420 Design Blog
Web 2.0 is not a new World Wide Web
15 Oct 2007 | Angie H
Maybe you've heard the term, maybe you haven't: Web 2.0. Personally, I hate it.
What has always bothered me about "Web 2.0" is that can be so confusing for people with no direct connections to or deeper knowledge of the Web or technology industries. And even then some smart people were confused. My brother, for example, who is a very skilled IT/networking pro had to ask me what Web 2.0 was all about.
Thanks to the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004, the term has proliferated and is used and overused. It's defined as "the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform." Typically it just means all the cool new apps and technologies you see just about anywhere on the 'net: blogs, RSS feeds, social applications (think MySpace), etc.
The problem with the term is that it makes it sound like there's a new Web; a new Internet. But there isn't. It's the same Internet. Yet it's not. Confused yet?
You see, it's the same Internet as far as how it works and what developers need to do to get a page or site up on the Web. But it's different in the sense that what we do within the boundaries of the Internet guidelines, rules and structure, is getting more sophisticated, slicker and just plain cooler every day.
It's this confusion that has made even Tim Berners-Lee say it's nothing more than jargon. So if you're a marketer, please, quit using the term. And if you're confused about Web 2.0 and wonder whether you need to catch up, you can relax. You haven't missed anything.
Technology, Web Design + Development