Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an "architecture of participation," and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences.
| “network as platform, spanning all connected devices” | the notion that Web 2.0 data is accessible anywhere; Flickr is not “Windows Only”, for instance. |
| “delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it” | hints of service-oriented architecture, Web Services |
| “consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others” | Web 2.0 services enable mashups and/or reuse of their data in perhaps unexpected ways |
| “creating network effects” | network effects are those in which benefits of using a system increase as more users make use of it. The classic example is that of a telephone. If only one person has a telephone, its not very useful. As more and more people gain access to telephones, the benefit to an individual user goes up quite quickly |
| “going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0” | Web 2.0 services should feel like desktop applications that just happen to live in a browser. See Google Docs & Spreadsheets for instance. |
| Web 1.0 | Web 2.0 |
|---|---|
| DoubleClick | Google AdSense |
| Ofoto | Flickr |
| … | |
| Britannica Online | Wikipedia |
| personal websites | blogging |
| … | |
| screen scraping | web services |
| … | |
| directories (taxonomy) | tagging ("folksonomy") |
| stickiness | syndication |
Best to quote from O'Reilly directly
One other feature of Web 2.0 that deserves mention is the fact that it's no longer limited to the PC platform. In his parting advice to Microsoft, long time Microsoft developer Dave Stutz pointed out that "Useful software written above the level of the single device will command high margins for a long time to come."
Of course, any web application can be seen as software above the level of a single device. After all, even the simplest web application involves at least two computers: the one hosting the web server and the one hosting the browser. And as we've discussed, the development of the web as platform extends this idea to synthetic applications composed of services provided by multiple computers.
But as with many areas of Web 2.0, where the "2.0-ness" is not something new, but rather a fuller realization of the true potential of the web platform, this phrase gives us a key insight into how to design applications and services for the new platform.
To date, iTunes is the best exemplar of this principle. This application seamlessly reaches from the handheld device to a massive web back-end, with the PC acting as a local cache and control station. There have been many previous attempts to bring web content to portable devices, but the iPod/iTunes combination is one of the first such applications designed from the ground up to span multiple devices. TiVo is another good example.
iTunes and TiVo also demonstrate many of the other core principles of Web 2.0. They are not web applications per se, but they leverage the power of the web platform, making it a seamless, almost invisible part of their infrastructure. Data management is most clearly the heart of their offering. They are services, not packaged applications (although in the case of iTunes, it can be used as a packaged application, managing only the user's local data.) What's more, both TiVo and iTunes show some budding use of collective intelligence, although in each case, their experiments are at war with the IP lobby's. There's only a limited architecture of participation in iTunes, though the recent addition of podcasting changes that equation substantially.
This is one of the areas of Web 2.0 where we expect to see some of the greatest change, as more and more devices are connected to the new platform. What applications become possible when our phones and our cars are not consuming data but reporting it? Real time traffic monitoring, flash mobs, and citizen journalism are only a few of the early warning signs of the capabilities of the new platform.
O'Reilly states that Web 2.0 has the following design patterns (note: the text below is a direct quote from here):
| The Long Tail | Small sites make up the bulk of the internet's content; narrow niches make up the bulk of internet's possible applications. Therefore: Leverage customer-self service and algorithmic data management to reach out to the entire web, to the edges and not just the center, to the long tail and not just the head. |
| Data is the Next Intel Inside | Applications are increasingly data-driven. Therefore: For competitive advantage, seek to own a unique, hard-to-recreate source of data. |
| Users Add Value | The key to competitive advantage in internet applications is the extent to which users add their own data to that which you provide. Therefore: Don't restrict your "architecture of participation" to software development. Involve your users both implicitly and explicitly in adding value to your application. |
| Network Effects by Default | Only a small percentage of users will go to the trouble of adding value to your application. Therefore: Set inclusive defaults for aggregating user data as a side-effect of their use of the application. |
| Some Rights Reserved. | Intellectual property protection limits re-use and prevents experimentation. Therefore: When benefits come from collective adoption, not private restriction, make sure that barriers to adoption are low. Follow existing standards, and use licenses with as few restrictions as possible. Design for "hackability" and "remixability." |
| The Perpetual Beta | When devices and programs are connected to the internet, applications are no longer software artifacts, they are ongoing services. Therefore: Don't package up new features into monolithic releases, but instead add them on a regular basis as part of the normal user experience. Engage your users as real-time testers, and instrument the service so that you know how people use the new features. |
| Cooperate, Don't Control | Web 2.0 applications are built of a network of cooperating data services. Therefore: Offer web services interfaces and content syndication, and re-use the data services of others. Support lightweight programming models that allow for loosely-coupled systems. |
| Software Above the Level of a Single Device | The PC is no longer the only access device for internet applications, and applications that are limited to a single device are less valuable than those that are connected. Therefore: Design your application from the get-go to integrate services across handheld devices, PCs, and internet servers. |