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What is Web 3.0?
Written by David Bayer on May 6, 2008 1:58 pm EST
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What is Web3.0?
Web 3.0, according to Wikipedia, is a term used to describe the future of the web. Web 2.0 would refer to the recent evolution of the web. A brief description of this evolution would be apropos. Wikipedia explores the following ideas in the first 179 words of its definition of Web 2.0
“Web 2.0 is a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies. The term became notable after the first O’Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004. Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use the Web. According to Tim O’Reilly:
‘Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.’”
In Wikipedia’s definition of Web2.0, we’re given Tim O’reilly’s definition as well. 2.0 might also be referred to as the second iteration of the operating system of the Internet. In this version, social software enabled the masses to publish information to the platform, search helped to provide access to and sorting of all of this information, and data portability (via XML based web services) has enabled us to use the information in a variety of ways, most prominently by mashing up the information with other emerging web technologies. We could further elaborate on Web2.0 and revise or add to Tim or Wikipedia’s definition, but for the purposes of this creative exercise I will focus on expert perspective of Web3.0, or Web3, in addition to my own perspective on what 3.0 is and how it might evolve.
Of course we start with Wikipedia’s definition of 3.0, which includes a definition by some of the most prescient minds around the Internet operating platform. According to Wikipedia:
“In May 2006, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web stated:
‘People keep asking what Web 3.0 is. I think maybe when you’ve got an overlay of scalable vector graphics - everything rippling and folding and looking misty - on Web 2.0 and access to a semantic Web integrated across a huge space of data, you’ll have access to an unbelievable data resource.’
At the Seoul Digital Forum in May 2007, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, was asked to define Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. He responded:
‘Web 2.0 is a marketing term, and I think you’ve just invented Web 3.0. But if I were to guess what Web 3.0 is, I would tell you that it’s a different way of building applications… My prediction would be that Web 3.0 will ultimately be seen as applications which are pieced together. There are a number of characteristics: the applications are relatively small, the data is in the cloud, the applications can run on any device, PC or mobile phone, the applications are very fast and they’re very customizable. Furthermore, the applications are distributed virally: literally by social networks, by email. You won’t go to the store and purchase them… That’s a very different application model than we’ve ever seen in computing.’
At the Technet Summit in November 2006, Jerry Yang, founder and Chief of Yahoo, stated:
‘Web 2.0 is well documented and talked about. The power of the Net reached a critical mass, with capabilities that can be done on a network level. We are also seeing richer devices over last four years and richer ways of interacting with the network, not only in hardware like game consoles and mobile devices, but also in the software layer. You don’t have to be a computer scientist to create a program. We are seeing that manifest in Web 2.0 and 3.0 will be a great extension of that, a true communal medium…the distinction between professional, semi-professional and consumers will get blurred, creating a network effect of business and applications.’
At the same Technet Summit, Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix, stated a simpler formula for defining the phases of the Web:
‘Web 1.0 was dial-up, 50K average bandwidth, Web 2.0 is an average 1 megabit of bandwidth and Web 3.0 will be 10 megabits of bandwidth all the time, which will be the full video Web, and that will feel like Web 3.0.’
Web 3.0 is frequently referred to as an environment consisting of intelligent web-based semantic applications and desktops, where the web is a database of information published via reusable formats such as XML, RDF, ICDL and other micro formats. By some, it is perceived as part of digital media contribution to the evolutionary path to artificial intelligence that can provide access to information driven by laws of mathematical probability previously calculated by Shannon’s Laws and Bayes’ Theorem. Web3.0 may bring the realization of the Semantic Web, where meaning can be extracted from data representations such as hypertext and utility driven by meaning.
Web 3.0 is also called the “Internet of Services”, where all of the aforementioned promote technology driven creative extrapolations and recombination’s of the information in line with new emerging data services. Again Wikipedia describes Web 3.0 as an “Executable” Web Abstraction Layer - driven by user generated content and broader, more advanced and accessible social media and publishing applications.
Digital Ethnographers such as Mike Wesch explore Web 3.0 as it relates to socio-technological values and the impact of the Internet on communication, thought discovery and the redefinition of information ownership. His video interpretation of the future of the web is compelling and visionary.
