eBay is expected to continue to benefit from the rapid growth in online sales. “eBay’s business model, which requires no inventory and is not capital intensive, generates substantial free cash flow” (Forbes.com, 2010). The market of eBay has expanded to Germany, Australia and China. For instance, customers of China UnionPay, the largest electronic-payment-services provider, will be able to use PayPal to shop online from the third quarter of 2010. This will give eBay an access of millions of cardholders. Given the facts, unsurprisingly eBay got total revenue of 2,196 million in first quarter of 2010 compared with $2,021.0 million in 2009 (Forbes.com, 2010).

As part of the Company’s strategy to promote lightweight model and improve scalability, eBay has created a platform to enable developers to make more money with eBay. It is reported that their developer program has more than 70,000 members who have created more than 12,000 live applications (Kerner, 2008). Furthermore, eBay has no longer charged for the use of their API by the developers. With this, eBay is establishing a large community of outside developers where they can share APIs among themselves. It also allows outside developers to contribute services that can communicate with eBay. In term of high scalability, eBay has shown its effort with its version, started with v1 in 1995 and moved on with current version v4. It is noticed that all the functions in the previous version are replaced with Java code, which is developed using Eclipse (more details).

There are also issues with eBay. Many third parties claim that eBay has infringed on their intellectual property rights. In addition, eBay will likely to face a patent infringement charge regarding payment services that it offers. Other than that, fluctuations in exchange rate will have a bigger impact on the Company’s results in the future. eBay also needs improve their services if they want to become a potential contender in many years. Go to this site for example of eBay problems.

The Future of eBay

eBay is one of the largest online e-commerce companies in the world. Its closest competitor is Amazon. Before, their business models were different; eBay is based on auction model, Amazon established with its fixed model. However, the competition between these companies has been prominent in financial climate. eBay is now changing their business to fixed price, along with their auction model as well. Therefore, it is obvious that fierce competition in e-commerce and online payments are posing threats and challenging eBay’s dominance.

Source:

Forbes.com. (2010). eBay INC. Retrieved May 2010, from Forbes.com: http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/BuyHoldSellAnalysis.do?tkr=EBAY

Kerner, S. M. (2008, June 16). eBay Opens Up Wide to Developers. Retrieved May 2010, from Internetnews.com: http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3753036/eBay+Opens+Up+Wide+to+Developers.htm.

An example of tactics to leverage the long tail concept is applied by Google Maps with its feature; MyMaps. Google Maps is a map service embedded with various mapping technologies to create an interactive online map. It helps users to find business information and provides guideline to travel from one direction to the other with effective navigational tips (SEM Clubhouse, 2009). Moreover, users can search location and get accurate directions with Google Maps. With MyMaps, users can generate their own custom maps with different views based on how they want to target their audience. This feature gives advantage to any business to market their website and location. Obviously, Google Maps can help to further promote user’s own content to more consumers. With this feature, a small niche location will be accessed by many users, and not only popular places in the world. To see how Google Maps leverage this long tail marketing tactic, read this article.

There are also other mapping sites available in the Web that serves similar services with Google Maps, which are Yahoo Maps and MapQuest. Though all these three mapping sites offer mapping and navigational services, Google Maps is seen more user friendly and simple. It also have clean layout and easy to navigate with features of Latitude and Longitude coordinates. Furthermore, Google Maps connectivity with Google Earth provides rich experience to users (see details of the comparison here).

Despite rated the most popular mapping site in the Web, there are also issue with Google Maps. Issue concerning privacy has been a long tradition with Google. With Google Maps, users complain that their license plate number, faces and other identifiable details are exposed and indirectly violate their privacy. Besides that, Google’s Street View camera can capture photos of people’s activity and can be viewed by other millions people. For that reason, there is suggestion that Google should incorporate fundamental privacy principles into its online services.

In near future, people can explore shops through Google Maps since Google has started accepting application from businesses to incorporate store interiors and floors photo into Google Maps. With this feature, companies will not only promote their location, but gives more interesting views of their premise.

