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This year’s Future of Web Apps conference (FOWA) is upon us. Once again London will be flooded with web app developers and entrepreneurs from across the globe, gathering to have a glimpse into the future to see if there’s going to be a new Twitter, Facebook, TinyGrab, etc. Oh, and to party, mustn’t forget the party.

Started in 2008 by Ryan Carson’s Carsonified, FOWA has quickly established itself as one of the very few must attend conferences of the web industry calendar.

This year I shall be in attendance to cover all of the latest and greatest that FOWA has to offer. Follow me on Twitter for live updates and keep visiting BiG! throughout Tuesday and Wednesday for posts, photos, videos and audio updates. If there’s anything in particular you’d like to see covered, please shoot me your suggestions in the comments below.

Chris Leydon.

In a time where most websites and services are looking to assimilate all Borg-esque into each other, the US film rental company Netflix has taken an interesting move and decided to split its company and services in half.

Netflix is a US based service which allowed its users to pay a subscription fee to have DVD rentals sent to their house through the postal system, or to stream the films online with their successful and pioneering web service. On Sunday evening Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, announced that they would be spinning off their DVD rental service and turning it into a new company called Qwikster; leaving their streaming service under the Netflix brand.

Poor diabolical and illogical choices of name aside, I do understand and support Netflix’s move in creating Qwikster. As Hastings said in his blog post announcing the split, in order for a company to be truly great they need to have complete focus and their DVD by post service wasn’t allowing them to do it. What baffles me though is the company’s choice to completely separate the two services and demand that users now have two accounts, two queues and two billing entries; all in an age where every other web service and company is preaching for unity.

The company often applauded for its unity of services, even if it can be rather creepy at times, is Apple. Every device and service that you have ties in nicely with your Apple ID. Imagine if suddenly one day Tim Cook, the new CEO, woke up and decided that actually it made sense if you had different logins for iTunes, the iOS App store and the Mac App Store; because they all do slightly different things and are different divisions. This move would create mass confusion and would probably encourage a drop in sales.

As much as I hate centralisation and fear the big bad evil database where my entire existence is logged to be looked over by anyone who wishes; I have to agree that as a consumer it’s made my life much easier. Separate your companies Netflix, sure that makes sense, but why not create a unified ID and billing system to make things easier for your consumers? Better still use something like Facebook Connect, so that when the CIA or MI5 decide that they want their big bad central databases to go live they can peruse through my awful taste in movie rentals.

Chris Leydon.

Snog.com is a UK social network that first started blowing up in January 2011. Initially I was skeptical about the “network”, assuming that it was only a fad viral app for Twitter and Facebook, however 9 months on I’ve been convinced by its founder (Will Pierce) to give it a go. So here’s the oh so tabloidesque question; am I going to Snog, Marry or Avoid Snog.com?

The premise is simple, users sign up and then ask the world if it wants to snog, marry or avoid them. This morning, against the better judgement of my friends, I signed up for Snog.com and asked the world to rate me. The sign up process was a little tricky. I was asked to Connect with my Facebook account then following this I was presented with a “Signup for Snog.com” form. It appears that Connecting with Facebook doesn’t actually create an account on the site, you have to go through the sign up process regardless.

Once signed up, signed in and my profile was filled out, I waited and I waited… and I waited some more. Nothing was happening. I’d visit the homepage of the site and it would show me a very blank page with what seemed to be my profile in an editable mode. It wasn’t until I got an email telling me that I’d received my first “Snog, Marry or Avoid” answer that the site “unlocked” and actually allowed me to use the network. See the screenshots below for before and after examples. Perhaps a poor oversight by the site’s designers, but very confusing from a user interface perspective.

Signed up. Profile Filled out. Now what?

Much better! A usable site and profile!

Finally able to use Snog.com in all of its full glory I set up the “show me a random profile” filters to display guys between the ages of 18 and 24. If I’ve got to use a network aimed at finding out who I’m interested in, I may as well do it properly. My conclusion, after 10 minutes of seeing random profiles that matched my filter settings, is that there don’t seem to be that many attractive guys on the site, but maybe I’m just picky? Having said that, I can feel the addiction and rush that Snog’s loyal users claim on the front page. It’s fun to be a bitch at times.

Last month Snog launched its official iPhone app and as of writing it’s currently the 6th most downloaded social app for the iPhone in the world. Running Windows Phone 7 exclusively, I’m yet to play about with the app so can’t pass judgement. Snog claims to be getting an impressive 1.5 million hits with 300,000 answers being given daily; not bad for a site that’s less than a year old. No wonder Reinvent Inc have invested a six figure sum in the British networking app.

If I were to rate Snog.com on its own terms of “Snog, Marry or Avoid” which would I choose? Snog. – The site, whilst fun once you get through the hurdle of getting started, doesn’t have a pull factor for me or longevity. Frankly I don’t see enough substance to commit to the app and “Marry” it, but as a one time fling? Sure it was fun.

I expect to see some great things in the future, but until then it’s a reinvention and spin of “Hot or Not”, very much in the same way that Facebook initially started out (if The Social Network is to be believed). Admittedly I’m not in Snog’s target profile, not being a 14 year old girl and instead being a gay 22 year old guy, but I still had fun. Snog.com is great for passing time on those wet, rainy and cold afternoons. I’m not going to lie, I enjoyed my Snog and passing fling but I shan’t be hitting that “Marry” button just yet. I’ll wait to see what the Snog team have got up their sleeves to be released in the coming months.

Chris Leydon.