Features

Wikis as the New Marketing Tool

By Priya George

Wikis, which were first developed in the mid-'90s, are software programs that enable users to add, edit, or delete items on a web page. Many organisations and people use them as a tool for collaborating on a project, for debating issues and such.

The technological foundation of Wiki.com is the wiki, “a Web site that can be quickly edited by its visitors with simple formatting rules". “It’s … more broadly available to people because it’s easier to use and requires less technical skill,” Bjorg said. “You can create your own Web site with a level of simplicity that hasn’t been available before", he continued.

The reason behind why wikis are gaining popularity is because of the success of Wikipedia. Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger started it in 2001. Wikipedia currently has expanded to more than 1.2 million entries in English. It is also available in several other languages.

The Associated Press reported recently that Mr. Wales and the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organisation that supports the sites, are now also involved with a wiki dictionary, wiki course materials for schools, a wiki collection of famous quotations, and a wiki for biological taxonomy.

Capitalising on the increasing ubiquity of the wiki, entrepreneur John Gotts spent USD 2.9 million to purchase the domain name Wiki.com.

MindTouch Launches Wiki.com

So is 'Wiki' the new in thing? This question seems to be resounding as the Internet phenomenon is evolving and getting imbibed into local partnerships. MindTouch has announced it has partnered with Entrepreneur John Gotts to launch Wiki.com, the online destination for consumers to learn about, create, and share wiki sites. MindTouch is the only vendor in the market to provide a full spectrum of wiki solutions including hosted, appliance-based, and open source wikis.

"When selecting a partner to make this venture a success, MindTouch's adherence to open standards, remarkable usability and existing feature set won us over," said John Gotts, chairman and CEO of Wiki.com. "MindTouch's roadmap proved that it's already ahead of the curve, and this partnership will give everyone the opportunity to own a part of the wiki world and benefit from the content they generate."

"From inception, MindTouch's strategy has been to bring wikis to everyone, from the individual consumer up to the enterprise," said Steve Bjorg, president and CTO of MindTouch. "With Wiki.com, we are building a foundation for a very new kind of web, a place where people can create, share and benefit from their content."

“We had over 3,000 people visiting the site on the first day of operation without anyone knowing it existed,” said Bjorg. The high traffic early on may bode well for Wiki.com’s ad-driven revenue stream.

Is Wiki.com a Great Advertising Vehicle

The thing about a domain like wiki.com is that lots of people are likely to type it in. It can be a great advertising vehicle. Part of Gotts' master plan is that there are many people that would love to have personal wikis.

For example, an individual or group can create an image gallery and upload photos to the web address Ourphotos.wiki.com, a memorable domain name with easy access. The site also offers 'business wikis,' which can be used like a simple intranet network.

While the site has a lot of value tied to its easily recognised name, Barry Parr, an analyst with market research firm Jupiter Research, sees some problems with trying to build growth on the name.

“The first thing that occurred to me was that it’s been a long time since this much money has changed hands for such a generic domain,” said Parr. “Experience has taught us that the successful domains have an identifiable brand and aren’t just a generic name. (Wiki.com) has value in that it’s easy to find, but the challenge is going to be building a brand on a generic name", he cautioned.

On the other hand, Internet Brands which began life in 1998 as Carsdirect.com, the car-shopping site. The privately owned company changed its name in 2005 and since then has acquired nearly a dozen web sites specialising in big purchases like homes, mortgages, and travel. Two of its sites, wikitravel.org and wikicars.org, rely heavily on information supplied not by experts in the field but by ordinary users.

According to brand expert, Lynn Altman, "Frigidaire...Kleenex...and now the Wiki. Turning your product name into a generic descriptor (or vice versa) is one of the most coveted results a marketer could hope for. Thanks to improved browser technology and the likes of Google, the value of these descriptors intensifies. Today, we use the address bar as a navigation tool, knowing that the keywords we type in will lead us to what we seek. And unlike the bricks and mortar marketplace where consumers see brands next to one another on the shelves, the browser does the searching-and often the navigating-for you, and the higher up your homepage can come back on that list, the better. In this scenario, a generic web site could become more valuable than a specific brand site. If a 'wiki' does indeed become a descriptor of this pumped up, next generation 'blog,' then to John Gotts' point he has made a very savvy business decision. Let's just hope that he gets his money's worth before something else becomes the new 'wiki'."

A big play for wikis may be the corporate world. Companies such as Jot and Near-Time are building corporate wiki tools, and eBay uses Jot to allow its 200 million-person community to write and edit articles on how to better use the auction site.

According to Joe Kraus, the CEO of JotSpot, "The wiki metaphor is a really powerful one. It turns the web from a monologue into a dialogue. The problem is that wikis have been trapped in the land of the nerds. Our goal is to bring them to the mainstream by making wikis more user-friendly... we see rapid adoption of the JotSpot wiki by non-technical users who are using the wiki to collaborate on anything from movie production to planning class reunions and family vacations."


print	save	email	comment