Today, we are all living in a wired or digital world. The boundaries, borders, barriers no longer exist. The buzz word is global village. We can talk to people, send messages to them and get replies within seconds. All this is possible through the internet or ‘Web’. The ‘Web’ world has entered into the second phase today. Before we talk about web 2.0 technologies, let us know the difference between web 1.0 & web 2.0 technologies. Web 1.0 technology: In Web 1.0 technology, there is no user generated content. It is only 1 way communication. Literally every company, firm or organization in this digitized world has a web presence in form of website reflecting everything associated with their organizations. Let me explain this by citing an example of hostelworld.com. When a user visits hostelworld.com website, what does he look at?
We come to know about the company profile i.e. mission, vision, company values, manpower, and about their core strength. And also about their products, services and solutions offered to their clients. Incase, if we want to give our feedback about their website or any comments, we have to either use email, phone, fax or their contact form. So here, there is no interaction of the users with the other people around the world, but only with hostelworld. Some of the examples of web 1.0 technologies in use are email, phone, fax, registration page and contact form.
Web 2.0 technologies: Web 2.0 is nothing but, empowering the user to express his views, concept, perception and perspective. Earlier, there were very few writers who created web pages for a large number of readers, or masses to read through. And, one had to only depend on such expert sources for getting the required information. In this new world, the internet becomes a platform for self-expression and education that anyone one can use on their own without taking an expert's help. You do not need to depend on anyone now. Web 2.0 refers to the second generation of the web, where the content is user generated which gives people the tools to become creators and publishers. Here, there is a two way interaction among all the users. Web 2.0 is a transformative force that's prompting companies across all industries to do business in a new way, in a better way characterized by user participation, openness, and network effects. We are no longer just looking to the same old sources for information. Now we’re looking to a new set of tools to aggregate and remix micro content in new and useful ways to make it far easier for the end user, i.e ‘You’. Web 1.0 was about them, Web 2.0 is about us.
Some of the Web 2.0 websites include Myspace, Wikipedia, Flickr, Youtube and Digg.
Different types of Web 2.0 Technologies used in the Present Scenario:
1. Social Networking
2. Social Media
3. Social Bookmarking
Social Networking: A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of relations, such as values, visions, idea, financial exchange, and friends etc.
In its simplest form, a social network is a map of all of the relevant ties between the nodes being studied. The existing social networking sites are fantastic as they allow sharing of content between 2 or more users.
But, according to some people these social networking websites are restrictive, as they put the users under certain limitations. They are not very flexible. Many of these new online communities cater only to specific interests. E.g. Ning.com, tribe.net, and classmates.com.
On the whole, social networking sites do allow uploading of user generated content, and sharing of content between multiple users across the world with the similar interests or with a different interest altogether. Some of the popular social networking websites on the internet are: My space, Facebook, Friendster, Live Journal, Orkut, hi5 and WAYN.
Social Media: Social media describes the online technologies and practices that people use to share content, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives, and media themselves. They are works of user generated video, audio, text or multimedia that are published and shared in a social environment such as a blog, wiki, or a video hosting website. These social media websites do not allow user interaction with the world the way social networking sites do. The social media sites let us interact with the world by only giving web space to us within their website for sharing comments, views or new feature requests. Some of the social media websites are My Space, Squidoo, Digg, Mashable, You tube, Flickr, Wikipedia and Miniclip.
Social Bookmarking: As the term denotes, bookmarking is nothing but storing our favorites at a particular place so that it is easy for us to look for the required information rather than waste our time searching for it. Social bookmarking is a way for internet users to store, classify, share and search Internet bookmarks. So, there are certain websites which help us in this concept like Delicious, Digg, Spurl and Magnolia to name a few.
On a social bookmarking system or network, users store lists of Internet resources that they find useful. These lists can be accessible to the public by users of a specific network or website. Other users with similar interests can view the links by topic, category, tags, or even randomly. These social bookmarking sites give space to the user for bookmarking their favorites in these websites. You can further add information like your company profile, images to the space provided to you. You may now ask how you are benefited by such kind of bookmarking websites? Such social bookmarking sites help us in two ways:
1.These bookmarking websites give us web space to add our long list of favourites.
2.They also help in giving backlinks to our website by the number of visitors who visit these social bookmarking websites.
Now, this explanation above would have given a certain idea as to what is the difference between Social Networking, Media & Social bookmarking.
About the Author
Hari Qumar is a management graduate from a UK university and owns Begonia Infosys. He is actively involved in promoting SEO in India and works for an Entertainment portal as well.
