'Decoding' Web 2.0 ahead of the new year

The Internet previously served as a huge source of information. In 2007, the World Wide Web became an operating system, a vast interactive platform on which applications operated in the browser, enabling users to collaborate in real time.

MySpace.com, ThinkFree.com and Digg.com are the representative representatives of Web 2.0 because they take advantage of new interactive models. The Web today facilitates people to share information easily, even if it's just what they eat at dinner or their views on a book on Amazon.com.

The packaging program, distributed through CDs to install on each system, is in danger of becoming the "legacy" of the 20th century. In the evolving Internet world, software is not a set of products but must becoming a service, like people buying air tickets, not necessarily owning a bulky and expensive plane.

The online world in the near future will fundamentally change people's perception of the Internet from a two-way commercial and information tool to a global and prosperous virtual community. In order to understand where the Web is going, revisiting the past and considering the intentions of those who created it is a logical step.

Content is central

Web 2.0's "pillars" (including social networking, user-generated content and software as a SaaS service) reflect the value of the Web at the beginning. " In the first phase, the Web and Internet were a platform for sharing and collaborating among researchers ," said Phillip Evans, vice president of Boston consulting firm (BCG).

The explosion of technology in the 1990s was likened to the Big Bang. Venture capital is poured down like summer showers and websites growing like mushrooms. The Internet world for scientific researchers suddenly became a place to serve very popular interests such as entertainment, e-commerce and online friendships.

Each website is a stronghold surrounded by walls and users switch from one port to another to see and choose what they want. However, like a balloon being deflated, the dotcom crisis took place, leaving the Web as abandoned with many empty spaces. But then the new "stars" began to shine with the advent of Web 2.0 trends.

New business model was born

Dale Dougherty, one of the pioneers in the Internet industry, was the first to use the term Web 2.0 when discussing the new business model and user interaction technology, paving the way for websites like eBay and Amazon. com.

Thanks to technologies like RSS and Atom (similar to RSS), anyone can post information to the web. Blogs and wiki applications are becoming e-books for users to express themselves more conveniently than ever.

From a business point of view, user-provided content has two major advantages: The cost of developing and changing information on the website is reduced to a minimum and the user becomes an intermediary for the website. " To succeed, you don't have to have a lot of capital with a strong staff. Craigslist has a large market share in the classifieds market, but they have only 17 employees, " Evans said.

The sharing and classification of content on the Internet has been around for a long time, but why do websites that encourage user participation now succeed? The answer is Internet bandwidth. " Sites like YouTube could not work before. Peer-to-peer networks, podcasts . also existed for lack of broadband service ," Evans explained. The US research organization Pew said that in 2001, only 5% of people in the country had the opportunity to connect to high-speed Internet, and this rate has now increased to 42%.

Some representative representatives

ThinkFree

Jonathan Crow, Business Manager of ThinkFree.com, said bandwidth is the key to their success. ThinkFree was born in 1999 but not until 2005 to attract users. This website provides office applications like Microsoft Office: download files to work on the browser and then save on the web or download to the computer and compatible with Office.

" We released the first version in 2000 but it was not feasible or a problem when many people used it for a while. It took only 30 seconds to download the Java application if the broadband DSL connection, and the road. The dial is unbelievably slow , "recalls Crow.

Besides transmission, technology is also an important factor for ThinkFree. Like many other 2.0 websites, ThinkFree is developed on the AJAX technology combination, which enhances the interaction between web applications and users.

SalesForce

Also established in 1999, Salesforce.com is one of the oldest companies operating in the field of application leasing. Their AppExchange platform provides an opportunity for small businesses to register to use hundreds of applications that, if purchased, will be very expensive. Salesforce has attracted about 444,000 customers.

Combined application

A popular Web 2.0 trend is now a mash-up, meaning people combine different datasets to create a new service or product. Simply put, mash-ups are similar to people separating songs from artists' albums from time to time . to choose the songs they are most satisfied with.

Google Maps is a favorite platform for mash-ups, such as building maps containing information about criminals, households or tax maps .

Web 3.0 and the future of the Internet

As soon as Web 2.0 appeared, many experts wanted to go further to predict the future and evolution of the global network. "The web world is constantly growing without stops. The Internet will be supported with touch networks, partitioned mobile devices, detection chips, specialized content," research firm analyst David Cearley said. Gartner said.