Source

Dreller, J. (2008, October 10). A Practical Guide To Leveraging The Long Tail For SEM. Retrieved April 2010, from Search Engine Land: http://searchengineland.com/a-practial-guide-to-leveraging-the-long-tail-for-sem-14998

SEM Clubhouse. (2009, October 12). Leverage Google Custom Maps As A Long-Tail Tactic. Retrieved April 2010, from SEM Clubhouse: http://www.semclubhouse.com/google-custom-maps-long-tail-tactic/

Wikipedia. (2010, April 25). Long Tail. Retrieved April 2010, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Tail

An example of applications that adopted Beta released is StockTwits. StockTwits is a social stock micro blogging service which embrace community-powered idea and information service for investments. “Users can eavesdrop on traders and investors, or contribute to the conversation and build their reputation as savvy market wizards” (StockTwits, 2010). StockTwits uses Twitter functionalities where market participants can share ideas in real time and open conversation. In addition, users can follow certain websites which interest them and in turn share their ideas.

StockTwits has received positive feedback from the users. According to Lindzon, StockTwits has more than 10,000 subscribers who spend an average of 15 minutes on the site and contribute 3,000 unique tweets per day (Zeledon, 2009). Users are more comfortable with StocktTwits compares to its other competitors such as Covestor and Stockpickr because it is easy to use. Unlike others, StockTwits doesn’t require registration or email verification and users don’t need to create portfolio of stocks to find potential matches for exchanging ideas (Zeledon,2009).

The issues associates with StockTwits are mainly about security where users have to open their Twitter account to StockTwits since it uses the same account. There is also complaint about StockTwits’s applicability as a main platform for investment. However it is clearly stated in StockTwits disclaimer where it must not be treated as financial advisor; hence users should consult a professional financial advisor before trading or investing (StockTwits, 2010). 

In future, StockTwits seems to be relevant given that finance opinions are valuable for new investors. With Twitter, their users can provide context in the real time discussion. However, StockTwits has broken away from Twitter with the introduction of their beta desktop application. We hope that it will not add to another ‘perpetual beta’ application in the Web.

Intro to StockTwits

Sources:

Henry, A. (2007, August 23). Is The BETA Invite System Flawed? Retrieved April 2010, from Mapping the Web: http://www.mappingtheweb.com/2007/08/23/beta-invite-system/

StockTwits. (2010). Disclaimer. Retrieved April 2010, from StockTwits: http://stocktwits.com/disclaimer

StockTwits. (2010, April 16). StockTwits. Retrieved April 2010, from CrunchBase: http://www.crunchbase.com/company/stocktwits

Wikipedia. (2009, October 26). Perpetual Beta. Retrieved April 2010, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_beta

Zeledon, M. (2009, February 11). StockTwits May Change How You Trade. Retrieved 2010, from Bloomberg Businessweek: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2009/tc20090210_875439.htm

Currently, iPhone is the biggest competitor of Symbian S60 and debates comparing these two products have been widely acknowledged. S60 is the mobile software platform to offer Web Browser integrated with Flash Video which allows people to view on the go Flash-enabled Web sites which is the lack in iPhone (GadgetsMonkey, 2007). The S60 interface is also licensed to multiple companies (Samsung, Panasonic and Siemens) and so gives the user a wider choice of handsets (GadgetsMonkey, 2007).

Symbian vs iPhone

Apart from the capabilities, we need to ponder about the abuse of these systems. The natures of portable or mobile devices are error prone because of the direct interaction which can cause easy alteration with the content. In addition, S60 uses a specific program (connection agent) which is installed on the target device to establish a connection and exchanging data with an externally connected host computer (Savoldi & Gubian, 2009). With this approach, it requires a piece of software to be loaded on the device thus modifying the target device. This issue is common threat to data security in any web based technology.

iPhone capabilities and popularity have given huge impact to Symbian S60. Developers expressed that they are more comfortable with iPhone as a platform on which, it is easier, faster with nice interface. However, Symbian S60 has made a crucial move towards security as Nokia engineers have introduced comprehensive support with new functionality in Digital Right Management in their devices (Savoldi & Gubian, 2009). This effort is crucial towards having a technology that not only change how people work but also provides a safe platform for social and business.