Nova Spivack defines Web 3.0 as the third decade of the Web (2010-2020) during which he suggests several major complementary technology trends will reach new levels of maturity simultaneously including:
- transformation of the Web from a network of separately siloed applications and content repositories to a more seamless and interoperable whole.
- ubiquitous connectivity, broadband adoption, mobile Internet access and mobile devices;
- network computing, software-as-a-service business models, Web services interoperability, distributed computing, grid computing and cloud computing;
- open technologies, open APIs and protocols, open data formats, open-source software platforms and open data (e.g. Creative Commons, Open Data License);
- open identity, OpenID, open reputation, roaming portable identity and personal data;
- the intelligent web, Semantic Web technologies such as RDF, OWL, SWRL, SPARQL, GRDDL, semantic application platforms, and statement-based data stores;
- distributed databases, the “World Wide Database” (enabled by Semantic Web technologies); and intelligent applications, natural language processing, machine learning, machine reasoning, autonomous agents.
As challenges to indexing the web are overcome via more effective indexing methods, such as peer to peer indexing and utilization of excess server capacity, utilization and ownership of the information will push to the forefront of digital rights management. As publishers recognize the need that search engines have to index content for their systems in order to make lucrative revenues from search advertisers, Web3.0 may evolve similar to network and cable television, where search system ‘networks’ pay publishers for exclusive indexing rights to their content. Or perhaps multiple search systems will exist that have indexed all of the available information on the web, each one differentiating itself by the method through which they deliver search results, in addition to other aspects of their ‘platforms’ such as proprietary networks, ad platforms, content/information & other technologies (maps, information management, video, etc.)
In future posts I’d like to explore the future of specific aspects of this evolving landscape, such as copyright, security, social media, the convergence of desktop & web, peer-to-peer, next generation search engines and managing your own information on the platform. What are your thoughts about where the web is going over the next dozen years? What do you seen in the Internet of 2020?
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34 Responses to “What is Web 3.0?”
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May 6th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Great post Dave!
It is intriguing where Web 3.0 is heading. I would love to hear your thoughts on how search engines like Google will have to evolve in order to assimilate components of 3.0.
Since, the original 2001 article by Dr. Berners-Lee appeared in Scientific American, there have been teams of people across the globe trying to bring his dream of Semantic Web to fruition. In your expert opinion, do you think Web 3.0 will become a reality as Dr. Berners-Lee originally envisioned it? Or, will his dream intersect with ground realities of commerce, government censorship efforts (China), and legitimate privacy concerns?
As the Chinese say, “May you live in interesting times.” I believe the advancement of the World Wide Web in our times will be interesting.
May 7th, 2008 at 9:21 am
It’s very interesting to see experts speculate on what Web 3.0 is or will be. Personally, I’ve always felt these terms are relative to the topic at hand and your audience. As a designer, the term ‘Web 2.0′ always had a very distinct marketing tone, just as Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, explained. For the many in the creative field, that term was even narrowly viewed as a designing style, the glossy buttons, rounded edges and shiny reflections on sleek smooth surfaces. To a programmer, I am sure these terms meant something completely different when speaking at their developer’s level. I feel these terms try to capture a period of growth in the world wide web, which I’m sure encompasses all of the topics you discussed. I’d also like to add to that list something that was not mentioned, the creative community’s impact on the Web 3.0 growth period. We will always remember the Web 2.0 look and feel. I am excited to be a part of the next make-over/face lift of the web, as we incorporate new technology trends, the global sharing of endless user-generated components and usability within design.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Web 3.0 was said to be all about mobile, but I think it’s more likely that it will be about data portability.
May 9th, 2008 at 2:13 am
I hate all these terms, like it says they are just marketing terms. The web will always evolve and as technology grows there will always be something new to coin as web 3.0 or web 4.0. Just grow with the tech and you wont be left behind as a dev or even someone who wants to stay current.
There have always been people making applications, its just now more accessible to the public and devs, with products like adobe AIR and others, as well as the platforms that can run more rich applications. I have been making applications with flash flex, databases and now AIR for quite some times does that mean ive always been web 3.0 cool?
