Web 2.0

The term Web 2.0 first became popular at the O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004. This term refers to the way the internet has changed so users can interact with other users or change website content. Some examples of Web 2.0 is web-based communities, hosted services, web applications, social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashups, and folksonomy.

Many Web 2.0 websites typically have similar features and techniques. An acronym that was created to refer to these features is SLATES. SLATES means Search, Links, Authoring, Tags, Extensions, Signals. Search is pretty self explanatory meaning finding information through keyword searches. Links means connecting information together into a meaningful information ecosystem using the model of the Web, and provides low-barrier social tools. Authoring is the ability to create and update content, which is what websites like Twitter and Facebook made popular. Tags give the ability to users to categorize content through key phrases. Extensions are the software that makes the Web an application platform as well as a document server. Lastly signals is the use of syndication technology to notify users of content changes.

All of these features are new techniques that the internet has made popular. Many people are opposed to the term Web 2.0. These people believe the internet was destined to adapt these values in the first place. It does not matter who is right or wrong, I believe the internet is going in the right direction and I can only imagine what Web 3.0 will include.