Technology As Innovator

Overall

Why would I want to use a Vietnamese web service

1. Connection speed, especially for video streaming
2. Local opportunities

What would drive me away

1. Security, including revelation of my account information and spam
2. Careless design
3. Immature communities

Networking

Professional Networking

I’m favoring CyVee because opportunities are real and more closely intact.

LinkedIn is terrific, but opportunities might come at a lower pace.

Social Networking

I’m currently very happy with Facebook.

If faceViet or yobanbe want to get me, they have to provide

1. Professional theme
2. English interface
3. Strong personalization options.

Social News

It’s a pity I prefer utilizing my RSS Reader over social news sites such as Digg. Therefore, no remark just yet.

However, the news sharing platform of CyVee looks nice and could be very useful in promoting company brand like the way Tim of TRG is doing.

Additionally, if Vietnamese service provider can create something like StumbleUpon, it would make a hit and I’ll definitely consider.

Photos Networking

Picasa has everything I need: 1Gb free account, folders, tagging and an uploader.

Is there a local site focusing on photos networking?

Music Networking

I’m enjoying sharing music on imeem. I am more into English songs. I like new age, hard rock and symphony and I’m not sure whether nhacso, Zing mp3 are rich of such genres.

Video Networking

Youtube is absolutely wonderful. I am amazed by its fast connection speed and stability.

Therefore, I don’t have the plan to move to Clip.vn just yet.

Mobile Networking

Has any Vietnamese vendor invest in this area?

Blogging

I am maintaining my different blogs on self-hosted WordPress, Yahoo! 360 and Windows Live Spaces.

If local blogging providers such as ngoisaoblog, blog.com.vn want to attract me, they would have to ensure:

1. High SEO compatibility
2. High security, including spam protection and splog tracking
3. Backup options and standard-compliant import/export functionalities
4. Permalinks

Instant Messaging

My clients in the US are using MSN Messenger. Most of my friends are using Yahoo! Messenger. For conference, Skype is just wonderful.

I don’t feel the urge of switching to Zing chat.

Email

Apart from professional emails on my domain, I use a Gmail account to access Google services and a Yahoo! email to make it easier for my friends.

Any company is investing in providing free email service in Vietnam?

Portal

I use my portal for work purpose and netvibes is still number one.

Zing looks very nice, but I’d rather having something customizable.

e-Commerce

I’m not having a real need of C2C e-Commerce, so no comment on this.

Map

A vote for diadiem, simply because I need to find ways in my local areas.

Entertainment

I’d rather go out playing sports than wandering online, so good luck socvui, hihihehe and so on

Conclusion

In conclusion, the 2 local web services that I utilize are CyVee and diadiem

CyVee give me real local opportunities and diadiem is definitely more useful than its Google counterpart.

For others, if they can bring me real values I’m seeking…

We thought Web Service was good. It certainly is!

Web Service has brought the economy to the web. There is no need to repeat what Amazon, eBay, Yahoo! and Google all have done.

Web 2.0 and a different approach

But another approach is rising fast. Web service providers now make their product a Web Platform.

They build up a very good core based on solid philosophy. Then they provide API for developers to build applications on.

Browser

With their defeat by Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5, Mozilla temporarily withdrew and launch their next hit: Firefox.

As in September 2007, market share of Firefox reaches 35.4%, according to W3C.

One important reason why Firefox has become this popular is due to its extensions gallery. A huge collection of well-done small web services are offered for free by developers worldwide.

Many of Firefox extensions are done to support other web services such as Google Search, Blogging, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, digg, Amazon, eBay.

Gradually, the browser becomes one of the largest centralized points of the web.

Social Networking

Talking about Social Networking today, we have to praise Facebook immediately.

Facebook is also doing very well to provide their API so that applications can be developed on a very good and mature skeleton.

Most successful Facebook applications support networking purpose such as free gifts, messages, testimonials, collaborative games.

The goal of a social networking site is to become the home of as many activities of users as possible.

Content Management Systems

WordPress, Joomla, phpBB have been building communities around them.

Themes allow personalization.

Plugins allow customization.

Most of all, the platform allow monetization.

Conclusion: Web Platforms

Looking at these obvious examples, we see that Firefox, Facebook, WordPress et al offer a very solid and useful core and highly flexible and open API on which applications, extensions, addons, plugins, themes can grow and develop.

They have become Web Platforms to Web Services.

These Web Services in turn make the Platforms new and ever-changing.

Future: Information Depot

In near future, or maybe now already, we’ll see these central points become Information Depot in Semantic Web.

When a web seller wants to approach specific market segment, it should know what and how the potential customers are like. How? From Information Nodes such as e-Commerce sites and Social Networking sites. It would go to Amazon to get information on the customers’ buying preferences, and go to Facebook to get information on the customers’ networks and personal interests.

Can you imagine what happens next? These Information Depots will be able to manipulate the information in whichever way they prefer, not limited to making the information available, for prices.

Conclusion

We’re moving from separated glamorous isles to metropolitans on the web.

You will be able to do many things on a single website. Enjoy the sweetness it brings, while not lowing your guard on diabetes.

Facebook

73.5 million users and growing fastest

What I like about it

1. Mini-Feed is useful in seeing a quick snapshot on the latest happenings within your network without going to several sites to check.
2. The ability to supply how you know a person.
3. Nice applications. Approximately 10% of Facebook applications I’ve tried are interesting and useful while others are not as good.

I think these can be improved

1. Fixed 600 width and non-resizable
2. Non-customizable design
3. No built-in blogging functionality. Blogging can be done with applications such as Live Blog, but we don’t normally depend on addons for such important values like blogs.
4. Tight security: profile only viewable by friends. How do you determine if a profile is your friend or not just by looking at the screen name which can be different from the real name?
5. One account can only join no more than 200 groups. Unlimited is preferred.

Orkut

24.6 million users

What I like about it

1. Simple design, Google philosophy after all
2. Extensible width
3. Ad-free

I think these can be improved

1. Name. Honestly speaking, the Turkish name “Orkut” is very unfamiliar. Just a remark, as the brand name is not supposed to change
2. Very few, if any, extensions

Yahoo! Mash

What I like about it

1. Wider width
2. Larger font
3. Allows profiles to be updated by friends
4. Mini-feed is also supplied

I think these can be improved

1. Check boxes to select friends to add should be provided
2. More group levels
3. Informal language. I am especially not easy with the word “fugly”
4. Profile with non-removable fields such as “What’s most likely playing on my iPod”… Excuse me, can I NOT have an iPod?

MySpace

107 million users. The currently largest site

What I like about it

1. Integrated all-in-one solution that includes social networking, blogging, mail, favorites, forum, movies, events, media

I think these can be improved

1. Inconsistent design
2. Music landing page
3. Spam, including spam invitations, protection
4. Tons of ads

Other notable networking sites

Read more

Wikipedia, List of social networking websites

Mashable, Facebook Hammers MySpace on Almost All Key Features

Techcrunch, Facebook platform

American Class Divisions

Nerdlifestyle, Media restrictions

My choice

Facebook to keep in touch with international friends and English-speaking communities

Yahoo! Mash. Many young Vietnamese users rely on Yahoo! services

for socially musical networking

How about you?

Share your experience here…

Which site do you like best? What you wish your site had offered?