One of the more popular definitions for Web 2.0 comes from Tim O'Reilly, founder of O'Reilly Media. He defines Web 2.0 applications as "software that are delivered via a continually-updated service that gets better as more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an 'architecture of participation'."¹ Simply put, Web 1.0 focused on "reading", whereas Web 2.0 encourages on "writing" and "co-creating".

Internet communities have yet to stop nitpicking on the actual definition of Web 2.0

Although Internet communities have yet to stop nitpicking on the actual definition of Web 2.0, the term is already deeply rooted in the hearts of Netizens. Ever since 2005, the term has been a buzzword in various news articles, magazines and Web publications. As of today, there are over 20 million Web 2.0 related links from Google.

Many of the Web 2.0 applications that make use of components such as RSS², AJAX³, tagging, social networking etc. are already quite pervasive among Internet users. Some of the representative Web 2.0 applications include:

• Flickr - A photo sharing website that has a strong online community.
• Wikipedia - A multilingual, web-based free content encyclopedia, which is written collaboratively by volunteers, allowing most articles to be changed by almost anyone with access to the website.
• Blogger - A weblog publishing system that allow anyone to create a blog in three simple steps.
• Friendster - An Internet-based social networking service very popular among teenagers in Asian countries.
• del.icio.us (Pronounced as "delicious") - A social book-marking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks.
• digg - A new website that allows users to submit news stories, which are then promoted to the front page through a user-based ranking system. This differs from the hierarchical editorial system that many other news sites employ.
• Google Maps - A free web-based map application and technology provided by Google. It also provides the Application Programming Interface (API) to facilitate other developers integrating Google Maps into their websites.

We can expect more web sites to jump on the Web 2.0 bandwagon in the near future, as many experts in the industry are already speculating that Web 2.0 may result in yet another dot-com boom. Paul Graham, one of the participants at the Web 2.0 Conference 2005, wrote in his website that "the 2005 Web 2.0 Conference reminded me of Internet trade shows during the Bubble, full of prowling venture capitalists looking for the next hot startup. There was that same odd atmosphere created by a large number of people determined not to miss out. Miss out on what? They didn't know. Whatever was going to happen -- whatever Web 2.0 turned out to be."

More web sites could be jumping on the Web 2.0 bandwagon in the near future

Indeed, many of the key players in the industry who were initially hesitant about the potential of Web 2.0 have joined the game in recent months, by either acquiring other small Web 2.0 companies or quickly building their own Web 2.0 applications.

Some of the recent acquisition activities include:

• Yahoo bought Flickr.com (undisclosed amount) - Mar 2005
• News Corp bought Myspace for US$580 million - July 2005
• Ebay bought Skype for US$2.6 billion - Sep 2005
• Yahoo bought del.icio.us (undisclosed amount) - Oct 2005
• Google bought Writely (undisclosed amount) - Mar 2006
• Sony bought Grouper, a video-sharing site, for US$65 million - Sep 2006
• Google bought YouTube for US$1.6 billion - Oct 2006

Many of these acquired web sites were relatively young companies. For instance, YouTube was founded only in Feb 2005, and was still profitless at the time when Google made the purchase. While it is still too early to conclude that another dot-com boom is coming, such exciting acquisition activities will definitely motivate many bright entrepreneurs to develop new business models to continue to exploit the Web 2.0 phenomenon.

This time, will these technopreneurs learn from the mistakes of their predecessors during the dot-com bubble, or will history repeat itself? Only time can tell. But, for now, Web 2.0 holds the promise of bringing another revolution to the Internet landscape and will become the platform where future Internet business wars will be fought.

References:

1. Wikipedia on Web 2.0
2. Web 2.0 by Paul Graham
3. O'Reilly Media
4. What is Web 2.0 by Tim O'Reilly

1. Web 2.0 Compact Definition
2. RSS stands for Really Simply Syndication or Rich Site Summary.
3. AJAX, shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a Web development technique for creating interactive Web applications

Contributed by Mr Ho Khee Yoke, Senior IT Consultant, Enabler Technologies, IDA.