Paul Wallbank – Brilliant Communications

Yahoo! Directory comes to an early end

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Paul Wallbank

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After twenty years the Yahoo! Directory closed down five days early reports Search Engine Land.

The rise and and fall of Yahoo!’s core product illustrates both the volatility of the web and how the underlying dynamics of the internet has changed; at the time Yahoo! Directory was launched, we were struggling the task of keeping track of all the information being posted online.

Even in those early days it was clear that task was becoming unmanageable and this was the problem Google set out to solve and its success destroyed the directory business along with a whole range of other industries.

Yahoo! Directories’ demise needs to be noted by today’s web and social media giants; just as these technologies are disrupting old industries, new businesses aren’t immune to those changes.

 

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3 responses to “Yahoo! Directory comes to an early end”

  1. Rohit Thomas

    Well, many businesses will be shut out. Who do you thank for these disruptions? 1 of them includes Yahoo as well. How ready are individuals, businesses and organisations with regards to the robots including automation (includes from Australia)? If you get a chance, you should watch the video from Vivek Wadhwa – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czNzulNl31s and read his book Innovating Women (Paul Wallbank had written about Vivek Wadhwa’s video though I had seen it about a week earlier through an article via Exponential Times FB Page).

    China was so dependent on manufacturing and India on the IT Services side including outsourcing. Well, those days are over due to robots including automation.

    I have to rewrite this blog as I had added notes in between but anyway:
    50% of the jobs that exist today in the US and rest of the world won’t exist within the next 10 years thanks to robotics and technologies that have shifted industries over centuries (from Oxford University). The economic impact of these would be $14trillion to $33trillion per year from 2025 (from McKinsey) (Can also have a look at the YouTube video ‘Humans need not Apply’ when free –
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU as it will show that creative including journalism, analytical, physical and other worlds are all gone whether it be manager’s post, programmer’s job or lower level position. Trading floors already use robots where they think on own using superior AI. That has also happened elsewhere which includes the greatest chess player being defeated by superior AI robot. Elon Musk has again predicted about Artificial Intelligence becoming a reality within the next 5 years couple of days back –
    http://www.cnet.com/news/elon-musk-worries-skynet-is-only-five-years-off/ where you have them just like in the Terminator movie series. It’s bit earlier than what he had predicted months back though his last prediction of 20 years or so could completely take place within Asian, African and South American worlds at that point in time though rest of the world, it maybe earlier for many jobs.

    Anyway, some of those technologies already exist today:
    a)Education:
    Within the educational landscape, all of us can see that the traditional types of learning have been shifting. First, we have the blended learning types (6 basic types) where the precedence has shifted towards the online blended version. In addition to the blended types, we also have the MOOCs or the massive open online courses. Both are challenging the ways of education right from primary type of education.

    With tuition fees increasing around the world, MOOCs could be an option where university courses are either free or cheap on them. MIT, University of Melbourne and various others provide their 1st 1 or 2 or even 3 years of courses for free.

    b)Hospitality:
    According to YouTube, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post and various other sources,robots already exist as waiters and chefs in a couple of countries including Japan, South Korea, China, Thailand, Israel, US, etc (Japan, South Korea and China are amongst Australia’s leading trading partners).

    c)Self-service revolution:
    Self-service revolution has actually existed for nearly 100 years according to The Independent. Today, it is part of our lives – ATMs, self-checkout, point-of-sale, kiosks, Internet, mobile devices, etc. In Europe alone, according to Cordis, mobiles have been used for transportation payment since 2003. Driverless or autonomous cars would soon be there as well (Google 1 of the players involved with it and they already have good safety record). Other players are BMW, Mercedes Benz, Volvo, etc. And few of these players are allies with Uber technology. Rio already uses driverless trucks.

    d)Journalism/blogging/publishing/content marketing/digital PR:
    Robots aren’t just restricted to the physical stuff like manufacturing, hospitality, driving, nursing but they are also involved with analytical and creative areas like journalism.

    NARRATIVE SCIENCE is an example of a firm that uses automated sports and finance articles while there are many more including Associated Press and LA Times.

    Open source already exists in the legal way for books (novels and texts of any area), music, news, etc . http://libraryelf.com/base/Libraries.aspx is 1 of those sites with public libraries and university libraries from all around the world. This site, Scribd and 44 other sites are places for getting free books under the site
    http://www.friedbeef.com/best-places-to-get-free-books-the-ultimate-guide/. Also, in addition to those, there are Bookboon, BookCrossing, Wiley Online Library, KnowFree.net, SlideShare, Realtime Publishers, FreeComputerBooks.com, OnlineProgrammingBooks.com, Intelligentedu.com, etc.

