The History and Meaning of Web 2.0

Exactly where did the idea of “Web 2.0” come from, and more directly, what is “Web 2.0”?

On June 10^th, 2009, the Global Language Monitor announced, “The Global Language Monitor today announced that Web 2.0 has bested Jai Ho, N00b and Slumdog as the 1,000,000th English word or phrase added to the codex of the fourteen hundred-year-old language. Web 2.0 is a technical term meaning the next generation of World Wide Web products and services.” The Global Language Monitor and other advocates are speaking about the growing usage where Letters and Numbers are interchanging to make new words. The Global Language Monitor uses a special technology to identify neologisms (new words) and then measure their usage and reach.

In fact, Darcy DiNucci is the first documented use of the term “Web 2.0” from her 1999 article titled, “Fragmented Future”.  DiNucci seemed to indicate in her article that “Web 1.0” or the “World Wide Wide” was all about interactivity between people using the Internet as a vehicle for that interaction. With “Web 2.0”, DiNucci sees the technology 'fragmenting' between various new technologies, where more and more, software is no longer bound by interaction with a single machine and / or a person or persons. Instead, 'channels' of Internet communications are opening up, through use of such things as television, cellular telephones, electrical appliances, etc - not just the computer anymore – and also new formats of data like the use of RSS aggregators and APIs.

The modern usage of the term “Web 2.0” has grown in recent years. In the beginning, the term was used primarily as a marketing label to indicate sites using newer technologies in building their domains and web pages, versus sites using the 1990s and previous technologies to create their web presence with. Another original use of the term was to distinguish between the many-to-one idea of the Internet as it had been, and the new many-to-many way of thinking that “Web 2.0” came to represent. The current use of the term is often more about the use of technology today than it is about simple technology in itself. Personally, I think we're still redefining the term “Web 2.0”, using it dynamically, because if it becomes stagnant and immobile you'll see more and more people advocating the use of a new term, like “Web 3.0” or “Web 2.x”, for example, to define our ever changing Internet.

As long as people continue to use “Web 2.0” to indicate a new and growing Internet and a more vibrant and enriching meaning to web browsing and the latest uses of technology to enhance our net experience, you'll continue to see this term in the market and in use in general in the English language.  Once we begin to associate the term with our history, our past, then and only then will the term 'die' and something new will come along to replace it in our way of thinking and in our modern language.

The popularity for “Web 2.0” came about during the first Web 2.0 Conference held by MediaLive and O’Reilly in 2004 (now called the Web 2.0 Summit since 2004). This concept was outlined by Tim O’Reilly and John Batelle during the conference. The best feature of this concept was the idea that customers will build your business for you according to their needs, rather than the business creators themselves.

To be perfectly honest, we may never really know for certain just exactly how the modern term came to exist, since we have so many various contributors over the years to what we currently consider the true meaning behind the word / word phrase of today.  Thinking about this idea though, one has to wonder if understanding the original meaning is even relevant anymore. For Internet Business people, of our modern times, I think the more pressing concern is understanding how this 1,000,000^th word of the English language is impacting our Internet businesses of today. This is the true question you need to ponder.

Being frank, I'd hate to see “Web 2.0” die after only 5-6 years of real use. However, Moore's Law dictates that certain hardware technology doubles roughly every two years – so if we apply that rule to our modern Internet then “Web 2.0” would already have gone through more than 2 generations. Remember that Moore's Law now holds broader implications for technology at large – especially data technology, then the original concept would have implied. Why not see reason? Let's use what we already know about “Web 2.0” and make it meaningful to each us as individuals and then apply that to our Internet businesses as we see proper application. By doing so, we can make this idea last, not just for this year, but for many years to come.

There are a great many different ways to apply this new technology to your web sites and make it your own. To learn how to do just that, download your free report at http://web20breakout.com and use “Web 2.0” like it was tailor-made for you!