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Web 2.0: Way Of The Future Or Marketing Gimmick?
By Mikhail Tuknov (c) 2007

The term Web 2.0 has come to dramatically increased usage over
the past few years. Many people have since begun to appropriate
this hot new buzzword for their own websites while others are
not quite so eager to embrace this new concept, considering it
little more than an inappropriately named web-marketing
gimmick. It has clearly polarized the web into two opposing
camps, of adherents on the one hand and skeptics on the other.
Yet in spite of all this - or perhaps because of this - there is
still plenty of confusion and controversy surrounding Web 2.0.
What is it exactly? And are the changes to the way the Internet
has come to be used in recent years really significant enough to
warrant this name?

The phrase itself is attributed to O'Reilly media, the company
who coined it in 2003. Subsequently, the first Web 2.0
conference, which was held in 2004, brought it into widespread
public consciousness. A series of conferences hosted by
O'Reilly media has made the term even more popular than ever
and facilitated the adoption of it by many industry pundits.
The term as it has come to be used by O'Reilly media, refers to
what many in the Internet industry perceive to be the second
wave of Web-based communities and hosted services, following
the first wave of communities which flourished during the
initial Internet boom. These web sites encompass social
networking sites, wiki sites and folksonomies - all of which
share the trait of encouraging and facilitating content
collaboration and sharing among its many users.

Perhaps some of the confusion surrounding the use of the term
Web 2.0 stems from the fact that it does not actually signify a
change or an update to the technical specification of the World
Wide Web as we have come to know it. Instead it more
appropriately describes the widespread changes that many
systems developers have implemented in the way that they use
the existing web platform. The founder of O'Reilly media, Tim
O'Reilly has himself termed it a business revolution in the
computer industry that was caused by the move to the Internet
as a platform. He further goes on to say that attempts to come
to grips with the rules for success on that new platform is an
integral part of Web 2.0.

On his own blog, which can be found at
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2005/10/web_20_compact_definition.html,
O'Reilly wrote a compact yet more detailed definition of the
term and refers to Web 2.0 as his view of the network as a
platform that encompasses all the devices that are connected to
it. According to him, Web 2.0 applications are the applications
that are in the best position to take advantage of most of the
inherent benefits of that platform. The means by which they can
achieve this is through the delivery of software to the public
that is continuously updated and generates its content through
the merging of data from many different sources, which may
include the individual end user. The Web 2.0 applications in
turn generate their own data as well as services in a way that
other users can readily mix according to their own needs. This
paradigm clearly goes beyond the nature of Web 1.0 into a
network that is built upon as O'Reilly calls it "(an)
architecture of participation". The end result is a richer web
experience for the end user by way of applications that
actually get better the more they are used.

To further illustrate the differences between Web 1.0 and Web
2.0, it may help to view Web 1.0 as primarily focused on the
connectivity between computers and a way to make technology
work better for computers, while Web 2.0 strives to link people
together and make technology work better for people.

While some people would disagree with this last
illustration - and indeed claim that the opposite is actually
more accurate - the fact remains that the Web 2.0 is increasingly
reliant on the varied input from its users and the dividing line
between people and technology is becoming more and more blurred
as time goes on.

While computer mediation is still - and will probably remain for
the foreseeable future - an integral part of the new
paradigm, the utilization of the collective input from its
users will bring about a continuous improvement of the
particular application based on the same users' interaction
with it.

The clear shift in focus from "technology" to "people" is
perhaps no better illustrated by the change in technological
demands from the '90s to the present. While many users
previously focused their requests on solutions to very specific
technological demands, the overwhelming clamor nowadays is for
applications that allow for far more end user intervention and
input.

The controversy rages on as to the validity of the term Web
2.0, but by all indications it seems that it is here to stay.
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Mikhail Tuknov is a http://www.infatex.com search engine
optimization specialist providing web site search engine
optimization (SEO), pay per click (PPC) management and web
analytics services.
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