Introduction

Since the day, the term Web 2.0 came into the spotlight it has been the topic of widespread debate. On one hand, there are people who are denouncing it as merely a marketing buzzword, and on the other hand there is no dearth of people who are happily adopting it as a new conventional wisdom. So what is web 2.0 indeed? Is it a new web tool which can be handy in developing new age web solutions? Is it a standard for the new generation of the web? Is the whole campaign a marketing hype or it something really has to offer?

The concept of Web 2.0 is essentially the idea that the online world is a dynamic and interactive place, featuring with knowledge to be shared and relationships to be made.Web 2.0 savvy sites are now creating communities of people – connecting humans with humans and allowing humans to connect with the information they seek - instead of serving visitors with static pages of moribund data and sending them on their way.

In this way, we can state that Web 2.0 is an honest and transparent world where people can do the things, they want to do. It let people be creative and productive and most importantly it costs more or less nothing people to showcase their talent. If it is so beautiful a thing then what is the reason behind a lot of criticism it is facing today.

Each concept has its merits and demerits; Web 2.0 too is not an exception either. A technological theory can not be judged only on the basis of success or failures of the products that adhere to its principles. It should be rather evaluated by the value, it brings to the existing system and how it is beneficial to the end users.

Web 2.0: A Reality

No one can deny the fact that the central tenet of Web 2.0 that advocates using the web as a platform for social networking really has some inherent advantages. Some of the common benefits those come naturally with the adoption of the Web 2.0 techniques are:

Reduced Cost

Web 2.0 techniques can be very useful in lowering costs of a product/service. Blogs and wilkis are the best examples in this case. These services are most empowered by user’s participation by enabling them to build documentation and knowledge based systems with relatively little investment from the company. The users are the real owners of their data; they can contribute, edit and delete their data at any point of time. In this case a company makes most of the investment in two fields: maintaining the users’ data and off course, marketing the product.

Satisfied, Loyal Customers

Being the great advocate of open and user friendly environment is the biggest USP of the Web 2.0 concept. Active user participation and a continuous feedback from their side play a key role in back-end improvement of a product and/or service. Furthermore, the open, participatory Web 2.0 environment encourages user contribution and helps enhancing customer loyalty and lifespan.

Usability

Web 2.0 services tend to be delivered through web browsers (rather than packaged software or individual downloads), allowing the services to easily scale through hardware infrastructure. Upgrades also need to be applied only once (at the host), rather than versioning concept of packaged software.

Social Networking and Business

Most of the Web2.0 companies rely on creating a large pool of loyal users who are willing to use their applications almost religiously. The entry of each new member into the network attributes new dimensions to the product since it increases the values of all the members who are already in the network.

Web 2.0: A Marketing Buzzword

In spite of all the good things, many people still have serious doubts on each and everything related to the phrase ‘Web 2.0.’ The main problem with the Web 2.0 is that many people are still not sure about its meaning, usefulness and relevance. The proponents are projecting Web 2.0 as a ‘new approach towards a real web’ , contrary to the opponents who are objecting it by claiming that these techniques have been in use for several years and there is nothing new in the concept.

Even the boosters acknowledge that the biggest problems with the Web 2.0 are excessive hype and lack of a real definition. But perhaps the biggest criticism of the Web 2.0 phenomenon is that it has failed to generate enough truly important products. There are several criticisms and challenges ahead the Web 2.0 including:

Lack of Standards

It is a common phenomenon, when we find something new we give it a name. Not only a name but we enrich the object with a common definition or a set of standards, which is acceptable to all. The definition becomes even more important in the case of a technical evolution. Unfortunately the proponents of the Web 2.0 have failed miserably in this regard. The lack of proper definition seems to be the main obstacle in the way of Web 2.0 becoming a global ‘brand’. This is due the lack of set standards that different people interpret the phrase in different ways. There are so many definitions of Web 2.0 in the air but none of them is perfect enough to describe the term properly because most of them are very general in nature and need to address the technical complexities.


Technical Issues

Web 2.0 concept talks about so many great things- collective intelligence, rich user experience, social networking and so on but the cruel reality is that it is much easier saying than doing. For instance Web 2.0 concept talks about developing a website so that its fundamental features remain usable by the people who access it with software that does not support every technology employed by the site; but the addition of Ajax scripting can leave the website completely unusable to a person who is using a slightly old browser or having Java Script turned off.

Another problem is related to the credibility of the content a user put on a website. For instance, wilkepedia gives a user full authority to contribute a content related to anything and at the same time he/she can edit the existing content too. In this way, there is a vast scope of bogus information on this otherwise great website to have, for a user may (intentionally or intentionally) post some disputed content.

Lack of a Business Model

There is not a single business model which could have gained the acceptability among all the Web 2.0 startups. Not only is this but the whole term “Web 2.0” not being defined properly yet to the investors and customers. Most of the Web 2.0 setups are unclear about the revenue model and instead of generating revenues they are busy in developing a product and after that being acquired.

Conclusion

There is much hype around Web 2.0 and it is not all justified or even reasonable to predict its future at present but one thing is sure that the Internet will surely continue to serve as a platform for people to collaborate and business to earn billion of dollars each year. Web 2.0 that is part reality and part marketing hype still represents a huge range of applications that are most likely to domain in the coming years.

There are lot of business opportunities Web 2.0 provides, especially in the area of social networking. It provides an opportunity for the small investors to fulfill their dreams. The future will decide its fate but one thing is sure that it is high time for the proponents of the Web 2.0 to cheer up.