
What is Web 2.0 and what Web 2.0 stuff should I add to my site?What is Web 2.0 and should I employ any of these innovations on my site? Now here’s a topic that’s bound to be controversial, because there is no one definition of this buzzphrase “Web 2.0”. In general, though, I view Web 2.0 as the generation of Web sites that are highly interactive, encouraging viewer participation and built around another buzzphrase, user generated content. Sites like MySpace and YouTube, in this definition, are definitely Web 2.0, as are just about all blogs. On the other hand, some folk view it as being interactive and using so-called modern Web technologies like JavaScript or Flash to add gizmos and a gee-whiz factor to the interface. That makes something like Google Maps a Web 2.0 application even though it’s NOT related to user generated content. It’s just cool how they allow you to interact with the data in sophisticated ways. In this definition, sites like Google Mail, Meebo and Flickr are Web 2.0 sites, but YouTube isn’t. Since there is no official definition and since as with anything in the technology space, it’s hard to definitively quantify any innovation anyway (does Netflix having movie info pop-ups make it a Web 2.0 site? Does it allowing you to publish your own review on their site make it Web 2.0?), I suggest that the better question you should ask is: are there any recent innovations on the Web that can enhance either your findability or the experience that your readers/customers have when they visit your site? An example of one that I think is cool is Meebo, which focuses on offering a Web-based instant message client, but also lets you add a “click to chat with a customer service representative” feature to your site for free, all without sharing your IM client ID. When they use your link on the site, they can chat with you, but they can’t spam you or pester you forever more. Nice. There are also a couple of companies that let you add the capability of receiving customer feedback on any page, focused on non-blog pages especially. Is that generally useful? Well, probably not on the “contact” page of your site, but your product info sheets? Could be a great addition and a smart way to collect customer feedback with just a line or two of additional code. My concern with adding gizmos to a site, however, is that they often take the place of quality content, and I’ve been to far too many sites that are visually impressive, have the latest cool gadgets, widgets and visuals, but are darn hard to navigate, have broken search engines and are far less functional and useful than they could be. That’s being lured into the dark side of the Web, in my opinion. The first and most important question should always be “how can I help my readers?” not “what’s cool?” What do you think? I have a paucity of widgets on this page: are there some I should be including here, or do you prefer the simplicity of a page of content with just a few ads helping pay for hosting?
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Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader. What is Web 2.0? It's just a word. It has no essence, no substance, no meaning. It's insipid, vacuous and meaningless in it's own right. There really isn't any such thing as "Web 2.0." There is just The Web, everything that is commonly labeled with the word Web 2.0 is just part of what the web has pretty much always been... or at best, represents some marginally evolutionary addition. It would be better for everybody if we quit using this word Web 2.0 and say whatever it is we actually are actually meaning to say. As a label "Web 2.0" is about as useless as the label "Hair Metal." Use either and everybody will have some vague, uncertain notion of what you mean, but nobody will really know what you mean, since neither term really defines anything. Posted by: Phillip Rhodes at April 4, 2007 12:02 PMI beg to differ. Dave's dual definition is pretty much right on. I've had a T-1 access to the web since 1994 and the last 3-4 years we've seen a tidal shift in what people do on the web, and what a webpage can do for you. I also agree. The term Web 2.0 was useful when talking about this change, but now it can be retired. It's here and now it is just "the web" again. Posted by: Dempsey at April 6, 2007 5:09 AMToo many websites have far too little content to keep visitors for long periods, so to fill the void many webmasters and bloggers add as many gimmicky applets and "Web 2.0" gadgets they can find. Web 2.0 has come and gone, its now simply the web. Perhaps what's coming next is Web 3.0? Posted by: cyberst0rm at April 12, 2007 1:21 PMhi! i tried the form to email php script (www.tropicaltrailtours.co.ke/enquiries) and it works. problem i recieve this error Warning: mail() [function.mail]: Could not execute mail delivery program '/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i ' in /var/www/tropicaltrailtours.co.ke/email.php on line 15
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