Web 2.0 is the technology that benefits over 3 billion people every day for 80% of their waking hours. While the Web 2.0 wave is still fruitful, a new paradigm shift in internet applications, logically named Web 3.0, is emerging.
Web 3.0 is the third internet transition that will feature real-time human communication through machine learning, artificial intelligence, and blockchain technologies.
But before we comprehend Web 3.0, let’s take a look at the evolution of the web from the initial days to now.
The Evolution of the Web
Over the years, the web has evolved to its greatest extent. The application of the web today is unrecognizable from its early days. The changes have been majorly focused on user interactivity and massification of internet usage. The web evolution is partitioned into three separate stages, Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0.
Web 1.0 (1989 - 2005)
The static web or Web 1.0 was the first reliable internet in the 1990s by Tim Berners-Lee in Switzerland. It was the first generation of the world wide web, also known as the read-only web as it used to offer only one-way communication like reading content. According to Balachander Krishnamurthy and Graham Cormode, there were only a few content creators with the majority of users simply acting as content consumers.
Four essential design principles for Web 1.0 were static pages, serving content from the file system of the server, pages built on Common Gateway Interface (CGI) or Server Side Includes and using tables and frames to align elements on the web page.
Web 2.0 (2005 - Present)
Web 2.0 is the internet version that most people use today. It refers to the web with user-generated content, interoperability, and usability for end-users. Web 2.0 is also known as Social Web. It has made the internet a lot more interactive and accessible than Web 1.0 by leveraging technologies like HTML5, CSS, AJAX and Javascript frameworks. It’s because of these technologies that interactive web platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. have been possible to build.
Web 2.0 is driven by the origin of social, cloud and mobile computing. Some of the major features that can be found in web 2.0 applications are free information sorting, dynamic and responsive content, developed APIs for self-usage, and easy flow of information between the site owner and user.
Web 3.0 (Yet to Come)
Web 3.0 or Semantic Web (as termed by Tim Berners-Lee) refers to the next generation of internet evolution that would make the web more intelligent or enable it to process information with near-human-like intelligence leveraging the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It enables the evolution of web utilization and interaction by altering the web into a database. In Web 3.0, data will not be owned but shared.
With Web 3.0, men, women, businesses, and machines will be able to trade information, work, and value with global counterparts they don’t know or trust yet without any middleman. Web 3.0 will minimize the trust needed for coordination on a global level, marking the move of trusting all network constituents rather than requiring to trust individuals explicitly.
Read Aslo: How To Create an NFT Marketplace
Though it's a technology that is still at its nascent stages, a web3 development company can help businesses prepare for the change starting today. And considering it's benefits, this early transition will only help businesses grow and generate more revenue in the future.
Web3 will enable humans and machines to communicate on an exceptional scale and scope than we can imagine. These interactions that range from richer information flows, seamless payments to trusted data transfers will become feasible with an increased range of possible counterparties. With Web 3.0, interaction with any machine or human will become free from fee-charging middlemen.
What is Web 3.0?
Web 3.0 is the upcoming generation of the internet where apps and websites will process information in an intelligent human-like manner using Big Data, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, decentralized ledger technology and more. Web3 is known as the semantic web because of its aim of being a more intelligent, open and autonomous internet. Semantic Web or Web 3.0 is the blend of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 virtues with artificial intelligence.
Hire Web App Developers
In May 2001, Tim Berners-Lee, James Handler and Ora Lassila set up the foundation of the Semantic Web in Scientific American Magazine with a headline, “A new form of Web content that is meaningful to computers will unleash a revolution of new possibilities”.
In Web 3.0, machines along with users help in content creation and decision making. It transforms the traditional supportive role of the internet to the main character in content and process generation.
The important features behind Web 3.0 are:
-
Semantic Web
-
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
-
3D Graphics
-
Connectivity and Ubiquity
-
Decentralization
-
Trustless and Permissionless
Web 3.0 Correlation with Blockchain & Cryptocurrency
Web3 will operate using decentralized protocols - that is also the basis of technologies like blockchain and cryptocurrency - so we can expect to see a strong symbiotic and convergence relationship between these technologies. Smart contracts will help these three tech stacks in gaining interoperability, automation, and seamless integration. Hence, Web 3.0, blockchain and cryptocurrency will be able to empower anything from censorship-resistant P2P data storage, microtransactions to transforming the conducts of businesses and operating their business.
Benefits and Limitations of Web 3
What are the benefits and limitations of webs3.0?
Benefits of the Web 3.0:
-
Web3 will expand data connectivity that will help in the networking of online information.
-
Better information presentation
-
Easy to share information
-
Data privacy and control
-
Transparency
-
Open data accessibility
-
Improved data processing
-
Personalized and efficient web browsing
-
Portable and personal
-
Smart applications
Limitations of Web 3.0:
-
Web 3.0 technology isn't ready yet.
-
Newbies may have difficulty understanding
-
Devices that aren’t advanced will not be able to deal with Web3.
-
More time will be spent surfing the web
-
Accessing someone’s private and personal information will be easier without privacy policies.
The Web3 Future
Upcoming Web3 goes far beyond the usage of mere cryptocurrencies. It will offer a personalized browsing experience, a smarter human-like assistant, and other decentralized benefits that will establish an unbiased web. Web 3.0 will cryptographically connect data from machines, individuals and corporations using machine learning algorithms that will give rise to new business models and markets.