Sources:

GadgetsMonkey. (2007, October 26). S60 vs iPhone, 5 reasons for each. Retrieved April 2010, from GadgetsMonkey: http://www.gadgetsmonkey.com/s60-vs-iphone-5-reasons-for-each/

Savoldi, A., & Gubian, P. (2009). Issues in Symbian S60 platform forensics. Journal of Communication and Computer , 16-22.

Wikipedia. (2010). S60 (software platform). Retrieved April 2010, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S60_%28software_platform%29

Flickr is a good example of RIA that simulates user experiences in web applications. It is an easy-to-use application with great interface and acts as a platform for social interaction and sharing. “Flickr also provides a rich user experience along with a community of sharing and visual dialogue through posted photographs and linking” (Stiles, 2005). One of the key components of Flickr is the tagging capabilities. “Tagging is the use of user-generated keywords, or tags, to easily find images via topical searches and to link subject matter across the whole Flickr community of photographs” (Stiles, 2005).

There are drawbacks in any new technologies, same goes to Flickr. Flickr has been reported as having ongoing server issues as it always going online and offline for some time. Furthermore, there was a change with the Flickr policy where they will make non-photographic images unavailable to the public if the account does not contain most photographs (Cha, 2006). In addition, Flickr has deleted contact’s stream without proof or warning to the user. These situations have drawn criticism from its user and have been recognized as complete disregard of its users (Dysamoria, 2009). In term of technical, Flickr’s security alert has warned users of identity thieves who use fake photo packages to trick users to give their username and password. I believe that the issues are common in RIA environment hence put everything at risks and need to be resolved.

Everybody is aware that Yahoo bought Flickr and left it alone (Haff, 2008). To stay competitive In future, Flickr needs to address all the above stated problems and created something bigger than they originally intended.

Sources:

Cha, R. (2006, 06 20). Future of Flickr. Retrieved March 2010, from if:Book: http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/archives/2006/06/future_of_flickr_1.html

Dysamoria. (2009, July 24). Flickr Recognized Yet Again for Complete Disregard of its Users. Retrieved March 2010, from Now Public: http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/flickr-recognized-yet-again-complete-disregard-its-users

Haff, G. (2008, February 1). Microsoft: Threat or savior for Flickr? Retrieved March 2010, from Cnet News: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13556_3-9862793-61.html

Stewart, R. (2007, February 9). User Experience, Rich Internet Applications and the future of software. Retrieved March 2010, from ZDNet: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Stewart/?p=256

Stiles, T. S. (2005). Rich User Experience. Retrieved March 2010, from DMST4100_Research Project: http://www.tstiles.com/dms/web20/richuser.html

APIs and its services in certain platform are tools for automating business process and also tools for executing business tasks. Company such as Amazon is one of the leaders in providing APIs both as a products and services. Amazon Simple Storage System (S3) for instance, “enables user to upload, download, and store data across the Internet” (Amazon Web Services, 2010). Like Amazon, Google, Yahoo and eBay are also publish their technical information including APIs, which guide the developers on how to write Web applications that include their sites (LaMonica, 2006). However, Amazon has developed a hosted technical infrastructure service which provides developers with the tools to reliably send data over the Internet.

However, the nature of the API’s technology puts everything at risk. Amazon hosted storage service went down a few times in recent years which frustrating many Web site customers. This problem has reflected their brand and has given bad reputation to Amazon. Moreover, the services provided by Amazon are not free. Companies have paid a lot of money for the services and stored millions of files on Amazon servers (LaMonica, 2006). It is reported that some companies have planned to stop using S3 if it is not reliable since it has given huge impact in their performance and their business.

