As the larger economic picture continues to look dismal, the reverberations are being felt within the tech sector. As our parent blog GigaOM reports, the venture capital firms are starting to get antsy about whether Silicon Valley can continue business as usual. Apple and other tech stocks are way down, and layoffs are showing up in the industry as well (though there are layoffs in good times too, depending on who you work for).
And yet, when we asked how the economy was treating you web workers personally, the majority of respondents didn’t report a slowdown. I’m seeing the same pattern in other communities I’m a part of - Rails developers, for example, still seem upbeat on the prospect of more work.
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For most people, even web workers, there is only one search engine on the web. To some extent we differ over which one that is: there are people who use Google all the time, others who swear by Yahoo, and so on. In reality, of course, there are a zillion search engines out there. We’ve covered a bunch of alternatives in the past, and we’ve barely scratched the surface. But except in very narrow niches, it seems like all of the alternatives face the same problem: how to get any traction in a market where most people have long since decided what they’ll use.
Search engine makers have tried a variety of ways to get customers. Some have bragged about their superior technology and invested in splashy launch PR (sometimes with disastrous results - remember Cuil?). Microsoft has resorted to paying people to use its search engine - most recently with the SearchPerks! program. Firefox has made it easy to switch by providing a dropdown button that can change your browser’s default search engine with two clicks.
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If you’ve been paying the slightest bit of attention to the news recently, you know that the US economy is, by some accounts, in dire shape. With the failure of high-profile firms, the rescue of others, and a $700 billion bailout wending its way through Congress, it’s understandable that many are feeling jittery about the future. An era of contracting credit and a tighter job market don’t seem like much fun.
At WWD, though, we’re focused on our own little niche of the economy: the web worker. Here, the picture may be slightly brighter. But there are several forces that affect us directly when things get tight:
- Web workers can end up being viewed as easily-trimmed jobs, especially if they’re not in the office to exercise political clout.
- But contractors may be in a good position, because contracting work out is often cheaper than hiring more full-time employees.
- Tighter budgets may get more companies to consider telecommuting, as a way to save money on office space.
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There are plenty of manufacturers and carriers out there who will be happy to tell you what you want from a phone. To hear them tell it, if you’re not carrying a device with a camera, a touchscreen, an internet browser, GPS, Bluetooth, and a fancy colorful operating system, you might as well be carting around a tin can and a long piece of string.
With the recent upgrades to the iPhone, and the imminent release of the first Google “Android” phone, the hype machine surrounding these devices has been cranked up to higher levels than ever. But while I’m sure there are focus groups and test devices involved in the process, no one ever asked me what I wanted in my cell phone. And I’ll bet they never asked you, either.
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Depending on how much you pay attention to the tech press, you may be aware that the DEMOfall08 and TechCrunch50 conferences were this week. But - although you’ll find some coverage on our parent blog GigaOM - we haven’t featured a single startup from either of those conferences on WWD. Why not?
The main reason is that we haven’t seen anything coming out of either one of those events that looks like it will make a difference to the average web worker in the short run. Indeed, we suspect that the majority of these high-profile launches will vanish without a trace. The world already has a pretty good supply of mobile, social applications who mistake using Google AdWords for a business strategy. While that doesn’t characterize every startup at the conferences, the level of innovation seemed to be off from some past years.
But surely the web can’t be running out of innovation steam, can it? Here’s our invitation to you, the real web workers: what have you seen lately that was new and exciting? What tools and services have you run into that do help streamline your day? What’s worth shouting from the virtual rooftops about, even if it didn’t participate in the VC-fueled dog-and-pony shows this week?
We’ve written about Firefox, covered avant-garde niche browsers, and looked at the impending Google Chrome launch. But there’s a sizable community whose browser opinions we haven’t looked at: you, the web working public. When was the last time someone asked you what you wanted in a browser, as opposed to just handing you a new piece of whizbang software and telling you you’d love it?
Well, here’s your chance. Forget about Firefox extensions and IE rendering modes and Safari speed and Opera standards-compliance for the moment, and imagine you’ve got a line into the development teams. What features are you missing in the current crop of browsers that would actually make your life easier and more productive? What promises do you wish they’d deliver on? What would make you switch to a new browser for your own web work?
Like many other web workers, I get seduced on a regular basis by the latest gadgets. Whether it’s a spiffy new laptop or the latest phone or some miscellaneous bit of electronics that is supposed to make our lives easier, it’s simple to plunk down money and wait for UPS or FedEx to deliver the new toy.
Over the years I’ve learned to wait at least a few days before ordering, to let the initial flush of enthusiasm dissipate. But, judging by the debris of unused gadgets on the shelves in my office, I haven’t learned enough. My biggest regret may be the color laser printer that we almost ever used - but really, it seemed like a good idea at the time!
How about you? What have you spent money on that you wish you hadn’t? Which gadgets are collecting dust in the closet, when the purchase price could be collecting money in your bank account instead? What provoked you to the purchase, and what didn’t work out in reality?
Sometimes it’s all too easy to feel isolated as a web worker. If you’re in an office and do something great for the team, you can expect some pats on the back, or even a celebratory lunch. But if you’re working at home, you can be like that tree that falls in the forest when no one is around, uncertain as to whether anyone even noticed what you did.
Well, let’s change that. Your web working peers are here, and they’d be happy to offer encouragement and recognition for your successes. So - what have you done lately on the web working front that was great? Landed new business? Launched a site? Smoothed out a broken process? The floor is open, come out and take a bow.
