There is no such thing as Web 2.0
Posted on May 30, 2006
Filed Under Uncategorized |
I think I could argue this either way with Matt, but in the end I do believe there is a web 2.0 if anything because to suggest that web 1.0 was a legitimate “revolution” would be to discount the reality that web 1.0 was built on much of what evolved out of client/server. In other words, if you suggest that web 2.0 cannot exist as anything other than the realization of web 1.0, then it’s equally true that web 1.0 was the realization of massive client/server.
The point that Matt makes about the difficulties of defining web 2.0 are true, I struggle with this all the time. Having said that, there are some very key technology innovations in web 2.0 that just didn’t exist in earlier web technology, like REST. Ironically, AJAX and other client side scripting owe much of their success to Microsoft for their work on DHTML so I wouldn’t necessarily pin AJAX on the Web 2.0 moniker, however the ability to stitch application services together user client side scripting is something unique to Web 2.0. There is much more to the term than the two things I referenced above, but the notion that Web 2.0 exists only as a marketing term is not accurate in my book. There’s much more work to be done and success is certainly not guaranteed, but the demise of traditional software is also multifaceted.
SandHill.com | Finance | The Picky VC: There is no Web 2.0 except in the minds of marketing folks who can think of no other way to differentiate their new product from the one that failed in the same space in 2001. That goes for all you VCs too. Let’s stop justifying investments on some mythical macro trend in favor of Web 2.0. We need to justify investments based on market opportunity and defensible technologies. Maybe the honest VC tagline should be “Web 2.0 – because my partners won’t let me invest in traditional software anymore.”
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My name is Jeff Nolan and I write Venture Chronicles. These are my thoughts on technology, innovation, management, public policy and pretty much anything else that I find interesting.
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