Discuss it with 1000 words. Web 2.0 encourages user participation, social interaction, and collaborating. Some of the technologies used are AJAX, Tagging, blogging, Wiki's, Really Simple Syndication (RSS), and podcast's and videocast's. AJAX allows portions of websites to load with fresh data instead of waiting for the whole page to be loaded. An example of this is yahoo.com fantasy football site. It allows for real time scoring so the user can see his points for his team live on Sundays. A blog allows for users to write their opinion's on a webpage that is open to the public to see. A podcast is an audio digital file that allows for playback on personal computers or MP3 players. A podcast might include news stories or an audiobook. A Wiki is a website that allows anyone to post or edit information.
Anytime I use google to search for something, one of the links I see is to Wikipedia.com. The wikipedia website has an enormous amount of information and can be quite handy when doing some basic research. One downside of Wikipedia is accuracy and verification. Because the website allows everyone to post and edit information, it cannot be relied upon. Most colleges do not allow students to reference Wikipedia which is a little frustrating to me. However, most professors say that you can use Wikipedia to jumpstart your research to give you some ideas.
Another category of Web 2.0 is social networking. These include MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter. MySpace does not seem as popular as it once was. I asked my spouse why and she said because it doesn't allow games and other apps to be used on it. Facebook is very popular right now. So popular that they made a hit movie about the origins of Facebook called "The Social Network" YouTube allows for users to view and upload videos of themselves. It is so popular that a common thing now is that when someone trips or something else that they are embarrassed about and there is a camera around, they say "I hope that this doen't end up on YouTube." I have used this website before when I want to repair something. I had a leaking toilet recently and I watched a video of a person taking you step by step on the repair of a toilet. Really handy for those situations.
Web 3.0 is the next step. Sometimes called the semantic web which means that all information is categorized and stored in away that computers and humans can unsterstand it. Almost like artificial intelligience. For example it may lead to a virtual shopping mall where you can see items on the shelves while using the computer. Or when you can type in say "I want to go to a nice restraunt within 10 miles" The web will know your tastes and prefernces and will suggest restraunts based on those. I think that web 3.0 will have a huge impact on society. The internet will be everywhere, your car will let you know how the traffic is flowing, your phone will give you updates sports scores on your favorite teams, and so on and so forth.