- The new video manager allows more function and easier privacy settings.
A few years ago when people didn’t know what Web 2.0 was, I referred them to YouTube. The reason for that was that it helped differentiate what the initial web (1994 – early 2000’s) was.
By that I mean that the initial offerings on the web were more push. Read and adsorb material but that material was quite static. There was Flash of course, but again that was still based on clicks and if there was movement, it was not the the level of video we have today and based more on animation.
YouTube seemed to change the rules early on with that ability to post video without the need to be a developer and wrap the video with the still emerging Flash video format. YouTube did use Flash, but it allowed for a simple upload and in a matter of a few minutes you had that video to share (by sending the link through email or linking to it from your website).
People could now comment and vote on video material. The emergence of integrating content in an interactive and engagement way was to me the keystone of the dawn of Web 2.0.
Sure you could maybe make a site, build a video for download or view in 2004 or so with Flash and put up a formum on the page too, but that was a stand-alone. The missing component was the community of others doing the same and the creation of a user generated content community.
Before that I would say the closest there was was the Real.com site but again you had to have some good skills and a few dollars to utilize that site.
Skip forward to 2012 and we are seeing that YouTube is becoming much more than a Web 2.0 site. The changes in recent weeks have shown that YouTube is moving more and more into integrating social tools which means that you can now consider it a social platform. Until now I was really on the fence about how to define it.
Some of these new changes you will see on login are:
- Easier sharing of your activities amongst other platforms
- A Channel Feed -Pushing more relevant content to you rather than the whole
- Channel Design – better channel control – tags, info and other viral happy tools. Also tab layot choice and defined default tab setting.
- Better analytics – no surprise since Google owns it
- Finally a decent Video Manager upgrade
Of course this is just my thoughts and would welcome yours on the shift of YouTube below.
A lot of those *recent changes* you mentioned aren’t that recent. YouTube has been a social platform for quite some time. I think there are enhancements and further integrations that they’re working on that will continue to grow it’s social aspects. But YouTube defined 2.0 and now the buzz word is 3.0… what does that mean?
Hey Lenny. The recent changes I talked about were more about the function rather than the availability. Yeah we could have done private only on video’s, but the new release allows for an easier way to manage, distribute and collate your content.
You are so right that YT did define what Web2.0 was all about. As for the buzz about Web3.0 I have to ask is it not really Web 2.156ex? No Really Web 3.0 will not be in gear for another 5 years in my opinion. It has to be something that we cannot imagine at this point.
We are as far away from Web 3.0 as we were from 2.0 in 98. Those that disagree are just in a hurry to label shit.