First of all, Web 2.0 is definitely hype. It’s a marketing concept whose meaning varies depending on who you are talking to. For some it means web-as-application-platform, for others it means social web (or living web), and for others still it means a new round of VC investment and rags-to-riches tales.
So let’s get that part straight: Web 2.0 is hype. But Is Web 2.0 Just Hype?
Is web 2.0 just hype? That is the question:
It’s interesting to me that while the Web has been around for 10 years, we’ve only gotten to version 2.0 in the last year or so. I mean, with the advent of the Internet, it seemed like most software was getting a new version every couple months, not once a decade. And yet, Web 2.0 is on a lot of lips these days. But what is Web 2.0? According to Wikipedia, Web 2.0 is “what some people see as a second phase of development of the World Wide Web, including its architecture and its applications.” It is often defined by the technology that is used to create the applications that are considered Web 2.0 – such as AJAX and SOAP. In fact, the word application is often what defines a site as a Web 2.0 site. It is not just a static repository of information, but rather an application that customers use to get more information, make more information, or interact with existing information in new ways.