Web 1.0 vs Web 2.0 vs Web 3?

Web 1.0 is the “read-only Web,” Web 2.0 is the “participative social Web,” and Web 3.0 is the “read, write, execute Web.”

In 1994, Tim Berners-Lee published the first website on the World Wide Web. Since that day, there hasn’t been a single iteration of the internet that’s remained static for more than a short period of time. The changes to the internet that have taken place over the years can be categorized into three distinct eras: Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3 (or Web 3.0), and each one has involved major shifts and overhauls in the way we create, communicate, and interact with one another. But what exactly do each of those terms mean and what is the difference between Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web3?

What is Web 1.0?

Let’s start with Web 1.0 which lasted approximately from 1991 to 2004.. The internet was initially introduced as a means of sharing information, much in the same way that a library is a place where books are stored and people can come to gain knowledge. It involved a lot of standard HTML, or hyper text markup language, the code that creates a website’s structure and content. Personal web pages were common, consisting mainly of static pages with read-only functionality.

In Web 1.0, you’d go to a website and see things like this:

• “This is some text I’m writing here.”
• Or even better, in a longer webpage: “This is some text I’m writing here that goes on for several paragraphs.”

There wasn’t much else to do on the web back then (not even login pages) and so webpages were very simple in structure, content and format. There was absolutely no concept of tracking users or readers and Web 1.0 did not provide any user experience. Today’s internet still relies on HTML (as well as CSS – cascading style sheets – to make it look nice) but there is now lots more interactivity between audience and creator as well as a smoothest browsing experience.

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 is a term that’s used to describe the changes and advancements in technology that have given the internet more power than ever before. This version of the internet saw advances like dynamic web pages, user-generated content, social media platforms and more. With Web 2.0, the internet took on an entirely new role. It’s become our most trusted news source, connecting people around the world with just a click of a button. We no longer get all of our information by flipping a page in a book or newspaper – instead we turn to Google, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo. This way of distilling information continues to grow exponentially as more information is shared on the internet over time.

Web 2.0 focuses on two-way interaction and featured interactive elements such as AJAX, RSS, bookmarking and tagging systems, video sharing websites, virtual worlds, and social networking sites. The main challenge of Web 2.0 is the privacy aspects: websites collect user data across including things like interests, pages they visit, how much time they have spent on that page, likes and, interaction events etc. Despite this, Web 2.0 revolutionized the way users engaged on the internet – allowing people to communicate and share with one another as creators of UGC content in an online world in ways they weren’t able to before. Their use of forums, blogs, media sharing and social networking allows them to login, share text, images, videos, data, audio and connect with people all over the globe.

Finally, what exactly is Web3?

Many experts are already referring to the next big shift as Web 3.0, but there is not yet consensus on what this means. Some suggest that Web 3 will be decentralized and feature less of a reliance on giant tech companies like Facebook and Google to provide data and resources. Centralization leads to single points of failure. In today’s world, most applications are hosted on servers owned by corporations such as Google or Amazon. These companies have full control over their users’ data and can censor them whenever they want. If there were a sudden outage at one of these centralized services (which happens all too often), then all of your data would be inaccessible until they got everything back up and running again. Imagine if Facebook went down for an hour — how much productivity would be lost? Or if YouTube stopped working for a few minutes — how many people would get bored? Built on blockchain technology, Web3 doesn’t use centralized servers – instead every machine or node takes part in the process and if one of them fails – there is no issue or serverwide operation failure.

Through the use of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies, It is accepted that Web 3.0 will resolve some of the main issues that we face with Web 2.0. such as centralization and privacy. In Web3, you are the owner of your content, and the content is stored in multiple computers across the globe; your digital identity is not linked to your real identity due to the decentralised nature of the tech. With Web3, users can download, store, upload, and interact online in the same way as they did in web 2.0 but without compromising your privacy.

Another significant advantage of Web3 is that directly seeks to overcome the problems around collection of personal information by private networks. User data is often sold on to marketers and advertisers of big tech corporations – even sometimes spam groups. The Web3 network is decentralized, which means it isn’t controlled by a single entity, as well as the decentralised applications (dApps) built on the top of it; there will be less of a reliance on giant tech companies like Facebook and Google to provide data and resources. For example, imagine a future where you no longer need to rely on a big name social media platform to share your content. No longer would consumers have to go through these centralized gatekeepers in order for their ideas and creations to reach an audience; there would be more freedom for everyone involved because decentralization lowers barriers for entry into the market place.

What are some of the key features of Web3?

The emergence of Web3 will see a convergence of different advanced digital tech including AI, IoT, 5G, and augmented/virtual reality. The interoperability of these technologies will drive transformation across a number of industries from healthcare, to logistics to entertainment and sports.

Some of the key features of Web3 will be:

• Verifiable
• Trustless
• Self-governing
• Permissionless
• Distributed and robust
• Stateful
• Native built-in payments

The differences between the three iterations of the web are pretty big and the technological evolution is only going to keep going. The goal of Web3 is to enable people to have more control over their own data, identity and assets; this will give them more power to decide what they do with their personal information, such as whether they choose to share it or not.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the changes from web 1.0 to 2.0 were pretty significant and really did change everything for the internet as we know it. While there’s no official definition of Web3 yet, if we look at the trends that are happening now, it seems inevitable that the next generation of web will be even more focused on our individual needs and preferences. The potential is exciting! it is important to recognize the significance of each phase as we move forward into the next era of technological development. Because as anyone who lives life on the internet knows, each phase was instrumental in shaping and defining our modern web landscape. There’s no clear indication of where Web 3.0 is going to go, but we’re definitely in for some exciting changes. Whatever happens, we can be sure that this space isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

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