Web 2.0 : How it has redefined the web?
When asked to write about web2.0, like everyone else, I started of with the most powerful search engine in the world – Google. But as I moved my pointer over the link which when clicked on, will lead me to a Wikipedia definition of Web 2.0, I kept asking myself if I have to do it. Yeah, I did click on it, eventually. Wikipedia is a good place to start on a concept. With this "good" start, I eventually went on many other links to find out what the concept was. It was truly amazing to find out that, I had to use the concept itself to define it.
Web 2.0, according to O’Rielly, is a thought and not a technology. Wikipedia itself which I considered my starting point is a direct application of Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is not for tech savvy people who want wonders to happen on the web on the click of a button. It is about the people who use the web, those who really matter – the users. Its about collaboration and innovation. It’s about making the use of the web really useful for users (sheesh, how “use”ful was that). Nobody worried about what the users thought about the web. Issues like usability never even existed before. We now have usability labs dedicated to find out if the users were comfortable in using a website. From using what the net gives, it has now changed to using what the users demand. A primary school student can go online and get his Math problem solved not by chatting on an IM window with his friend, but through a website which helps students like them. The interesting part is that the problem was solved by someone sitting in an apartment in the remote areas of Southern India. Collaboration, it is.
It is when you look at it from a 10,000 ft view, we realize what is happening. We are not connecting just information, we are connecting people. We are connecting their ideas. My mother can now read this blog and tell herself that her son is a genius (I know, I know). What we are doing is publishing. Millions of people can now access the net and find out what we have to tell about something. There might be someone sitting in the remote locations of Africa, getting connected to the net, and he might be able to share the idea that we have. It is wonderful to think as to how the world is getting linked. The good news is Web 2.0 is not the ultimate. The semantic web and the new and rising concept of Web 3.0 is developing. And like Web 2.0, the change is happening RIGHT NOW. We are feeding the process; we are part of this change.
Before you close this window, I suggest that you use this Web 2.0 application to get an idea about Web 2.0. It is worth the watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE