, they don't. Either communicate. Or blog.  In fact, most airlines attitudes rival the Kremlin under Stalin.(that often includes their flight attendants, but that's a different story)

Enter Flyertalk. It's a powerful idea. A community bulletin board for Frequent Travelers covering all airlines, rental cars, hotel chains, and travel situations. Certainly,  the most informed community  about airline travel today. Main stream media journalists automatically turn to FlyerTalk for traveler or airline stories.

People contribute to FlyerTalk because they travel a lot. Like the woman who did 18 return US-Australia trips last year. In economy. Qantas should have tracked her down and put her in an ad.

Like the big range of people who are UGS on United. UGS?  United special privilege club they award to very heavy travelers who contribute huge revenue to them each year.

Some of these people wrack up huge post numbers. 35,000 or 26,000. An average of ten posts a day. 4000 a year. Over years and years. Heavy travelers. Heavy writers.

Consequently, FlyerTalkers spot nonsense a mile off. Can rip the pretensions of the airlines to bits in seconds. Have analyzed every seat on planes. Every last bit of service. Can remember when service was good. Comment immediately on anything and everything.

Its part of their love/hate airline relationships. Example. FlyerTalkers turned out in large numbers, on their own money, for a meeting with the Continental Chairman and CEO (and execs) about that airline when Continental thought it'd be a bust. Just to get things better.

Interesting isn't it? So much good will and involvement in an independent community. All there for the taking by the airlines. Yet the industry can't see its there for them to pick up and use. That the day of the one way newsletter, email, ad, website; doesn't cut it anymore.

That what travelers want, and airlines need (or basically any business in the customer business) is the immediacy, constant contact and instant feedback of a blog or bulletin board community to sharpen their business and improve their viability. And in the vacuum the airlines have allowed to develop, FlyerTalk is flourishing. And filling a need.

Consumer RSS is gaining ground. It's still an incredibly vague and often hard to understand concept for the average mainstream Joe; it's got a crazy totally geeky name, sure, but still, its advancing. Now, having used a bunch of RSS systems and readers off and on over months I've settled on Feedburner linking my feeds (rss) to either a Yahoo or  Google homepage.

Feedburner proved easiest to operate of all the systems I tried. No fuss. That settled it. Easiest will always win. Google and Yahoo are easy. Everything works there. So simple all round. Feedburner is a click from a website, and I have a feed of their chunk of information, where I want it.

Now Feedburner are moving to monetize effectively. Like in Spanish. They signed Newsweek to use their system. Its the old story. Start. Run like crazy. Develop business. Get them to sell your idea. And when the mainstream arrives, one by one, payday. That's going to be soon.

Web 2.0 is exploding. Maybe Web 2.0 is just a fancy name for ideas that leverage the power of many and companies that are built on the idea of open forums, access and communities. But two great list of companies tell us that we are in the midst of  fundamental change.

Sacred Cow Dung publishes Bob Stumpel's list. Say 400 strong. And 60 more comments in two weeks adding companies.

In October, Perceptric referred to Emily Chang, and her list, then with a couple of hundred names. She now has 699 companies listed.

Not every company will succeed. But there are enough game changers; del.icio.us and Feedburner alone say, to indicate that every step takes us from where we were, to somewhere we can't quite imagine. Yet.

We have arranged a boy's teenage birthday party. Easy apparently. All the guys like online massive, multiplayer games. So it's been decided. They'll all sit at various computers around the house, linked by the wifi connection, enter a game (probably Runescape) and play against each other, then team up, form an online gang and play against the rest of the world. At breaks, they'll all whip out Nintendo DS and race on Mario Kart via wifi, occasionally, perhaps, dropping into a quick shootout on Playstation 2. The concept of kicking a ball around, apparently, is so yesterday is doesn't even need to be considered.