Web 2.0 defined, again

In an earlier post (Web 2.0 is not punk rock.), I stated that Web 2.0 isn’t just something that the kids are doing, it’s something more profound. I actually got flamed for the post. Unfortunately, the comment was removed (I was getting a decent amount of traffic from them), but the gist was that I was nay-saying very important components of the movement. Obviously, we have differing ideas of what qualifies something as being Web 2.0. Here’s my thought:

Web 2.0 is a label given to a widening effort to improve the manner in which users interact with the Web. Web 2.0 applications leverage new and innovative technologies, streamlined interface design, and social participation to maximize user experience relative to the environment (i.e.: the web).

While I maintain a reasonable amount of skepticism for movements in which involvement requires little more than proclaimed affiliation, I’m warming up to giving Web 2.0 a label (let’s call it an effort though).

Web 1.0

I was a developer for Gannett in the early years of the Internet, when the daily routine was a scramble to a) react to the waning classified monopoly that newspapers had once enjoyed, and b) add value for print advertisers. I’d be hard-pressed to recall a single directive regarding improving the experience for the end user.

In those days, corporate web sites looked like print brochures. Adding functionality just meant emulating offline content (newspapers, magazines, catalogs, etc.) and directories (phone books, community/business guides, etc.). Personal home pages just plain sucked. Adding value there meant offering free icons or hardcoding some Photoshop tips. Let them all rest in unmarked graves.

The shift.

Web 2.0 continues to demonstrate a marked shift from the past. It isn’t about individual characteristics (like using Ajax, following popular design aesthetics, or practicing business transparency). It’s about a shift from micro to macro; from self-centered development to audience-centered development.

Regardless of my sometimes sarcasm for the self-proclaimed w2o evangelists, the new standards are definitely catalyzing an impressive evolution.