Web 2.X

When reading O'Reilly and Boyd talking about Web 2.0 I found it very interesting how much the internet has changed since the were written.

O'Reilly was written in 2005 and the differences were amazing, but the foundation was still the same. Many of the examples used were older and out of date, but it is valuable in showing where Web 2.0 was founded. Having Firefox still not have a large share of the internet and Chrome not even out yet, the competition for browser has reached a state where the Open Source has surpassed the 'For Profit' IE.

W3 schools keeps statistics on browser usage at http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp as of today (June 16, 2012), the May statistics show that IE only has 18.1% of the browser market compare to 35.2% and 39.3% for Firefox and Chrome.

O'Reilly stated "the service automatically gets better the more people use it" when referring to a key Web 2.0 principle. Google is probably the best known for this. Not only does it follow another principle that the using the Web as a Platform, with its Apps (Docs, Youtube, Gmail, Calendar, Maps), it does so in creating Google Labs. A area that allows for Beta and even Alpha testing. With the more people that know about it, the larger the testing group is, thus the more successful the product is. "Users must be treated as co-developers," any good company today will release a beta for the customers, they will provide feedback that will shape the final outcome.

On Mozilla's website (creators of Firefox) they do not have a application tab in navigation. They have a 'Projects' tab, showing that nothing is ever complete on the web, it is ever changing. Again O'Reilly states this, "So fundamental is the shift from software as artifact to software as service that the software will cease to perform unless it is maintained on a daily basis."

The idea of Web 2.0 is the same today as it was when it was first deemed 2.0, but the change of the technology and the culture of the web has. We have moved from many set ideas in the model of business that it is not fair to call the web today the same as it was 3 years ago, let alone seven. I feel like Web 2.X is more appropriate of a name, there is no set web version. It is an ever changing network. It should be treated as such, not as a software device that has a version number.