Is it too soon or precocious to talk about Web 3.0?  If your answer to that is “yes,” please forgive me (and keep reading anyway).

I purposed to write a blog about my prediction of where the web is going back in July 09, three months ago.  Yesterday’s discovery of Google’s immanent sidewiki made me realize I better hurry up and say this before I no longer have the opportunity to position myself as a wise sage, prophet of the web.  (By the way, aspiring to “sage” status is one way I’ve warmed up to middle age despite aching joints, expanding waistline and scheduled colonoscopies on a calendar I could keep in my head in my 20’s).

“Blurred lines” is where I see it going. (But first a little background from my perspective). Back when, there was the company website(s) and all things web that were controllable by the company and its people.  Then there was the Social Media websites where the masses could talk about the company, its people, its product and its service.  Everybody could post, rate, review and rant on social media spaces, or if mad enough – make their own thisbrandsucks.com and invite others to join in the hate-chime.

Some companies quickly embraced their new found loss of brand control by creatively and authentically participating.  Others put their head in the sand, believing they could opt out of social media’s impact.  Still others hired a young intern and put “social media” on the newly made employee cubicle (we like to call this a social media silo because it makes us feel clever – and gives us an opportunity to explain that at least 5 completely different personality types and skill sets are needed to manage Internet marketing, which is why the newly hired intern needs outside resourcing – here, take a business card).

Brands now need to be “monitored” and “managed.”  Like Charlene Li brilliantly explains in Groundswell; companies need to be stewards of their brands.  The way I see it, effective brand efforts online now have a real names, real people with real personalities attached to them.  We have this new found surfing omnipresence, allowing us to listen to people that just checked out of the hotel we’re thinking of booking, read a review of a book we might download, or hear testimonials before we purchase that miracle weight loss vitamin.

But back to “blurred lines,” I believe that Web 3.0 will have less distinction between web pages that companies control and those that the masses control.  The user will have a more singular brand discovery that will blend the company’s voice with the voices of (hopefully) their online evangelists – or their agents of doom.  (Chris Brogan, here’s an idea for your next book).

We’re already seeing social media widgets appear more frequently on websites.  Companies are putting some muscle behind their use of Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn (to name a few).  But Google’s impending sidewiki will allow everyone to talk about you and your site – on your site – for everyone (with the sidewiki) to see.  I can see where this is going and if it catches on might not be pretty if you’ve been a slow adapter.  The masses just became more empowered.  Social is about to overpower your last bastion of internet control – your website.

Companies that are now creatively and effectively using social media strategies and are busy creating and relating to their online community of brand evangelists will be able to effectively transition to Web 3.0.  This is especially true if the masses are saying the same things about a company that matches the company’s carefully crafted message about itself.

For everyone else, things could get tricky.  But be sure on one thing.  Social media is a growing force that will need to be reckoned with.

In the past, I’ve made references to my ongoing struggle to maintain my current level of impending obesity, that’s not what this blog entry is about, and I’m sorry if the title caused confusion.  It’s about the growing complexity of providing a cohesive web presence for your web visitors

Back in the day (I’m talking about 3 oil changes ago) managing incoming inquiries meant getting up on Google’s search engine results page (which was achieved by white text on white backgrounds, spamming your meta tags and building 30 websites and linking to yourself).  It also meant buying Adwords (I’ve got some great stories for another blog), and for the brave, getting a company Facebook page.

Let’s use company X for example.  Company X makes Xpills for middle aged men.  They help us grow hair, have energy and remember to take our Viagra.  They’ve got their super X website all WordPressie and Fontie cool.  They’ve got their Facebook page with 1,500 old geezers following them and testimonials from men around the world who have added inches to their self esteem.  Their company leaders are blogging about trips to the Amazon rain forest and discoveries of new revolutionary products and Brazil’s best hotel deals.  They’ve even got 2,000 middle aged male followers of their @geezer-tweet.  There are local reviews on 17 different sites, and at least 47 mentions on 30 other social media channels.

