Scott Karp: Web 2.0 Inefficiency Pisses Him Off

Yes, Scott, using multiple flow apps that are largely unaware of what you might be doing in other apps can lead to inefficiencies. (But efficiency is not what Web 2.0 is about anyway.)

[from Web 2.0 Inefficiency: Crossposting On Twitter, Facebook, Google Reader, Etc. ]

[...] As all of these new platforms jockey for position, and we’re all experimenting with them (which is on balance a good thing), there’s the potential for a huge amount of inefficiency and redundancy.

Which is unfortunate, because I was under the impression that the web and all these new apps were supposed to make us more efficient.

Web 2.0 derides the siloed balkanization of traditional media — yet Web 2.0 doesn’t have the wherewithal to figure out that I’ve now seen the same feed item for the fourteenth time in four different platforms.

APIs are great, and Facebook Platform is great, and RSS feeds are great, but the interoperability still seems to be very superficial, more intended to demonstrate the ability to connect rather than to actually enhance the user experience.

To make matters worse, I’m connected with some people on Facebook, other people on Twitter, other people on IM, other people on email, other people on this blog.

Yes. It's all a big mess. You are connected to different people on different networks! Just like that fact you might meet different people in different bars, or in different cities. Aiiii!!!

And things might show up multiple times! Yikes!

Actually, the main thrust of Web 2.0 is not efficiency, it is connectedness. And the more connected you become, the more different, partially overlapping networks you will become part of. Which translates to seeing some things many times, through many redundant channels. Kind of like the nervous system, or the internet itself.

So maybe you are looking for love in all the wrong places, Scott.

Comments

[Scott Karp]

Oh, come on, Stowe, surely we can higher aspirations than "Yeah, it's a mess, buck suck it up!"

And let's be clear -- there's a difference between embracing the vagaries of socializing, human relationships, and connectedness, and tolerating applications that don't make my life easier.

Getting someone's blog post five times is like meeting the same person in five different bars and having them introduce themselves as if they never met you.

[Bill Seitz]

I agree with Scott. It's as if you're defending the old days of not being able to email an AOL user from CompuServe.

There are always going to be limits on interop, but the fact that you have to repeat the build-friends-network process in every single SNS that you join, is ridiculous.

[Stowe Boyd]

Scott -

I do have higher aspirations, but the point I was making was a Weinbergeresque "it's a mess, but messiness is good."

Once again, though, efficiency is not necessarily the modus vivendi of all web apps, and in fact, some of the most interesting value propositions for cool apps may be antithetical to efficiency. I for one am willing to trade efficiencies for new ways to connect, even if they are messy, redundant, and chaotic.