Web 2.0

What is Web 1.0?

Web 1.0 was the term given to the state of the World Wide Web, it began as a place for businesses to broadcast information to people. It was the common term that had been created to describe the Web before the outbreak of Web 2.0.

As Web 1.0 was the “master” of the Web and held the responsibility of keeping users up to date with the most recent technologies of the Internet, the question of whether users would be as interested in using it as they are now with Web 2.0 was raised, as Web 2.0 was created to keep users entertained with all the latest tools and technologies of the Internet.

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 marks a fundamental change in how we use the Internet

Web 2.0 is the term given to the World Wide Web in which people are able to create and develop applications of which can be used on the Internet, this is able to be done by Web developers such as AJAX, SOAP, XML and JavaScript applications, these let the people of whom actually use the Internet interact with others and share information online.

Web 2.0 is mainly used by people aged 16-25, it allows users to do more than just salvage information off the Internet, they can build on the interactive facilities of Web 1.0 to provide network as platform computing which allows users to run software-applications entirely through a browser. Users can also own the data on a Web 2.0 site and exercise control over that data.





Tim O'Reilly who is the founder of O'Reilly Media (formerly O'Reilly & Associates), supporter of the free software and open source movements came up with the concept of Web 2.0.

Here is his take on what Web 2.0 is:-



Below are some popular examples of Web 2.0:-

- Gmail
- Google Maps
- Flickr
- Del.icio.us
- Technorati
- Digg

Some noticeable differences of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 are shown below:-

- Web 1.0 was dial up, Web 2.0 is broadband
- Web 1.0 was I.E, Web 2.0 is Firefox
- Web 1.0 was about lectures, Web 2.0 is about conversation
- Web 1.0 was about reading, Web 2.0 is about writing
- Web 1.0 was about advertising, Web 2.0 is about word of mouth
- Web 1.0 was about services sold over the web, Web 2.0 is about web services
- Web 1.0 was about companies, Web 2.0 is about communities
- Web 1.0 was about dialup, Web 2.0 is about broadband
- Web 1.0 was about client-server, Web 2.0 is about peer to peer
- Web 1.0 was about HTML, Web 2.0 is about XML
- Web 1.0 was text, Web 2.0 is video
- Web 1.0 was a tool for the few, Web 2.0 is entertainment for the many
- Web 1.0 was content, Web 2.0 is promotional material

"We Are The Producers and Consumers of Media"

To conclude, the way in which Web 2.0 affects me as a producer of media is that I am able to create and develop online blogs such as this one and I am also able to share my ideas on topics I come across while on the Internet, such as Youtube where I am able to leave comments on the videos I watch, as a student of media I am able to carry out research on websites such as Google, Yahoo and Wikipedia where I would have not been capable to do so with Web 1.0 as it would have taken a long time to get connected to the Internet because of the dial-up connection.

The way in which Web 2.0 affects me as a consumer of media is that I am able to communicate online with friends on sites such as MSN, Skype, Facebook, Myspace, Bebo .etc. where as again I would not have been capable to do so with Web 1.0 as it did not have the technology Web 2.0 now has back then. Social networking sites such as these are something we should be appreciative of as they did not exist in the past and it was decided for us what we watched and how we communicated with others by TV producers, but now with the technology of Web 2.0 we are not only the consumers of media but we are also the producers of media.