Monthly Archives: March 2009

What's Web 3.0?

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As an entrepreneur, I do a ton of thinking about what the next trends will be.  Currently I’ve been thinking about what the next iteration of the web will be or what some people have termed ‘web 3.0′.

Originally, the web was originally created by Tim-Berners Lee as a reference tool for himself and others, allowing researchers to link to information on his server from other servers and vice versa. Wow, did that work. Today, the web is just that, a massive online reference engine, allowing you to find any information about anything!

The next iteration was Web 2.0.  No one really has a definition of what this is but wikipedia seems to think its an Internet “that [derives its] effectiveness from the inter-human connections and from the network effects that [the Internet] makes possible, and growing in effectiveness in proportion as people make more use of them.”

The next natural evolution to me, seems to be interconnected sites that will leverage all this data in intelligent ways… taking all the data that’s been put into the web, and making something really useful out of it.  I think we’ve hit the tip of the iceberg with collective intelligence.  I think there’s so much more to come as we start to figure out what to do with all this data.

While some may say that ‘web 3.0′ is the “cloud”, I look at the cloud as a way of achieving next level Internet computing.  The cloud will definitely be necessary to process these massive data sets.  But what’s truly amazing is that we’ll be able to do it econmically.  I think that the cost of cloud computing is so cheap, that we’ll see an explosion of new startups building sites that won’t just be point and click sites, but sites that offer you advice based on other data that the site is receiving.

Examples of this are the plethora of personal financial software sites that are popping up, link Mint, wesabe, thrive, etc.  They take all your data, and compare it to other ppl on the site, giving you better insight how you can help yourself.

I think its a pretty exciting time, even with the given economic situation.  I think we’re going to see new projects done with collective intellgence that we didn’t even think possible before.  Hopefully I can be part of one of them!!

Re-review of Mint.com: Thumbs up

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So after Jason from Mint posted a comment on my Mint.com review, I decided to give Mint.com another shot.  After several months of usage, I can definitely say that I’m  impressed with its features.   However, I’m still a little uneasy about all of my information being stored on their vendor’s servers (even after watching the CEO’s video about Mint.com security).

Why?  Well, I understand that their using a number to only identify me after the data is stored, but at the time of me transmitting my information to you, there’s a chance that your servers/code are compromised and thus the information is compromised.   What if they have a rogue employee who’s decided to capture the user’s information?  I don’t see any PCI-type compliance that the organization follows.

With all that said and I still used the application for several months.  I really do like the fact that I can see snapshots of my financial health on a weekly basis.  I also really enjoy that they try to find me deals for credit cards and savings/checking accounts.  What I would really love is if they took it a step further and helped me do some financial planning.  They’re probably still a bit far out on that, but I think that would be the most useful information for me.  I really haven’t had a hard time budgeting the last couple of years, but would definitely rather see more/new ways of me to accumulate better interest, better investment strategies, etc.

Overall I can definitely see the usefulness for an application like this and do recommend this for people who are trying to figure out how to save money or for people who are trying to get their finances straightened out.  In regards to the security vs. help argument, I figure if you need some help to get your finances straight, you should probably take the risk.  It’s probably safer to use Mint.com’s budgeting feature than using some sketchy “debt consultant”.

I haven’t tried their competitors out yet, but they do exist:  Wesabe, Quicken Online, PageOnce, Geezeo, Buxfer, and Thrive.  (Note:  I really hated Quicken for the Mac.  It’s the reason I tried Mint.com in the first place).