The Web: Not Just Spiders Play Anymore

A Network of Threads Becomes A Network of Friends:

Thinking about Web 1.0 is a concept that is hard for me to grasp. Growing up, the Web interface was always on Web 2.0 meaning that I never got to see the rudimentary design of Web 1.0. When reading and learning about Web 1.0,2.0, and 3.0, I was amazed at where the web started and how far it has come.

The Web started out as nothing more than a place for people to post information, it was as useful as a poster on a wall(the information was out there but was hard to get noticed). Users could not interact with the information they were given this made it a very one sided tool. With the development of Web 2.0 the concept of the Web did not change but rather how websites were created and how users could interact with them. To me,Web 2.0 was one of the most important advancements of technology. It served as a gateway to many of the media forms we are familiar with today such as Youtube, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, the list goes on and on...

When Tim O'reilly separated content from form he made the web user friendly. This advancement meant that people on the web could easily interact, contribute, and utilize websites and the information they contained. O'reilly realized the importance of user interaction-- In order to be successful you have to give users a reason to come back. It was this mindset that lead to the creation of  "Web 3.0". Web 3.0 takes user interaction to a whole new level. It scares me to think about how much this version of the Web knows about its users and how it can essentially predict what a user wants and needs.

The advancement of the Web is a double edged sword, it has both negative and positive aspects. The positive being how easy it would be to find what you want and how simple interactions on the web would be. The negative being the invasion of privacy and personal space.Now more than ever I am noticing Web 3.0 en-cringing on my life. When I am on Facebook and open another webpage I notice that when I return to Facebook there are ads related to the page I was previously on. I understand that it can be helpful to be directed to these pages but it also very creepy. The internet is moving towards not only knowing what you are doing but also predicting what you are going to do next. Are you ready for this type of invasion? I'm not.

Transforming the Web Into A Web of Information: 

What does the World Wide Web web signify beside a"www" at the beginning of a websites HTML? The World Wide Web has become a staple in today's culture-- a concept so normative that no one really stops to think how it works or of its importance. Fortunately, COM 336 is a class that focuses on the World Wide Web and explains aspects that most people would be previously unaware of.

The Web was not always the high-tech, easily accessible device that it is today, in fact in its dawn it could be compared to the classified section it the newspaper-- not useful and hard to get messages across. This form of the Web was known as "Web 1.0". The Web 1.0 was very rudimentary with its websites lacking in the ability to interact. Websites displayed information but that was the extent of the interaction. Users could not write messages, contact people, post content, or perform many of the other aspects of the modern day Web. Websites were simple.

The development of "Web 2.0" transformed the Web from a one-sided platform to an interactive medium. Web 2.0 changed the way websites were designed and how they preformed. Users could now not only use the Web but, also, make changes to the Web. A major advancement in Web.20 was separating content from form, meaning that users did not need to know the complex coding behind the websites in order to upload content. This aspect of Web 2.0 was a gateway to interactive media such as Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, and other user dependent websites.

With all the interaction web 2.0 evokes comes the concept of "Web 3.0" or a "Semanic Web" focusing on data. This version of the Web analyzes data collected each time a user interacts with the Web and turns it into a Resource Description Framework(RDF) data model where the information can be linked-- turning the vast un-linked web, into a linked network that will be able to understand the user and have the Web shape around each individual user. The Web is becoming more intelligent  and connected. Web 3.0 would lead to personalization, intelligent search and behavioral advertising and many more things. The web is continuously evolving towards becoming a fundamental economical instrument in society --connecting everyone to everything.