The complaint about Amazon service issues have been reported by many Websites. Amazon S3 is an example of a great innovation in Web2.0. However, if it is not reliable, it will give huge impact to their other products. Drop in service level will frustrates user and it should be addressed properly.

Video about Amazon web Services (S3 and EC2)

References

Amazon Web Services. (2010). Introduction to Amazon S3. Retrieved March 2010, from Amazon Web Services: http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonS3/latest/gsg/

LaMonica, M. (2006, March 14). Amazon offers hosted storage for developers. Retrieved March 2010, from CNet News: http://news.cnet.com/Amazon-offers-hosted-storage-for-developers/2100-1032_3-6049545.html

Most Web2.0 applications gather data from its users. Based on the results and analysis of the Web 2.0 services survey undertaken by the SPIRE project, Wikipedia is the most popular online services with usage ranging between 70 and 84 percent across all age groups. Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001, by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. The nature of Wikipedia is a collaborative, web based encyclopedia which is contributed by people. When it was first created, it was just two sentences. There are few groups of people who contribute to Wikipedia. The works include typo fixing, update links, formatting and efforts to make it nice and presentable (Swartz,2006).

The other Web2.0 application which serves similar purpose with Wikipedia is Nupedia. However, the content of Nupedia was contributed by expert users and has to go multi-step peer review process. For this reason, the process was slow. Wikipedia in contrast has generated a rate of 1,500 articles per month and has expanded into multilingual sites (Zittrain & Stark, 2010).

Despite having huge contents, there have been criticisms about Wikipedia for its unreliable reference work. “The term “wiki” describes Web sites that can be accessed and changed using a browser-based user interface” (Zittrain & Stark, 2010). For this reason, the information contained in the encyclopedia was arguably as not accurate. Even its co-founder, Jimmy Wales has acknowledged there are quality problems with Wikipedia.

In conclusion, the future of Wikipedia depends on the contribution of lay users. Therefore, there should be an effort to improve the quality of its content. One of the possible initiatives is to create alliances with other institutions to check the contents in order to have quality and reliable database.

References

Bellinger, G., Castro, D., & Mills, A. (2004). Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom. Retrieved March 2010, from Systems Thinking: http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm

Swartz, A. (2006, September 4). Who Writes Wikipedia. Retrieved March 2010, from Raw Thought: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia

Zittrain, J., & Stark, E. (2010, February 4). Future of Wikipedia. Retrieved March 2010, from Difficult Problem in Cyberlaw: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/cyberlaw_winter10/Future_of_Wikipedia

Facebook is an example of Web2.0 application that is widely used by the people to create social networking hence harnessing intelligence from the user. It provides a social utility where people can connect with their friends. Facebook users can search and add friends who also have facebook account. They can also send messages, update their personal profiles and pictures and also notify their friends about themselves. There are few Web2.0 applications where people can experience social networking such as Twitter and MySpace. Facebook has extra features where people can join a group of become fan of certain groups or clubs. Hence, people can be easily updated with current activities of that group.

Issues and implications surrounding Facebook application have been debated for so long particularly issues associate with their Terms of Use. According to Flusche, 2007, Facebook reserve the right to modify their Terms of Use at any time without further notice. Facebook doesn’t guarantee the privacy and confidentiality of information stored in the website and stated that the information may become publicly available. On the other hand, the information stored shall become the sole property of Facebook. With these terms, it will be difficult for the users to complain or take legal action if there is any security breakthrough in Facebook.

In conclusion, Facebook has to address the privacy issue to continue to grow and stay competitive in the Web in future. It also needs to enhance to something more than social networking to sustain in the market.

References:

Cormode, G., & Krishnamurthy, B. (2008). Key Differences Between Web1.0 and Web2.0. Retrieved March 2010, from www2.research.att.com/~bala/papers/web1v2.pdf

Flusche, A. (2007, July 21). Facebook Isn’t Private, anfd 7 Other Things You Should Know. Retrieved March 2010, from Legal Andrew Website: http://www.legalandrew.com/2007/07/21/facebook-and-the-law-8-things-to-know/