Beyond Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is dead, a victim of its own success.

The concept of the "site" as a fixed destination is no longer sufficient.

The next evolutionary step has been reached and it is distributed.

What we are witnessing is an untethering of content and applications from the underlying sites.

Web 1.0 was, in large part, about getting the masses on the Internet, epitomized by companies such as AOL (ISP), Netscape (browser), and Yahoo (portal).

Web 2.0 was, to a certain extent, about giving the masses something to do once they got on the Internet and removing the technical hurdles to doing so, ex. share your photos (Flickr); express your thoughts and opinions (Blogger), post your videos (YouTube).

While it is still too early to determine exactly what traits will define Web 3.0, there are certain characteristics which are emerging, among them:
(1) A more widespread acknowledgement of the convergence between content creators and content consumers;
(2) A movement from fixed sites to distributed, free floating content and applications;
(3) A more advanced tapping of a user's social graph,
(4) A layering of sites on top of other sites, and
(4) A trend toward universal interoperability between sites.

As with any shift, there will be companies which straddle the line between both camps, but the point is that something different is beginning to emerge, beyond Web 2.0.

Comments

[Fernando Bresslau]

I would add the fact that internet is now with us everywhere we go: in our work laptops, our smartphones, netbooks and public pcs. Our e-mails are stored onine for machine independent access, as are our photos, documents, music, contacts and calendars.