What Is Your Definition Of Web 2.0?

As the Web2.0 Expo approaches, I got to thinking. What is Web 2.0? Seems to be a pretty easy question right?  Some people would say its “1 up from Web 1.0” or its “what comes before Web 3.0”.  Well as we know it is not that simply to define. So, as I like to do I reached out to my community with the questions:

“What Is Your Definition of Web 2.0? How do you define it? Are we in Web 3.0?”

Here are some of the great responses I got back.

Matthew Caylor, Account Executive – Interactive at Mid Atlantic Newspaper Services:

I think we have to look at the tools we consider Web 2.0 to define what it is – Between blogs, social networks and constant communication we have seen the tools that bring the Internet to everybody and pull it from the dreary dungeons of its birth. Web 2.0 simplified the Internet and its tools are the resources people now use to adapt it and change it to their use without complex instruction or coding. As for Web 3.0 – I think, much like a period in history, we will not be able to define it or place a particular start point. As the web moves towards a somatic nature I don’t think we will find a clear break point to declare 3.0.

Mike Ruiz, Senior Copywriter at Godrey Q & Partners

An unnecessary buzz word that marketers have used to exploit the natural progression of Internet technology while appearing to have the pulse of the computing world. Nothing saddens me more than to hear a client say, “we want something web 2.0.” since all that really means is they’re looking for rounded corners, gradient buttons, and a couple drop down menus. if anything “web 2.0” should be the realization that the Internet is no longer a one way conversation but a wellspring of content and communities to interact with. in the past, content was the goal of the user. they would find their thing then go outside. but by democratizing the sourcing of information, the user is now the goal for content providers and marketers, retailers, news/information resources and 15 year olds with a camcorder are working as hard and fast as they can for the next way to keep you from closing that link. as far as 3.0, who knows. judging by how the line between on and offline continues to blur we may not have a need for a catchphrase when the new model arrives. people will just call it life.

Charles Juckett, Marketing/PR Consultant

I would define 1.0 as static or read only, 2.0 as interactive, and I believe 3.0 will be characterized as being adaptive.  As for being in 3.0 now, I would say that if we looked back on this time from the future, the answer would be yes to on some level. Being there is not accepted definition of 3.0 traits yet however, it is impossible to make that distinction. If “adaptive” does come to be a key trait of Web 3.0, I would look for sites and technologies that allow content, presentation, interaction, and marketing to be molded to the individuals preferences automatically. To a small degree, this already occurs. One example would be the advertising that appears in gmail which are targeted at the individual based on their email.

Tammy Graham, Director Web Marketing Strategies

I have written a couple of blogs on Web 3.0, and yes, I do believe we are evolving into Web 3.0.  The third generation of the web, known more popularly as Web 3.0 is one that will be referred to as the “intelligent web”.  The intelligent web will incorporate features such as natural language search, data mining, recommendation agents, and artificial intelligence technologies in order to produce a more intuitive user search experience.  Web 3.0 and the Semantic Web will be apart of a strategy that will incorporate web development that is designed using machine-readable text. This means that the success of the semantic web is dependent on how people are inputting data, or feeding information to search engines/machines.  In order for machines to make sense of information as people do, they need to be programmed with a way to identify not only individual words, but also the concept of the words, and other related words. Once this has been done, new web standards for writing text, and tagging it for keywords that machines can read need to be developed and shared with people who are generating content for the web.  Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a language emerging to enable systems to understand a user’s intention, and is the building blocks of the “Semantic Web.”  Standards such as RDF are used to define metadata in a machine-readable way that enables machines to integrate distinct data assigning roles and relationships to words that enable the machine to make sense of the association of words as apposed to merely making a relation to words.  Web 3.0 is dependent on user generated tagging and linking to information across different platforms, providing context and depth to information online. When proper tags are assigned to content more precise search results are possible and more traffic can

Sjef Kerhofs, Online Marketing Consultant

Web2.0 is just a fashion word that’s confusing for most ‘non-Internet ‘marketeers. So….it’s just a word. What it stands for however, is the change from an static web, to the web of dialog and interaction. This form of web communication brings peoples from all over the world closer together. It makes it possible to find humans on the other end of the world that share the same taste for music for instance! (LastFM). It also gives international companies THE tool to finally communicate between different units in different parts of the world. Web3.0 (or semantic web) is still far far away I guess. Although it would be a great development, I think the main thing we as ‘internetmarketeers’ should focus on is close the enormous gap between internet marketers and ‘normal’marketeers. Most marketeers hardly know AdWords…..so how can you expect them to learn about web3.0 ??

Do you agree? Disagree? What is your definition of Web 2.0?