Everyday there have been a huge amount of data being uploaded, downloaded or transferred around the web. Data is become one of the most valuable resources for most of the businesses around the world (e.g. Google, Yahoo, Facebook) and etc. As a result I believe that data is the most important aspect of any Web 2.0 website as every significant internet application to date has been backed by a specialised database.
One of the website which i am going to introduce is a match-making website. It is the web oldest and largest online dating website to dated. So what make this online dating website so different from other online dating website? It is due to the low-cost, social-media-savvy, statistically driven approach to dating that gives a slight cutting edge over other online dating website. To dated, OkCupid has attracted over 7 millions users! Unlike most dating sites, OkCupid lets users set up profiles and contact other members without having to pay fees. (A $10-per-month “A List” version lets members cruise ad-free profiles and access additional features.) Members can set up their own blogs, take quizzes, and compose questions for other users to answer.The company’s popular blog, OkTrends, mines site data for trends and offers tongue-in-cheek relationship advice.
As i have said, OkCupid is extremely data-driven. The website is based on users’s data.The site’s OkTrends blog employs sophisticated statistical analysis to prove or justify the accuracy of the different question or quizzes being posed by the members itself.After I have reviewed the website I found out that it’s a promising site with alot of members inside and also the site will match up members for compatibility.Therefore data is an extremely important thing for many companies and websites. With data, we can gain knowledge from the analysis of data to have a better picture of certain things.
References
http://www.pcworld.com/article/219480/is_okcupids_dating_data_safe_with_matchcom.html
http://oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html?page=3
xxlesliexx 
Great example of web 2.0 applications Leslie. I can see how the data is important for web applications from your example. However, you have not mentioned who owns the data which is one of the major issues with “Data is the next intel inside” pattern.
OkCupid looks interesting! and yes I agree that data is extremely significant. However, what aspects make OkCupid belongs this pattern of Web 2.0?
The ability to hold large amount of data and create a “architecture of participation” among the subscribers i believe:)