The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate interactive systemic biases, interoperability, user-centered design, and developing the World Wide Web. A Web 2.0 site allows users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as consumers of user-generated content in a virtual community, in contrast to websites where users (prosumers) are limited to the active viewing of content that they created and controlled. Examples of Web 2.0 include social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, hosted services, web applications, mashups and folksonomies.
One of the most significant differences between Web 2.0 and the traditional World Wide Web (retroactively referred to as Web 1.0) is greater collaboration among Internet users and other users, content providers, and enterprises.
Originally, data was posted on Web sites, and users simply viewed or downloaded the content. Increasingly, users have more input into the nature and scope of Web content and in some cases exert real-time control over it. For example, multiple-vendor online book outlets such as BookFinder4U make it possible for users to upload book reviews as well as find rare and out-of-print books at a minimum price, and dynamic encyclopedias such as Wikipedia allow users to create and edit the content of a worldwide information database in multiple languages. Internet forums have become more extensive and led to the proliferation of blogging. The dissemination of news evolved into RSS.
There is no clear-cut demarcation between Web 2.0 and Web 1.0 technologies, hardware and applications. The distinction is, to a large extent, subjective. Here are a few characteristics often noted as descriptive of Web 2.0:
- Blogging .
- Ajax and other new technologies
- Google Base and other free Web services.
- RSS-generated syndication.
- Social Bookmarking
- Mash Ups.
- Wikis and other collaborative applications.
- Dynamic as opposed to static site content.
- Interactive encyclopedias and dictionaries.
- Ease of data creation, modification or deletion by individual users.