Difference between Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0

All three of these are used in the various stages of the Internet or World Wide Web. These are mainly used in the form of buzzwords, thus they lack any clear definitions. However, there is a primary difference between Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Web 3.0 in terms of their evolution and existence. We can associate Web 1.0 with the era when static websites existed back then. On the other hand, we can associate Web 2.0 with the era when interactive websites have been common. Lastly, Web 3.0 has a primary focus on the major web services along with semantic markup.

What is Web 1.0?

It was the first stage of the evolution of the World Wide Web. Only a few content creators were available for Web 1.0 with a vast majority of content consumers. Personal web pages were the most common, which consisted of various static pages that are either hosted on free web hosting services or on the web servers run on an ISP.

Advertisements are banned on Web 1.0 websites while someone is surfing on the internet. One can share, store, print, and even share digital pictures on an online photography website known as Ofoto. Web 1.0 acts as a CDN (content delivery network) that enables the piece of the website to be showcased on the website. So one can use it as a personal website. The users would be charged in terms of per page view. It consists of directories that let its users retrieve some set of information.

Essential design elements of Web 1.0

1. Static pages

2. Frames and Tables for aligning and positioning the elements on any page

3. Server Side Includes or CGI (Common Gateway Interface) for building pages

4. The server’s file system for serving the content.

What is Web 2.0?

These refer to the worldwide websites that highlight the user-generating content (UGC), interoperability, and usability for their end-users. Web 2.0 is also known as the participative social web. Now, this does not refer to any modifications to the technical specification. Instead, these modify how the web pages must be designed or even used. This transition is important, but these changes are not very much visible when they occur. Web 2.0 allows collaboration and interaction in the social media dialogue with the content creators of the virtual community. Thus, Web 2.0 is like a comparatively enhanced version of Web 1.0.

While developing Web 2.0, the technologies and web browsers used include AJAX along with JS frameworks. These are very popular these days for creating Web 2.0 websites.

Uses

The social web consists of various platforms and tools. People share their opinions, perspectives, experiences, and thoughts on these platforms. Thus, Web 2.0 tends to interact comparatively more with its end users. These end users are not only the users of the applications, but also the participants/viewers generated via podcasting, tagging, blogging, RSS curating, Web content voting, Social media, Social networking, Social bookmarking, and many more.

What is Web 3.0?

Web 3.0 refers to the evolution of the interaction and utilisation of the web, and it includes Web altering into a database. Thus, it enables a website’s backend up-gradation, after focusing for a very long time on the front-end, since Web 2.0 has been mainly about tagging, AJAX, and various other front-end innovations. On the other hand, Web 2.0 refers to a term that describes various evolutions of the usage and interaction of the websites among several paths. The data isn’t owned here but shared, and the services display different views for the very same data/website.

This web is also known as the Semantic Web. It promises to establish the information available to the world in a more reasonable way as compared to Google with its existing engine schema. It is particularly true from the machine conception perspective as compared to the human understanding of algorithms. Web 3.0 necessitates the usage of declarative ontological languages, such as OWL. These are used to reason the correct information and then make a new conclusion- instead of simply matching the available keyword.