Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us

The video’s quite well-written, fun, and imaginative. I think Brian would be proud.

I’m reminded of the famed Eames educational films which were also masterful in explaining complex ideas simply and elegantly. How can you forget Powers of Ten?

To contrast, here’s a more traditional lecture on Web 2.0:

Understanding Web 2.0

It’s certainly informative, but I’ve already forgotten it.

Thanks to Hugh Dubberly for pointing me to the first video.

The book details 37signals’ rapid prototyping and web-app development process with the goal of showing you “the smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application.”

If you’re familiar with the company’s successful web applications, Backpack and Basecamp, the ebook essentially answers the question, “How’d they do that?”

Designers and studios working with new up-and-coming technology firms will also find the book useful for getting a better understanding of the philosophy and working methods being adopted by many “Web 2.0” companies.

PDFs of the eBook are still $19, but the HTML version is absolutely free. Yay!

37signals via Lifehack.org

• How to Start a Wiki
  A must-read for anyone starting their own wiki. Besides being straightforward, it has an extensive list of links to other wiki resources.

• Wikimatrix
  A wiki selection tool on steroids. It has wizards, feature-filters, and detailed side-by-side-comparisons to help identify the right wiki engine for the job. The matrix overviews are quite comprehensive though somewhat overwhelming. Thankfully, you can hide items. Wikimatrix also has short descriptions for most wiki engines as well as screenshots, discussions, statistics, and related wikis. The main downside of Wikimatrix is its speed when comparing a lot of wiki engines. I also wish it had tutorials, editorial reviews, and ratings.

• Wikipedia
  Provides a basic comparison chart of the most common wiki engines, technologies, features, licensing, and intended users. Being a wiki itself, it can be extended by you and other users. However, I found the current presentation overwhelming and wished for the ability to sort and filter. The Wikipedia Entry is more suitable as a reference guide than a wiki shopping tool.

• Top Ten Wiki Engines
  As the name suggests, this site gives an overview of the most popular wiki engines. While popular doesn’t always equal good or easy-to-use, this list gives an indication of which wiki engines will have a large support framework.

With these tools in hand, finding and setting up your wiki should be wikiwiki (quick) and easy.

What I like

• The interface should look quite familiar, since it’s based on Google’s bare bones home page. It’s refreshing when you compare Indeed’s salary search page to the cluttered and confusing Salary.com.

• You can go beyond job descriptions and search for what specific skills are worth. For example, if you’re a web developer, hand-coding pays more than knowing how to use a WYSIWG web design program. See example comparison.

• Comparing salaries for multiple job titles and locations is easy and presented nicely. See example comparison.

What I’d like to see

• While the minimal interface is very nice, it feels almost too much like Google. A slightly more distinct visual design would help make it more memorable.

• The comparison tool could be more robust. For example, it could show historical data of how the salary for a given position has changed over time.

• I’d love to see a way to factor in cost of living to help compare the same jobs in different cities.

• RSS updates for favorite searches.

The verdict

Indeed.com is easy-to-use and is ripe for a Google acquisition. If it stays out on its own, it needs a more unique design and an even more beefed up comparison tool.

Trezr (pronounced “treasure”) collects links posted by our users to the best sale and discounted items from around the web each day‖cool stuff like designer shoes, travel deals, digital cameras, cashmere sweaters, etc. In addition, we have a section for posting coupon codes, and another exclusively for posting articles about tips for saving money. All of these submissions are voted on by our users, resulting in a “trezr chest” full of the best finds on the web. And unlike other deal sites out there, our users tend not to focus on tech products, but instead have more of a bent toward fashion/lifestyle deals.

If you’re a fiend for bargains, but can’t stand those nasty looking coupon sites (you know the ones), this is your dream come true. I’m already in love with the site after finding an announcement for free ice cream at Coldstone on the front page.

Thanks for sending this our way, Artia!

Update (Oct. 3): The design for Trezr was done by ElectricPulp.