It is hard to pinpoint the moment of Web 2.0’s emergence – because there was not one. The was no release of a single new technology. There was no single economic insight or business model that completely disrupted existing markets. There was no industry consortium that defined a new standard. If forced to pick a moment, perhaps Google’s IPO will serve historically as the marker – in the same way that Netscape’s IPO’s is often used to signify the birth of the dot com era. At any rate, at some point over the past 12 to 18 months several factors have aligned and a there is now recognition that the companies and web services that are moving the internet market today share many common characteristics.
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The bursting of the dot-com bubble in the fall of 2001 marked a turning point for the web. Many people concluded that the web was overhyped, when in fact bubbles and consequent shakeouts appear to be a common feature of all technological revolutions. Shakeouts typically mark the point at which an ascendant technology is ready to take its place at center stage. The pretenders are given the bum’s rush, the real success stories show their strength, and there begins to be an understanding of what separates one from the other.
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“Web 2.0” has become a catch-all buzzword that people use to describe a wide range of online activities and applications, some of which the Pew Internet & American Life Project has been tracking for years. As researchers, we instinctively reach for our spreadsheets to see if there is evidence to inform the hype about any online trend. What follows is a short history of the phrase, along with some data to help frame the discussion.
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In 2004, we realized that the Web was on the cusp of a new era, one that would finally let loose the power of network effects, setting off a surge of innovation and opportunity. To help usher in this new era, O’Reilly Media and CMP launched a conference that showcased the innovators who were driving it. When O’Reilly’s Dale Dougherty came up with the term “Web 2.0”during a brainstorming session, we knew we had the name for the conference. What we didn’t know was that the industry would embrace the Web 2.0 meme and that it would come to represent the new Web.
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