Web 2.0 is no longer just for techies and teenagers. Adults of all ages are beginning to appreciate the networking opportunities and social nature of Web 2.0. Business owners and executives from around the globe are using this group of technologies with increasing frequency, and they are planning on expanding their Web 2.0 capabilities into the future.

Just What Is Web 2.0?
Web 2.0 refers to the second generation of the World Wide Web that offers a higher level of user interaction and collaboration. Web 2.0 encompasses online communities, social networking sites and wikis. Web 2.0 includes several different platforms and technologies, with new applications being created at an impressive rate.

Here is a description of some of the more common Web 2.0 technologies:
Blogs (short for Web logs) are online journals or diaries maintained by individuals with periodic commentaries, often on a particular subject. Blogs often include narrative text, images and links to other blogs and Web sites.

Collective intelligence is the concept that several individuals working together and combining their ideas and expertise will have better ideas and find better answers. With regard to Web 2.0, collective intelligence refers to any type of system that collects the expertise of a group rather than an individual to make decisions, including wikis and shared databases.

Podcasts are audio or video recordings posted on the Internet that may be downloaded and played on iPods, MP3 players or on the media players found on computers. According to 2007 survey, nearly 25% of the respondents age 25 – 34 indicated that they had listened to an audio podcast.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) refers to real-time information, typically news, blogs, podcasts, or other information distributed online via subscription. Social networking is the use of Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace to connect with people who share personal or professional interests. Social networking may also be used within companies to help identify experts and improve collaboration among employees.

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send short (140 character) updates (or “tweets”) to be posted on the Twitter Web site. These updates are delivered instantly to anyone who has signed up to receive that sender’s updates.

Web services are software systems that make it easier for different applications from different sources to communicate with one another automatically to pass information or conduct transactions. For example, a retailer and wholesaler might use Web services to communicate over the Internet and automatically update each other’s inventory systems.

Wikis, such as Wikipedia, are systems for collaborative publishing. Anyone with access may contribute to or modify the content. Wikis allow many authors to contribute to an online document or discussion.

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