Not a lot of people are talking about Web “versions” these days, because it’s a silly idea. But, when you do hear people in the Web industry argue about what Web 3.0 means and if we’re there yet, it actually can get quite heated.
I wrote my predictions for the next versions of the Web in 2006 and I think they’re actually pretty good. They were written during the time I refer to as the “great stagnation” of the Web, which was from about 2001 to 2010. During this entire time, Web developers were trying to figure out a strange and confusing standard called XHTML and the only mildly interesting thing that happened was the so-called Web 2.0.
With the emergence of HTML5 in the last couple of years, however, the Web has become really exciting! I think we’ve blown through Web 3.0 and Web 4.0, and are now sitting on the edge of Web 5.0, which I call the “Hang-out Web” (I actually invented that term before Google used it to describe their web-based video conferencing). The technology that’s enabling Web 5.0 is called WebRTC.
Ed Tittel (my co-author for Beginning HTML5 and CSS3 for Dummies) and I just wrote an article about WebRTC that will be appearing on CIO.com soon. Look for it if you care to know more about this technology that is about to transform communications (for real!). Or, if you can’t wait, check out this video from Google I/O.
Without further ado, here are my Predicted Web Versions (circa 2006):
Web 1.0
- top-down, authoritative information
Web 2.0
- bottom-up, community-driven information
Web 3.0
- backlash to 2.0
- too much manipulation of information (Wikipedia)
- too much spam
- people start using encryption and digital signatures to verify their identity and reduce spam. RFID tags are used for identification.
Web 4.0
- backlash to RFID tag identification from Web 3.0
- people start using anonymizers
- services appear for removing people from myspace, friendster, etc.
Web 5.0
- People got their privacy back, but now they’re lonely.
- Face to face internet
- “Meetups” return, but they’re more virtual
- webcams, teleconferencing
- The “Virtual Hang-Out Machine™” is invented.
Web 6.0
- A few virtual meetings go bad, and people over-react.
- paranoid reaction to web 5.0
- censorship
- protecting the children
Web 7.0
- total breakdown of the internet
- no one wants to use it anymore because of the hassle of censorship
Web 8.0
- relearning the internet
- total simplicity
- “the Web” has two links: “Where I Want to Go” and “Where I Was”