Demystifying Web 2.0 – Indian Entrepreneurs Speak Out!
Since the time I entered the internet industry (few months back) the most common thing I keep on hearing is WEB 2.0. Ok that’s cool. But wait..it just didn’t stop there. Every where on the net or my business summits, I just kept on hearing about web2.0 so finally I decided to find out for myself what exactly it means rather than asking someone and being embarrassed. LoL. So, here I am sharing with you people what web 2.0 means?
Web 2.0 is a new generation of web based communities and hosting of services like social networking sites, wikis and folksonomies which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration and sharing between users. In simple terms – it is an improved form of the World Wide Web. Technologies such as weblogs (blogs), social bookmarking, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds (and other forms of many-to-many publishing), social software, web application programming interfaces (APIs), and online web services are a form of web2.0.
Tim O’Reilly and MediaLive International are the one who gave birth to the term web 2.0. This is how they differentiated web 2.0 from web 1.0
Web 1.0 –> Web 2.0
DoubleClick –> Google AdSense
Ofoto –> Flickr
Akamai –> BitTorrent
mp3.com –> Napster
Britannica Online –> Wikipedia
personal websites –> blogging
evite –> upcoming.org and EVDB
domain name speculation –> search engine optimization
page views –> cost per click
screen scraping –> web services
publishing –> participation
content management systems –> wikis
directories (taxonomy) –> tagging
(”folksonomy”) stickiness –> syndication
This video by Tim O’Reilly will surely help you further to understand web 2.0 .
Here are few common reasons why web 2.0 is important to me –
· It helps to build up one to many conversations (community building).
· Helps in getting the feedback.
· Using services like Myspace, Flickr, Google, etc is the smart way to share your views, reviews, ideas, and other stuffs like pics, videos, etc. with many people.
· Blogs and Social Bookmarking sites keeps you updated about new and happening things and now even local blogs are there in case you wished to read in your local language.
· If you got a good content to write but aren’t able to find a publisher then services of blogs can become handy.
· RSS feeds are now becoming handy as all the information from various sites is now accessible through feed readers (they do have some interesting features too).
· It is one of the greatest weapons in the field of marketing and advertising.
· Provides a self employment opportunity.
· Your personal blog can also earn you fame and programs like adsense, pay per clicks, etc. can earn you money.
· Last but not the least it’s for FREE!
Now Listen to what Indians have to say on web 2.0 -
When asked Anupam Mittal, CMD, People Group, about web 2.0 he said that “As a concept, it gained momentum in 2004, and it gives a lot of power in the hands of the Internet consumer, making the World Wide Web a platform for give and take. Blogging and social networking are just two popular facets of this phenomenon characterized by decentralization of authority and open communication. To sum it up, Web 2.0 is what truly makes the Internet ‘of the people, by the people and for the people.”
Chaya Brian Carvalho, CEO and MD, BCWebwise, An Internet media Solutions Company, had stated that the web is a space where users could populate content and even monetize it. “Essentially, Web 2.0 defines the Internet where users can populate content. In Web 2.0, folksonomies – also known as collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing and social tagging, among others – will survive, and will set the pace for the future of communication. Integrating UGC, providing platforms for discussions, and opportunities where users transact between themselves is Web 2.0.”
Dinesh Wadhawan, MD and CEO, Times Internet Ltd, is of the opinion that that Web 2.0 was about decentralization, participation and openness of platforms and “It is about creating platforms which lead to easy creation of content – be it blogs, free image or video upload. Web 2.0 is about giving identity to each user.”
After gaining popularity in foreign countries it is now Indians who are slowly adopting the web 2.0 strategies. Indian Social networking sites are rapidly increasing in numbers after the grand success of international sites like orkut, facebook, myspace and many more. Indians have also been using them effectively for seeking job opportunities and so far the outcome has been good. Many of them are getting hired through social networking sites like orkut, facebook, pownce, etc. But the Indian social networking sites when compared to them are not up to the mark and also the number of active members on these Indian social networking sites are less. Also after portals going regional, many Indian blogging sites are now providing blogging facility in Hindi. The numbers of Indian bloggers keeps on increasing everyday. It really seems like a revolution in the world of web. As the technology grows more improvements and add ons will be seen.
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amazing post Rushabh! Really really awesome!
thx harshil
Though i have been a part of this Web 2.0 revolution, i always somehow kept procrastinating reading the original O’reilly document and the wikis on it.
I am thrilled to see such a comprehensive and well extracted presentation of the concept and how it could change our lives!
Thanks Rushabh
really good analysis of Indian net users…..thanks for the information….
thx a lot nagesh and sandeep.
keep reading and keep commenting
cheers!!!