Web 2.0 is considered to be a collective term for technology that is based on long standing principles that are applicable to the Internet, but which are now enhanced in certain fundamental ways. Proponents of this concept of a second generation of the World Wide Web include such elements as web logs (blogs), social bookmarking, podcasts, wikis, and online auctioning. The idea is that these sort of elements are not just part of the Internet, but actually drive the process of data collection and assimilation in ways that are far more advanced than even the applications of ten years ago.
By seeing the Internet as a platform for data, and data as the driving force behind the success of the Internet, the idea is that in order to thrive and grow, the Internet must adapt to improvements in old strategies, even as it makes room for new applications and features. For example, the creation of VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, impossible at the time the Internet became accessible to the general public, is now routinely in use for not only international communications, but local applications as well.
Web 2.0 technology addresses these types of enhanced applications that were either not envisioned as part of the Internet in years past, or which were still in such a limited form that mass usage was not possible. Providing a designation for developments of this nature helps to draw a line between what was, and what has come to be.
Already, the concept of Web 2.0 technology is being challenged by persons who claim that the time has come for a designation of Web 3.0 applications. However, with many people still challenging the need for identifying some technology as being indicative of a next generation of the Internet, the whole point of graduated designations is still largely moot. It is important for every web designer to understand web 2.0. technology and applications fully so that he can utilize all these techniques to the maximum advantage.
