Web 2.0 Model

Web 2.0 includes two major model move, one is ‘user generated content’ and other is ‘thin client computing’.

1. User Generated Content
   User generated contents refer to those content which user can upload it on the Web 2.0 based software especially social networking sites in the form of text, audio, video, pictures, movies and many more on the low level or the mass level itself. The advantage of this move is the content can spread very rapidly on the mass level and truly talented authors, artists, musicians and moviemakers can gain an audience quickly and easily that was not so easy in the past. ‘Orkut’, ‘YouTube’, ‘Wikipedia’ and blogs are the best examples of User generated Content Paradigm.
2. Thin Client Computing
   Data and applications are stored on Web servers, and a user can access these from any computer through a Web browser. This is known as thin client computing. Though, it is not a new concept for the Internet, but in Web 2.0 user can access any data from the massive server through Browsers. Browsers interpret scripts in such a way, that the data are accessed extremely quick no matter which hardware or software environment they reside in. ‘Google’, ‘Live’, ‘Yahoo’ and ‘msn’ is the best examples of thin client computing.

Origin of Web 2.0

Before the origin of Web 2.0, Web 1.0 was known as a term ‘Web’ that was like warehouse of information and static content. Then, as time passes, with the advancement of technology and software, a huge amount of data and content became dynamic and returning custom results to users. With the evolution of new century, the Web became much more interactive. It allowed the users to play, stop, rewind and fast-forward through audio and video content. It was Web 1.5. But gradually, Web-based applications act like local applications, but on a worldwide level with the social illusion just before since last two or three years. This is known as Web 2.0.

The concept of “Web 2.0” began with a conference brainstorming session between O’Reilly and MediaLive International in 2003. Dale Dougherty, web pioneer and O’Reilly VP, noted that the dotcom companies were being crashed very rapidly despite of having quality and right marketing strategy. It is assumed that something is common in all the dotcom companies that were not being distinguished by the client and being the causes of crashing. Though they observed that Web applications have a lot more than it had been used so far. They decided to do something different with web application, thus the concept of Web 2.0 has been evolved. O’Reilly had presented the feature of Web 2.0 in 2004 in a conference claiming the new version of Web. It began to popular since then.

Google, Live, Orkut, YouTube etc are the best examples of Web 2.0. In the model of Web 2.0 O’Reilly had presented that the Web 2.0 based software can do better business and are more efficient. This causes the revolution and many more web applications replacing the most common and popular Web applications e.g. Google AdSense replaced Double Click, Flickr replaced Ofoto, Napster replaced mp3.com, Wikipedia replaced Britannica Online, Web logs replaced personal websites, Search Engine Optimization replaced domain name speculation, Wikis replaced Content Management System while folksonomy replaced taxonomy. There is a long list of Web 2.0 that is accepted widely. But the controversy is still going on about the definition of Web 2.0. Some people are criticizing it saying that it is a meaningless marketing buzzword while many people heartily accept it and enjoy it too.