What is Web 2.0?
This seems to have become one of the biggest keywords that many web design customers are looking for these days; however few seem to understand what it is. I am constantly receiving questions from clients such as: “Do you know Web 2.0”, “Will my site work with Web 2.0”, “Is this Web 2.0 compliant”, etc, etc. First of all, I always applaud a client for taking a true interest in their website and make sure they have everything they need. However, there seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding “Web 2.0”.
OK, so what is it? Well the term is not actually as new as some think; in fact, it was coined way back in 1999 by Darcy DiNucci in her article, “Fragmented Future”. She writes:
“The Web we know now, which loads into a browser window in essentially static screenfuls, is only an embryo of the Web to come. The first glimmerings of Web 2.0 are beginning to appear, and we are just starting to see how that embryo might develop. The Web will be understood not as screenfulls of text and graphics but as a transport mechanism, the ether through which interactivity happens. It will [...] appear on your computer screen, [...] on your TV set [...] your car dashboard [...] your cell phone [...] hand-held game machines [...] maybe even your microwave oven.”
So does this mean, for my website to be Web 2.0, my microwave has to be able to view it? No, were not quite there yet… Then what does this mean? Well in a nut shell, it means that the new internet is interactive, dynamic, and available on a variety of hardware. When I first started building websites 14+ years ago, everything was built using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). HTML is still used today since it is the language that web browsers use to display a website. The difference is websites are not actually written in HTML, or at least not only in HTML. Today, a single website will use 2-5+ different programming languages to build one page. You will have a base Server Side programming language such as ASP.net, a database to hold the dynamic content, CSS to make the site look the way you want it, and one or more client side languages to make the site interactive, such as jQuery or AJAX.
Do I need Web 2.0? Yes! Despite the confusion, this is becoming the new standard for websites. Users expect so interactive component to websites they visit, either Social Media Integration, user Blog, fourms, user recommended content etc. If your website is static, meaning it does not change, the same content each time, people are a lot less likely to come back and visit your site again. You want your customers to be interested, find your site useful.
I hope this has help to clear up some of the confusion around Web 2.0. Yes the internet and web development is changing, but it does not have to be as confusing as it seems! RDO llc strives to stay on top of all new technologies as they evolve so we can provide you with exactly what you want. Not only do we want to give you what you want, we want to understand what you have and what you actually need.