Web 2.0–A dotcom Renaissance

If you are a Silicon Valley professional or in some way associated with any form of internet-based business, you will definite know about the bursting of the dotcom bubble or rather the IT-bubble that collapsed in the year 2001. At a time when the dotcom fall spelt doom for IT-industry, thankfully, the Web 2.0 concept was conceived.

The concept took its final shape through a video conferencing program between web pioneer O’ Reilly and MediaLive International after a prolonged series of some terrific brainstorming. The concept resulted in the invention of more advanced technology and several interesting features that was highly profitable in comparison to dotcom products. Hence people started seeing great investment opportunities and a path to tremendous success with Web 2.0. The IT world that was in deep remorse due to the sudden, unexpected death of dotcom, felt as though Web 2.0 was a new incarnation.

In the Web 2.0 era the World Wide Web started being used for business purposes rather than for exchange of information and many software and hardware were designed keeping business advancement in mind. Many consider Web 2.0 as a much hyped marketing buzzword, an over hyped concept, and actually not very different from dotcom. However, there are others who think that the Web 2.0 is an advanced concept and has a great potential. Mostly business investors use the Web 2.0 technology to mint money as many of its features are made just for that.

Let us look at some of the prominent features of Web 2.0. They are Google Adsense, Flickr, Wikipedia, Napstar, Search engine optimization, blogging, cost per click, web services, wikis, and a lot more. Business investors started seeing moneymaking opportunity in each and every feature. Designing attractive websites and placing advertisements were seen as a great opportunity of revenue generation, as many companies started approaching webmasters to advertise for them. The Internet became a popular media for advertising as well as for spreading news, and improving visibility. There are some very good newsblogs that give the latest and updated news in comparison to newspaper and television. These sites are refreshed frequently to satisfy their users. Of late, it has become such a rage that many business owners are flaunting the name of Web 2.0 just to sell their product.

Essentially, Web 2.0 is an extension of Web 1.0, though many people see them as different. Both are about exchange of information using the World Wide Web. However, the purpose of this exchange became more commercialized. In the Web 1.0 era web pages would be designed to give away information to net surfers. In the Web 2.0 era, however, readers are no more passive receivers of information anymore. They take active part in voicing their opinions. In the Web 1.0 there would be independent websites where people would visit and retrieve information, but Web 2.0 is all about social networking and online communities. Even though there are independent websites even today, most of them are highly linked up.

The client–server concept dominated in the Web 1.0, whereas in the Web 2.0 era it got transformed into peer to peer. People would design personal websites in the Web 1.0 and in Web 2 the prevalence of personal blogs gain popularity everyday. There are technical features, which are upgraded from earlier static program-based interfaces to more dynamic and easy to modulate front end-based applications.

Tags: web 1.0, Web 2.0