Defining Web 2.0

The term Web 2.0 has become popular since its use in 2004 to refer to the Web 2.0 Conference O'Reilly. The theme focused on sites that avoided the 2001 internet bubble explosion and what they might have in common.

Tim O'Reilly defines it thus:

Web 2.0 is a revolution in the IT industry caused by the transition to the Internet as a platform, and an attempt to understand the rules of success on this new platform.

The term was more precisely defined in an article published on September 30, 2005 on the website of O'Reilly, What is Web 2.0?

A website becomes 2.0 when the webmaster can focus on content using CMS, including web services, that the cooperation of Internet users contributes to the development of the site or forms the bulk of the content of the site and has a social effect.

The definition is developed in the article into a set of technical innovations and social effects.

Combining web services, mashup, using multiple APIs to create new unreleased services is another aspect of Web 2.0.
The simplest example is linking a real estate agency database to Google Maps and Street View to find housing and show its surroundings.

Web as a platform

In Web 1.0, the product is an application. An example of this was the Netscape browser. This is a tool for the Web, and the same software as the other.
Unlike the services that Google offers, such as Adsense, Gmail, everyone uses the Web as a platform: this is not software running on the Web, these are service packages based on the Web. For Google, the Web is the space into which the user is immersed using various services, while Netscape simply provided a product that runs on the Internet.
Web 2.0 uses the "long chain" (long tea trail), the collective power of many small sites that have become members, while previously access to it was only provided.
The lesson is that it is necessary to create a simple access service and algorithmic data management to cover the entire website.

Collective power

What if hyperlinks, the basis of the Web has become a little larger, like the synapses of a giant digital brain? Google uses them to determine the popularity of a site with its PageRank. eBay creates a resale economy that exists only through the activities of a lot of players and can only work with a very large number of players. Amazon, by asking webmasters to promote and criticize its products (the same as its competitors), also became gigantic.
Wikis are also user-created sites, and Wikipedia demonstrates how important they are. Similarly, Internet user-rated diggies and sharing sites such as Flickr, Youtube, Dailymotion.
We are talking about viral marketing, when the promotion of the site is carried out by users in very large numbers.
The same phenomenon of collective production underlies such free programs as Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, which make the Web work!
In conclusion, it is the involvement of users in the network that brings success.

Information dissemination and blogosphere

News management and real-time distribution is another aspect of Web 2.0. Blogs are a vector, and the technical tool gives RSS.
Propagating blogs hosted on a community site or implemented on your own site using CMS (Content Management System), such as Wordpress, is one aspect of Web 2.0.
RSS files displayed on site pages or on users' desktops are updated to reflect news from the TV to the computer.
Blogs install Permians, links between blogs, mutual links that form communities, social networks and will animate our giant link-based digital brain.
Permians amplify PageRank in the field of news and create a phenomenon of relevance, the duration of which is limited in time.

All in data

All important Web 2.0 sites are based on data. Content of sites for search engines, geography for Google Maps, clients for eBay, etc. This gives SQL as much importance as HTML.
In the modern Web, data is combined with services using mashups. An example is the association of Maps geographic data with a real estate file to give a picture of the housing offering.
Thus, the possession of data becomes a serious economic problem, as well as a threat to personal security. Like free software, "free data" is promoted by the Creative Common License and the GreaseMonkey project.

New programming model

Decentralization and popularization of software tasks contributes to the use of scripting languages ​ ​ such as JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, Python, Go. It also led to an increase in frameworks, including Ajax frameworks for dynamic websites.
A lightweight programming model is needed that is based on Ajax for using data and REST for web services.
In addition, it uses a rich interface based on either HTML 5 on XML, as Silverlight (XAML), Android, Qt, JavaFX do..
It also becomes responsive and quickly adapts to the needs of Internet users.
Web programming creates value by collecting simple elements using free components.

Web 2.0 Innovation and the Future

Mashup (or "puree")

It is a hybrid web application for accessing various web services from a single page.
Technically, this means that the webmaster includes sources provided by various web players such as Google, Yahoo, etc. on its site.
This is not a simple cluster of gadgets: services can be combined to create something new.
Example:
- On the one hand, Google Maps, which provides a detailed map of the city.
- On the other hand, a real estate service that allows you to access an empty list of housing.
The combination of both allows you to physically see the housing available on the map.
It also works for restaurants, shops, any trade or even a tourist destination.

Semantic network

This is a project to create a universal information exchange environment by placing documents on the Web that can be processed using computers. Semantics means that processing takes into account the meaning of the content of documents. The project develops the Internet by standards such as tag languages ​ ​ and specialized processing tools .
In fact, this innovation contains the classic part, formats, and the developed part, tools for conducting intelligent information processing through these formats.

Rich Internet Applications (RIA)

RIA, that is, applications with full graphical interfaces and processing capabilities identical to local office applications.
They are implemented using frameworks (in French, application frameworks), client JavaScript (browser) and, as a rule, supporting Ajax to interact with the server side.

Own web applications and what distinguishes them from local ones, in addition to the fact that there is usually nothing to install on his computer, this is a communal and joint aspect. Ability to engage and possibly involve multiple actors in project development.
The Second Life site, which offers a virtual existence, is a good example of an application that uses all the resources of Web 2.0. Companies like Reuters are opening agencies in this virtual world, which is an original means of promotion.

What happens after 2.0?

Google's Chrome browser still wants to accelerate the transformation of the Internet by making the browser the base application platform that can replace the operating system in the future. This is the next step on 2.0.

The popularization of smartphones with applications and network connectivity will further strengthen its role as a service provider. Sites will become applications or backends of third-party applications. This is the case when Facebook is the same platform as a site with a certain service .