The term “web 2.0” has become quite the buzzword in the web industry over the past couple years. Clients request it, bloggers discuss it, and, strangely enough, everyone seems to have a different idea of what “web 2.0” means. Because there’s different understandings of what “web 2.0” actually means, the ambiguity and confusion has led many to believe that “web 2.0” is dead. And in the same short breath, they claim that the dawn of “web 3.0” is upon us. I don’t think it’s fair to say that web 2.0 is dead. Web 2.0, in my mind, is a process – one that doesn’t end.
The term “Web 2.0” often refers to a perceived second generation of web development and design, that aims to facilitate communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and applications; such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.’ As defined by Wikipedia, itself a web 2.0 by-product.
Although difficult to quantify, “Web 2.0” is the ooohhh’s and ahhhh’s of a website’s aesthetics that impress the end user and increase usability. The revolution of these new standards and idea’s opened the internet as a platform; it essentially brought the internet to an every day user standpoint. With websites like facebook, match and blogspot, web 2.0 opened the internet to a broader range of users. I think it’s fair to define Web 2.0 as a name given to the progression of design standards – improved practices, better technologies, and more user focus on the user.
So, everyone is now talking about the next generation of web standards; “Web 3.0.” But again the term will be ambiguous and perceived differently by many. To me, Web 3.0 is the progression of programming and technology that compliments the progression of Web 2.0’s design innovations. But again, this is a process, it doesn’t really end. We will always work to find improvements.
The concepts of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 aren’t mutually exclusive. They can exist at the same time and be compliments to each other. While the ideas of clean designs and greater user interaction make a website pleasing to the eye and fun to use, Web 3.0 standards will make the website function and operate more efficiently.
