As people offer more applications/tools and contributions to open platforms, the web spaces would grow and become more visible. It seems that the more people play around or remix with the tools offered on internet spaces, new and creative ideas can be generated, thus allowing the platforms to grow and improve in ways that the original developers could not think of. These ever growing/changing open platforms that become more visible among the internet include spaces such as facebook, google, yahoo, ebay and amazon. They all include applications and tools that allow users to remix, share, or create new ideas.
Facebook provokes users to participate within the web space with its many applications such as wall posts, status, photo albums, tagging, quizzes…etc. When I first encountered the site, I was surprised and a bit overwhelmed by the number of tools and applications that were available. It seems that some of the applications are similar to what was originally offered in specific sites. For example, the Fluff friends app where you can ‘own’ a pet is similar to something like neopets. The ability to upload full photo albums from one’s browser is similar to (and an improvement from) servers like photobucket, which only allowed one to do one or limited uploads in the past. The quizzes and games applications also seem to be taken from sites that provide online quizzes and games. Many people would post their quiz results on blogs/websites/forums. But with this added application on facebook, it is possible to share these results with people faster. Users may feel connected through these results from quizzes or games. It may also make others want to participate in the platform and share their results. These applications on facebook seem to be mashups of tools and apps from previous websites. It increases the visibility of facebook since the applications can be linked to other places such as websites and blogs. This is a good example of how “innovation will proceed [...] as services/components are constantly remixed and improved” (189), since facebook is able to improve some applications by mixing components together from different sites.
Mashups of tools and components of search engines like google and yahoo creates new possibilities for services and tools. The creation of map applications in these sites allow searching to be more narrowed and organized/classified, much like the Peoplefinder . By combining the classified sections of newspapers/magazines with online maps, people are able to search for many things precisely such as locations to certain places, restaurants, houses for sale…etc. With these new tools/services that combines other existing ideas; new applications can emerge and improve the quality and value of sites. Shopping sites like ebay and amazon also improve their site quality by allowing users to search for better deals of products so that people can compare items being sold. People would trust the sites more due to this service since they would believe that the site is trustworthy and dependable by letting them select what they want to find/customizing their searches. This is perhaps a form of radical trust where users are able to view what they want to see, whether if it’s good deals, bargains, or any information on items.
