Web Iterations

Last week we looked at media convergence and how that has an effect on modern journalism and how it will influence future journalism.

Specifically, I am going to discuss web iterations:

- Web 1.0
-Web 2.0
- Web 3.0

As far as my understanding goes, Web 1.0 was the first incarnation of the internet. It was full of content and advertisers would buy up the space surrounding the content in an attempt to boost sales and whatnot. This quote from Greg Smith sums up Web 1.0 neatly:

Web 1.0 (the information web), the one we all know and love, is straightforward. It’s full of content that we can surround with ads, mainly in the form of banners. Many marketers look at this as an extension of offline media – print and television. Sadly, they tend to use it the same way (Greg Smith, 2009).

 We then moved on to Web 2.0, which is how we currently interact online. Web 2.0 can be described as the "social web" and largely refers to the interactivity that users experience with each other, with marketers, with businesses and so on. Web 2.0 has also coined the term "prod-users". Prod-users are, essentially, normal internet users that also create content. Web 2.0 has made it possible for anybody and everybody to be a producer of content and so everyone is capitalising on the opportunity. The number of blogs, Youtube channels, Facebook businesses, Etsy businesses etc., is absolutely staggering.

Web 3.0 is kind of the direction that people expect the internet to go. It will design your internet experience based on your interests and other things that you have searched before. Advertisers are already taking advantage of this technology, showing ads for products that match up with internet searches that you have made before in an attempt to attract your attention and potential business. The problem that I have with applying this concept to the entire internet is that it basically creates tunnel vision. There is an entire world of content to pursue and by only being shown information that you are probably already interested in, you miss out on experiencing so much more.


Note: I thought that I posted this last week but I did not so I had to make some minor adjustments.