_NeonGrape

What is Web3.0? It might be a little premature to start asking this question, but if we don’t start weighing up the possibilities, we’ll never know when it does actually hit us.

On many occasions our studio has erupted into a heated debate about what web2.0 is, and whether or not it exists at all.  Without dropping any names, some of the most brilliant and forward thinking geeks I work with still stubbornly refuse to acknowledge the term, and insist that none of the tools we use to create web applications have changed.

I am of the opinion that web2.0 has fully evolved into much more than just the marketing buzzword that became so brutally misused from around 2004-2008.  I think we can feel comfortable using the phrase, without having to explain that it means more than just glossy button effects, or a nice reflection.

In short, our Internet has become social.  Almost everything you do on the Internet today involves some kind of social element.  You read a review before buying a product, you comment on a video you watched on YouTube, you upload a file for a work project, and you arrange a group meet-up on Facebook.  The social web has become synonymous with our modern lifestyle.

My enthusiasm for the next wave of online trends has obviously led to the question: What is Web3.0? It might be a little premature to start asking this question, but if we don’t start weighing up the possibilities, we’ll never know when it does actually hit us.

People tried for years to define Web2.0, and I think there might still be no concrete definition.  It was only until a few years after the term was coined that techies started to become more familiar with the constituting elements that were being referred to when someone actually said the word.  I don’t want to try and define Web3.0.  Tim Burners Lee wouldn’t even dare do that.  What I do want to highlight is some of the things I think will play a major part in the evolution of our current online experience into Web3.0:

•    Online communication is moving towards real-time

Connection speeds are continually increasing, and applications like Skype and twitter allow for instant updates to a wide audience of people anywhere around the globe.  Google recently announced Wave, their new take on collaboration.  Demonstrations have shown it to have letter by letter instant messaging.

•    The mobile web

Companies such as Nokia, Palm and Apple have already made a huge impact in mobile communication with their smart phones, but I feel we are still in for many exciting developments in this area. Geographical location is playing an increasingly large role in mobile communication, which in turn helps to deliver information more tailored toward a given context.

•    Semantics

Put simply, semantics is the study of language meaning.  Scientists are trying to teach machines and computers to understand humans better, so that we can access accurate search results that are relevant to the context in which we are searching. Google recently announced their “Rich Snippets” feature. A snippet is the little block of text that appears under a search result describing the webpage. This announcement entail that Google is now applying their algorithms to “highlight structured data embedded in web pages”. Put more simply, they are working towards translating data for the Semantic Web.

•    Opening up communication for everyone

There is a huge amount of data online, but unfortunately, most of that data is currently locked up in separate databases.  Making all online data available across all sites or applications will allow for totally unconnected sets of information to be compared and deliver more accurate results to our queries. The Wolframa|Alpha ‘computational knowledge engine’ is a good example of how an ecosystem of open databases could deliver concise information in easily digestible formats. In order to achieve this state of open communication, data should be allowed to flow freely to and from all sources.

The cool thing about these changes in trend is that nobody can really pin down when they start or end.  Just as the Web2.0 debate still rages, based on the argument that the technologies were already there, many of the building blocks of Web3.0 are already in place.  It is simply that over the next few years we’re going to find interesting new ways of stacking them, which will lead to a whole new world of experience for online users.