Web 2.0: What Is It?


Web 2.0 is one of the hottest catch phrases on the Internet today.

But what exactly is web 2.0?

That's an excellent question.

Unfortunately, answering that question is also where things get confusing, because if you were to ask ten different authority sources what exactly is Web 2.0, you're liable to get ten different answers.

For example, Wikipedia describes Web 2.0 this way:

"Web 2.0 defines a newer incarnation of the World Wide Web typified by the transition from the typical website hosting HTML/XHTML pages, to a platform that provides a point of presence (sometimes known as a Web portal), from which any of the following interactions may occur:

1. Syndication of content using XML based formats such as RSS, RDF, Atom, and others

2. Aggregation of content published using XML based formats such as RSS, RDF, Atom, and others

3. Publishing of invocation endpoints for XML based Web services (these may be of the SOAP/WSDL/WS-* variety of RESTian XML-RPC)

4. Conventional publishing of HTML/XHTML documents

5. Exposure of WebDAV based resources and collections"

And here is how Bryght.com's Chief Blogging Officer, Roland Tanglao defines Web 2.0:

"The web has changed. No longer is it about static web publishing or "brochureware websites," as it was in 1999.

Instead it's about conversations through networked dynamic web publishing. This was pioneered by blogs through two innovations: easy content management and RSS."

Informationweek.com chimed in with their own definition of Web 2.0:

"Web 2.0 is all the Web sites out there that get their value from the actions of users." Wikipedia, digg, Technorati, Flickr and Frappr are all examples of Web 2.0 properties."

Wow...No wonder there's so much confusion about Web 2.0.

Even the experts can't seem to agree how to best define what Web 2.0 is.

Well, the purpose of this article is not to further confuse the issue of Web 2.0, but rather to simplify and make sense of it.

So I'm going to give you my own personal layman's definition of Web 2.0. But before I do, here's a little background information on the origin of the term:

According to Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc.:

"The concept of "Web 2.0" began with an October, 2004 conference brainstorming session between O'Reilly and MediaLive International. Dale Dougherty, web pioneer and O'Reilly VP, noted that far from having "crashed", the web was more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites popping up with surprising regularity.

What's more, the companies that had survived the collapse seemed to have some things in common. Could it be that the dot-com collapse marked some kind of turning point for the web, such that a call to action such as "Web 2.0" might make sense? We agreed that it did, and so the Web 2.0 Conference was born.

In the year and a half since, the term "Web 2.0" has clearly taken hold, with more than 9.5 million citations in Google. But there's still a huge amount of disagreement about just what Web 2.0 means, with some people decrying it as a meaningless marketing buzzword, and others accepting it as the new conventional wisdom."

Anyway, as promised, here's my own personal layman's definition of Web 2.0:

In my opinion, Web 2.0 is about new interfaces - new ways of searching and accessing Web content. Web 2.0 is a platform - but not just for developers to create web applications like Wikipedia, digg, Technorati and Flickr. I see the web as a platform to build on for business.

For example, if you run a corporation, the web is a platform for business...for Internet marketers, the web is a platform for communications...for journalists, the web is a platform for new media...and for geeks, the web is a platform for software development...etc., etc., etc...

In other words, the web is a platform for virtually everyone!

Hmmm...

Just wondering Dale, did you make it to Harlan's teleseminar last night?

If so, then you missed some great stuff on how a copywriter can use Web 2.0 to his or her advantage.

I'm about to post a teleseminar I did with Trafficology.com about copywriting and Web 2.0 specifically. It's an eye-opener. And in fact, I revealed a few "test results" never revealed before, that's directly attributable to, and can be profited from, Web 2.0.

Should be another day or so.

Excellent Michel,
I hope the price is right!

As far as I can tell, a big part of this Web 2.0 is the use of short video sales letters. There's the community thing and all that, but there's a lot of talk about video.

This is something I'm pretty familiar with. I helped one of my clients "design" a great teaser video on his squeeze page.

It was like a movie trailer. Pretty cool. His optin rate was almost 90%.

Another one of my clients added an interactive feature to his site and his rates went up too.

So this Web 2.0 is exciting to me and can be huge for the business.

Vin, you're ahead of me. But wait... there's a lot more than just video

Yeah... I'm waiting for it all to shake out. I don't want to recommend too much to my clients before it's tested.

Also... soon I will be revealing the results of a brand new (I'll call it) "Click 2.0" method that may make everyone rethink how they use the early "buy" links in their copy.

When I ran this idea by Garfinkel his response was "THAT IS $#&*-ING BRILLIANT!" I won't say anything until some numbers come in, so... stay tuned!

Carlton has a neat spin on it in his latest blog entry.