Web 3.0 Through The Ages
So we're only half a decade at most into the Web 2.0 era, and we still don't really know what "Web 2.0" is. Yet for some reason, over the past couple of years there has been an even more confusing meme that seems to keep cropping up: "Web 3.0." It already feels like we've been talking about Web 3.0 for ages, even though we don't know yet know exactly what Web 2.0 is. What are the various ways that Web 3.0 has been defined over the past three years, and why is it helpful to talk about what the next web will look like?
Google blog search shows a single post mentioning Web 3.0 in October 2004 (which is notably before CMP applied for the service mark on "Web 2.0"). But by the term's peak usage in October of last year, there were over 1000 posts talking about the next version of the web. But what were they referring to? That's a good question.
Last April, we held a contest asking readers to define Web 3.0 and had nearly 50 different responses -- clearly, this is something people have a lot of ideas about. The winning entry talked about Web 3.0 as a "decentralized asynchronous me." Basically, that means a web that understands how to personalize your experience and recommend what you're looking for, and it's a definition we've used again. But it is one of just many -- it would appear that we're having a hard time deciding where the web is going.
Blogger Jonas Bolinder has painstakingly assembled a list of some of the most talked about definitions of Web 3.0 over the past three years. He's broken them down into 4 basic definition groups: the Semantic Web (which is what might enable the "decentralized me"), the proliferation of APIs and web services (aren't we already living that?), the rise of the mobile web, smart devices, and web applications (maybe the just launched Live Mesh has something to do with Web 3.0?), and the "implicit web."
It could be that all of these definitions are right. It could be that they're all wrong. It is the discussion that is helpful rather than coming to any accepted definition. Some might argue that version numbers are silly on the web, that Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 are just marketing ploys, and that we shouldn't use terms that are so nebulous and difficult to define. Those are all fair points. But at the same time, the discussions we have about defining the next web help to solidify our vision of where we're going -- and you can't get there until you decide where you want to go.
So which is your favorite definition of Web 3.0? Where do you see the web going over the next 5 or 10 years?
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The web3.0 equation:
web3.0 = web2.0 + more marketing bull + (more confusion * more debate)
If web2.0 stayed a technical term the web would have been a better place, however, marketing and sales got hold of the label and morphed it into a confused, misguided sales pitch. According to many web agencies (Not all) web2.0 is simply rounded corners, bright colors and DHTML, or as they like to call it - AJAX (Because to shows and hides text - omg).
I have no doubt web3.0 will be embraced in marketing departments all around the world and used to confuse and con clients.
I rate words like Semantic Web, proliferation and implicit web should not be packaged into something marketers can use and destroy, lets keep it complicated and confusing for the average marketer, perhaps that will keep them at bay (Or learn the true meaning of terms)...
Web ultimately denotes connectivity. How well you are connected to your friends, your peers and mostly yourself. No more disconnect between your mobile and your home PC and your work machines. I feel its still early days for web 3.0 and we are still in the process of finding and utilizing and monetizing the so called 2.0 tools like social networks and the like. So I believe we should let the dust settle before we have another version if at all.
I am slowly recovering from the shock of seeing my posts mentioned at RWW!
Thanks,
Jonas
Posted by: impl.emented.com
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April 23, 2008 1:03 AM
Web 3.0 = Open Source Development + Networked Web Applications + Artificial Inteliigence + Personalized User Interface.
Web 3.0 will be a great factor to Singularity as it plays the role of the most supreme engine available for free for anyone anywhere around the world.
'So we're only half a decade at most into the Web 2.0 era, and we still don't really know what "Web 2.0" is.'
We absolutely *do* know what web 2.0 is. Tim O'Reilly's canonical definition remains the best overview of the phenomenon.
Web 3.0 will be defined by technologies and behaviours that exceed this canonical definition, and coalesce into something coherent, rather than remaining a bunch of weak signals.
Web 3.0 -- the semantic web, with the mesh concept behind it.
For me the areas of the different "web versions" are almost clear and depends for the most part of the way we use the web :
web 1.0 : commercial, news and pornographic websites - that's almost what was the web 10 years ago
web 2.0 : web applications, web as a tool - the development of the computers and the increase of the networks speed and capacities have transform the web into the most powerful tool in our life
web 3.0 : mobile web - The apparition of mobile browsing with geo, friend network capacities will transpose the web into the reality. The web will be a permanent and omnipresent tool, use in your car, in your train, for finding your friends or new ones, for shopping even if you are in stores, etc.
I think we clearly have entered into the web 3.0 era with the iPhone. iPhone 3G and android will popularize those new usages and in 5 years, the real world will look like a giant second life.
