Web 2.0: A glimpse into the future?: ” What is Web 2.0? (as of Dec. 2005) A new approach to web and web application development that is characterized by: Web sites offering free (cool) web services and tools (examples below); Open source code (open API’s)- software code becomes a viral marketing tool; An enhanced user experience afforded by new approaches to information sharing and use of existing/new web scripting technologies; Giving users the ability to share their opinions, media or to offer back to the community aka ‘The Architecture of Participation’ (see Wikipedia’s Web 2.0 definition) or peer-to-peer goes mainstream. Web 2.0 seems to have taken flight in the last 10 months related to: The rising popularity of social networking websites (like MySpace); online dating sites (like Match.com) and social networking sites (like LinkedIn) that create more emphasis on the ‘Social Web’. Google’s rising influence and use of new ways to present a map interface (Google Maps; Gmail; Google Suggest). And Amazon, Microsoft and other big players are working on what will be central to the ‘Web 2.0’ user experience (i.e. Tagging in Amazon and RSS web feeds in IE 7). Yahoo’s positioning as a stakeholder in Web 2.0 with it’s acquisition of Flickr photo sharing and del.icio.us social bookmarking services and hiring of key ‘Social Media’ executives to spearhea”