    Furthermore, Google, Bloomberg, Reuters, Apple, etc. provide a lot of information for free (Apple via O/S) yet all of them make money too. Reuters and Bloomberg via financial information (80 to 90% of their revenue). That’s why The Australian and SMH business models have failed as they ask for subscription without providing much for free. 1 way of finding those articles for free is by typing the article titles under Google. Another way is by using Tor Project (Anonymity Online). Yet another way is by using the Aussie site Trove. And still yet another way is by using the various VPNs or anonymous social network Social Number.

    Even Research articles are free these days (real-time basis). 1 site is ResearchGate.net where as another Google you must be using which includes Google Scholar.

    e)Others:
    The medium of exchange has been shifting slowly more towards technology as nowadays an individual can use even mobiles to pay for goods. There have also been the electronic cards as well as virtual currency. Bitcoin is an example of the virtual currency.

    Trade shows have shifted from their traditional ways to the virtual or hybrid ones since 1993. For example, Marketplace365 used to be called ConventionView, the world’s first virtual trade show. Imaste is another example of this revolution.

    Admin, legal professionals and so on would be challenged by VOIPs (Google Hangout and Skype aren’t the only ones). These could be used for conferences, training, remote access of any device, etc. The VOIPs (video chats) could be done by many people at the same time around the world. Google Hangout has had it for free for a couple of years now while Skype has just recently joined the free version though again there are others within the VOIP area. It can also be used for watching movies/videos together around the world (idea generation and so on or even for fun with family and friends).

    Tesla is another example that’s into disruptive innovation. Elon Musk won’t get rich just due to Tesla cars or his other firms. He might become richer due to the Tesla batteries that’s challenging the $1 trillion electric utility sector of USA. And Tesla is into cooptition/coopetition/coopertition strategy with Toyota
    and others. Few other examples of the coopetition strategy are Amazon & Netflix; Google, Samsung,Apple, MS, FB, etc.

    3D Printing some would have heard of but how many would have heard of 4D Printing? There are articles related to that – though the news about 4D Printing actually came about during the time when the 3D Printing news came out to the common man.

    And this goes on where each and every industry is getting shifted like has happened for centuries due to technologies and innovations.

    Thus, like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking mentioned a couple of weeks back; mankind isn’t just facing economic challenges around the world but also one from robots. Would humans be able to defeat the challenge or would robots and technologies win by 2045 as mentioned by Physicist Louis Del Monte?

    Reply
    1. Rohit Thomas

      In addition, Open Source Model with Open and Closed Values is what the New Power is all about – https://hbr.org/2014/12/understanding-new-power (article) and video- http://www.ted.com/talks/jeremy_heimans_what_new_power_looks_like (doesn’t mean it is all free).

      And yes, you also have platforms and crowdsourcing – office of the 21st century -https://gigaom.com/2014/12/14/platforms-and-crowdsourcing-the-office-of-the-21st-century/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=platforms-and-crowdsourcing-the-office-of-the-21st-century_899945.

      Taking an example, how 1 reads or listens to news, music and so on have changed within the digital world. Can be found from Twitter or even from FB through those pages. FB, Google and others from digital world has changed how people reads and listens to news, music and so on. Spotify, Deezer (music apps); Stitcher (news podcast); SoundCloud (music and news); Economist Radio (from the Economist) and others are all there. YouTube is usually via FB Page but there is an app for YouTube for account called VideoSwipe. That app can share YouTube videos with all friends, create playlists, connect your YouTube account including channels under the app, share those videos with others and also do cam to cam with friends and so on (more like Hangout and Skype where Hangout integrates various Google feature and also integrates Uber Conference into the platform though Google does have a larger platform). All these are platforms now – FB, Spotify, Deezer, Google, Salesforce, MailChimp, Apple, Amazon and so on (Platform as a Service – mentioned a bit about it below and also how they have all provided settings which could be changed – use them including creating lists which helps to improve on privacy. Settings can also be done for ads and others where can click on opt-out options. And further, can even download adblocking tools like Adblock Plus or its rival Adblock for free on any browser though they work best on Chrome which helps with blocking ads on any site including FB and YouTube).