Well, if it's Web 3.0, maybe that means Microsoft will finally get it right?
Web 3.0 to me is mobile internet in your pocket.
iPhone, Blackberry & Nokia are just the first generation devices.
Think about what your going to expect from you mobile device 5 years from now. Websites will be strategically developed for the mobile community first and the PC second.
This massive shift of the industry (mobile internet is more popular than connecting via a PC), will spur a new breed of hot online domain properties than will increasingly connect our lives to the net.
Based on this.... you could only imagine how much fun ad marketers would have with this concept ;)
"Well, if it's Web 3.0, maybe that means Microsoft will finally get it right?"
@Scott - Ha ha.. but, NO! If Microsoft gets it right we'd be FORCED to use it, then, as their market share grows, they will slowly make it worse and worse and it will do less and less with every version that comes out. And I'd have to get a faster computer, again.
Web 3.0 is yesterday's news. Everybody I know has already moved on to Web 4.0
Personally, I think that it's far too early to define "what web 3.0 is", for a number of reasons.
1) We puny humans are astoundingly bad at predicting future trends.
2) Anything that's ascribed to Web 3.0 today could be said to be part of Web 2.0 instead - Web 2.0 isn't a has-been, it's still a wave of change that's flowing around the web right now. Most web-based applications haven't even updated to the ideas of Web 2.0 (decentralisation, user trust, etc).
3) What purpose do these terms serve anyway?
Daniel
The tech ghetto still does not understand that these arbitrary terms (driven by marketing, not function) are meaningless to the mid-sized businesses that matter. They still have no idea what we are talking about.
If Web applications for business are going to take some of the pie from licensed applications, Web2.0 web3.0 is blather.
My clients ask me, "what is meant by Web20?" I say, "think of a richer web application that might work as well as any desktop or server based business app - not just a a bunch of pages.". Then I show them some examples. They get it.
And no thanks at all to the weborati - I swear, the Valley's product managers can screw up a wet dream by making the simple, complex. And, combined with the paucity of capital for decent vertical business applications, and the over investment in crap YASN and YAVSS, well, you see how badly mismanaged the whole macrotechnocycle has been.
Feh! Dont even start with Web 3.0 until you can show me the differentiation, and explain why it needs such a moniker.
The highest-quality information is embedded in prices that are generated in deeply-liquid cash markets.
The next-best info is embedded in prices that are generated in deeply liquid markets wherein people transact with barter currency (e.g., Second Life).
of course, a chief virtue of the Web is its openness and adaptability (i.e., its capacity to migrate intelligence "to the edge").
A key to fulfilling the promise of Web 3.0, then, is proliferating online markets that, separately or in combination, provide people with new and improved ways to develop, showcase and earn money from expertise.
Details are online at http://www.loveatmadisonandwall.com.
Best,
Oops, my above comment is a little buggy. v2.0:
The highest-quality information is embedded in prices that are generated in deeply-liquid cash markets.
The next-best info is embedded in prices that are generated in deeply liquid markets wherein people transact with barter currency (e.g., Second Life).
Of course, a chief virtue of the Web is its openness and adaptability (i.e., its capacity to migrate intelligence "to the edge").
A key to fulfilling the promise of Web 3.0, then, is proliferating online markets that:
1) separately or in combination, provide people with new and improved ways to develop, showcase and earn money from expertise
2) supply barter currencies for use by market participants (who can also use cash, of course)
Details are online at http://www.loveatmadisonandwall.com.
Best,
Web 2.0 is rounded corners and pastels, Web 3.0 is sharp corners and plaid.
direct neural interface + ubiquitous access to the informational net + massive relevant informational recall capabilities through complete digitization of printed media + a personal AI buddy that mirrors your belief system and socionics (a smart avatar shall we say...) = 3.0
Let's say i move from Chicago to NYC. It's not preplanned. It's a sudden decision. And i write this in the search bar. "i move to NYC" Enter.
Search Results:
Available job positions according to your profession...
Available appartments that you can hire according to your possible income and acceptable distance from home to job...
Available schools for your kids...
Available job positions for your wife according to her profession...
Available hospitals with good medical support for your little son's kidney problem...
Available restaurants that you may like to eat some italian food and drink wine according to your average income and living area... etc. etc..................
It should be the web 3.0 and where the web going over the next 5 or 10 years.
Trying to define something that will exist in the future is misguided. It would make more sense to come up with a Web 3.0 "wish list" or something like that. How could you possibly define something that doesn't yet exist?
