Applications manufacturers today offer tools that allow companies to reap all of the potential benefits of Web 2.0. Behind most of these initiatives lies a simple yet very promising idea for the corporate world. Without installing “in house” software (that is under the cloud computing format), companies can capitalize on these free on-line services for a series of activities requiring coordination or collaboration. These include organizing meetings, sharing contacts and documents, and creating communities. Furthermore, integration with social networks allows companies to get to know their clients and their preferences better in order to choose the ideal candidates. In this sense, it seems logical to assume that Web 2.0 will undergo a strong new surge due to its commitment to mobility, and specific applications are already coming out on the market.

In general, Spanish companies have been slow to jump onto the bandwagon. There are a few exceptions, though. One of the most noteworthy of these is Actibva, the Web 2.0 platform launched by BBVA that is designed to inform users about the evolution of financial markets and foment relationships among parties interested in savings and economic topics from the viewpoint of markets as well as the personal finances. BBVA’s team of specialized journalists selects news according to completely independent criteria and offers its own views in the Actibva blog. As such, users can vote on news items and introduce their own commentaries.

Beyond this example, there are a few interesting Web 2.0 initiatives gathering force among younger Spanish companies. One of them is meneame.net, a portal to which users can send news items and vote on their meaningfulness. The company has just celebrated its third anniversary since opening and now has 1.6 million unique users per month. Of these, 90,000 are registered and generating over 17 million website views per month. Another good example is Wikiloc, a portal containing 42,000 routes and 56,000 images and videos of these routes sent by users. Google gave official technological recognition to this concept in 2006 when it chose Wikiloc as the best Google Maps mashup. As a result, its routes have been included in Google Earth since mid-2008. iBicing is another interesting initiative. It was created by Mi Mundo iPhone to improve the efficiency of Bicing, Barcelona’s shared biking system. With Bicing, any citizen of Barcelona can obtain a personal identification card at very low cost in order to use one of the company’s bicycles parked at convenient stations throughout the city. These bicycles can be picked up and dropped off at any point within the city network. This very successful service is used by thousands of people per day, but it relies on a prior knowledge of where the nearest pickup and drop off stations are located. iBicing was developed to solve this problem by using the geo-positioning system on the Apple iPhone to show the exact point of nearby stations along with the number of bicycles and free spaces available at any given time.

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