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September 29, 2005

"What is Web 2.0?"

"What is Web 2.0?" Google lists over eighteen thousand pages on this query... Richard MacManus collects many of this week's essays. After reading lots, the only core definition I've seen in common seems to be "Web 2.0 is 'what I want the Web to become'"... people describing their personal vision of what they'd like to happen. Me, I'm not sure it's the right question... instead of a web of hyperlinked documents we're actually looking at ubiquitous data on demand... more Internet than WWW, more applications than just documents...?

Posted by John Dowdell at September 29, 2005 01:30 PM

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Comments

I would argue it's more services than applications, and it's about using the Web as a platform (so Internet doesn't beat Web) ;-) By which I mean, using Web formats (RSS, REST web services, APIs, etc) and standards is crucial here.

I do like the phrase "ubiquitous data on demand" :-)

Posted by: Richard MacManus at September 29, 2005 02:19 PM

To a user, it'll be slick interfaces and dynamic pages. To an engineer, it'll be the open API's and application frameworks (and of course your technology/language of choice).

But, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that web applications will define Web 2.0 more than anything. The industry will have a fun time deciding what our buzzword really means, but users are the ones who'll truly label it. And to a user, it's all about what they see: the application.

Posted by: James Lyon at September 29, 2005 02:46 PM

Just replace "Web" with "new new economy" and you get "new new economy 2.0". In other words, more hype, more money, more bloggers trying to act like it was all their idea.

I despise slapping labels onto things but if we must I might suggest that we go with "Web 1.2" instead, to reflect the incremental nature of the internet's evolution (by simple people trying to tackle simple problems).

When...
- RSS can decide on a single standard
- People realize how hacked up AJAX is
- APIs aren't full of usage restrictions
- Browsers are obsoleted by smart-clients installed on the user's desktop and are of the user's choosing (think general purpose java webstart + decent ui)
... we will have a Web 2.0.

Until then I will wait patiently.

Posted by: private netizen at September 29, 2005 06:50 PM