When you come across the term Web2.0, the first thing that comes to your mind would be – ‘This looks like a new version of the World Wide Web! Web 2.0 is not really a new version of the Web, but a term that’s refers to an improved form of the World Wide Web.
The concept of Web 2.0 started during a brainstorming session between O'Reilly and MediaLive International. During this session, what they noted was, through the dot com bubble had burst; the World Wide Web was far from over. It had in fact just started to become an important tool for springing up new applications and sites. They concluded that the dot com collapse marked a turning point for the Web and this turning point ushered a new set of features into the Web. They characterized these new features as Web 2.0.
With the coming in of these new features, the use of the World Wide Web as a means of just browsing the internet was over! Web users now have the opportunity to contribute and shape the content they see and read about on the Web. Such contribution can be done in many ways such as writing a compelling blog, recording a podcast or sharing photos and videos with the world. Thus, with Web2.0, the demand for “user-generated content” has reached the top and there is no looking back now.
So, what are these new features that revolutionised the World Wide Web and changed user outlook on how to use the web forever? Here’s a look:
• Web 2.0 has a participation architecture wherein as more people use it, others are also benefited. In other words, there is a network effect in its usage.
• It has become a platform for business and communication, rather than just being a place where information is stored. The Web is used to deliver applications, just through a browser.
• The Web now consists of sites which are informative and interactive. The information on the site is owned by the site owners and is constantly updated by them.
• Web 2.0 has feature-rich and user-friendly interfaces based on Ajax or other similar frameworks.
All these features indicate that Web 2.0 is actually the second generation of Web-based services. Social networking sites, Wikis, Communication tools, and Folksonomies, are typical examples of these new services. One important characteristic that the new services share is that they provide for online collaboration and sharing among users.
Web 2.0 has brought a number of innovations for its users, by which user experience of the web has been enriched. Looking into the innovations associated with Web 2.0:
• Rick user experience: The web sites, we see on the web now offer a rich user experience through Ajax technology. They have the same features as the personal computer such a word processing, spread sheet, slide show presentations. The use of browser-based operating system are also seen and these services function as application platforms and provide the same user experience as a desk-top operating system by offering features and applications similar to a PC environment.
• Rich internet applications: Software such as Ajax, Adobe Flash, Flex and OpenLaszlo, provide rich internet application techniques by which users can request for updates to some part of a page’s contents, without the need to refresh the whole page.
• Advanced server software: The service technology required for supported web sites in Web 2.0 has advanced. As a result server vendors offer new features. One is the universal server approach, in which all required functionality is placed in a single server platform, and the other is the web-server plugin approach, in which standard publishing tools are used, along with API interfaces and other tools.
• Enhanced client-side software: The coming up of scripting language such as Javascript has enabled the use of client computer to reduce workload on the server. The extra functionality provided by Web 2.0 depends on the ability of users to work with the data stored on servers. This can be done through forms in an HTML page, through a scripting language such as Javascript, or through Flash or Java. All these methods make use of the client computer to reduce the server workloads.
• RSS: Syndication is an important feature of Web 2.0. Through syndication, end-users can do different things with the data on a particular site. They can use it in another context such as another web-site, to a browser plugin, or to a separate desktop application. Protocols which permit syndication include RSS ,RDF, and Atom. All these protocols use XML-based formats.
• Use of web protocols: One of the most important elements of Web 2.0 infrastructure is web communication protocols such as REST and SOAP. REST provides a means to access and manipulate data on a server using the HTTP verbs GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE, while SOAP enables posting XML messages and requests to a server.
All said and done about the effects of Web 2.0 on internet users, the term has received considerable flak from critics.
One point argued is that since there is actually no real standard set to define Web 2.0, it can be thought of in different ways by different people. Furthermore, much of the radical changes attributed to Web 2.0 have emerged before the term Web 2.0 was actually coined. For example, Amazon provided its users with the feature of writing reviews and consumer’s guides when it started in 1995.
There are sites which claims they are Web 2.0 site because they some trivial feature such as a blog. This is more like using means Web 2.0 as a way to market themselves and not actually using it in the context if what it really means. The critics who points all this out feel that there is actually no Web 2.0, but only an extension of the existing World Wide Web with enhanced technologies. For example if you take Ajax technology, it cannot be used as a replacement of underlying protocols like HTTP, it functions like an additional layer of abstraction on top of them.
However, despite what the critics say, the term has been coined and is here to stay. As the World Wide Web evolves with the advent of more advanced technologies, this term will become more significant as people will have to associate such new technologies with a new version of the web. Even if this new version is not actually announced, it is expected that Web 2.0 will be used to refer to them.
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