Web 2.0 has grown in recent years as a series of web technologies that allow for greater collaboration and interaction among users in a more global environment.
Web 2.0 is a term that has been floating around the computer industry for the past few years and, to many, seems to still be somewhat illusive in nature. Web 2.0 is not a single technology but a way of describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users.
The technologies encompassed by Web 2.0 include, but are by no means limited to, blogs, tags, RSS, social networking, and AJAX. The philosophy focuses on the idea that the people who employ media, access the Internet, and use the Web should mot just passively absorb what is available but rather, they should be active contributors, helping customize media and technology for their own purposes, as well as those of their communities.
The most popular Web 2.0 technologies include:
- Blogs
- RSS
- Wikis and
- Ajax
among others.
Blogs
Short for "Web logs," blogs are online journals created by an individual or an organization and cover topics ranging from human rights to fashion, and everything in between. Blog postings, typically updated daily, can include images, photos, links, video, audio, or simple text. The postings are archived by date and sometimes by category or by author. Permanent links, or "permalinks," allow other bloggers and Web site owners to link directly to a specific post on ablog and encourage inter-blog dialog.
RSS
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds include the delivery of the latest headlines and updates from favorite Web sites to one's desktop without the need to visit the web site, open a browser or check email. It is a tool that is easy to set up with little cost. To start receiving feeds from one's favorite sites, the user downloads an aggregator, the software that delivers the content to your desktop. The RSS can then be customizied to search for content on specific keywords or information, as well as content that is tailored to one's indiviual tastes.
Wikis
A wiki is a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses them to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. For example, the encyclopedia Wikipedia is one of the best known and popular wikis.Wikis are used in businesses to provide affordable and effective intranets and and in education for collaborative student projects and communication.
Ajax
AJAX, a group of Web page coding technologies that allows pages to respond to a user's input without processing or reloading the page, is sometiomes considered the foundation of the Web 2.0 transformation. Specifically, AJAX (an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML ) is a term that refers to JavaScript, XML, HTML, and CSS used in conjunction to develop interactive Web applications. AJAX does not change the Web itself, but rather how programmers present the data to users.
The Implications of Web 2.0
Web 2.0 tools are important, but their impact goes much deeper than their novelty might suggest. Individuals and organizations alike are finding new and increasingly effective ways of connecting through Web 2.0 technology from building movements for social, environmental, economic, and political change to increasing business through sales and marketing exposure.
