Kleiner Perkins ponders Web 3.0, dismisses Web 2.0

The evolution of the Internet is constantly being challenged by creationists-Its sort of brilliant marketing (Komisar) to act as though as of your investees has a great idea it warrants another web phase (3.0?). True, no product campaign these days is complete without a rebranding of the web itself.

As advertising has undergone a power shift, from the content providers to the users, advertising has somehow become a bad word. Now that end users decide what and how products will be pitched, advertising seems to stand not only for traditional, flashy, in-your-face ads, but for any product communication that has already occurred. In that sense, advertising is perpetually over, and therefore always omnipresent.

Simply put, as more and more people research products and services online, making purchasing decisions online, and actually buy online, it seems preposterous to claim that advertising, and companies that are in the business of advertising, are in anyway passe. It is inconsistent with the evolution of the web.

What I like about Komisar-backed Aggregate Knowledge is that it is creating the platform for some wonderful advertising streams. Right now, as I understand it, they are touting as part of their product targeting by the Psychology of Crowds, or the beginning of building psychological profiles of buyers. This is done on many shopping sites: If person 1 buys product A, then he will, based on group research, be interested in product B and product C and should be presented with B and C in a non-obtrusive fashion. What this should naturally evolve into is a better targeting-being able to differentiate between types of buyers; is she an impulse buyer that might be wooed by a flashy interface, or is she a research shopper, who needs a case study to buy? Merely providing relevant content, without the proper packaging for the individual (what I think to be the advertising formerly know as advertising) is deficient. Also, what is the ideal interface complexity of this shopper? For instance, in person people buy less in big stores because they are overwhelmed by the sheer number of options. They are more likely to buy products in a smaller store. People are more influenced by items placed at the front of the store as their shopping goals are more malleable as they enter. Not to say that these findings will translate directly to shopping behavior on the web, but we will soon have the ability to create the perfect shopping environment for an individual, and advertising will be big part of it.

How many of you have a primarily advertising based model? Or the "freemium" model? Our model is actually transactional, but is supplemented with advertising.