Web 2.0, an innovative revolution in the World Wide Web presents a new platform of creativity, cooperation and close sharing among web visitors. The new trend has heralded the growth of web-based communities through its hosted services of two-way communication.
MySpace, Facebook to name a few social networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies are the productive upshot of the latest trend in the web world. Web 2.0 designing has facilitated fast and smooth functioning of web by the software developers and the web users.
Rise of “Web 2.0”
The Great Bubble of 1995-2001 marks one of the darkest episodes of the web technology witnessing serious repercussions with the crash of the dot-com bubble. Following the aftermath, it was observed that the importance of the web grew all the more. Although it is difficult to trace the cause yet the dot-com collapse may have acted as a catalyst in ushering in turning point for the web and giving way to the offspring “Web 2.0 design”.
Coinage of the term “Web 2.0”
The term “Web 2.0” was first used by Dale Dougherty of O'Reilly Media at its first Web 2.0 Conference in 2004. The perceptions of “Web 2.0” begin with a cerebrate meeting between O'Reilly and MediaLive International in the conference.
The term gained wide currency and began to be used in other sense afar from its original purpose. However, almost a year beyond, Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media offered a detailed explanation of the term with regard to people communicating with other people through the Web, as they do on these web sites such as social networking sites like Bebo and others.
(Source-http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html)
Definition of Web 2.0
Web 2.0 entails an advanced form of the World Wide Web. In the words of Tim O'Reilly, "Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."
Distinction between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0
Notable technology experts,to name Tim Beners- Lee, father of World Wide Web have questioned the usage of the term in a meaningful way, since many of the technology components of "Web 2.0" have existed since the early days of the Web. The boundary line between the two
website designs is hardly distinguishable. In fact, in some cases a web pages feature both the designs, for instance “MarshallBrain.com” . Personal web pages have Web 1.0 category, but blog has more Web 2.0 features. Again, it is important to note the web page for the 2007 Web 2.0 summit works more like a Web 1.0 page than the new version. Thus, what actually determines the defining of the first version of
website design purely depends on the definition of Web 2.0
Tim O'Reilly cites some distinct features of “Web 1.0”, which differentiates it from the advanced version.
- Web 1.0 has static web pages and can’t be changed easily whereas Web 2.0 is of dynamic nature wherein new information is updated regularly.
- Visitors can only retrieve information from Web 1.0 whereas Web 2.0 is more interactive for instance blogs offer the visitors to contribute articles and opinions at free will.
- Web 1.0 offers visitors the facility to download, but are unable to see how the application works or change it whereas Web 2.0 is an open source program and allows users can see how the application works and make modifications or even build new applications. For instance, Netscape Navigator was a proprietary Web browser of the Web 1.0 era. Firefox follows the Web 2.0 philosophy and provides developers with all the tools they need to create new Firefox applications.
Characteristics of Web 2.0 design
- Visitors can own the data on the website and exercise control over that data.
- Web 2.0 sites often feature a rich, user-friendly interface based on Ajax,Flex programming or others.
- "Architecture of participation" idea encourages users to add value to the application as they use it.
- It uses the interactive facilities of "Web 1.0" to offer "Network as platform" computing, allowing visitors to run software-applications purely through a browser.
- Web 2.0 uses modern fonts, bright colors and some effects like 3D effect in web and logo design.
Web design example
Logo design example
Impact of Web 2.0 on Business Economy:
Economists, Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, in their book Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (2006) argue that the economy of "the new web" largely depends on mass collaboration and termed as "Wikinomics" which is based on Web 2.0 business-models. Business industries can use these principles and models in order to prosper with the aid of Web 2.0-like applications which would invariably result in economic democracy.
Criticism
- Web 2.0 uses so-called "Web 1.0" technologies and concepts and it can’t be labelled as a new version of the World Wide Web.
- Before the emergence of the term "Web 2.0", many of it notions had already featured in implementations on networked systems.
- Termed as "a second bubble," (referring to the Dot-com bubble) suggests that too many Web 2.0 companies are attempting to develop the same product with a lack of business models. The Economist has written of "Bubble 2.0”.
- "Web 2.0" have simply reduced to the status of a marketing buzzword. It is generally considered to be more an attempt at promotion than an actual endorsement of the ideas.
It is a very intricate task to ascertain which of the
web designs is the most appropriate approach in today’s web designing. In real practice, it is observed that Web1.0 design technology is the right approach in some cases. Information resource site, food and beverages website, Web 1.0 is the most appropriate. Many websites have adopted the two approaches, which clearly demonstrates that drawing boundary lines between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 designs is of little value. It is a fact, the Web 2.0 design has augmented the processing of the web world but what holds true is to use the web effectively in all times be it the synchronization of the two approaches.
