Web 2.0 has been all the rage for a number of years now. Coined by O’Reilly media almost six years ago, web 2.0 is a philosophy describing what works optimally on the internet. The key principle of web 2.0 is collective intelligence: the fact that on the internet, you cannot ignore the users and have to respect them as equals when creating websites. web 2.0 thinking is what largely led to a death of all those ugly yellow pop-ups, pop-unders and other attention grabbers. Web 2.0 sites are easy on the eyes and designed to be very usable.
Well, guess what? Web 2.0 evolved into web squared. Basically, web squared is the rise of REAL. What do I mean?
- Sites like twitter, friendfeed and even facebook, to some extent, introduce a real time aspect to the internet. ou don’t have to wait until it is available on Google – you can get news on twitter as it happens. The real-time internet is here, or almost here.
- The internet of things. Nowadays, all sorts of devices are connected to and interact with the internet. From RFID tags to take wine cellars online to security lights that work off the internet to internet fridges – you name it, it is connected to the internet. You no longer interact with just people on the internet – there are ‘things’ too. The real world meets the internet.
What does this mean for you and I? There is a shift towards real time, and the internet of things. If you are a developer, entrepreneur, inventor, marketer, etc, you should be paying attention.