What "web 2.0" really means -- and why "web 3.0" will never come

The better definition I have heard of technology cycles (via Jared Spool).

The numbers do not map to Web 2.0.

The first generation (1.0) is all the technology. "Hey, check out out my Motorola cellular phone. It weighs 5 pounds and is a true portable"

The second generation (2.0) is all about the features. "Text messaging, pictures, ringtones, games, address book, MP3 player, J2ME, comes in pink". Windows Media Center (1st release)

The third generation (3.0) is all about the user experience. The iPhone

An excellent, succinct, sensible description of web 2.0. Of course it'll never catch on because it lacks the hype factor. His punch line: "Web 2.0 apps are different from 1.0 apps in that they're native to the web, and you can do things with them that simply were not possible before."

My metaphor for Doval's concept would be web 2.0 is a STEW... which came into being because a bunch of (not necessarily related) tasty ingredients became available at approximately the same time.

One small quibble: This doesn't really mean that a higher quantum-level web3.0 tech-stew will not bless us at some future date. [Not holding my breath.]

web 2.0 is a catchphrase, as it dies people will come up with another term for it. Lately it seems to be "social media"

"Web 2.0" never really existed. Ex. I go out and change my lifestyle and I coin the term "Life 2.0." What does it mean? Ultimately, nothing. It's all hype for better development and design techniques and ideas.

Will "Web 3.0" come? Yes. I say this because, someone, probably the media, will need to make the web sound "cool" again. As I said before, it's all about hype.

"How so? Consider: A page with nothing but a massive collection of hyperlinks, almost no text, a few photos, updated dozens of times per day and followed by millions of people. Sounds like Web 2.0 to me."

Sounds like the early Yahoo, too.

ObSmarmySelfPromotion: http://web2.0validator.com/

<sarcasm> "Web 3.0 apps are different from 2.0 apps in that they're native to the web, and you can do things with them that simply were not possible before."

An example would be taking a 2.0 app previously thought to be unmonetizable and making money with it such as monetizing Twitter or Facebook. </sarcasm>

.... why "web 3.0" will never come... Never say never!

I thought "web 3.0" meant context-aware search and things like that? Such as being able to search for string "hot cars in Detroit" and the search engine be smart enough to search for dealerships in Detroit, interpreting substring "hot" as being an adjective for "cars in detroit", i.e., as a string to look for on dealership sites, for example. Search and XML representations that are more linguistically aware, in other words. That is web 3.0 as far as I understand, so it seems reasonable that things like this could arise at some point, especially given progress made recently in the field of chatbots, such as at the Loebner competition for example.