Angry Web Designer

The Bad

Why I hate the term ”Web 2.0”

I hate it. For me it is the worst term out on the web today and I cringe every time I see it, especially when it’s used in marketing.

The fact I hate it is because no-one really knows what it means so they assume they know what it should mean. I have head the following keywords from other web designers of what they think Web 2.0 means:

• Rounded Corners
• AJAX
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Badges (pointy, star like ones)
• Gradients
• Bright colours

All the items that mentioned styling are completely wrong (Rounded corners, Badges, Gradients, Bright colours). How these reasons come about is simply due to the trend right now which coincides with the Web 2.0 phase, which should not be mixed. So people assume what it’s related to is the design rather than the actual meaning. AJAX is a method of data communication not a definition of what Web 2.0 is. SEO is just a marketing wank, making a site that search engines can use should be default for all web designers not some addon.

So I did research to find out what it’s true meaning is.

Finding the actual meaning

According to Wiktionary, Web 2.0 is defined as:

The second generation of the World Wide Web, especially the movement away from static webpages to dynamic and shareable content

Source: Wiktionary, definition “Web 2.0″

However, lets not take the Wiktionary answer as “the” definition, more as a guide. O’Reilly which is a trusted publisher of a lot of Website books has an article called “What is Web 2.0″. It has some good points and examples of the change from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. O’Reilly look at the evolution of websites and new applications for the Web which are apart of Web 2.0 regarding to collective intelligence and data sharing and portability.

The definition is definitely not based on style/design but is more related to how we as users interact with the web. When looking at the changes of the web we can see this clearly, I have seen this myself since I first started on the web.

The change from 1.0 to 2.0

What happened? We saw the web in a new light, that it was a medium for collaboration, discussion and expression of who and what we are. With this realisation the development into the web as a platform from just a presentation medium into web-based applications. A good example is the change from Britannica Online to Wikipedia, discussed in O’Reilly’s post about the Web 2.0 definition. We realised that with the collaboration and an application the web could create, on its own, a website full of information about anything and everything.

With the advent of these changes new methods for using data and interaction on the web changed. AJAX was discovered and then made its way into mainstream usage for user interaction without constant page changes. Better coding methods and methodologies came to be to help the people developing the applications make better ones more efficiently. These are just tools and methods for Web 2.0 and not its definition.

Setting the record straight

What is Web 2.0. We define it by what the web provides us with, what the web can do for us and how we can use it at that state/version.

So you can define Web 2.0 as a more open, social and interactive state of the web that exceeds the previous possibilities of Web 1.0. Moving away from static marketing sites for business into applications and tools for social interaction, opinion voicing and open education… for everyone.

Wiktionary has a some-what solid and verified definition of what Web 2.0 is. Do we need to define what version the web is at? Of course not, its not an application we get service updates for… hell it hasn’t really changed since it went mainstream in the early 90’s, thankfully design on the web has changed.

If I see a website designer that says “I can make Web 2.0″ relating to design then… well… I’ll get angry

Just a note: I appologise to any typographers. I had to use double single-quotes in the title because normal quotes wouldn’t work. It’s Kryptonite… I know.

Comments

1. 

   the-angry-web-designer

    April 25, 2009 at 1:44 am

   Here here!

   Our “Asshole of Marketing” at our company said he looked at the definition of “Web 2.0″ and had the audacity to say it was rounded corners, bubble style graphics, insert crap here. [No wonder that company is going bankrupt.]

   When I hear someone say “Web 2.0″ I want to hurl. It’s code for, “I have no idea what I’m talking about, but it makes me sound edgy and techno-hip”.

    Reply
   
   
2. 

   Andrew

    May 17, 2009 at 12:37 am

   This rant should have happened like 2 years ago

    Reply
   
   

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