The New Wisdom of the Web

theodp writes "In a cover story, Newsweek takes a look at the new wave of start-ups cashing in on the next stage of the Internet by Putting The 'We' in Web. Sites built on user-generated content like YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, Digg and Facebook have all taken a page from Tom Sawyer's playbook, engaging the community to do their work, prompting Google CEO Eric Schmidt to suggest he finds MySpace more interesting than Microsoft."

more interesting than microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

I find watching paint dry more interesting than microsoft... what's you're point?

I agree though, user generated content means that users will be more likely to frequent the site.

This doesn't make senese...

[__aaclcg7560]

Why is everyone so happy in Silicon Valley again? A new wave of start-ups are cashing in on the next stage of the Internet. And this time, it's all about ... you.

Where's the "we" in "you"? If it's going to be about "you", that means all the "me" baby boomers are finally getting out of the picture. Does that mean there's no "I" in "we"? I'm confused.

what's not to love?-Ads+"/."=?

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot agrees with you.

Re:user generated content inevitable

[llamaxing]

if I'm not mistaken, the internet was built by scientists hired by the DoD, not "the users", although admittedly, we the people have influenced much of what the internet is now.

Re:Myspace sucks

[Anonymous Coward]

I just clicked the "sign up" button on myspace.
The "Terms of Service" linked from the sign-up page links to a 404.
So I guess I can only agree to all of those terms.

The 'We' in Web

[jaafonso]

There's no need to put the 'We' in Web. It already has.

Re:User generated content = quality?

[Catskul]

Yeah! Isnt is obvious, just look at the gems we find at the very top of Slashdot stories : )

Re:Just the theft

[UserGoogol]

Don't worry, most of the really good content on YouTube isn't actually copyrighted by the people who post it. :)

Re:more interesting than microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

i've got this great watching paint dry movie, it's up on YouTube if you want to see it.

Re:Just the theft

[shmlco]

"Just that it essentially boils down to theft. These sites are using copyright against the users, by having them submit content..."

I thought stealing content wasn't theft? Boy, now I'm confused...

Re:Million monkeys...

[hunterx11]

Are you saying that these new websites implement the Infinite Monkey Protocol Suite [ietf.org]?

Re:Million monkeys...

[slashname3]

Actually I think they have implemented an improved version. These sites don't have the infrastructure costs associated with maintaining the monkeys. The parents of the monkeys provide the support infrastructure. There is still the problem of how to detect when the million monkeys have produced something useful. Again, these sites have a solution, they let another million monkeys watch the results and comment on any results that show promise.

Of course MySpace is more interesting

[edremy]

MySpace has thousands of pictures of scantily-clad 16-year old girls. Microsoft.com, not so much.