Niche is the new meme
My views on the term ‘Web 2.0′ are well known: tis bollocks. An industry-driven term with little to no relevance to the way people actually seek to use the internet, or indeed the technologies it’s said to purport. Imagine my disgust, then, that Web 3.0 has gained traction. Sigh.
In my reading of all things web-related, I came across an interesting article by Steve Spalding, titled How to Define Web 3.0.
At first I thought, ‘bah! another article detailing how to suck eggs’. Largely because the overview stated: “In this future, I will start my journey through the web with one of three tasks — seeking information, seeking validation or seeking entertainment.” Um…do we have to wait for the future for that to happen, coz it’s been happening for a while now. As I read the article, however, I realised I was letting prejudices get in the way. It’s a smart bit of commentary. I’m not sure that there’s a lot new in it all - tis more about edge-technologies becoming mainstream. But it’s interesting nonetheless. And I loved the roundup:
Web 1.0 lacked context, Web 2.0 lacked interoperability, Web 3.0 will be a web where websites become web services and access to any information you desire is no more difficult than installing a widget onto your website.
BTW - sorrry for the completely unrelated tagline here. But if I hear about niche one more time…like I said, there’s not a lot new in it all…
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I don’t know anyone in the industry who actually uses the term “Web 2.0″ so I don’t think its industry driven. I reckon its mostly used by hype-addicted IT journos trying to get yet another “future of the web” piece past their editor by bumping a version number, getting bonus points if they can mention MySpace oops sorry Facebook.
…and I just realised I didn’t use an apostrohpe in “it’s”. Sorry about that.
http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/
Tech journos *should* be immune to this kind of hype and most of them are deeply cynical people that have seen it all before. But some aren’t. Or they’re not tech journos, they’re regular journos writing about technology. And they get railroaded by marketing/pr types - I think that’s where we should be pointing fingers;) Actually, this could be part of a much larger whinge/discussion about how mainstream press only ever writes the “[insert tech here] is evil/place for pedophiles/porn/terrorism here” story. And don’t get me started on the ‘making the net safer’ crusade that’s on at the moment. I have nothing at all against making the net safer for kiddies - but I have lots to say about how governments use the Fear uncertainty and Doubt of poor partents to push a party line in the lead up to an election…ooop…sorry…ranting again.
Back to MySpace/FB: you just can’t look past growth rates for those sites, gets everybody hot and horny. Momentum baby! But more to the point, most websites are all about traffic, and it’s perhaps sad but true that if you put Facebook or Apple in a news story, visitors come a-knocking! Advertising yeeeha!
Aghhh…I just found a FB group called Web 4.0….puleese!