Friday, July 3, 2009

Web 2.0 Definition

Web 2.0 is a term in vogue in the world of internet today. This article is an attempt to elucidate the software technology, widgets and web 2.0 tools that are involved in the making of the web 2.0. The very purpose of Web 2.0 according to experts is to improve creativity, secured sharing of information, collaboration, and functionality of the web on the whole. The bloom in the social networking is solely attributed to web 2.0. But for this technology, you will not enjoy the video sharing sites, or wikis, or blogs! Although it can be rightly called as a web revolution, experts consider it just as a change in the way we use the internet.

This web 2.0 technology is considered to be the outgrowth of the cloud computing which uses internet as a platform. A number of technology components used in Web 2.0 has already existed from the early days of the web. At the beginning internet was used just to retrieve information already stored, whereas web 2.0 tools provide you with interactive facilities like building and running applications entirely through a web browser. With this technology, you can own data on the website and have control over it. A good example of this is the online word processors that enable users to work as if they were working in a word processor installed in their PCs. One other well known application is the Google App Engine that allows you to build and run applications in Google’s infrastructure.

Web designing and web 2.0 technology

Web 2.0 technology has also transformed the way designers used to design websites. Web designers of modern times have well understood the technique behind the web 2.0. Apart form the usability feature of the website using web 2.0 tools like publishing tools, communication tools, event marketing and the like, designers have also become trendy in aesthetics. For example, a typical web 2.0 website would have smooth corners, rounded edges, eye catching color blends, sans serif and over sized fonts, elegant buttons descriptive HTML and the like that appeal to the users and make them stay for a longer period during their visit to these websites.

Web developers and the usability arena

Some of the characteristics of Web 2.0 in the usability arena include rich user experience, user participation, dynamic content, metadata, web standards, and scalability along with openness, freedom, and collective intelligence. Hence the latest website technologies like Joomla, Oscommerce and the like can be well categorized under the web 2.0 technology. Of late, web developers use the open source software technology for easy updation of the content by the website owners and the effective participation of web visitors thus providing all the features of the web 2.0.

The future of web 2.0 technology

IT leaders see more comprehensive changes as for as Web 2.0 technologies are concerned. The most annoying irony is that even the tech-savvy who use this technology is unaware of it and some acknowledge that they knew it only from blogs. In fact some of internet experts have predicted that web 2.0 technology will transform into what they call as web 3.0 even before the concept of web 2.0 is fully understood by people. Next generation of the web, they say will accommodate all the features of the web 2.0 and be a combination of the best in every aspect.

No comments:

Post a Comment