What Is Web 2.0 And What Can It Do For Me?

By Chris Lake

Web 2.0 is a very loose term. It confuses people and annoys cynics in equal measure – the former don’t know what to make of it, while the latter think we’re all destined for another dotcom crash (we’re not).

Yet Web 2.0 is a very real set of concepts, technologies and approaches that can make a real difference to many online businesses around the world.

Is it possible to nail the specifics behind this term? Sure, though the definition of ‘Web 2.0’ seems to change from person to person.

The man credited with coining the term, Tim O’Reilly, says: “Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them.”

That’s a very broad statement, albeit one with a definite framework. It is about the internet as a platform, and about ‘harnessing network effects’, but what does this mean?

What does Tim O’Reilly mean when he talks about network effects? He’s basically referring to the participation culture that we’re seeing online. People are increasingly interacting online, and this is to be encouraged.

The smart web apps let users power their websites: user-generated content is one trend that will not go away anytime soon.

Look at Digg.com – it is all about users: they submit stories, rate stories, comment on stories. Yet Amazon has been doing user reviews for years, with great success. TripAdvisor is brilliant and built on user reviews, and has been going for seven years.

So don’t think Web 2.0 is all new – it isn’t!

Elements of Web 2.0 will seriously help you improve your business, by becoming closer to your customers by allowing them to get closer to you. Remember that the internet is an ‘active’ medium: visitors to your website are there by choice, so make sure you engage them.

You can boost user participation in any number of ways: user reviews, user ratings, blog comments, social networking tools, content sharing tools, and so on.

There are many business benefits from increased interaction. Users can create a personalised environment that is stickier and more relevant. This allows you to capture behavioural data on users, and to segment them in order to better target advertising, offers, content and so on.

The other key side of Web 2.0 is ‘the web as a platform’. Where once upon a time we might have purchased Microsoft Office, now we can use Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Gmail and Google Calendar. All of these products are not reliant on the desktop – all you need is an internet connection. And they are free.

5 Web 2.0 Things You Should Be Seriously Looking At

Blogging
APIs
Social Networking Tools
User Reviews
Ajax Interfaces

10 Web 2.0 Buzzwords To Drop Into Conversation At Internet World

Participation
Ajax
The Long Tail
Widgets
APIs
RSS
Social Software
Wiki
Aggregation
Tagging

* Chris Lake is editor of E-consultancy, a London-based internet research group.