In case you don't already know, Web 2.0 is starting to provide what we all thought the internet was going to provide back in the dot com boom of the late 90's. From Wikipedia "the phrase "Web 2.0" hints at an improved form of the World Wide Web; and advocates suggest that technologies such as weblogs, social bookmarking, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds (and other forms of many-to-many publishing), social software, Web APIs, Web standards and online Web services imply a significant change in web usage."
Ben Barren brought to my attention the lack of Web 2.0 within Aussie Finance sites. The major broker's could really gain an advantage over the rest of the market if one of them embraces Web 2.0. I use Commsec as my share broker and the site really is, like Ben Barren has said "stuck in its 1999 user model".
The US sites Ben has listed are quite interesting. I'm yet to come across anything in Australia that provides this portal type aspect. Even the two major internet forums that I have come across, HotCopper and Sharescene really lack the "social" aspect that I have come to expect from these types of sites.
Why are Australian Finance sites yet to embrace the new type of web? We no longer want sites to tell us what to see, we want to be able to customise and tell the site how and what we see. I fear that the sometimes lack of common sense legal system would mean a financial planning site like Wesabe would soon be shut down by ASIC due to the the laws around non-licensed people providing advice, and the paper trail that follows a licensed person providing advice, even if its only general. Or perhaps the nerds are too busy making money investing to worry about designing websites that most likely won't provide huge amounts of revenue!
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2 comments:
In my opinion http://ShareScene.com is a great site, full of cool features and great content. I wouldn't put it in the same basket as Hot Copper.
Out of curiosity, what are some forum/communities (dont have to be financial) that have lots of web 2.0 features?
Regards
Andrew
Whilst Sharescene does have good content and user discussion, I've found it difficult to find what I really want.
Both sites (SS & HC) are that full of dodgy ramping of stocks that it's becoming a turnoff too, much like the 100 or so 'stock tip' emails that fill my inbox every week from Spammers around the globe.
Sites that I like, and use - www.flickr.com for all things photos, www.digg.com for anything and everything. Those are a couple... there seems to be a site like this out there for anything these days.
There's also all sorts of social/community group sites out there, for example hivelive, Imeem and (the dreaded) Myspace. Not that I use any of these, but I could see potential in a Finance sense.
As far as Finance goes... I really like Yahoo Finance, however, most of the content is not relevant for Aussies and Google Finance for that morning snapshot (again, US content). Google are new into the Finance thing, but I think they will get better and have more options for their finance page.
Some good things from all these sites would be great. Unfortunately we probably just don't have the population and demand to make them profitable.
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