Web 2.0
There is a lot of noise these days about Web 2.0. Initially, it sounds a little scary, is this some kind of evolution? What’s happening to the current Web?
It is a kind of evolution, quite market-driven. Web 2.0 apps proliferate now, with companies falling over each other to provide users with better ways to collaborate and interact, but more than that, Web 2.0 apps give people more power to place their lives online.
Google is your quintessential Web 2.0 company: it’s all about using the power of Internet technologies to make the online experience more customised and tailored to the individual user. More relevant to their online self, their habits and their interests. Google has incredible banks of information with which to create these customising applications, and of course it is all a part of the business model: targeted advertising.
You’ll see this trend all over the place: Facebook, iGoogle, eBay. So that’s the first characteristic of Web 2.0: offering powerful customisations of experience in exchange for data about preferences (to be used in determining which ads are most likely to elicit a click from you and thus cash for them).
Another major step in the Web 2.0 evolution is the emergence of Rich Internet Applications. These are usually created using AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript And XML) or Flash/Flex and allow users to obtain a similar experience within their browser to using a desktop application. My favourite examples are Google Docs and MindMeister, a mind mapping tool. A great advantage of these applications is that they allow collaboration and portability: one may invite people anywhere around the world to view or edit documents. These often operate on a subscription basis: providing a basic service for free, but charging fees in exchange for really useful features.
Thirdly, Web 2.0 applications are characterised by user control. Users are given unprecedented power to manage their own data and choose how applications work for them. So, Web 2.0 apps - I like IWantSandy.com - are responsive.
Fourthly, Web 2.0 is about interactivity. Largely due to the popularity of social networking, Web 2.0 apps work with each other to deliver content and experiences that are appealing to users. For example, Google has built OpenSocial, an Application Programmer’s Interface (API) for social networking sites. OpenSocial allows developers to write applications or widgets that work across all social networking sites that implement the API. This opens up wonderful possibilities for applications to operate across these normally-closed social networking platforms. A similar idea (although with different implementation - long story) is Widgetbox, which allows you to create a widget(s) that operate almost anywhere on the Net.
Not that Web 2.0 is a utopia: read this blog post about what occurs when there is trouble in interactivity-paradise.
So, Web 2.0 is characterised by:
- customised online experiences;
- rich internet applications;
- unprecedented user control; and
- application interactivity.
Good Resources:
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html