Is it a meaningless marketing buzzword? Or is it the new conventional wisdom? The term has become so widespread that some people use it, with no real understanding of just what it means. Perhaps that is because there isn’t an official definition for “Web 2.0” and it can mean radically different things to different people.

Here’s Wikipedia’s definition for the term: “Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services–such as social-networking sites, blogs, and social bookmarking— which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use the web.”
So what does this mean? And what started the “Web 2.0” revolution?

The concept of “Web 2.0” was born during a conference in 2004 with O’Reilly Media and Media Live International. Dale Dougherty, web pioneer and O’Reilly VP, noted that the dot-com collapse in 2001, had marked a turning point for the web. There were more and more new and exciting applications and sites popping up every day, such as weblogs, social bookmarking, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds, social software, web application programming interfaces (API’s) and online web services (ie. eBay). Most of all, the way people were using the web had changed significantly. These websites take advantage of web application technologies and give web users the ability to collaborate and share their experiences, views, opinions and interests while they surf the web.

The diagram below was developed during a brainstorming session at FOO Camp, a conference at O’Reilly Media. I thought this diagram best described all of the concepts that Web 2.0 encompasses.

Given the lack of set standards to what “Web 2.0” actually means, there will continue to be controversy over the term. The most important thing to understand are the main web 2.0 characteristics that make a website successful:

• “Web as a Platform” meaning delivering (and allowing users to use) web-based applications entirely through a web browser
• Providing a service, not a product
• Unique Content – maintaining hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
• Rich Internet application techniques–programming done “behind the scenes” to increase the web page’s interactivity, speed, functionality and usability. Website is built using the latest web 2.0 technologies.
• Social-networking capabilities- allowing users to interact with one another (chat, messaging, email, blogging, discussion groups, etc.)
• Microformats – data formatting (coding) that enables data items to be indexed, searched for, saved or cross-referenced by web crawlers.
• Encourage user contributions – an open source format, like weblogs or message boards, that are open to the public and can be modified by users (user-created and user-owned data)
• Folksonomies (a.k.a, social bookmarking) – creating & managing tags to categorize content to make info easier to search, discover and navigate over time. (ie. del.icio.us and Flickr)

Below are just a few very successful websites that utilize the web 2.0 technologies:

1. MySpace.com – Perhaps the most popular social networking site on the web! The online community allows users to create their own, personal webpage to share photos, journals and interests with a growing network of mutual friends.
2. YouTube – a site that allows users to share their favorite videos with the entire world.
3. Wikipedia- The largest reference website on the Internet. The content of Wikipedia is free, and is written collaboratively by people from all around the world.
4. Digg.com – this is a user-driven social content website. Users submit content (favorite websites, opinions, stories, etc) and other digg users read submissions and “digg” what they like best.

All of these websites offer different services, but they all share the common characteristics of a web 2.0 website. They all offer the ability to take advantage of web-based applications and services. They all encourage user contributions, by allowing them to add content and customize the look and feel of the site. And they all allow for socialization and collaboration among users.

The World Wide Web is constantly changing and evolving, and new technologies will continue to change the way people use and interact with the web. Pretty soon, “Web 2.0” will become a term of the past, and we’ll be wondering… “So, what is “Web 3.0” really?”