Using the web as a platform, Web 2.0 re-visualizes the internet from the perspectives of the developer, the supplier and the user, giving each of them innovative ways to use the internet. Web 2.0 takes the huge spectrum of interconnected devices of the web and provides a comprehensible and accessible programming model for the developer, a flexible and rapid deployment apparatus for the supplier and a powerful, all-absorbing experience for the user.
Continuously increasing bandwidth means the richness of content that can be sent over the internet is continuously increasing. Starting with images and music and moving to video and voice, Web 2.0 has dramatically changed the old internet of text and one way communication.
The Social and Collaborative Web 2.0
One of the most unique elements of Web 2.0 is the concept of social networks, community, and collaboration that are enabled by wikis, blogs and discussion groups. Continuous interaction and discussion between users generates information and systems that develop and improve the more they are used. This use of collective intelligence provides the "wisdom of the crowds". It generates systems that have much more information and better content than any single person could create on their own.
The various types of collaboration that can occur in Web 2.0 systems include content based collaboration, project based collaboration and group based collaboration.
- Content based collaboration occurs when users congregate around a piece of news or content, usually in a MySpace type or blog environment.
- Project based collaboration occurs when people come together to work on a common project, which could be as small as a book, as medium sized as a development project or as large as creating an encyclopedia using wikis.
- Group based collaboration occurs when people assemble around an idea or any common interest and use forums to generate a continuous discussion around it.
The Read and Write Web 2.0
What is noteworthy about Web 2.0 is that it not only focuses on data and content but also offers people the opportunity to create content or interact with content already created. While the original Internet offered users access only for reading data, Web 2.0 offers users access for reading as well as writing data. This unprecedented facility of permitting anyone to generate content has resulted in a surge in availability of all kinds of content.
One of the vital features of Web 2.0 is that it has changed the way search engines work. While users are continuously searching, downloading and uploading data and content from the web, they inadvertently create a huge amount of data about what they are doing and where they are going. Search engines use this "attention" data to provide new attention based features and to predict future behavior. They analyze the queries users make and use that data to predict what users are most likely to look for in the future.
