In the beginning there was...
There wasn't much that Web 1.0 could offer to its users. Many people just used it as a calling card, or an ad in the phonebook with not much else to offer. When Web 2.0 was created it changed the structure and how people used the Internet overall.
Web 2.0 added an element that I think is now a key component when using any website and that is it allows its users to interact with it. Now the interactions of early Web was by no means mind blowing, and it certainly wasn't all that impressive. It did allow for the user to engage, which is extremely important for repeat use. Think about it this way, if you just went on the Web to look up a phone number to a business and all the link took you to was a page with a phone number on it is there any reason for you to return to that website?. The answer is no, unless you forget the phone number then there isn't a valid reason, but what if there was a link to another website or a page with the businesses pricing guide or a "how to" section. Thats the eureka moment that I think has driven Web development the past few years. I do think that Web 2.0 left a lot of room though for improvement because honestly the designs really left something to be desired and it still wasn't all that user friendly.
"I don't know where I'm going,but I sure know where I've been", Whitesnake said it best when it comes to explaining Web 3.0. My best guess would to say it's more about the quality and quantity of data when it comes to Web 3.0. The way I would explain it is that Internet is trying to guess what you want before you if know it. The stamp example used in class is a good way to explain the idea I'm trying to convey. I don't like how now when I use Facebook or Twitter it puts up ads about a product a just googled last night. Marketers are probably loving all of this because it takes a major amount of time spent on research out of their jobs. They can now see what people are talking and looking at instead of having to hold focus groups or just outright guess.
Web 3.0 has allowed voices to be heard that would have otherwise been left unheard. This current form of the Web has allowed for social movements to gain traction when it would have been hard for them to do that in any other time period.The part I do love about Web 3.0 is that anyone who wants to start a website or wants to be heard can be, and they can do so to an almost global audience.
World Wide What?
We hardly even think about it anymore but the idea of the World Wide Web is impressive. It wasn't always the way it is today though. It had meager beginnings and wasn't even given its Web 1.0 name until after the fact, but nevertheless it has become an integral part of our everyday lives. Lets start with Web 1.0 and what it was and work from there.
Web 1.0 was the first template of what the Web looked like, and the general idea of the web. Web 1.0 wasn't capable of much though and it wasn't utilized for much. Many people used it as a sort of an ad placement tool but not much else. Web 1.0 doesn't mean any technology advancements though, it means the theory behind the web. So the key concept or take away is that Web 1.0 didn't have any real interactions going on with in it. You clicked and that was basically it. Here is a link to another explanation http://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/web-1-0/32191.
After Web 1.0 things get much more interesting and involved when it comes to Web 2.0. Web 2.0 took to interactions and things started to get interesting. No longer was a website static but the user could now click on things that brought them to other things that they might be interested in. The Web was starting to truly form because of these interactions. The full potential of the Web was beginning to be realized with the advent of the idea of Web 2.0. People could share information with each other and now they could add on to the internet and make changes to it. A further explanation of Web 2.0 can be found here http://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html. That is actually the website of Web 2.0's founder Tim O'Reilly.
Building on the last two Web 3.0, also discovered by Tim O'Reilly, is the idea that massive amounts of data can be collected and accessed with ease anytime. This was a huge step and now with everything even more linked together the web becomes more important and useful. Google is basically the exact example of Web 3.0. Google allows users to access anything they want also long as they have an idea of what they're looking for. Web 3.0 works faster and more efficiently because now all the information and data is written in the same language so machines can decode it faster which allows for a more user friendly interface. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/web-30.htm this gives a more detailed explanation of Web 3.0. Soon the web could be seen as just another expansion of the human brain.
No comments:
Post a Comment