The Term Web 2.0

The term Web 2.0 has been proposed to describe what is seen as a revival of the World Wide Web. In particular, it describes the Web 2.0 interfaces that allow users to interact with both the content of the pages but between them, making Web 2.0 web community and interactive.

“Web 2.0″ expression was initiated by Tim O’Reilly in 2004, and was imposed since the year 2007.

In its initial design, the web (called in this context the “Web 1.0″) consisted of static web pages that were updated rarely, if ever. The first development was carried out with solutions based on a dynamic Web (sometimes called Web 1.5) where content management systems served dynamic web pages created on the fly from a database in constant change. The web was seen primarily as a tool for the dissemination and visualization of data, where such things as the number of page views and aesthetics were very important.

The proponents of Web 2.0 think that the use of the Web is increasingly moving towards the interaction between users, crowd-sourcing and basic social networking, and also can use the operator content and network effects with or without actual visual and interactive web pages. In this sense, Web 2.0 sites act more as points of presence, or web portals and user-centric rather than on traditional websites. The evolution of the media to consult the web sites, their different formats, in 2008 brought a more centralized, as the content aspect. New Web 2.0 templates are trying to provide better care, graphics, and other effects, while remaining compatible with the diversity of media. In Web 2.0, the user is an actor. It contributes to the content sites, blogs, Wikis, etc.

Origin Of The Term ‘Web 2.0’

The term was coined by Dale Dougherty of O’Reilly Media company during a discussion with Craig Cline of Mediale to develop ideas for a joint conference. He suggested that the web was in a period of renaissance, with changing rules and evolving business models. Dougherty gave examples instead of definitions: “DoubleClick was Web 1.0. Google AdSense is Web 2.0. Ofoto was the web 1.0. Flickr is Web 2.0, and recruited John Battelle. Then, O’Reilly Media, Battelle Mediale and launched the first Web 2.0 conference in October 2004. The second annual conference was held in October 2005.

In the opening presentation of their conference, O’Reilly and Battelle have summarized all the key principles that they believe features of Web 2.0 applications:

* Web as a platform;
* Data as “tacit knowledge”;
* The network effects caused by “architecture of participation”, innovation as the assembly of systems and sites distributed and independent;
* Business models featherweight through syndication of content and services;
* The end of the cycle of adoption of software (the “perpetual beta”).

General Characteristics of Web 2.0 Applications

The precise definition of a web application 2.0 is still widely debated as of 2008. However, it is generally accepted that Web 2.0 a website that must show certain characteristics:

* The site should not be a “secret garden”, i.e., it must be easy to enter or exit the system information;
* The user should retain ownership of its own data;
* The site should be fully usable through a standard Web browser;
* The site must present aspects of social networks.

Web 2.0 Technologies

The infrastructure of Web 2.0 is complex and changing, but it includes server software, content syndication, messaging protocols, standards of navigation, and various client applications (plugins, or plug-ins, non-standards are generally avoided). These complementary approaches provide Web 2.0 storage capacity, creation and dissemination which go beyond what was previously expected websites.

A site could be considered as part of a web 2.0 if it depicts a number of the following:

* The use of CSS, a semantically valid XHTML markup and micro-formats;
* Technology-rich applications such AJAX;
* Syndication and aggregation of content in RSS / Atom;
* Categorization by labeling;
* The use of URL;
* Architecture REST or XML Web services.

Note that Web 2.0 is defined by its content, and that the trend towards Web 2.0 has nothing to do with the evolution of communication standards such as the transition to IPv6.

Rich Internet applications

Since the turn of the century, techniques of rich Internet application such AJAX have been developed to improve the user experience of applications using a web browser. A web application using AJAX can exchange information between the client and the server to update the contents of a web page without refreshing the entire page through the browser.

RSS

The first and most important move towards Web 2.0 concerns the syndication of content, using standardized protocols that enable users to use data from a site in another context, from another website to the plug-in of a browser, or even a separate desktop application. The protocols allow the syndication include RSS, RDF (as in RSS 1.1) and Atom, all of which are based on XML. Specialized protocols such as FOAF and XFN (both for social networking) extend the functionality of sites and allow users to interact in a decentralized fashion. See the micro-formats for data formats more specialized.

Because of the recent development of this trend, many of these protocols become de facto standards rather than standards.

Labeling

Use of tags or labels or keywords to widely used by the webmasters to improve semantic search. Tags are increasingly presented as a cloud of keywords.

These labels are small text expressions that describe a concept, are attached to a concept and used for searching content (examples: a forum, a blog, a directory of blogs) and, more importantly, the interconnect things between them. It’s a bit like a neural network over a label is used, the more the concept attached to the label is present and it has more weight. More labels are present and all the concepts attached are connected.

The markers may include meta-elements (metadata elements).

Continued…

All About Web 2.0 Technology Evolution | Part 2