What Is Web 2.0
An umbrella term for the second wave of the World Wide Web, which
was coined by O'Reilly Media (www.oreilly.com) and CMP Media
(www.cmp.com) in their 2004 and subsequent conferences on the
subject. Sometimes called the "New Internet," Web 2.0 is not a
specific technology; rather, it refers to two major paradigm shifts.
The one most often touted is "user-generated content," which relates
more to individuals. The second, which is equally significant, but
more related to business, is "thin client computing."
You The User are in control
User-generated content, comprised of blogs, wikis and social
networking sites, such as MySpace and Friendster, let everyone have
their say on anything and publish it to the world at large. As Web
applications become more sophisticated, people can easily develop
elaborate personal Web pages, create a blog, and upload their own
opinions, audio and video. Users are augmenting the news by
reporting current events sometimes faster and with details often
overlooked or ignored by the professional news media.
Although millions of opinions and videos, often very amateurish,
only add to our information overload, a significant advantage to
user-generated content is that truly talented authors, artists,
musicians and moviemakers can gain an audience much more easily than
they could in the past. Word-of-mouth via the Internet is worth a
fortune in promotion. Web 2.0 is leveling the playing field in all
arenas just as the PC leveled the playing field in business.
This is an awesome tutorial
"The accretion of tiny hacks can numb us to the arrival of
the stupendous" - Kevin Kelly -
We Are
the Web - Wired 13.08
Web 2.0 is an term referring to the ongoing transition to a full
participatory Web, with participation including both humans
and
machines. Web 2.0 is characterized by the following themes:
The Read/Write Web: In which the Web is seen as
a two-way medium, where people are both readers and writers. The
main catalyst for this is social software, allowing communication
and collaboration between two or more people.
The Web as Platform: In which the Web is seen as
a programming platform upon which developers create software
applications. The main catalyst for this is Application Programming
Interfaces, or APIs, allowing communication between two or more
software applications.
It is important to recognize, however, that "Web 2.0" is not
anything other than the evolving Web as it exists today. It is the
same Web that we've had all along. But the problems, issues, and
technologies we're dealing with are in many ways different, and so
using the term "Web 2.0" is a recognition that the Web is in a
constant state of change, and that we have entered a new era of
networked participation.
The term Web 2.0 was coined by
Dale Dougherty of
O'Reilly Media.
Foundation Writings on Web 2.0
Get started learning about Web 2.0 here.
-
What is Web 2.0?
- O'Reilly Media Founder Tim O'Reilly's definitive Web 2.0
article. Tim explains Web 2.0 by example, opposing Web 1.0
companies like Doubleclick with Web 2.0 ones like Google Adsense.
In addition, Tim outlines a set of 8 themes that he thinks are
crucial for Web 2.0: Web as Platform, Harnessing Collective
Intelligence, Data as the Intel Inside, End of the Software
Release Cycle, Lightweight Programming Models, Software Above
the Level of a Single Device, and Rich User Experiences.
- Wikipedia
Entry for Web 2.0
- The Wikipedia entry for Web 2.0 calls it the 2nd phase of
development of the Web, comprised of technical, social, and
economic changes.
-
Web 2.0 for Designers
- Richard MacManus' and Joshua Porter's article on what Web
2.0 means for web designers. MacManus and Porter characterize
Web 2.0 as the movement to a read/write web, observing 6 trends
that signal a change in how web sites are designed: a move to
Semantic Markup, Providing Web Services, Remixing Content,
Emergent Navigation and Relevance, Adding Metadata over Time,
and a continuing Separation of Structure and Style.
-
Adam Bosworth's ISCOC04 Talk
- Google VP Adam Bosworth characterizes Web 2.0 as rich
intelligent clients who share information across the web and
deal with richer media (photos, sound, video).
Yet Bosworth says that this is not what's really new. Instead,
he points to information overload as a primary characteristic of
the new Web, and suggests that the tools we'll create to rate,
review, and discuss are the real innovation in Web 2.0.
-
Why Web2.0 Matters: Preparing for Glocalization
- Danah Boyd uses the term "glocalization" to describe Web
2.0. She says Web 2.0 is about making global information
available to local social contexts and giving people the
flexibility to find, organize, share and create information in a
locally meaningful fashion that is globally accessible.
- Web 2.0:
The Power Behind the Hype
- Jared Spool points to 4 major characteristics of Web 2.0:
The Power of APIs, RSS, Folksonomies, and Social Networks. He
says that though these have been around for some time, our new
understanding of them and new tools to work with them allow
designers to create fast, cheap iterations of innovative
software.
-
The Amorality of Web 2.0
- Nicholas Carr's critical piece on Web 2.0. He characterizes
Web 2.0 as the "cult of the amateur", suggesting that the
promoters of Web 2.0 venerate the amateur and distrust the
professional.
-
Crucial DNA of Web 2.0
- Brandon Shauer breaks up attributes of Web 2.0 into 2
groups. Foundation attributes include User-Contributed Value,
The Long Tail, and Network Effects. Experience attributes are
Decentralization, Co-creation, Remixability, and Emergent
Systems.
- Web 2.0 by
Paul Graham
- Paul Graham sees Web 2.0 as comprised of three main themes:
Ajax, Democracy, and Don't Maltreat Users. He summarizes these
themes by saying that they all point to one idea: Using the Web
the way it's meant to be used.