May 9th, 2008 at 2:18 am
Web3 will become something like Yahoo Strings. That means we will see a meta connection of 2.0 networks plus the diversity to put the functions of different sites together and just use them with content to create new functionality.
Also technologies like Ajax and more interactive (or life) video would be a part. For example, Quicktime allows it to put links and active regions directly into a video. Imagine that with a stream.
Another great inspiration for Web3 would be b2b networks.
May 9th, 2008 at 2:47 am
Nobody really cares if it is Web 2.0 or Web 3. Something like 60% of internet users are browsing porn, the rest are playing games and shopping on ebay. Google owns the web. Youtube, myspace, diggs all suck. AVG claims that 1 in every 1000 web sites is infected with spyware/adware or a virus. Every other email is some kind of scam. The internet is quickly becoming the ghetto of the world…
May 9th, 2008 at 3:00 am
I stopped reading at “according to wikipedia”.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:15 am
What it will offer ??
May 9th, 2008 at 3:18 am
Wow, somebody can copy and paste from Wikipedia. You could have at least tried some synthesis on the article rather than a direct copy and paste.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:19 am
It isn’t that difficult to see where the web is headed. We already see this movement budding in the commercial arena with Amazon’s S3 and Google’s App Engine. The ultimate realization will be a standardized grid computing model, something similar to what’s been deployed with the Hardron collider project:
http://www.zimbio.com/CERN+Hadron+Collider/articles/39/Next+gen+internet+Grid+Internet
To spell things out in a practical manner, there will be a convergence of this grid model and desktop computing. Because everything will scale with the grid computing model, most service models, cheezy web 2.0 service models will become obsolete and replaced with people installing most of these applications for themselves, with very little distinction between what we see with install-wizards and sudo apt-get installation. The days of FTP’ing script files and editing MySql information into them and running install scripts will come to an end. And the most interesting applications will live on the grid and talk to other applications as well in a decentralized manner.
The only services that will exist will be the ones that tackle tough problems or serve as community endpoints that service thousands of users: data mining, searching, artificial intelligence, MMO gaming, social network hangouts, online communities, online auctions, etc.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:37 am
Seriously.. Stop it.
“3.0″? Where will this end? Do you really think the web is developed in large leaps? If you must use the stupid postfixes atleast stick to “2.0″ as generally meaning the next generation web technologies.
Increasing the revision number is just.. ignorant. What happens when the number gets too long to type conveniently? Will we get Web MX, Web CS, Web 2023?
Skizmo said it very concise above imo, I just wanted to embroiden it a little.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:30 am
[quote]# Eric Says:
May 9th, 2008 at 3:00 am
I stopped reading at “according to wikipedia”.
[/quote]
Me too… just searched for a single commentary that share my opinion and i did found !
May 9th, 2008 at 6:32 am
youre all idiots, web 2.0 doesnt exist, its just the web, technologies and techniques evolve, anyone that ever says “web 2.0″ should have their eyes gouged out for being a pretentious coont
May 9th, 2008 at 7:07 am
Very nice post.
Love it.
I think web 3.0 is nothing but a web in different perspective.
May 9th, 2008 at 7:49 am
It’s a very interesting insight. Web 2.0 has affected the web in many ways, especially newspaper websites.
I wonder how Web 3.0, if the ideology does come to fruition, will affect the media. User generated content as the prime source of facts? Journalists in competition with web broswers?
How does the world adapt to Web 4.0?
May 9th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Of course it’s just a name given to a major change. So it all depends on what (apparently O’reilly) thinks constitutes a change big enough to be designated 3.0. Personally, I think it will be the day that internet finally envelopes T.V. and phone (mainstream).
