Web 3.0 | Fact, fantasy or the wave of the future?

Cisco.com and IBM.com are at the forefront of the Web 3.0 revolution, delivering sites that already deliver at least some content based on the user's domain, affiliation, and/or source navigation point.

IBM.com, for example, presents different home page features based on the visitor's explicit domain, and features a registration schema and page bookmarking feature that allows visitors to identify their specific interests.

Meanwhile, Cisco.com's SMB zone delivers differing content based on the visitor's affiliation (customer or partner), provides one of the industry's most effective and useful site-wide bookmarking features, and delivers some content based on where the visitor has navigated from*.

IBM.com and Cisco.com prove that Web 3.0 is more than a concept on the drawing board. The question is, of course, is it the wave of the future or a set of behaviors that will be limited to Web teams with the biggest budgets?

Share your opinions with other Web professionals by participating in this siteIQ QuikPoll — and then view the results to see what others are thinking.

*siteIQ Video Reviews of these capabilities are available in the siteIntelligence Research Center. If you have a siteIQ ID and password, please log in using the link at the top of this screen. If you do not have an ID and your company is a siteIQ client, please contact your siteIQ contract manager. If you are not sure, please contact us at info@siteiq.net

Are Cisco.com's "inline microsites" a stroke of genius?

The Web teams we work with tell us that microsites are one of the banes of their existence. Developed and funded by stakeholders who aren't limited by the need to connect to the corporate Website (and egged on by advertising and design firms that want to push on the budget and design envelopes), these microsites usually end up as moments in time floating is cyberspace. Few make a solid connection to the product details located on the corporate site's product page. Some push the design and usability envelope so far that visitors who end up on the company's corporate site think they've landed in a foreign galaxy.

Some Web teams have done interesting things to address this dilemma—including an innovative solution from the Sun.com team, who developed a microsite "kit" for stakeholders that made the right UI and landing page connections to the company's corporate Website.

Cisco.com's new "inline microsites" provide yet another solution that could give campaign-based microsites a longer marketing life and more visitor traction. (View the siteIQ Video about Cisco.com's "inline microsites") The question is, of course, what do you think about this new gambit to harness and capitalize on a company's microsite investments? Is this a stroke of genius or just another battle Web teams will lose in the microsite war?

Share your opinions with other Web professionals by participating in this siteIQ QuikPoll—and then view the results to see what others are thinking.