Do you really need a website?

In the new ELATED Extra ( http://www.elated.com/newsletter/ ), I muse that the time may up for the standard website, which can be replaced with more of an aggregator site, bringing together all your media feeds from the likes of Twitter, Flickr and their ilk.

What are your thoughts on this? Are we seeing the beginning of the end for the humble website?

Simon

[Edited by simon on 16-Feb-10 22:02]

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I was chatting with a mate of mine on this very topic last week. He's a solo musician who currently has a very basic site (practically just a single page), a MySpace page, and a Facebook profile. We decided that, although his MySpace page isn't exactly the prettiest thing in the world, it does a far better job than his website ever could at promoting him and getting him gigs.

I think there might be something quite unique about musicians that means they can get away with just a MySpace page rather than a website:

* Musicians thrive on networking

* Their music is more important than the way things look (so the MySpace page with its built-in player is ideal)

* There's a big network effect with MySpace, since so many musicians are already using it

* Many musicians are non-technical and don't want to mess around with updating a website

Cheers,
Matt

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Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/

I think we'll not see the end the humble website for years to come! There are a lot of developing nations that haven't even caught up to where US & Europe are at the moment. And as the days go by, I'm begining to think these developing nations will never catch up. For these category of nations, the humble website would always be the ideal tool.

Many organisations haven't come to understand how to truly/creatively harness the full potentials of sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace etc, the same as ad agency Boone Oakley. I think Boone Oakley have done a splendid job with their concept on YouTube.

For me, MySpace seems a scary place! I just don't know why, but simply looking at the site alone makes me nervous. The Flavors.me concept is unique. A few days after it was mentioned in Elated Extra, I was fortunate to get an invite! But I've not had the time since then to put up a profile. I hope to do so soon enough.

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Hi Mauco,

I'm thinking that the developing nations would be the ones most likely to jump away from the traditional website model. Think about it - no startup costs (domains/hosting/design/build). Just login, set up a service like Flavors.me/Tumblr and you're away! It's possible for these nations to just leap whole sections of technology in the same way that many in India never had a landline and went straight to cellphones.

I agree about the idea that many orgs just don't get the social thing at all, but these days I contact my ISP support through Twitter rather than the phone! A much more pleasing experience, since no-one appears to have trained the people operating the Twitter support in "lying to the customers" yet!

Post us your flavors.me profile when you have it, mauco, it's a fascinating thing to see how people work with the massive design limitations to personalise them!

Simon

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@Matt. I think you've nailed it with musicians. This kind of approach really suits them. Why would they need that central repository of info. The kids don't go to them anyway, and just live on FB/Twitter etc.

Si xx

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Hi Simon,

You have a strong point there. I never thought of it like that... you've just ignited a light of hope in me for developing nations!

It sounds interesting that you contact your ISP through Twitter! I know quite a few organisations who just jumped on the Twitter bandwagon only to dump it after a couple of tweets because they just didn't 'get it'... I guess it never crossed their minds that they could use it the your ISP does.

I'll certainly post the link to my Flavors.me page once its up. Would love to hear what you guys think.

Regards,

mauco

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http://www.mauconline.net

All very interesting. Maybe in a few years Elated will no longer have tutorials for building your own website, and will instead be full of tutorials and templates for Tumblr, Flickr, Twitter, MySpace, Flavors.me etc!

@mauco: Looking forward to seeing your Flavors.me page.

Matt

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Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/

@mauco. I think that organisation are missing a trick with Twitter, it's a really nice way to support customers, and right now, the people manning the twitter desks seem to be enthusiasts, which means that they tend to get support in a way the phone teams don't!

Simon

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@Simon don't you think that if developing nations jump away from the traditional website model and go straight to adopting social media (for instance) this would be to the detriment of these social media websites?

Social media websites make their money from advertising but some of these social media websites are enjoying some of their most vibrant growth in developing countries. This would eventually lead to problems for them because these developing nations cannot contribute much in terms of advertising revenue but are mainly contributing to increasing the cost of operation of these social media websites since they would have to buy more servers and pay for more bandwidth to service an audience from whom they are not making much money.

So don't you think that sooner or later these social media websites would resist attempts by individuals/organizations in developing nations to jump away from the traditional website model?

@Matt The thought of Elated offering tutorials and templates for Tumblr, Flickr, Twitter, MySpace, Flavors.me etc, sound interesting! Does that mean we should be expecting same anytime soon?

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http://www.mauconline.net

@mauco: I would imagine that, as a developing nation becomes more internet (and social networking) savvy, advertising markets and opportunities in that nation would grow at the same time. That's my guess anyway!

We'd certainly look at providing tutorials and templates for those services if there was a perceived need for such things. We'll have to see...

Matt

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Matt Doyle, Elated
3rd Edition of my jQuery Mobile book out now! Learn to build mobile web apps. Free sample chapter: http://store.elated.com/

@mauco I reckon that the social media sites would be thrilled to tap the new markets to be honest.

Regarding tutes for specific things like Flickr/Tumblr etc. Is there a market for this kind of thing do you think? We tend to concentrate on nuts and bolts stuff like PHP, CSS or Photoshop. I've never really considered writing a Flickr tute for instance, but maybe there's an audience for a "How to use..." series. Thoughts?

Regarding templates, it's tricky. We've investigated Blogger templates in the past, but they're a pain to implement even at their easiest. Wordpress themes are interesting, but it's a crowded market. Maybe Tumblr...

Simon

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@Matt
@Simon

I sincerely hope you guys are proved right at the end of the day.

I think a "How to use..." series would be a brilliant addition to Elated. It would also be nice if youguys can throw in a couple of templates too (not for WordPress) for these services.

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http://www.mauconline.net

@mauco. So are you thinking about a genuine "how to use" like "how do I add a picture to Tumblr?" or more of a "how do I create a Tumblr theme" kind of thing?

Also, what's your opposition to Wordpress? I like it!

Simon

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@Simon: I'm thinking more of a "how do I create a Tumblr theme" kind of thing.

I don't have anything against WordPress, I like it too. I just feel that the wordpress themes market is too saturated.

Moreover, Elated templates are unique in that they're not saddled with unnecessary images and menu buttons that require a graphic software to get a good result etc like many website templates from other sources. So I think it would be a good/unique addition/complement if you focus on creating unique 'themes' Tumblr etc, that are not common in the market.

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http://www.mauconline.net

I get the saturated WP thing, and I kind of agree with you actually.

I must admit I have no clue as to how to do Tumblr themes! How hard can it be? (famous last words).

It's a fair point about the PageKits. I'm finding it harder to design them without that graphical heaviness - times have moved on. When IE9 is out properly we can use more CSS3 I guess to replicate some of that. I'llhave a look at Tumblr themes...

Simon

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