@Curdnerd: Perhaps it would be more helpful to think of discussions around coming up with a definition for "Web 3.0" as defining a mission statement. That's basically what I think this all leads to, which in my opinion is helpful. If you can figure out the Web 3.0 elevator pitch, it can definitely help focus our vision of where we're headed/want to be headed.
@Josh: I see your point, but I still think a mission statement is premature at this point. We're probably closer to the mind mapping / brainstorming stage right now.
Tagline for my MindFlow blog:
WeBvolution! Web 2 let us get smarter about & with each other. Web 3 is when it gets smarter about us!
That seems to be the progression from my perspective.
While monikers like Web 2.0 or Web 3.0 certainly help create marketing buzz, the effects of the applications scattered along the WWW time line are palpable (generating positive results)! Results drive further innovation!
So for those who want to debate what to call it or what motives are behind the names, I would ask you to direct that energy toward troubleshooting the good work of others or otherwise contributing to the collective good (exceptions for journalists). A defining attribute of humanity is that we move things forward. When we notice changes, we have the common tendency to place a milestone to help us see how far we've come!
Long Live Progress!!!
@Josh & Curdnerd: You could also just look at Web 3.0 as a synonym for the future or next Web, imho.
The big story over at Techmeme today is obviously Microsoft's Live Mesh, a platform for synchronization of data across multiple devices. If this is the future, it can be seen as a vote for the APIs and web services promise of Web 3.0.
Having a look at the comments so far to this post, there seems to be quite a lot of sceptics to the expression Web 3.0: #1 thinks it's marketing bull, #2 too early, #11 yesterday's news, #12 also too early, #13 blather.
In favor of the mobile web is #7 and #9. The semantic web #6. Artificial intelligence #4 and #17. Personalization and recommendation #18 and #22.
Let's see if there will be any more votes.
/Jonas
Posted by: impl.emented.com
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April 23, 2008 12:24 PM
Web 2.0 = The web that can be created/filtered/etc by its users.
Web 3.0 = The web that can be created/filtered/etc for us by machines.
Web 3.0 is still 99% marketing BS and 1% ore to be refined.
That said, the thing missing in Web 2.0 is intelligence. The amount of data from blogs, user generated content, marketing flaks, and other sources is exploding. Tags and folksonomies are really primitive ways to organize and structure the data.
Someone needs to do a smart job of organizing all the data in a way that is personalized, adaptive and smart. I don't see the semantic web working out. I think Google can't do it either.
Sorry, I posted this comment on the wrong article ...
Richard,
I think the right question to ask is which definition allows us to do something with it?
When I wrote my piece defining Web 3.0 with a formula, http://sramanamitra.com/2007/02/14/web-30-4c-p-vs/ that is what I was thinking ... to come up with something that is easy, handy, and practical.
Since then, I have heard from many entrepreneurs who are building their company / product / platform strategy around that formula.
I am interested in hearing about other definitions that are actually being used in practical ways.
Sramana
Web 1.0: They-No interaction. Old portals (Digital media) gave us information. Brands are important.
Web 2.0: We-Interaction. BLOGS(User generated contents). We produce information too. Persons are important.
Web 3.0: She/He. UGC+Autonomous generated content: Collective knowledge is machine distributed. Singularity. Net is important itself.
OK here's my opinion: web 3.0 means the next big paradigm shift after web 2.0, right? - so perhaps we're already in the middle of it with the Facebook Platform, it's changing a lot of things, isn't it? As Charlene Li noted, social graph is becoming the oxygen of the web, so that's pretty big and deserves to be called as web 3.0. We're close to web 4.0 too, because iPhone is bringing a paradigm shift too. iPhone brings location aware web services enhanced by new nice UI possibilities (iPhone SDK + internet) - the big question mark is web 5.0 now - everybody wants apps with human like understanding and reasoning capabilities to be web 3.0, web 4.0, web 5.0 or whatever; but actually it's bigger than that, it's really a though challenge and it's not gonna only change the web but actually that technology can change the whole world.
Marketers, developers, tech geeks have different definition/mind map/mission statement/...about Web 1.0-2.0-3.0
Here is from a regular Internet user's experience point of view:
Web 1.0 - Surfing websites looking for info
Web 2.0 - Participating in different Social networking websites such as blogs, facebook, myspace....etc
Web 3.0 - No big difference between professional programmer, geeks, regular consumers... in terms of their web experience. More freedom, personalization...whatsoever they want to do on the net for their personal or business needs...
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Web 3.0? Hmmmmm *thinking*
How come no one has mentioned - virtual worlds, the 'metaverse' etc etc.....that seems to me to be the next real paradigm shift that is on its way. {The move to mobile is a change of technology not paradigm imho} Or is that Web 3D?