If there was no actual moment where the numbers change, we could say that the flow of time continues endlessly. Yet when a year finishes all the events of the 365 days prior to then remain associated with that number, which is now history. And 2010 will undoubtedly go down in history as the year of social media, the year that saw the crowning of Facebook as the largest social and cultural phenomenon of recent years. With The Social Network, Hollywood acknowledged the Internet and Web 2.0 as never before. Lastly, Mark Zuckerberg was proclaimed Man of the year by Time Magazine.
For a few years now the statistics have illustrated the meagre number of websites that a user will visit daily. In a world of billions of websites, anyone with access to the Internet typically will use less than 10, and always the same few sites. The response is simple: no one requires so many services; a good search engine, a comprehensive news portal, 4 or 5 niche blogs to keep up-to-date on personal interests and an e-commerce site is plenty. A kind of digital laziness keeps the majority of users effectively within the bounds of their own backyard.
First Youtube, Flickr and Myspace, then Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare changed user behaviour forever. People have understood that the web is a place to show yourself and your interests and passions to the world, and while sharing became the keyword of Web 2.0, social media exploded with user generated content: bottom-up communication. Facebook simply aggregated many of these services by simplifying and optimising them and adding functionalities that initially were not even considered, such as chat, mail, e-commerce, geolocation and probably even search in the future, stepping into the shoes of giants like Microsoft and Google. The key seems to have been to respond to that digital laziness, with a simple and effective service, optimising it and updating it continually. The 2.0 users became the broadcasters, the social trends show them as more influential than any other information medium or traditional advertising message.
Again the popularity of mobile apps is heading in this direction: to simplify and channel interests. Download statistics illustrate it clearly: a successful app is functional and direct, it does what it must do, no more, no less. Multiple channels and the enormous quantities of information that we have to handle each day make us ever lazier. Again in 2011 success will come to whoever can create efficient and simple services and utilities. It will be for whoever can target the digitally lazy and their tendency to shy away from complexity. The role of Imille is to design winning strategies and translate them into tools with the language of design and usability. Make it simpler!
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