What exactly the term Web 2.0 really means. When you first hear of this term, you simply think that Web 2.0 is the newest version of something, just like certain versions that come for different software programmes. The credit for inventing the term Web 2.0 is generally given to Tim O’Reilly. According to him, the basic idea of Web 2.0 came to his mind while having a brainstorming session that he had with MediaLive International in the year 2004.
O’Reilly first gave a definition to it as “Web as a platform”. But, if you conduct a research on the internet, you’ll find to read so many meanings of this term.
For instance-
Web 2.0 = the underlying philosophy of dispensing with control
Web 2.0 = making global info easily available to local social connections and contexts while providing people with flexibility to find, explore, organize, share and create info in a locally fruitful fashion accessible globally
- Web 2.0 = is a kind of attitude and not a technology
- Web 2.0 = is something where information, interface and metadata do not need to go hand in hand
- Web 2.0 = ad hoc integration and action-at-a-distance interactions
- Web 2.0 = complete power and control via APIs
- Web 2.0 = setting the data free while giving up the control
With these several meanings of this term, most people are highly confused, and to some, the term is just a jargon that is quite meaningless. But is it?
Here are two determining factors of Web 2.0
First Factor
First one is AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XHTML) which permits web applications to do their work in the background without any interference with the behaviour of the existing page. The AJAX use has led to a rise in highly interactive or dynamic interfaces on webpage, and the best quality of web-based services due to asynchronous (unsynchronized) mode.
One finest example of Ajax application can be found in the Google maps. A large number of software programmes are now being written to make the most of Ajax, and very soon it is going to draw a very thin line between desktop and web applications. Some people are even of the view that web applications are going to overtake PC software just like Microsoft. Ajax is the forbearer of the definition – “Web 2.0= Web as a platform”.
Second Factor
Second is the power that lies in the hands of users. Internet users now have power which they have never had in the past. Now they are capable of controlling or setting preferences to their internet experience. Before Web 2.0, a large number of websites were overly autocratic to internet users, subjecting them to pesky ads, forcing them to register and spamming them with a flood of undesired emails.
Websites, in contemporary times, have become more user-friendly. The website owners are facing a tough competition from one another in terms of offering cheaper and easy-to-access solutions to users, giving them more choices to make and more freedom to enjoy. To give a better interface and enhanced control over their experience, giving them a voice and listening to what they want to say are some another challenges before the website owners.
Conclusion
In simple words as a conclusion, Web 2.0 is the term which is used to the describe the 2nd generation of the World Wide Web, in which it has turned purely static HTML pages into a more dynamic and highly interactive experience on the web. Web 2.0 is mainly focused upon the ability for internet users to share and collaborate information in online environment by making use of social media, blogging and other web-based communities.