What Are Web 2.0 and Web 3.0?
Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 refer to successive iterations of the web, compared with the original Web 1.0 of the 1990s and early 2000s. Web 2.0 is the current version of the Internet (a term often used interchangeably with web) with which we are all familiar, while Web 3.0 represents its next phase.
Web refers to the World Wide Web (WWW), the Internet’s core information retrieval system. The www synonym used to (and often still does) preface a web address and was one of the first characters typed into a web browser when searching for a specific resource online. Internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee is credited with coining the term World Wide Web to refer to the global web of information and resources interconnected through hypertext links
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 refers to a paradigm shift in how the Internet is used. Over the past 15 to 20 years, the bland web pages of Web 1.0 have been completely replaced by Web 2.0’s interactivity, social connectivity, and user-generated content. Web 2.0 makes it possible for user-generated content to be viewed by millions of people around the world virtually in an instant; this unparalleled reach has led to an explosion of this type of content in recent years.
The exponential growth of Web 2.0 has been driven by key innovations such as mobile Internet access and social networks, as well as the near ubiquity of powerful mobile devices like iPhones and Android-powered devices. In the second decade of this millennium, these developments enabled the dominance of apps that greatly expanded online interactivity and utility—for example, Airbnb, Facebook (now Meta), Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Uber, WhatsApp, and YouTube, to name a few.
The phenomenal revenue growth of these dominant platforms has made many of the Web 2.0-centric companies—such as Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook/Meta, and Netflix—among the world’s biggest companies by market capitalization (and, along the way, created the FAANG acronym for them).These applications have also spurred the growth of the gig economy, by enabling millions of people to earn income on a part-time or full-time basis by driving, renting their homes, delivering food and groceries, or selling goods and services online. Web 2.0 has also been tremendously disruptive to certain industries, to the point of being an existential threat to some of them. These are sectors that have either failed to adapt to the new web-centric business model or been slow to do so, with retail, entertainment, media, and advertising being among the hardest hit.
Web 3.0
Web 3.0 represents the next iteration or phase of the evolution of the web/Internet and potentially could be as disruptive and represent as big a paradigm shift as Web 2.0. Web 3.0 is built upon the core concepts of decentralization, openness, and greater user utility.
Berners-Lee had expounded upon some of these key concepts back in the 1990s, as outlined below:
Decentralization: “No permission is needed from a central authority to post anything on the web, there is no central controlling node, and so no single point of failure...and no ‘kill switch’! This also implies freedom from indiscriminate censorship and surveillance.”
Bottom-up design: “Instead of code being written and controlled by a small group of experts, it was developed in full view of everyone, encouraging maximum participation and experimentation.”3
In a 2001 paper, Berners-Lee discussed the concept of what he referred to as the Semantic Web.4 Computers have no reliable way to process the semantics of language (i.e., figure out the actual context in which a word or phrase is used). Berners-Lee’s vision for the Semantic Web was to bring structure to the meaningful content of web pages and enable software that would carry out sophisticated tasks for users.
Web 3.0 has moved well beyond the original concept of the Semantic Web as conceptualized by Berners-Lee in 2001. This is partly because it is very expensive and monumentally difficult to convert human language—with all its subtle nuances and variations—into a format that can be readily understood by computers, and because Web 2.0 has already evolved substantially over the past two decades.
Defining Features of Web 3.0
While there is as yet no standardized definition of Web 3.0, it does have a few defining features:
Decentralization: This is a core tenet of Web 3.0. In Web 2.0, computers use HTTP in the form of unique web addresses to find information, which is stored at a fixed location, generally on a single server. With Web 3.0, because information would be found based on its content, it could be stored in multiple locations simultaneously and hence be decentralized. This would break down the massive databases currently held by Internet giants like Facebook (now Meta) and Google, and would hand greater control to users.
With Web 3.0, the data generated by disparate and increasingly powerful computing resources, including mobile phones, desktops, appliances, vehicles, and sensors, will be sold by users through decentralized data networks, ensuring that users retain ownership control.
Trustless and permissionless: In addition to decentralization and being based upon open source software, Web 3.0 will also be trustless (i.e., the network will allow participants to interact directly without going through a trusted intermediary) and permissionless (meaning that anyone can participate without authorization from a governing body). As a result, Web 3.0 applications will run on blockchains or decentralized peer-to-peer networks, or a combination thereof—such decentralized apps are referred to as dApps.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning: In Web 3.0, computers will be able to understand information similarly to humans, through technologies based upon Semantic Web concepts and natural language processing. Web 3.0 will also use machine learning, which is a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) that uses data and algorithms to imitate how humans learn, gradually improving its accuracy. These capabilities will enable computers to produce faster and more relevant results in a host of areas like drug development and new materials, as opposed to merely targeted advertising that forms the bulk of current efforts.
Connectivity and ubiquity: With Web 3.0, information and content are more connected and ubiquitous, accessed by multiple applications and with an increasing number of everyday devices connected to the web—an example being the Internet of Things.
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