- Web 2.0 Workgroup
- A collection of blogs talking about all things Web 2.0.
Includes news, technology, design, analysis, and PR blogs. A
great resource for anyone hoping to follow Web 2.0 topics.
-
Web 2.0: Mistaking the Forest for the Trees?
- Dave Rogers writes a great piece on how Web 2.0 is about
empowering users and suggests that users actually drive the
success of Web 2.0, not the other way around.
The Original Web 2.0 Companies
The Four Horsemen of Web 2.0
T hese four companies known for amazing innovation best demonstrate
the essence of Web 2.0. Instead of suffering the fate of the other
Dot Coms, they thrived through the downturn by leveraging the
principles of Web 2.0. Their success is so widely known that it is
now taken for granted, while their databases of customer information
have become a growing privacy concern.
- Google
Google provides many characteristic Web 2.0 services:
Blogger, Adsense, Maps, Search, Base, Gmail, GTalk, Reader,
Statistics. Each of these services either exploit the read/write
Web or the Web as Platform.
Yahoo
Nearly all of the services that Yahoo provides leverage Web
2.0 principles: Mail, Music Downloads, Movie Recommendations,
Shopping, Maps, Local.
Yahoo recently acquired both Flickr and Del.icio.us.
Amazon
Amazon's Affiliates program, Reviews, People Who Bought This
Also Bought..., and wish list sharing were early and influential
Web 2.0 services. Their new Mechanical Turk service is another
Web 2.0 gem.
eBay
eBay provides many buyer and seller services that aim for
greater participation. Their API is one of the most successful,
and the network effects they enjoy from their large user base
are unrivaled.
New Exemplars of Web 2.0
New companies and services embracing the
principles of Web 2.0.
These companies are by no means an exhaustive list, but are leading
the pack. They provide popular software and services that have
proved their worth among the competition.
- Flickr
Flickr is a fast-growing photosharing service that provides
an collaborative user interface as well as a powerful API to
it's content. (Recently acquired by Yahoo!)
Del.icio.us
Del.icio.us is a popular social bookmarking service. Joshua
Schacter, the founder, characterizes his service as a way to
remember things. (Recently acquired by Yahoo!)
JotSpot
Jotspot provides several services: Jotspot - the Application
Wiki, which allows users to create and share wiki-like web
pages. JotLive - a live group note-taking application.
37Signals
37Signals provides several services: Basecamp - a project
collaboration tool and Backpack - a collaborative tool to create
sharable web pages.
Digg
Digg is a content aggregation service. It provides a
mechanism for its many users to "digg" a piece of content, and
aggregates them like votes to bubble up the most popular content
to its widely-viewed pages. In this way Digg culls the actions
of its users to provide value.
Writely
Writely is a web-based service that allows for the creation
and sharing of documents in a sophisticated word-processor-like
interface.
Feedburner
Feedburner is an RSS publishing service. Sites can direct
their readers to a feed at Feedburner instead of hosting it
themselves, taking advantage of Feedburner's advanced tracking
capabilities to provide insight into who is reading your feed.
Hi, I'm bokardo
Publisher of Bokardo.com,
my blog about Designing for Web 2.0.
Member of the
Web20Workgroup, a group of blogs focusing on Web 2.0.
UIE's Director of Web
Develop...
more
|
:: SEO Tid Bits
1) What is SEO?
The process of finding out the best keywords for a
web site and by the use of optimizing the web site
along with other off-page work making that web site
attain a higher position in the search engine result
pages (SERPs) for those selected words." Although
the exact calculations used by the search engines
are kept secret, there is lot of knowledge and
observations in this field from thousands of
webmasters worldwide.It could be said to be a branch
of online marketing. In general terms you can say
that it means to make a web site more visible and
make it look important in the eyes of search
engines. Not being familiar with SEO and not
applying it compared to actually doing the right
things can make a huge difference in terms of
visitors to your web site.
2) How can we attract GoogleBot?
First of all, the GoogleBot must find your page
through links from other pages that are already
indexed by Google. Then to get GoogleBot to visit
again and again you should add fresh content
frequently - for example by using a blog.
3) How is the best way to write the title?
The title is most probably the single most important
place to put your keyword. Have the word in the
beginning of the title and also in the end. Try to
vary it in different forms as well. If you want to
brand your company name you should keep that name in
the end. Try to follow this and at the same time
make it look natural and appealing for the visitors.
Remember that this is what is most visible in the
SERPs for the visitor.
4) Where in my code should I put the
keywords?
We all know it is not enough to have your keyword in
the meta keyword tag. Here is a list of places to
put it in the source code, ordered by estimated
weight:
- Title tag.
- H1 and H2.
- In paragraphs and general text on the site.
- In STRONG tags: <STRONG>Keyword</STRONG>
- In the file names of the web document:
www.domain.com/keyword.html
- ALT description attributes on image tags:
<IMG SRC="" ALT="A picture about Keyword">
- TITLE attributes on anchor tags: <A HREF=""
TITLE="Here you can get info about Keyword">
- SUMMARY attributes on tables: <TABLE
SUMMARY="In this table you will see keyword">
- In the file names of images: <IMG
SRC="keyword.gif">
- Meta description tag.
-
Meta keyword tag.
|
|
