Web 2.0 is a set of ideas with no standard definition. It harnesses user power and is decentralized. Blogs, Digg, and viral marketing are examples. Profitability remains to be seen.
There is no standard definition for web 2.0, as it is a set of ideas rather than something clear cut. However, O’Reilly’s comments on the subject are seen as having special authority and rank among the top Google search results for the term.
The first premise of web 2.0 is to harness the power of the user. For example, smooth content tagging would be used instead of a centralized taxonomy. Web 2.0 entrepreneurs often consider the Long Tail, which is basically an observation that the vast majority of the attention market is based on niche content. This version of the web is radically decentralized, as is the case with BitTorrent, a collaborative download cooperative that consumes a major portion of all Internet traffic.
Blogs are considered web 2.0. Instead of centralized “personal homepages,” blogs make it easy for people to post as much, infrequently, or as often as they like. Feed aggregators ensure that people only need to visit one site to see all the feeds they subscribe to. Comments are enabled everywhere, allowing people to participate rather than passively consuming the content.
The Digg web page is an example of web 2.0. Unlike traditional news pages where editors pick the top stories, the content of Digg’s front page is determined by the votes of many thousands of users. The more votes a story gets, the more likely it is to make the front page.
Web 2.0 marketing should be viral, i.e. happy users encouraging their friends to use a product, rather than mass advertising brainwashing people into doing so. This ties back to the idea of “permission marketing” – marketing that actually gets permission of its targets rather than shoving an ad in someone’s face against their will. Some people call web 2.0 just another bubble like the first one. Only time will tell if these companies are truly profitable or “just” trendy and useful.
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