Tag Archives: Topix

Post and video by Miiko Mentz

At Web 2.0 Expo last week, Bubblicious Reporter Jolie O’Dell spoke with Topix CEO Chris Tolles. Topix is a leading Internet news community that connects people on a local level to the news and events in their towns and cities, and it provides a place for people to discuss the news that matters most to them. With newspaper advertising shrinking and becoming less effective, local businesses are turning to other sources, such as Topix, to connect with customers.

Topix is becoming a great avenue for businesses that are dependent on local customers, such as restaurants, salons and spas, car dealerships, attorneys, doctors and other neighborhood-type businesses. However, many of these small business owners aren’t well versed in SEO practices or search advertising, but need to advertise online to drive customers into their stores, restaurants and local offices.

At Web 2.0 Expo last week, Tolles talked about Topix’s newly released services that are helping these types of businesses connect to a local audience in a local context. Check out our interview with Tolles:

In addition to Topix, the Bubblicious team talked with a few other companies offering social computing applications and services. If you missed our highlight reel or other interviews, check them out: ooVoo and MindTouch. Stay tuned all week for the full interviews with each company. Tomorrow’s video interview is with chi.mp.

Post and video by Miiko Mentz (Special thanks to Jolie O’Dell, Bubblicious on-camera reporter)

Web 2.0 Expo 2009 wrapped on Friday afternoon after delivering four days of presentations and demonstrations mostly focused on being agile in uncertain times. Everyone is feeling the pinch of ‘having to do more with less’ due to declining sales, staff reductions and budget cuts, so this year’s Web 2.0 Expo’s theme of “The Power of Less” fit the climate and mood like a glove.

Even if the economy hadn’t tanked, the Web 2.0 hype was overdue for its own market correction because there was clearly too many startups touting useless apps that only added to the noise and didn’t provide real value. At this year’s Web 2.0 Expo, attendees were focused on the ideas and solutions that will translate into real value and ultimately sales.

As Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft’s business division, explained to attendees in an on-stage interview with Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, consumer elements of Web 2.0 are being translated and brought into the business setting and are being combined with the data and social graphs that reside within an enterprise to provide real value. He goes on to explain how companies are “translating that value into something customers are willing to pay for.” He’s correct in saying that because at the end of the day that’s exactly what needs to transpire.

Companies need to create products that people want and focus on delivering value that people are willing to pay for. Not an easy feat, but if you can achieve this then you stand a pretty good chance at surviving, if not flourishing, in these uncertain times.

The Bubblicious team decided to talk with a few companies in both the business and consumer space that offer social computing applications and services that deliver efficiency, increased productivity, streamlined workflow that connect people to each other and the information they seek. Watch our highlight reel below and stay tuned all week for the full interviews with each company:

• Monday: ooVoo
• Tuesday: MindTouch
• Wednesday: Topix
• Thursday: chi.mp
• Friday: IBM
  

Disclosure: In addition to being a contributor to Bubblicious, I also work at FutureWorks where one of my clients is MindTouch, which I’ve chosen to include in my Web 2.0 Expo coverage due to them being an exhibitor and fitting the focus of my coverage.