History

The concept of “Web 2.0″ began with a conference brainstorming session between O’Reilly and MediaLive International. Dale Dougherty, web pioneer and O’Reilly VP, noted that far from having crashed the web was more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites popping up with surprising regularity. What’s more, the companies that had survived the collapse seemed to have some things in common. Could it be that the dot-com collapse marked some kind of turning point for the web, such that a call to action such as “Web 2.0″ might make sense? They agreed that it did, and so the Web 2.0 Conference was born.

The Web as Platform

Like many important concepts, Web 2.0 doesn’t have a hard boundary, but rather, a gravitational core. You can visualize Web 2.0 as a set of principles and practices that tie together a veritable solar system of sites that demonstrate some or all of those principles, at a varying distance from that core.

Web 1.0 vs. Web 2.0 AltaVista vs. Google Hotmail vs. Yahoo Mail Ofoto vs. Flicker Mp3.com vs. iTunes Geocities vs. Blogger MapQuest vs. Google Maps Encarta vs. Wikipedia Netscape vs. Firefox Open Data Open data formats No data lock-in or walled gardens User created data User owns their own data Ability to use data outside the confines of the application Data used across devices Architecture of Participation Providing a service, not a product (infoware not software) Encourage user contribution (reviews, comments) Collective intelligence (Page Rank, folksonomies, popularity) Make it easy to re-use and re-mix Customer self-service Community and sense of ownership Rich User Experience Easy to use Pleasurable to use Build social networks Rich user interface Functions like a traditional application Core Web 2.0 Technologies Open data through API’s and web services RSS Ajax Web Standards (DOM Scripting, XHTML, CSS) Web 2.0 Revolution Using existing technologies in new and innovative ways Change in the way people view the web More mature industry Healthier web economy Need to innovate just to maintain position The Web as a Platform Simplifies distribution Easy way of maintaining code Faster speed to market Share data across devices Subscription model vs. one off purchase

Web 2.0 refers to the supposed second generation of web technology. This means everything from blogs and Facebook to interactive flash based web design. With this new wave of web development and web design comes a whole new mess of tools and technology to exploit for your business. Lets survey some of the tools considered to be a part of web 2.0 and how they are used.

Social Networking – Your most common options here are Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Twitter and possibly even LinkedIn for an ecommerce approach. These sites allow different people to exchange communication through the website and create “friendships” by making and accepting friend requests. How can this be valuable to your business? The logic here is to link businesses to consumers and consumers to businesses. If consumer B sees that consumer A is “friends” with or is interested in Business A, then consumer B is more likely to accept your company. It’s not always this simple as most users are turned off by an obvious ploy to get a consumer’s dollar. While this is sometimes difficult to achieve, this is where the most important 18-25 year olds are found so it is most likely worth the investment.

RSS Feeds – RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, feeds are basically the easiest way to upload frequently updated content such as blogs, news, articles, or audio/video. This gives your users a way to stay connected with your website and makes them feel connected to your business. If you are constantly posting fresh content that is valuable to your potential customers, they will want to stay up to date with what you have going on and if you give them the option to subscribe to your content as an RSS feed, it will only be easier for them.

Various widgets – There are many different Web 2.0 widgets and applications. One that almost every person has heard of and likely used is Google Maps. Countless companies are implementing Google’s brilliance on their websites and helping their potential customers find their place of business. “Bookmark This” is another good example of a popular widget. This is an application that allows you to create a button for users to share the content on your webpage, subscribe to the content, or simply bookmark it. For the record, these are just two of the countless tools out there for free. Search Google for web 2.0 applications or web 2.0 widgets. You won’t be disappointed.

Even though Web 2.0 can be complicated and overwhelming, it is just another part of our ever-changing technology that you are going to have to keep up with if you plan on keeping a good reputation. Social Networking, blogs, RSS feeds, and other tools are just some of the examples and there are always going to be more and more new developments to be a part of your business.