The Web is constantly evolving. The web's major milestones are a reflection of the impact made to our society (regardless of the technologies behind it). These milestones or revolutions have been
tipping points; the moment when previously unique Web becomes common.
The first web revolution or tipping point occurred after Tim Berners-Lee introduced the web in the academic world, and the Internet and Web made it into our daily lives, changing the way we publish and consume and share information, and buy goods via our web browsers. That is Web 1.0.
Then Tim O'Reilly came up with Web 2.0, to describe the (current) phenomena centered on the concept of participation and collaboration (of content and services) and user-generated content.
But by doing so, O'Reilly skipped a whole revolution – the web (indexing and) search revolution. This is an "information accessibility" revolution. This search revolution and
tipping point is the true Web 2.0. Searching have had such a huge impact in our daily lives, and has become the preferred way to find/consume information; it is amazing what that little search box has done for us. The search revolution occurred before the time of participation/collaboration and user-generated content, and will continue impacting current and future revolutions – search is here to stay, but will evolve, as described later.
What we call Web 2.0 today should really be Web 3.0, which again is the revolution of participation and user-generated content and virtual communities (social networks).
What about future web revolutions and tipping points? I think some will be based on the following (in no particular order), and search, participation, collaboration and user-generated content will play an important role in all of them:
- Web Pervasiveness, this is true Internet/Web everywhere; this is where mobility is going shine; this is relevant information properly served, right when it is needed, on your desktop, on your handset, voice, text, multimedia. Seamless access to friends and family regardless “messaging medium”.
- Seamless Identity across the web, allowing for simple and seamless
identification and authentication of users and thus simplified secure access to content and services across the web. As Tom wrote, seamless identity is very important for mobile. There are a lot of road-blocks to realize this; we are years away. - Natural and Intelligent Web, where we will be able to use natural expression/language, and where based on our context and semantics, the web tools are able to suggest or find related information, where all your related information is intelligently connected allowing for smart ways to find, consume and share information and goods; some believe this is at the center of the Third Generation of the Web (but I believe it is post that). This revolution will take the longest to realize, as it requires content and tools to be semantic and natural expression-aware.
All the above will be tipping points and will change how the Internet and web will be used in our daily lives.
And what about the Mobile revolution? We are in the birth of the second revolution, triggered by the next generation of feature-rich multimedia handsets, and high-speed wireless networks, and communication transparency, and connectivity/access to Internet/web everywhere, and common methods, protocols and APIs. This also will be a tipping point from the user's perspective, and will become common. This is forward-looking and we are still 3-5+ years away from such realization. And the other
tipping points mentioned above will all be part of the mobile experience (or vice-versa).
ceo