We hear a lot about web 2.0 nowadays, but does everybody know what is its precise meaning? I think the majority of people think of it as the web today, some fancy good looking sites and stuff like that. But what is it exactly, what was before it, what’s it good for and what will follow it? I’m trying to answer these questions in this short post.

Web 1.0, if we can call it that way, was not really an earlier version of the World Wide Web, as the name suggests. There wasn’t any upgrade in software technology, or something like that, it’s only a difference in the purpose, or use of the Internet. Before web 2.0, which became popular around 2004, the Internet was basically for receiving information. Sites showed what they new, what they did, it was like a newspaper – you can read it, you are the consumer, but you are not actively participating in the other end, you are not adding anything to it, so you are not a prosumer.

So the web 2.0 experience consists of blogs, social media like Twitter, or Facebook, web applications, YouTube, wikipedia and things like that. The most important thing in these is that virtually anybody can add anything to it. You can post a new status update on Facebook, you can Tweet, you can write an article to wikipedia about your local band, you can upload your videos at any time and share it to the wide public. This is the most important thing about web 2.0. I think I don’t need to tell why is it important, or what’s it good for after this. Everybody is into these. And it has a lot of potential in every area of our lives. For example if you are trying to launch a new business, a new site, the most important thing is to be part of the Web 2.0 experience. You have to socialize with your clients, this is a key element in modern marketing. You are more successful if you are not just a big billboard that says “buy my stuff”, but you are a person with a face, you have feelings, opinions and you share these. You can be cool and nice to your future, or potential customers through social media, or blogs, or web 2.0.

The other important aspect of this is that not only you communicate towards your clients in a modern and interactive way, but they can communicate to you! They can retweet, or comment on your status, like your posts, and basically anything. So this has to be a two-way communication. And don’t let it die. If somebody has a question, answer it, be helpful. For example I saw the other day that on our local Apple suppliers website they always answer the questions of the clients. It doesn’t matter if they ask something obvious, and on a forum you can see trolls shouting at him and calling him an idiot. They are always nice with the customers.

Now I asked in the beginning what is web 3.0 going to be? I found this interesting article about it, and will share a few important aspects of it now. So it is going to be live. It will happen now, everything will be updated and it will be focused around you, the user. You can already see that for example Google focuses the advertisements according to your search results. For example if you searched for the terms computer, pc, nVidia, etc. then you’ll receive ads in this category. So we are shaping the web, and now it will shape around us.