Saturday 7 November 2009

Catching up with web 2.0


Do you remember the fuss about web 2.0? Was it just internet snobbery distinguishing between sites that were up to 'the mark' and those that weren't??
To an extent, I am sure that was true, ie. if you didn't have the right stuff on your site, then you were branded old hat. Now that the fuss has died down, what was it all about, and will there ever be a Web 3.0?
Of course the danger of coining the phrase Web 2.0 which had vague and varying definitions, was that someone would come up with 3.0 and 4.0 which would be equally unhelpful. In essence Web 2.0 was more about interactivity than any other single issue, and the introduction of social sites such as Myspace and Facebook have proved the point about interactivity being where the future of the web should be focused.
However, this does not mean that sites that do not have 'whizzy' embedded applications and scripts are not just as valid for gathering information and advertising services. Those sites that were relatively one-dimensional were made to feel that they did not belong to the internet, and that was where the snobbery came in.
The internet is nothing if not 'democratic' in the truest sense of the word, and there is room for all types of websites within the framework of the worldwide web. Despite the hype, Google does not care if your graphics are flat or if there are no moving images on your homepage, in fact SEO and perceived Web 2.0 aesthetic requirements could be actually diametrically opposed to each other in many cases. SEO is still basically about content and links - if you don't get those right, you may as well stay off the web altogether.

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