the imagination of media in Web 2.0

Interesting article, talking about an analysis of the strategy of Yahoo! and the competition between Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!.

The article discusses Yahoo!'s strategy of being a media company is competitive and Microsoft and Google both have underestimated that the threat of Yahoo!.

The primary reason Yahoo may be a leader is the Internet's role in dismantling traditional media distribution.

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"As opposed to Google, which is still essentially a search site and is known as such, Yahoo provides information and entertainment content, including interactive content. Yahoo is positioned to benefit from the proliferation of high speed Internet services like interactive gaming, streaming video, video and music downloads, and real-time media events."

In the article, it says losing focus is the risk of Yahoo!'s strategy:

"Yahoo is trying to be everything. Sure, Yahoo isn't in the line of fire, but it's also not great" in any one area. While offering a broad array of content, commerce and services, Dreze adds, the risk of Yahoo's strategy is that the company loses focus. "Everyone knows what Google does; it's a search engine. We know what Google is good at, but Yahoo is less clear.

Richard MacManus doesn't think so:

I don't totally agree, because I think Yahoo is very focused on being a read/write media platform for mainstream users - which requires a broad feature set.

The opinion is arguable, I think. The big risk Yahoo! faces is the imagination about what a Internet media company looks like. Yahoo! has their imagination. According to that, Yahoo! attempts

offering a broad array of content, commerce and services.

But we can't hard to question, is the way really right? If the imagination of Yahoo! eventually is proved wrong, what will happen next?

What a Internet media company should be we don't be very sure. In the past, media company play both the roles of content producer and distributor. Audience are hardly being sources of content. But in the environment of Internet, esp. Web 2.0, audience become where content come from. The importance of being content producer declines. In Web 2.0, a media company need to do is providing excellent platform for community growing. In other words, the media of Web 2.0 isn't a source of content but a mediator.

The Chinese word of media is "媒體", the meaning of linking. What I immediately think is search about that. In Web 2.0 we don't need a central content platform. The platform is distributed and scattered. The media company's duty may be to identify and make those content searchable for audience.