Web 2.0 is no longer a buzzword or a myth. Since its emergence it has
revolutionized the way Web should be used. With the help of technologies like
JavaScript, XML, ASP.Net, PHP/Perl, My SQL, etc, it opened different avenues for
various software companies and gave the Web a different way of handling data. It
took its time to find its belonging, but now is among the hottest trends to look
out for. It's already creating a huge roar in the enterprise segment after being
a success story on the commercial and social front.
What makes it hot?
The reason why it is so widely talked and discussed is because of the huge
business opportunity it has created for enterprises and software developers. Web
has never been so interactive before: ask the young brigades about Orkut,
YouTube, or Flickr and you would know how much impact it has made on their daily
lives. Now Web is more a platform for interactivity than a static source of
information. It literally took the 'tech' out of 'technology' and made a common
platform for all of us to collaborate, share, and interact. A layman can post
his views in a Blog without having to know a single word of HTML. Now users can
not only access data but also contribute to it. This Rich Internet Architecture
for using the Web in a participatory manner has caused the corporate world to
pay so much attention to it. So much so that this year, most of the corporate
world was trying to figure out how to integrate Web 2.0 features within their
own Intranets and portals.
The story so far: |
|
There are endless ways through which an enterprise can leverage the power of
Web 2.0---integrating applications in a web browser, allowing users to modify
content in real time, allowing multiple users to interact, aggregating content
from other sites into your own, hosting desktops on the Web, providing online
videos, audioblogging, webinars, blogging are just a few possibilities that come
to mind.
Key technologies
Technologies such as AJAX, Flex, Meshup, Atom, Podcast, XML, Javascripts,
RSS Feed, Wiki, P2P, and Blog form the backbone of Web 2.0. AJAX enables the
exchange of small amount of data with the server behind the scene, making the
webpage more responsive and thus avoiding the entire webpage from reloading
during a refresh. The main programming language is JavaScript wherein AJAX
functions are made and with the use of XML the data which is asynchronously
retrieved and kept are formatted. So when you log into your Gmail account, you
would notice it to be refreshed after a particular interval without actually
loading the whole page all over again, it just asynchronously checks for new
data. The biggest advantage is that this is a cross-platform technology, hence
can be used across various OSs, Computer Architectures, and Web browsers.
Mash-up is a value-added service source from a third party, which is to be
integrated into a Web application. It sources the content from a third party via
a public interface or API. Mash-ups opened up new avenues for the enterprise as
it renders interoperability and can also be used to source content from
disparate Web Services. Podcast made audio blogging a reality. It is mainly a
digital media file or collection of such files which can be distributed over the
Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and PCs.
Wiki even though existed for a long time is now an important knowledge
sharing platform. On the hardware front the emergence of Broadband and storage
becoming cheaper played a big part on the success of Web 2.0. All these have
made up what Web 2.0 is all about.
Latest developments
The big news in Web 2.0 this year was that most
major software vendors introduced Web 2.0 technologies in their current and
future products. Enterprises started leveraging this technology in many creative
ways. So things like allowing your customers who are visiting your e-commmerce
portal to interact with your staff members is now possible. Some use Podcasts,
Webinars, and Blogs as marketing tools on their sites. Some use Mash-up, RSS
Feed, and Atoms to get the right information to the right people. Many SaaS
model-based applications are now being developed to be used as a Web
application.
Second Life
A key development in the Web space is the emergence of Second life. Some big
enterprises are using an interface with Second life which allows customers to
visualize their potential purchases alongside their property. Second Life, a 3D
online digital world since its emergence has given a new dimension to human
visualization. It is mainly a 3D virtual world where users can interact with
each other through motion avatars providing advanced levels of social network
services in an environment where people interact (via their avatars) with one
another in cyber space which use metaphors of the real world minus its physical
limitations. It threw up new business opportunities for various verticals, as
enterprises can use the platform to collaborate, do research and
conceptualization, do prototyping and promote their brand, and also communicate
in a completely different manner. With enterprises focusing more and more on
collaboration and automation of all their branches, this will open a new mode of
collaboration and communication medium. Still in its initial days this will
surely become a trend to look out for and will take Web beyond Web 2.0.
Some key functionalities of Web 2.0 which help enterprises make their portal solution interactive and user friendly |
The journey beyond Web 2.0
The future looks challenging and bright, with more opportunities being created
and demand coming in from various quarters for added functionalities. We are
looking toward a future where we will witness a better Web 2.0 platform with
utility of serious applications, while retaining all the power of a simple Web
delivery that a JavaScript + HTML based UI offers.
Soon we will have browser versions which will have offline support for AJAX Web
applications. We may also see some level of automated artificial intelligence
routines that manage various aspects of our digital life. It won't be a surprise
to see a Web-based calendar application that intelligently arranges the
schedules based on inputs from other's calendars minus any inputs from the user
himself.
There is lot of talk about Semantic Web, which is supposed to draw sense out of
data in a meaningful and impactful manner. Also, semantic Web developers are
releasing a new XML format, which supposedly would be the final step to the
completion of Web 3.0. All the more technology offerings like a deductive
calculator can solve arbitrary problems using the math knowledge encoded in the
Web. So we are moving toward the world where computers will be capable of
understanding information and performing tedious tasks such as finding, sharing,
and combining on the Web.
Some key technologies that will drive the future of Web are RDF (Resource
Description Framework), a simple language for expressing data models which
eventually refer to object and their relationship and OWL (Web Ontology
Language) which adds more vocabulary for describing properties and classes as
well as relationship between classes, characteristic of properties, etc.