What Web 2.0 is About

Having attended a presentation on Web 2.0, I now know a lot more and would like to give you an idea of what it is.

It turns out, that most of the technology behind Web 2.0 has been around for a long time - it's just that it is being applied in different ways. The term was coined by O'Reilly Media to refer to significant changes to the use of the Internet/Web post the bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2001.

So what is Web 2.0? Well, it's not so much the software being used, but rather the services that are being delivered on the Internet. A few example will assist to show you what I mean:

• Wikis are a type of website that allows collaborative creation and editing. The most obvious one being the Wikipedia - a type of online encyclopaedia.

• Weblogs (or blogs as they are also known as) are another Web 2.0 example. A blog is a website being used as a diary although blogs may also offer a commentary on a news event or a topic.

• If you have used Skype to make a phone call via the Internet then you have used a Web 2.0 service.

• Paid for advertising (pay-per-click advertising) on search engines such as Google and Yahoo can be regarded as a form of a Web 2.0 service. Indeed, it turns out that:

• Search Engine Optimisation (Website Optimisation) is also part of Web 2.0!

Note. Both Wikis and Blogs form part of the the new way of mass communication using Internet based publishing technologies (referred to as social media. Although in the case of businesses the terms used are user-generated content and consumer-generated media.

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