Wikis and social networks are redefining the way content is created and consumed. For those that don't know, wikis are community Web sites containing information that is produced and edited by anyone,
for everyone. Not surprisingly, the Internet majors are interested in expanding into these areas, and possibly fusing the two. Marketwatch columnist Bambi Francisco discusses the efforts of Google and
Yahoo, as well as a slew of wiki startups, looking to build on the best of user-generated services like Wikipedia, About.com, and of course, News Corp. phenomenon MySpace. Consumer-generated media is
certainly red hot--call it the new reality TV--and certainly interesting to media companies and advertisers, but what's the ad model? Google has recently entered the fray with Google Co-op, and Yahoo
with a service called MyWeb--but once again, what they plan to do with these incomplete community services remains murky. Google Co-op has built 49 sites that serve as resources for information
clusters about anything from recipes to search news. Francisco points out that the wiki-component--that is, anyone being able to edit pages--remains unclear. Wikis rely on passionate people
contributing their extensive knowledge about a given topic simply for the satisfaction of sharing. In the end, Francisco says wikis are like public online brochures, filled with information about
topics or services for people to tweak slightly if they care to. Brochures might be boring, but they can also be very useful, especially in driving sales.
Read the whole story at Marketwatch »