Now let’s say I’m interested in learning about Xpills.  How will I discover all things “Xpills” online?  What will I stumble upon (I don’t ask that in the dot-com sense)?  Herein lies the rub of Web 3.0 – we’ll call it “user pathways,” and the bigger the company, the bigger the challenge:  Organizing “all things web” and serving them up as helpful user pathways with well timed “calls to action.”

I became keenly aware of what I’ve since called “user pathways” when I bought my first toy jeep on a popular eCommerce site.  While checking out, I was asked, “Do you want batteries for that?”  Of course I wanted batteries.  What, are you crazy?  Christmas morning, new jeep, no batteries?  I’m no dumb dad.  “Yes,” click to add batteries.  Back button 3 clicks to the home page, if I had been served up the same question – I would have ignored it.  User pathways matter.

A decade ago when I accidentally built a website that changed my life, I accidentally asked the right questions:  “Who’s coming to this site,” and “What do they want?”  Since that time, every successful consultation I’ve given has asked those questions.  Projects that have successfully answered those questions and then built and designed around them have gotten wonderful reviews from visitors.  It’s all about the end-users and their journey of discovering you, one click at a time.

While “Who’s coming to this site” may remain the same question, “What do they want” has changed a bit.  What searchers find outside of your website is also growing exponentially.  That’s scary.  The winners in the next round will be those companies that can creatively engage an online community and creatively/effectively provide user pathways that dance in and out of social media mentions.  I might need some Xpills to get my head around this challenge.

It’s not enough for me  just to employ younger smarter staff with youthful Internet genius for our corporate customers, I also need to personally keep my thumb on the cultural pulse of all things Web and new. That’s probably why I endured the trek to NYC with Daniel Klotz and his friend Dave singing rap songs for the 6-hour round trip and eating McDonald’s in my clean car. I’ll mention the $100 in tolls and parking here as well. It was a calculated risk that I’d bring home some new strategies and insights for the organizations that depend on me.

Entering the room, there was an almost peaceful, futuristic quietness, with white noise of collective finger tapping on glowing laptops, and iPhones in the darkened room, as I joined the hive of attendees who seemed more consumed with texting their experience than having it. Not wishing to stand out, I ditched my tie at the first polite moment but nothing could be done about my conservative leather shoes in an auditorium of 300 to 500 hundred people with cool t-shirts and amazing new sneaker fashions.

To further make sure I didn’t fit in, I took notes using a legal pad with a pen and I tried to make new friends during the break instead of writing about the social media event and desperately seeking to charge my communications devices. But my legal pad soon became filled with stories not strategies and my mind was racing with guilt for not using recycled paper. I even tried to be cool by making a home-made video during break – but it seemed to make everyone nervous so we soon gave up. Looking back, it might have actually been Daniel, Dave and me that made people nervous.

While my “take home list of helpful strategies” for social media marketing was short, my experience was rich, having observed inspirational story after story of individuals and organizations using social media to re-energize “slacktivists” (my new term of the month) into motivated, involved and contributing members of a cause.

And I learned that I could easily choose any cause and instantly do something about it using the Internet because “making the world a better place is all about me.” (I am still trying to get my head around that one).  I also learned that responsible stewardship, accountability and transparency of the asking entity were not important enough to emphasize. We’re all good people, let’s not talk about that. I’m probably the only person in the room that asked, how do I know that Drew Olanoff (blamedrewscancer.com) really has cancer? He looks fine to me. What is Lance Armstrong doing with that money? How did Bernie Madoff win everyone’s confidence?

So here is the gleaned wisdom:

• We are officially entering the cyclic social era of cause again.
• Inspiration is the most important ingredient to build momentum for a cause.
• Factual, scientific and financial accountability are not terribly important for developing a large and/or devoted following for a cause.
• New unprecedented success stories in how people are influenced using social media must cause us to rethink how businesses could manage their brands and promote their services.