May 9th, 2008 at 10:44 am
PingBack from :
http://hacksdaily.blogspot.com/2008/05/what-is-web-30-upcoming-revolution.html
May 9th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Jeffrey Zeldman predicted Web 3.0 as early as January 2006: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/web3point0
May 9th, 2008 at 10:50 am
I agree with Reed Hastings of Netflix. The expansion of bandwidth will allow for more data to be transferred at unbelievable speeds. Comcast is already trying to roll out 50Mb/s connections. With this speed available to the majority of the country, we will be able to create more interactive and visually appealing websites. Sites that not only “know” the customer (e.g. Amazon.com), but allow interaction far beyond what we can imagine today. Is this “Web 3.0″ or just the natural evolution of what we generally call “The Web?” Either way you look at it, I see progress and that is what is important.
May 9th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Please don’t say Web 3.0… it hurts, it hurts…
May 9th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Web 3.0 will be another marketing term. The real value is in the dot releases. Somewhere between 1.0 and 2.0 were born RSS, Flash, Javascript, AJAX, usable XML and web services, web as advertising platform, social networking for non-technical users and so many other things. When enough add up we get a new marketing label. Since these aren’t all features of one application, we don’t know how to do revision control and release numbering so when it feels like enough has changed we invent a new marketing term. Then we run from it for its disingenuity or pick a specific derivative term so we can market something of relevance (enterprise social networking and rich internet applications come to mind).
May 9th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Web 3.0 will just be a rehash of Web 2.0. Just another buzz word that suggests an arbitrary collection of arbitrary technology. If anything, Web 3.0 will consist of new ways to re-achieve Web 2.0 which is primarily just a set of techniques to avoid users waiting for new page to load.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Please stop. Don’t talk about web 3.0, 2.0 or anything. It’s all bullshit. The web is a continious growth process, so stop identifying it with meaningless numbers and stop contributing to the hype.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
IMHO Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 remain to be nothing but a bunch of buzz words.
Internet is going through an ongoing evolution becasue of people’s creativity and demand so all these words are nothing but buzzwords for me and for most.
May 9th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
http://dawhoo.com/blog/web-30-coming-soon-but-what-was-web-20/
There’s my blog about Web 2.0
I’m sure there aren’t many people who do not agree with me, but I think Web 2.0 was a failure. Have you ever tried to visit a page with Ajax on a cellphone? A smaller percentage of people now have javascript enabled than 5 years ago and most websites do not address those users (myself included) We don’t need web 3.0, we need Web 2.0 SP1.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Web X.0 is a catch phrase for marketing and journalism morons. According to this numbering system, there have really only been 2 kinds of applications and website models on the internet so far. That is stupid.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
I think of Web 3.0 as being when virtual worlds and what are now social networks converge. In other words, the emergence of the 3-D Internet.
May 10th, 2008 at 2:52 am
Don’t know what web 3.0 is going to be, but I sure hope computers will take some dull-work away from users.
Zemanta is probably very good example of how web will evolve. Having a smart computer aide at your disposal when creating content. Better understanding of plain text by computers will change many many things!
Take a look at it at http://www.zemanta.com
Andraz Tori, Zemanta
May 10th, 2008 at 3:57 am
I can’t even understand web 2.0 completely nor can most people lets wait a moment before hopping ahead
May 10th, 2008 at 4:20 am
It’s all about intelligent web. When I want, what I want, how I want - addressed completely.
How we achieve that - is all the gibberish about.
-Des
http://techwatch.reviewk.com/
May 21st, 2008 at 8:08 am
very interesting to see experts speak on this topic! would love to see how google and other companies apply in there new applications
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:12 am
This is an excellent survey of the next generation of the Internet. The trends I have been observing and documenting have found each person from Tim Berners-Lee to Eric Schmidt are each right. The umbrella term (and described movement) that I have adopted to describe all these concepts is not “web 3.0,” since I believe, as you describe, the next generation of the internet will be greatly different than that of the past (being Web 2.0). This emerging trend, one of Modular Innovation, can already be seen in many products and new companies, have to various degrees the ability to be: sharable, flexible, interoperable, portable, and utilizable (or convenient). Feel free to read more about my observations on The Product Guy or here: http://tpgblog.com/2007/12/06/modular-innovation-101/
Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy
http://tpgblog.com
June 11th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Nice! Just found this as I was surfing around. I recommend reading up on this site too:
Calacanis Blog
July 1st, 2008 at 10:44 am
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