Sunday, October 08, 2006

Grupthink - Another great WEB 2.0 example

This is another great example of harnessing the power of web (& its collective wisdom).

Grupthink is a new way to ask and explore open-ended questions with the rest of the world. Anyone can ask a question or post a topic at Grupthink, and everyone can respond. Here's where it gets even more interesting: Anyone can respond with new answers, and those answers can be voted on by everyone else.

Grupthink makes it possible to explore interesting questions that weren't feasible before, such as:

  • What are your favorite tv shows?
  • What new features do you want to see in the next version of Madden NFL?
  • Who is the greatest athlete of all time?
  • What is the meaning of life?

Grupthink uses many features of Web 2.0 framework such as participation (collective intelligence), radical user trust (just like wikipedia), self service attribute. It also get better as more people use it and it is emergent. While reading a recent article on WSJ, I found out that Grupthink also tries to interact with other Web sites. The "Wikipedia Showdown" poll, seeking nominations for the "weirdest, funniest, craziest, and most bizarre entries" found on the online encyclopedia, shows that the system can be used as an unorthodox and engaging way to explore another site. That is impressive!!!

Get this - Grupthink has figured out a unique way to make money - Grupthink recently scattered Amazon.com links to various poll questions, hoping that rankings of books, music and movies may prompt users to buy those items from the online retailers. Amazon pays outside affiliates a small percentage of any sales that result.

Watch out for this baby to become popular soon......

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