How did it all start?

When Tim O'Reilly first coined the term Web 2.0 in 2004, his intention was to describe a revolution in the world of Internet, but he found it difficult to define the term precisely. Now, in 2006, most of us know what he meant.

User-Generated Content (UGC)

One of the greatest revolutions of the Web 2.0 world is in the field of content: no more content dictated by "authoritative" bodies, but rather content created by site users. No more interaction between a single user and a website, but rather interaction between users via websites – users see content that other users have uploaded and labeled, write blogs, contribute to Wikis, buy and sell, and feel that they are members of the large web community.

Oriely described this phenomenon with the term "Architecture of participation".

User-Generated Taxonomy (Folksonomy)

A folksonomy is a user-generated tagging (as opposed to tagging dictated by the site authorities) used to categorize and retrieve web content such as Web pages, photographs and Web links, using open ended labels called tags.

The folksonomic tagging is intended to make a body of information increasingly easy to search, discover, and navigate over time and is thus an important part of the Web2.0 concept.

Communities & Social Networking

As a result of the Web2.0 UGC phenomenon, it is virtually impossible to find now a website that does not include also social functions.

One of the social functions typical of the online world is that of the virtual community – a phenomenon that has been significantly empowered by the social aspects of the Web 2.0 era.

A virtual community is a group of people who establish a network of connections and contacts and meet virtually via the web, instead of meeting face to face. Virtual communities attract numerous users searching for a source of identification and information, enabling community members to act on two main levels: information – sharing resources from the collective pool of information, and communication between community members.

The first condition for the existence of any community, whether in the real or virtual world, is the existence of a common field of interest. Yet it is important to remember that virtual communities are restricted to members who feel comfortable expressing themselves in the Internet world.

Extensive investment is required to create a significant and substantial community. During the first stage, it is necessary to precisely define the community's goals, and then identify what type of information will attract people to join the community.

The Long Tail Principle

Web 2.0 also revolutionized the world of web advertising and marketing, and thus the term "long tail principle" was coined by Chris Anderson in an October 2004 Wired magazine article. The principle states that a large number of products with low exposure totals a market share that is equal or greater to a small number of products with high exposure.

It became clear that retailers and business owners prefer to advertise their products in numerous websites belonging to the long tail family, at a much lower cost than advertising in one leading website. According to this rule, Web 2.0 companies will market products and services to small niches on the fringes of the Internet, and will not focus solely on the mainstream.

Advertisers can choose to advertise their products according to tags set by users, or according to fields of interest in community networks, thus knowing exactly which target audience their advertising will reach.

Web2.0 Technology Trends

We are also witnessing a technological revolution: the end of the era of software version releases every few months, and the beginning of an era of "perpetual beta versions" - websites are launched and continue to improve "on the move".

With the use of Ajax technologies and empowerment of the web's sharing principle, we are witnessing a new development approach – open source, enabling (and even inviting) anyone who can to enter, see the code and continue to develop applications that will enhance the original product.

In the Web 2.0 era, investments in development are constantly declining, and the reasons are varied: code no longer needs to be rewritten over and over again; developers access the operating system via API and develop directly, or use existing modules of code that are available freely over the web instead of developing modules anew for every project. Developers can freely access databases since in many cases content is entered by users, and is free of charge. Methodology is also no longer time consuming and cumbersome.

To learn more about our Web2.0 content and community services, please visit our Web2.0 Services [0] page.