What is Web 2.0?

Most teenagers these days are very familiar with a variety of Web 2.0 applications which they use every day. But they may not be aware that these applications are amongst a new generation of web applications collectively referred to as "Web 2.0".

So what is Web 2.0?

Well, in the beginning, the World Wide Web (or just "web" for short), was a one way street. People, who usually possessed specialist programming skills constructed their web pages in HTML (hyper-text markup language) and posted them on their web servers. It was a one-way form of communication. Those who owned a web server could communicate with the rest of the world, but not the other way around.

Around 2003/2004 a new generation of web applications began to be developed (based on technologies like AJAX) that allowed web users to interact more easily and in a larger variety of ways with the site. This facilitated greater information sharing and communication. Sites like Wikipedia and Flickr are considered to be "Web 2.0" because the information on these sites was put their by the sites users, not only by the sites owners. It's easy to forget that some of the most popular Web 2.0 sites today - like MySpace and Facebook - are less than five years old!

Anyway, others can explain Web 2.0 better than I can, so here are a couple of videos (from the most successful Web 2.0 video sharing site YouTube) that will explain the concept in more detail.

Firstly, a video to give a clear definition from Utech:


Next a more animated video to give you a feel for what Web 2.0 is - but pay attention or you'll miss it!


Still confused? Well if you need more information, why not check out my Web 2.0 links on Delicious?