It is now time to understand Web 2.0 before we delve into Web 3.0.

It is now time to understand Web 2.0 before we delve into Web 3.0.

These guys are confusing me, just when I thought I would live a peaceful life, I started hearing about Web 3.0๐Ÿ˜ข. Read through to understand Web 2.0.

I discussed web 1 and some of the core features earlier in the series. Of course, the most important detail is that web 1 is just a static site that is delivered through a server file system. Don't worry, there is not much technical jargon associated with web 1. In this article, we will take a basic dive into web 2, the basic components that make up web 2, and why it is different from web 1. We will also slightly introduce web 3 but we won't deep dive as we have an article on that. Enough of side talk, let's go to the main gist.

The term Web 2.0 might be new to you, don't worry it is still new to me. You might even be thinking "What is happening? am I on the right planet?". The truth is that you are In the correct world just that some people felt the best way to add more web versions is to define our current web version. Better still, to put it in a more neutral perspective, they feel the best way to introduce and market a product is by defining another standard for the web ๐Ÿ‘ฟ.

As you must have guessed, web 2.0 is used to describe the current state of the internet. The current state of the internet? Was there ever an old state ๐Ÿ˜•? According to the guys that are defining the standard for us, we have an initial state which is web 1.0. The current state which is web 2.0 has the following features:

  1. Read-Write: Remember web 1.0 is only read web because it contains static websites. Users cannot really write and contribute to the web. Web 2.0 is revolutionary because it is a read-write web. This means that user-generated content is allowed within the web.
  2. Social Web: Lying on top of the Read-Write feature of web 2.0, it is also a social web. The social web means that it contains a lot of tools and platforms that enable users to express themselves and share their opinion online. It empowered the user-generated content feature of web 2.0. Such platforms include podcast applications, music, blogs, social media, etc.
  3. Rich user experience: Web 2.0 is beautiful. I don't have any complaints against the beauty here. Every day new cutting-edge design tools are being developed in this space, with the advancement in the development of web and mobile apps. To be sincere, I love web 2. Let's continue.
  4. Data: Data is where the money is in web 2. Everything you do on the internet is monitored and the data is used for various purposes including advertising, security, etc.

vickjoe.tech (2).png

Enough with the features. Even though there are a lot of things that made web 2 awesome which includes:

  • Always available: I thought about not adding this as an advantage because it's the availability that made it an internet. On the other hand, I felt it was an improvement from web 1.0 where some people take their site offline for some given time to enable them to save bandwidth. In web 2.0 24/7 is the keyword (I wanted to use "was" before I remembered that we are still in the web 2.0 era ๐Ÿ˜Ž).
  • Diversity in media: You all can agree with me that one thing that happened in web 2.0 is the explosion in media of various forms or shapes. All forms of media are now available on the internet, and people are empowered to even create more on daily basis with the advent of social media.
  • Ease of use and understanding: The truth is that it is easier to explain the internet to a complete novice in this era than before or even after ๐Ÿ˜‰.
  • Economics: Lots of people are cashing out from the web. You need to see a lot of folks that produce either content or render service on the internet and how they live big. Please don't ask me for money, I am yet to cash out, I will let you know when I do ๐Ÿ˜‚.
  • These and several other benefits. I don't want to continue writing the benefits of web 2.0 because that's not what I am here for.

Taking a quote from the great Michael Bassey Johnson

The world is changing rapidly, and everyone changes along with the world. Discoveries are now becoming rampant; intellectually, technologically, etc, each having its own advantage and disadvantage.

While we enjoy the benefits of web 2.0, I think we should also be brought up to speed with some of its downsides which includes;

  • Overdose of information: As I was trying to explain this feature I was feeling guilty ๐Ÿ˜†. Guity because I don't know if I am overloading you with information now. Anyways it's your decision to choose what to read. Ever searched for something on google and found yourself more confused than you started? Let me not give example so you don't laugh at me, that instance in your head now is an example of information overdoes.
  • Trolling: According to a survey conducted by Statista.com, it shows that about 38% of internet users experience trolling daily on various platforms on the internet, with social media taking the lead numbers. The question is who are those trolls? I don't need to point out the adverse effect of trolling, but of course, you should know that it could lead to death.
  • Scamming: This ranges from identity theft to hacking etc. This vice is always carried out with an end game of leaving you unhappy. I don't like talking about this because it's a topic on its own.
  • These and several other disadvantages. I don't like writing much about disadvantages so it doesn't appear to be more than the advantages.

I have one more, Oh! you thought I was done with the disadvantage right ๐Ÿคฃ? I had to create another paragraph for this one "Privacy". With web 2 we sold our privacy to the highest bidder. They (i mean the powers that be ๐Ÿ™„, I am not mentioning any names here) know how we eat, how we breathe, which cloth we wear, they can predict what we would do next. All these data empowered them to be able to manipulate our choices and reactions. Have you ever asked yourself why you suddenly got addicted to social media that each morning you would spend a quality amount of time there rather than productive things (unless of course, it is a productive activity to you)? I don't think I have the right to comment on this issue ๐Ÿ˜ฌ because I am guilty, I have installed and uninstalled Instagram on my phone severally. But on a more serious note, I think privacy is one of the most important problems in web 2.0. I won't leave this paragraph without giving kudos to the government and its drive for data privacy. Though we agree that more needs to be done, I believe it's a stepwise movement.

I have written quite a lot about web 2.0 that I forgot to tell you that it has a relationship with web 1.0. Of course, I expect you to know that web 2.0 was built on top of its predecessor with a lot of changes happening in between. Take a look at the picture I borrowed from our brothers at znetive.com on the relationship between web 1.0 and 2.0.

web-two-new.png

The future of web 2.0, I can only speak for myself I believe the future is bright. For a minute ignore all the noise that we are making about web 3.0 (i wrote "we" because I am included ๐Ÿ˜ณ) and focus on the fact that even web 3.0 was built on top of web 2.0. In the future, I am predicting more strict restrictions around the topic of data privacy. I also predict that there will be more activities in the social space with more awareness about the "effect of social media".

I promised you that I would do a brief intro into web 3. I changed my mind though "Why give you half bread when I can give you the whole loaf". I, therefore, prepared an article on web 3 here I hope you enjoy it. Just so it doesn't look like I broke my promise, Web 3.0 is basically the internet built on the blockchain. This is just Web 2.0 + blockchain - some stuff (I explained all the bogus concepts in my web 3.0 article).

Finally, I hope this was able to give you an introductory view of what web 2.0 is. This article is not comprehensive, there is still a lot to learn if you want to deep dive. Feel free to reach out to our guys Google or Youtube they have a lot of information for you about this subject. Till we meet again, Keep Reading.

Oh!, and before I forget, feel free to buy me a coffee โ˜• @ buymeacoffee.com/vickjoe just make sure there is no excess sugar, please.

These resources helped provide more insight in one way or another to my writing this article:

  1. investopedia.com/terms/w/web-20.asp
  2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
  3. dev.to/narottam04/web-10-web-20-web-30-expl..
  4. znetlive.com/blog/web-2-0
  5. statista.com/statistics/379997/internet-tro...
ย