Jul
28
Written by:
Vanick Group
7/28/2010 8:15 AM
Since Tim O'Reilly’s Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004 there has been much buzz around “Web 2.0”.
What is Web 2.0?
What exactly was Web 1.0?
And even more interesting, what will Web 3.0 be?
The good news is that, as a user of the web, it really doesn’t matter. However, it is worth noting the distinguishing characteristics of each.
Web 1.0
The whole thing started in 1989 with a proposal from Tim Berners-Lee to CERN to create a standard for sharing and interlinking information on the ARPANET (an early version of the internet used primarily by research organizations and universities).
Web 1.0 was and is all about sharing information with an intended audience, allowing searchable content to be indexed or linked by other sites. If you recall, one of the original courtesies in creating a website was to provide a favorite links page.
Creating Web 1.0 websites is still a valid approach for some organizations. If your objective is to publish information or establish your brand, this approach will work for you.
Web 2.0
In 2004, Tim O’Reilly noticed that there was a radical, large-scale transition in how the Internet was being utilized. He deemed it Web 2.0.
Despite the calamity of the .com bust in the late 1990’s, companies once again had began to entrust their business communications, sales, and marketing to the power of the web’s ubiquitous network and universal standards.
The new push was going beyond informing and sharing information; it was moving into a two-way conversation. The web was now a place to actively engage customers. Businesses discovered that customers wanted to serve themselves and the web allowed them to do it 24/7.
Web 2.0 is all about convenience, efficiency and cost savings. How can you engage your customers, vendors and business partners using web-based technologies to make your business better?
Web 3.0
Tim Berners-Lee describes Web 3.0 as the “Semantic Web”. The term refers to W3C’s vision of the Web as linked data. Semantic Web technologies enable people to create data stores on the Internet, build vocabularies, and write rules for handling data1. However, just as Web 2.0 ventured well beyond Tim O’Reilly’s original definition, Web 3.0 is blowing away many preconceived notions.
The first and most significant is the proliferation of the mobile Smartphone device. This is changing where and how we use the Web, and it is altering our expectations of the information and services we consume.
For instance, mobile devices are now taking advantage of GPS information, adding an exacting ease and convenience to location specific information in the Semantic Web experience. Our computers are now with us and instantly accessible at any time.
The next consideration is the social media explosion. We want to connect and engage with businesses, family, and friends, in one seamless experience. Along with social media websites and apps there is now a demand/expectation for applications that will entertain, enhance, and assist us in everyday life whenever they are needed. We are immersing ourselves in the web.
Cloud computing, is the last radical change that we are seeing. The majority of the technologies and capabilities necessary for cloud computing have been there for a very long time. This move has been driven more by an increased level of trust in hosted providers and an expectation from users that services should be easily accessible from anywhere.
So what can we expect to see in the next few years as Web 3.0 matures? We will definitely see a continuation of businesses outsourcing infrastructure (IAAS and PAAS). We will see the advent of new SAAS businesses that we haven’t even conceived yet, and companies will be expected to create mobile interfaces for all of their sites in mass including iPhone, Droid, Blackberry, and mobile browsers. Today UX influencer Robert Hoekman tweeted “You may be designing for ‘mobile only’ in 3 years.”
Vanick Group can help your company meet the growing demands of a Web 3.0 audience so that you are one step ahead of your Web 2.0 competition.
by Lou Powell, Principal, Vanick Group
1 http://www.w3.org/standards/