Context and Curation are King
For far too long there has been an argument about what wins the day – software or hardware. As the argument goes, hardware is commoditized and software becomes king.
I argue that context is king and in the end curation win the day. Throughout the history of tech, the companies that have been able to create “something” from “nothing – the companies able to organize dispersed information have won the day. Today we are overrun with information and choice. The next Internet battle will be fought over curation. Yahoo was about curation. Google is about curation. Facebook is about curation. Today’s consumer wants to parse dispersed information.
- JustBuyThisOne.com
Take for example, JustBuyThisOne – which aggregates thousands of reviews and recommends into a singular purchase recommendation. Consumers are overwhelmed with choice and that choice is clouded by noise in the system – professional reviews, user comments and reviews, etc. JustBuyThisOne disperses these thousands of “sound waves” into a single decision.
Another Internet property gaining momentum is Pinterest. The site is simple in execution. It allows you to re-post (or “pin”) photos and images you find on the web together with some additional commentary. You pin the photos and images to “boards” organized by category of your choice. Pinterest allows users to catalog and organize information dispersed across the web. In this way, each user becomes a curator. You can see my boards here: http://pinterest.com/dubravac/.