Amidst the news of Yahoo! and eBay’s partnership, Microsoft and Google competing to be the search engine/displayer of ads on MySpace, and the continuing decline in the Vonage IPO, Jay & Silent Rob have some of their own news. Next week we will be attending the TechCrunch Seattle Web 2.0 Party next week. Seattle-based company RedfinÂ? will be the host with the most for the event, featuring net-heavyweights like Robert Scoble of MicrosoftÂ? and Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, and there will even be the oh-so-popular Puppet Tom of MySpace in attendance. We’re a little excited about talking some nerd, nerd, nerd with some of the people we look to for both information and inspiration for Reality V2.0.

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There was an interesting article on SiliconBeat yesterday about Bebo. The website, another in the realm of social networking, is less than a year old, based in San Francisco, and seems to have it’s largest following in the UK. There are two points that we’d like to comment on. The first is about what Michael Birch said about social network websites in Asia. There is an obvious culture clash that isn’t as significant between the North American and European markets, and that is definitely a hurdle. Rather than attempt to be a player in the market, Bebo is going to focus on the UK and US markets.Â? We understand that with a 10 man team, it’s not realistic, which Birch states, but if the team added members 11 and 12 from that region, couldn’t it be tackled? It’s an interesting strategy to ignore about half the Internet population.

The second comment is about people leaving MySpace. Of course people are going to leave MySpace, it’s the nature of the Internet and that generation. MySpace got so much free press and publicity that everyone had to at least check it out, but really, the site isn’t that good. The navigation and customization aren’t smooth, and unless you are really into the music scene or at least to the Entertainment industry, the site isn’t really catering to your specific needs. Social networking is a science, and no one site out there had done it right, and until there’s a site that almost unanimously provides users with the complete package they seek, users will continue to flock to the next big thing.

For some reason, andÂ? it mayÂ? just seem like it,Â? Yahoo! always seems to be overlooked. The website obviously gets respect, but do they really get the respect they deserve? The website probably boasts the largest, most geographically diverse userbase, and that userbase spends, on average, almost half-an-hour on the website a day (here’s where blogs are much better than university esssays - I don’t have to give a source for any of that!). Yahoo! is ranked #1 by Alexa and always has been.Â? Regardless of all this, Yahoo! always seems to find itself in the shadows of Google and Microsoft. If there is a battle for net-supremacy, at least if that battle happens in the near future, Yahoo! must be the one that survives.

For awhile, anytime Google did something, they seemed to do it right. Gmail, Gtalk, Google Maps and Google Earth all came out with great reviews and seemed to set the bar quite a bit higher. The last few releases from Big Brother 2 seem to be lacking. Microsoft is making a big push to improve their online presence with their Live.comÂ? releases, and there are some good things, but again, it just doesn’t meet the bar that Google raised. Yahoo! seems to be the only site that is living up to the obviously high expectations.

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The blog is one of the more interesting trends on the web. There are so many people out there that have an opinion - they do say an opinion’s like an a**hole, everyone’s got one and they all stink - and the web provides a means for these individuals to express their opinion and debate the opinion of others. As long as this is done in a healthy and positive manner, the blog and blogosphere will probably maintainÂ? the positive and beneficial role that it currently fills. The problem will be if people lose touch with reality, and get caught up in their own, small blogworld.

Blogs are powerful. MostÂ? bloggers are aware of the Kryptonite bike lock fiasco, and then there was the sway that bloggers had in bringing down Sam Bulte. But it’s important that we realize for every good blog, there’s at least one bad blog. The influence of words is huge, and blogs can be used to target those who are vulnerable and looking for direction. One of the first thoughts would be terrorism or religious fanatics and extremists. It would be more than believable that someone looking in those areas could easily find something, and a blog could easily be written to help sway those on the fence. Someone young and confused is easy to direct down a path they might otherwise choose to avoid.

This isn’t something that your average marketing company doesn’t try daily through standard forms of media. The difference is a blogosphere is difficult to regulate on almost any level. We obviously believe in freedom of speech and the rights of individuals to express themselves without fear of repression, and to believe that any agency could monitor blogs effectively enough to prevent these types of blogs is ridiculous. What becomes more important is to provide so much unbiased and/or positiveÂ? information as to dilute the negative messages that may be present, but is that enough?

Individuals who are “lost” are going to find what they ultimately seek. Answers, for the most part. Members of the Internet community play a big part in regulating the available answers, and it’s important that we remember that. If something racist appeared on Wikipedia, I don’t think it would take long to be noticed and reported, and even if it couldn’t be removed immediately, the word should be spread far and wide to pressure these types of propaganda to be removed. It isn’t the classic good vs evil battle that pop culture is all too familiar with, but the power of the blog can be used in many ways. Those who participate do have a responsibility, and it’s important that we all accept that.

So how does this relate to Web 2.0, our typical topic? At this point, there is still an underlying purity in blogging, and it is easy to overlook the future of blogging. After watching poor Mr. Arrington get crucified, I started to think about the bigger picture of blogging. I realized that weI participate in such a small slice of the blogosphere - so what else is out there? It’s almostÂ? too scary to consider.

We have to admit, the whole idea of network neutrality is a little grey to us, but at the same time, we probably have a good enough idea about the whole thing to comment about this again (the first time was just a short blurb that can be read here). The general gist of network neutrality seems to be that providers shouldn’t be allowed to dictate and/or influence the accessibility of one site over another or one device over another, which is something that dollars and cents would ultimately control.

The Internet is the fundamental tool for a global utopia, and the universal access to the Internet is something that we believe the world should move towards. As a tool, for learning, communication, and expression, the Internet is invaluable. It connects the world in a way that ignores religion, colour of skin, language, and every other way that we, as societies, have discriminated against eachother, and it allows people access to information. Knowledge is the key to the growth of any specific group, and as forward thinking individuals, we believe it is the key to the future of something so much more important - the planet and the people.

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