Web 2.0 - A New Incarnation of World Wide Web

When I first heard the word "Web 2.0",I dismissed it as some new programming language(since it has got a version number).To my consternation,I found that word everywhere.Only then, my curiosity increased about the term and I searched for it in Google and found some interesting results.
The concept of "Web 2.0" began with a conference brainstorming session between O'Reilly(O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazine, and conferences) and MediaLive International (Medialive International, Inc. produces information technology tradeshows and conferences).According to Wikipedia Web 2.0 refers to a supposed second-generation of Internet-based services — such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies — that let people collaborate and share information online in previously unavailable ways.

In their first conference opening talk, O'Reilly and MediaLive summarized key principles they believed characterized Web 2.0 applications:

• Web as a platform.
  
• Harnessing Collective Intelligence (Example:Wikipedia)
  
• Network effects created by an architecture of participation.(Example:Blogs)
  
• End of the Software Release Cycle.Earlier companies used to release a software as a product,but now they're releasing it as a service which needs constant monitoring.For example Google must constantly update its indices to rank webpages.
  
• Rich User Experiences (Using technologies like AJAX.Google Maps mainly uses AJAX) .
  

Many find it easiest to define Web 2.0 by associating it with companies or products that embody the above principles.
Examples:Digg,Delicious,Wikipedia,Writely,Google Maps etc.

You can read more about Web 2.0 here and here

Tags:Web 2.0