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A Buzzword is Born: The Middle Web

March 12, 2009 I don't know if this will catch on or not, but one Ad Age writer has just written about the so-called "Middle Web." What is the Middle Web you may ask? It's the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge..oh, wait, that was the Twilight Zone. The Middle Web is perhaps best embodied by the Amazon Kindle, the updated version of which is getting no end of pixels plotted either to extol its virtues or to lament its failures. How is it emblematic of the "Middle Web"?

What makes this new Kindle truly important isn't what it does today but what it represents for tomorrow. First, let's look at the form factor of the Kindle: the size, the thickness, the design. It's flat, not a clamshell. Then, the functionality: built-in 3G internet access, automatic syncing to other devices, etc. It really is a unique device, existing in a space between mobile phones and netbooks/laptops. The Kindle plays in the Middle Web.

I remain dubious about the Middle Web. Think about this: Kindle-osity has come to the mobile phone, and I recently spent some time playing around with the Kindle app for the Apple iPhone. As I said:

since the iPhone does not use the E Ink e-paper display, you don't get the e-paper experience. But that's okay, because a) the iPhone Kindle app is free and b) the iPhone display is actually pretty readable as it is. So I downloaded the app and bought an e-book (Charles Dickens' Sketches by Boz, which I don't have in print) and it's actually not a bad experience. I have mixed feelings about e-books, but if one were to start reading e-books, the Kindle app might very well be the way to go. It's not perfect, but of all the e-book applications I have seen over the years, it's perhaps one of the best.

I have since downloaded Wilkie Collins' classic novel The Moonstone (largely because I am also in the process of reading the print version of the recent trhiller Drood, which is a novel about Charles Dickens narrated by the character of Wilkie Collins).

I have also spent some time trying to learn how to format printed book files (created in Adobe InDesign) for the Kindle, and I am happy to say that my self-published novel Virus! is now available for the Kindle (and iPhone app). I describe the blood, sweat, and tears required to accomplish that here.
I do like the Kindle iPhone app, but I will still always prefer printed books; they always work, they don't need batteries, and they don't have annoying DRM technologies. Still, I have come to like the Kindle iPhone app for riding the bus or when I travel and want to read a book but don't necessarily want to schlep a printed book around.

It will be interesting to see what the future holds for e-books. I have always had my doubts that e-books would ever be anything more than a niche (like audio books, substantial as they may be) but as more and more people become inured to reading content--even book-length content--on a screen, perhaps they will take off substantially.

Posted by Richard Romano on March 12, 2009 | Comments (0)