Web 2.0: a phrase coined by O’Reilly Media in 2004, refers to a supposed second-generation of Internet-based services — such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies — that let people collaborate and share information online in previously unavailable ways. O’Reilly Media, in collaboration with MediaLive International, used the phrase as a title for a series of conferences and since then it has become a popular (though ill-defined and often criticized) buzzword amongst certain technical and marketing communities.
Web 2.0 is a trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to facilitate creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies. The term became notable after the first O’Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004.[2][3] Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use webs.
Latest definition from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
The term Web 2.0 refers to what some people see as a second phase of development of the World Wide Web, including its architecture and its applications. As used by its proponents, the phrase refers to one or more of the following:
- The transition of websites from isolated information silos to sources of content and functionality, thus becoming computing platforms serving web applications to end users
- A social phenomenon embracing an approach to generating and distributing Web content itself, characterized by open communication, decentralization of authority, freedom to share and re-use, and “the market as a conversation”
- A more organized and categorized content, with a far more developed deeplinking web architecture than hithertofore
- A shift in economic value of the Web, possibly surpassing that of the dot com boom of the late 1990s
- A marketing-term used to differentiate new web businesses from those of the dot com boom, which due to the bust subsequently seem discredited
- The resurgence of excitement around the implications of innovative web-applications and services that gained a lot of momentum around mid-2005 [ http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm07/erm0765.asp ]
According to Best,[17] the characteristics of Web 2.0 are: rich user experience, user participation, dynamic content, metadata, web standards and scalability. Three further characteristics that Best did not mention about web 2.0: openness, freedom[18] and collective intelligence[19] by way of user participation – all should be viewed as essential attributes of Web 2.0.
From wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
It can be seen that Web.2.0 is a platform on which users can share their experience and ideas and corporate bodies can communicate with cyber world.
