This week marketers have discovered that sites like Facebook etc cover the whole socio-political spectrum, not just the fun, funny and socially acceptable bits. Let’s hope this doesn’t divert attention away from the significant opportunities that genuine Web 2.0 / 3.0 applications can offer marketers.

Marketing in the 21st century will be about search and find, that is pull rather than push. It will be about solving personal needs with customised solutions i.e. one to one rather than mass marketing. This is why Google is worth $160bn; it has cornered the search/pull side of this equation. Success for many brands will be defined by their ability to be found by consumers. Using a standard ad to sales ratio of 1:10 Google’s annual revenue of $10bn could put the value of the sales resulting from these searches at $100bn.

Many Web 2.0 techniques will be at the core of this new ’search and find’ marketing philosophy. Blogs are an excellent way to align brands to important content and generate good search returns. Forums likewise offer marketers the opportunity to be found whilst buyers attempt to research, build and refine customised solutions to specific needs.

Web 3.0 will develop this theme further. Web 3.0 will be about applications which use the information to construct solutions to consumer problems. Here’s an example: Today you have to look through holiday sites to build your itinerary based on the information you find. Web 3.0 applications will tell you what your itinerary should be, on your PC or your mobile, in a few seconds. You’ll like it so much, you’ll pass it on to your friends. It will spread virally because the effectiveness of the applications will be so appealing.

Advertising on social networks is a Web 1.0 technique in a Web 2.0 world. What’s happening with sites like Facebook is a slip on the stepping stone between the two. It may be the case that running ads on these networks is not a sustainable route for all advertisers. But we must not lose sight of the opportunity before us. Whilst Web 2.0 is about being found, Web 3.0 will offer opportunities for marketers to customise information, product and service delivery in ways that have never been seen before.