      But DID THE SCREW UP actually start within this century? Answer is NO. As the MOOC subject Understanding Media by Understanding Google will show and The Future of Book will show with regards to the evolution of 1 side of the media (http://www.economist.com/news/essays/21623373-which-something-old-and-powerful-encountered-vault?fsrc=scn/fb/te/pe/ed/futureofthebook), people have been using technologies to screw up another person’s expertise without the latter getting credit. Example-when paper came out, who was actually intellectual, the person who wrote down stuff without knowing completely what it was or the other who provided that knowledge?
      (Understanding Media by Understanding Google goes into a lot of areas-news, books, search, advertising, privacy and so on including how digital world changed traditional worlds of media, PR, marketing, sales, advertising, etc and it does go into other technologies and vendors as well, not just Google).

      For those interested, as mentioned in the above post, MOOC, blended education and online competency based education are challenging traditional educational landscapes. MOOC subjects and even courses can be done for free or for $49 per subject. There are many MOOC institutes and they do it in collaboration with university and vocational institutes around the world. An individual can get a certificate for free or paid above a certain % (depends from subject to subject though usually above 70% but sometimes, can be above 90%). The difference between free and paid versions is that the free version, the logo would be from the MOOC institute while the paid version would be from the vocational or university institute. In addition, the paid version would have details of the student within their database but free version wouldn’t. The MOOC subjects and courses are what the vocational and university institutes teach today at their physical locations for careers happening today or even ones in future. Many of the world’s top institutes, both universities and vocational ones are involved.

      Apps are nothing compared to platforms where apps are developed or where 3rd party apps or other platforms are integrated into them. Spotify is a platform that can be integrated into FB where privacy settings could be used. FB, LinkedIN, WordPress, Deezer, MailChimp, Salesforce, Google and so on are all platforms.

      Anyway, the answer NOW lies within those platforms including within analytics and intelligence whether by subscription or advertising models (native advertising though think it maybe more of subscription).

      Even, Linkedin has headed off to become a content platform linked to online reputation software – deals with individual branding and that is happening a lot with real estate, health, education, law and other sectors where professionals’ content including advertising are taken over by platforms and where individual branding with online reputation is involved.

      Finally, lawyers, accountants, teachers, real estate agents, health professionals and many more are going to be affected. WebMD.com, Medhelp, healthgrades, ratemds, zillow, trulia, realestate.com.au are just few of them.WebMD.com started off as a general health content site but it has gone off to hospitals, doctors, etc as well (and it is not the only 1). healthgrades.com started off as a health professionals content site including rankings but has gone off to general health content as well (and it isn’t the only one). The others mentioned above do the same as they are all involved with the individual branding where the platforms do use that content. The individual branding is connected to both Influencer area and online reputation sites or features.realestate.com.au has the Agent Hub section while Open Agents has the back up of Trulia. And there are many more from all around the world. 1 reason why LinkedIN wants to become a content platform and not just a professional network.

      Reply
      1. Rohit Thomas

        Anybody seen this webinar – Life After Automation (https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/43/134669)? BrightTALK is of course 1 of the best places if not the best for webinars/webcasts. To set it up requires bit of database skills though mostly of Admin skills within IT. CRM, ERP and other software are also getting automated (not just automated tools) and of course, they are getting integrated as well or going into each other’s areas (has been happening for quite sometime now). How great are Australian skills when it comes to IT – database programming, web programming and so on as all these would be needed for analytics, intelligence, etc? And same goes with others too which is why I had asked the question in above post – how ready are individuals, businesses and organisations for the robots including automation?

        Currently, the 2 best CRM systems are Salesforce, MS Dynamics (https://www.g2crowd.com/categories/crm/research) – both are Platforms which have so many apps that can be integrated (cross-channel marketing or sales or advertising, etc and which helps with analytics and intelligence as well including market research, case studies and so on). They both can be automated though 1 needs to set it up just like with any Platform or PaaS (Platform as a Service) – includes FB, Spotify, Deezer, MailChimp, Hangout, Amazon and so on (settings which includes Privacy as well). But, once they are set-up, then it usually goes to analytics and intelligence though the setting up changes also just like with tech or business requirements. So, it’s completely the days of knowing IT skills especially database ones (includes data analysis).

        Other skills would be there but the world has become a data driven one (meaning gut feelings alone won’t help and same goes with creativity side which won’t help alone as what matters most – content whether it’s data, information or knowledge whether from the front-end or back-end).

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