Characteristics of Web 2.0 sites

Common Characteristics of Successful Social Networking/Web 2.0 Sites

In the following, we compare the functions of popular web 2.0 services Flickr (f), youtube (y), myspace (m), facebook (c), wikipedia (w), blogger [as an example of blogs] (b), twitter (t),second life (s), del.icio.us (d), and digg (i). The result is also available as an excel-file.

It is also interesting to see which characteristics are shared by successful sites that are usually not considered web 2.0, like bbs.dmine.net [bulletin board systems] (bb), Amazon (a), Netflix (n), or forum systems (o)

(italic services haven't been thoroughly analyzed yet, please fill out characteristics for services you know)

Technical Characteristics/Functions

require registration (f,y,m,c,b,t,s,d,i,bb
- with valid email-address (f,y,m,c,b,s,i

Personality

User Profile
- user name (f, y, m, w, b, t, s, d, i, bb
- public real name (f, y, c, b, t, d
- real name (f, y, m, c, b, t, s, d, i, bb
- age (y, m, c, b, s [2x], i, bb
- profile-picture (f, (y: video-still), m, c, b, t, s [2x], i
- contact (f, y, m, c, w, b, i
  - e-mail (f, c, w, b,
  - IM (f, m, c, b, i
  - homepage (f, y, c, b, i
- sex (f, y, m, c, b, s [2nd], i [private], bb
- relationship status (f, y, m, c, s [2nd]
- interests/blurbs about oneself (f, y, m, c, w, b, s [2x]
- job/school (f, y, m, c, b
- location (f, y, m, c, b, s [2nd], i, bb
  - complete address (c, s [2nd]
current status (m, c, t, s [2nd]
favorites (inside the system, not the standardized way via feeds and manual links)
- Users/friends (f, y, m, c, t, s, d, i
- user contributions (f, y, c, t, d, i
- list of friends' favorites (f, y, i
recommendations (d,
- from/to other users (d,
- based on profile (
- based on own recommendations (
- based on own contributions (
personalized homepage (f, y, m, c, w, b, t, s [character], d, i
personally-styled homepage (m, w, b, t, s [character], bb

Participation

contribute own content (f, y, m, c, w, b, t, d, i, bb
- text [free topic, not only comment or other topic-restricted textbox] (f, c, m, w, b, (t - only 140 chars, only status), i, bb
- video (y, m, s, bb
- photo (f, m, c, w,(b integrates picasaweb), s [textures], bb
- 3d models (s,
- bookmarks (d, i,
- files (w, bb
tagging
- own contributions (f, y, c, w (categories), b, d
- people (
- hidden/private tags (d,
rate contributions (y, i

Collaboration

create contributions collaboratively (w, s
create a collaborative set of contributions (f, y, b [by allowing many authors], s, d, i, bb
commenting system (f, y, m, c, w [discussion-page], b, i
tagging other users' contributions (f, c (need to be approved),
respond to contributions (y, w [internal backlinks], b [standard backlinks], t, (d: copy bookmark with own comment), i [standard backlinks]
In-network-messaging (f, y, m, c, w, s, bb
Invite friends to the site (f, c, m, t, i
create groups of users (f, m, c, s,
overview over changes/new contributions (f, c, w, t, i, bb

Misc

Access Control List (f, y, m, c, b, t, s, d
- Individual Users (
- Groups (f, y, m, c, b, t,
- individual acl-groups (
RSS-feeds (f, y, b, t, d, i
search for user contributions (f, y, w, b, d, i, bb
search for other users (f, m, c, i
API to include its functions in other applications/websites (f, w, b, t, s, d, i, [bb fidonet]
API to add own functions/functions from other sites (m(very restrictive), c, b, s, [bb fidonet]
"API" to include contributions in mash-ups/other sites (f, y, w, b, t, s, d, i, [bb fidonet]
related contributions (y, w top-lists (f, y
- most recommended (i,
- best rated (y, i
- most viewed (y,
- most interesting/discussed/popular (f, y, d, i
- top favorites (f, y,
- most recent (f?, y?, d, i

According to the (popular) Web2.0 mindcloud L10N, characteristics typical for web 2.0 are:

Participation
Usability
Economy
Design
Standardization
Remixability
Convergence
Focus on Simplicity
Joy of Use
AJAX
The Long Tail
Affiliation
CSS-Design
Web Standards
Microformats
DataDriven
OpenAPIs
RSS
Mobility
Video
Audio
Blogs
Social Software
Recommendation
Folksonomy
Wikis

web20.xls