Back in September of 2006 there was a thread/poll started at ABestWeb to discuss whether or not Web 2.0 was a fad or a revolution in Internet interaction: Web 2.0: Fad or Not?
There seemed to be an ending consensus in that thread that the term ‘Web 2.0′ itself may be a fad, but the concept itself was not. I fully agree with the latter. Taking full control of content away from a single publisher, and putting it in the hands of many, makes sense and it’s a much needed progression to web content publication/distribution (and in fact a general media reform needed in our country). Of course this isn’t the case for all sites but a perfect fit for many. From that thread & respected ABW member Snib:
I think the term “Web 2.0″ is the fad. It’s just a snappy catchphrase that represents the current state of technology. Regardless of what we call it this is just a natural progression. I certainly believe it’s here to stay but it’ll continue to evolve until somebody else marks the occasion with another catchy phrase. I prefer to use the terms social software, social media, or social networking. Web 2.0 is just too general a term and can mean just about any type of site under the moon. Everybody will eventually adopt the 2.0ish features as we see more open source projects being released using this new technology. I’m just curious to see what’s next after 2.0 becomes the status quo.
Also as the headline of this post states, Haiko from ABestWeb actually added a new category to the site dedicated to Web 2.0 and Affiliate marketing. Haiko is highly respected in the industry and a true advocate for honest, ethical and productive Affiliate marketing practices…so you know if he’s qualified the category for his site then it’s far from a fad!!
In my opinion the ability for users to generate and share content is a natural progression of the Internet and as Snib said, it will be interesting to see what develops next..
What do you think? Comment here or on that ABW thread. There is also a poll there to vote on as well.
Gary & AvantLink
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1Mike Allen on Apr 4, 2007 at 5:20 pm:
I think “Web 2.0″ as a term is a fad but most of the concepts are great. I found this “Web 2.0 how-to design guide” very interesting. Lots of great ideas that address much of what so many find appealing in “Web 2.0″ sites.
2purplebear on Apr 5, 2007 at 11:53 am:
Thank you to Mike for sharing that link. I’ve bookmarked it and it’s included in my links for learning.:)
To be honest…..it’s taken me quite a while to learn about “Web 2.0″ Hope the name goes away and others in the future are simpler to understand what it is you’re talking about. All these names are fine…..but ummm to those of us less computer smarty people…(which there are an awful lot of them offline) they don’t have a clue what all this is about. If you ask them if they’ve ever watched a video online, they’ll know what that is maybe but they won’t know what Web 2.0″ is. I’m still not actually sure what it is. Is it all the different methods that are being used for people to gather information. Hmm I’ll put it another way. Is it the podcasts, rss, youtube, blogs, etc. Is it the method that information is being read or listened to by people or is it the fact that people are gathering and communicating information and sharing it with each other. An example: If I wanted to learn more about say the Irish leaders going to be sitting down and talking to each other. I would have gone maybe to an Irish newspaper site or some media site and read about it myself. Now I could find blogs to read about the subject maybe even Irish bloggers and make comments and even start a conversation with them or listen to a podcast maybe or video. Are the blogs, videos, podcasts Web 2 or is it that I am able now to share this information at the same time now with many people if I want together opposed to me just learning something on my own. Or…guess it could be both.? If it’s people being able to learn and share things with each other….that’s here to stay. People love feeling like they’re part of something and connected with other people. If it’s easy for them to understand how to do this it will do nothing but grow and grow. People being able to learn things they never would’ve been able to do before and opportunities to discuss topics with others is a great thing. That will only become more popular as time goes on. There’s no way that’s gonna just go and fade away.:)
3Gary M on Apr 6, 2007 at 5:52 am:
Mike, Kathy,
Thanks for the great comments.
Mike great site. In fact it’s going to come in useful for us in short time!
Kathy, “..or is it the fact that people are gathering and communicating information and sharing it with each other.” you hit in it there. Your Irish leaders example is a good one. With this progression a site’s community builds the content. Wikipedia is a good example of Web 2.0 collaboration and information sharing. Great comment.
Gary M