Web 2.0: We’re getting closer and closer…

If you want to get a sense of what’s coming…look at how two, early stage companies are delivering on a vision of enabling normal humans to create and deliver Web applications: Goowy’s new service “YourMinis” and a site creator called Weebly.

I’ve written about the Lego-like assembly model needed in order to accelerate creation and delivery of Web applications and blow-the-doors-off of this next generation Web. My prediction about Apple and iWeb stands since desktop development isn’t going to cease…but it makes SO much sense to do this work online (collaboratively too) and leverage Ajax, the coming revolution in rich, internet application development along with all the widgets, gadgets and open API’s within products like those from Goowy and Weebly.

There are other solutions like those mentioned in this TechCrunch review, but the only one I’ve found that is NOT a tool for, “Hey! Build a Web app for YOU to look at!” — but rather is intended to create and deliver an actual, robust and completely customizable externally facing site with app-like functionality — is Synthasite. To me, their approach seems (since I haven’t been able to thoroughly test drive the app) to be an enterprise software-like direction and a toolset for each of us to use and deliver whatever we can think up.

The fundamental problem in most of the “value creation and deliver” Web 2.0 tools are that you get a lot of capability, but their name, their ads, their usage of your data (e.g., YouTube videos), their terms of service and your value is more meaningful to them than you and the value you can create is tipped in their favor…not yours. You can slap your logo on many of them, but to truly customize it and make it 100% your own — so you can maybe create your own video channel within a site while consuming RSS feeds and widgets, etc. — isn’t uniformly easy…yet.

An example of a model to follow is Adobe InDesign or Quark along with Photoshop, Illustrator and other tools for prepress production for (mainly) print publications. We buy these enabling tools and then create and deliver whatever we can dream up — but our print products, brochures, catalogs or PDF’s don’t scream, “Powered by Adobe”. Adobe isn’t providing these tools to us for free or for a pittance and then selling advertising on all of our publications or within PDF’s. Same paradigm needs to take place with all of these new, Web 2.0 hosted tools which I’ll happily pay for once I can choose a world-class solution and depend upon it.

Can’t count out open source tools either. If you care to get under-the-hood and tinker a bit, making WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and other tools “your own” is pretty straightforward but again, it’s the hosted apps and the simple desktop apps that will explode the mass market for Web 2.0.