So What is Web 2.0, Anyway?
In the last few years, marketers and Web developers have been teeming with talk of “Web 2.0.” As diehard techies, we know what it is. But the more we chat with our clients, the more we realize that the concept of Web 2.0 isn’t obvious to everyone. So just what does this industry buzzword mean, anyway, and why should it matter to your business?
According to O’Reilly Media, the concept of “Web 2.0″ began with a conference in 2004. Dale Dougherty, web pioneer and O’Reilly VP, noted that far from having “crashed,” the web was more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites popping up with surprising regularity. Conference members agreed that the dot-com collapse marked some kind of turning point for the web, and so they coined the term “Web 2.0.”
For the layman, Web 2.0 simply means that something new is happening online. It involves popular social networking sites like Google and MySpace and YouTube and Flickr, and the widespread use of technologies like blogs. It’s all about participation and being a part of a conversation through forums and product reviews, and commenting on or tagging news articles. It’s about people publishing content, creating and sharing stories, photos, videos and music in communities online.
What makes Web 2.0 different from Web 1.0 are, as O’Reilly describes in an article about Web 2.0, seven underlying principles:
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The Web As Platform. Software runs as a service over the Web (like Google), rather than on a desktop computer (like Netscape).
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Harnessing Collective Intelligence. Information is aggregated from lots of people rather than a few experts (amazon’s community of reviewers, Google’s use of links to drive its search algorithms). Users add value and often create the content on Web sites.
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Data is the Next Intel Inside. Owning a specialized database (amazon’s database of products).
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End of the Software Release Cycle. New functionality is released often, without a schedule, for Web-based applications (Flickr releases new versions up to every thirty minutes).
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Lightweight Programming Models. Simple development environments are easy for consumers to re-use (Google’s mapping interface).
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Software Above the Level of a Single Device. Lots of devices beyond desktop computers working together with the web (iTunes and iPods).
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Rich User Experiences. More dynamic user-interfaces closing the gap between web and rich local PC-based applications (Ajax)
How does Web 2.0 affect small businesses? It marks a shift in the way they present information and interact with their customers on the Web. Where once companies had “brochure” style Web sites with static information about their company and its products, now the most successful companies (both online and brick-and-mortar) are interacting with their customers through technologies including blogs, content syndication, e-mail outreach, hyper local advertising, customized or personalized online accounts, and surveys. They’re capturing information about their customers’ buying habits and using the data to tailor sales pitches that are hard to resist. They’re not just talking to customers anymore – they’re listening and truly talking with customers. They’re nurturing relationships, building trust, and increasing profits as a result.
Used effectively, Web 2.0 can be extremely valuable for small businesses – and there are several easy ways you can inject a little Web 2.0-ness into your Web site and online marketing campaign right now. In upcoming issues of The Wyre, we’ll show you how.
