Is There a Web 1.0?

Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, took a stab at defining Web 2.0 more than a year after the first Web 2.0 Conference. He posted an explanation on his blog that spanned five pages of text and used a lot of marketing terms and jargon. Some people might find O'Reilly's explanation more confusing than helpful, but his main point was that Web 2.0 refers to people making connections with other people through the web, as they do on social networking websites like Facebook.

It's hard to define Web 1.0 for several reasons. First, Web 2.0 doesn't refer to a specific advance in web technology. Instead, Web 2.0 refers to a set of techniques for webpage design and execution. Second, some of these techniques have been around since the World Wide Web first launched, so it's impossible to separate Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 in a time line. The definition of Web 1.0 completely depends upon the definition of Web 2.0.

With that in mind, if Web 2.0 is a collection of approaches that are the most effective on the World Wide Web, then Web 1.0 includes everything else. As for what it means to be "effective," Tim O'Reilly says that it's providing users with an engaging experience so that they'll want to return to the webpage in the future.

Here's a collection of strategies O'Reilly considers to be part of the Web 1.0 philosophy:

Web 1.0 Sites Have Static Content

Static web pages contain information that might be useful, but there's no reason for a visitor to return to the site later. An example might be a personal website that gives information about the site's owner, but never changes. A Web 2.0 version might be a blog or social media account that owners can frequently update.

Web 1.0 Sites Aren't Interactive

Visitors can only visit these sites; they can't impact or contribute to the sites. Most organizations have profile pages that visitors can look at but not impact or alter, whereas a wiki is a participative social web, allowing anyone to visit and make changes.

Web 1.0 Applications Are Proprietary

Under the Web 1.0 philosophy, companies develop software applications that users can download, but they can't see how the application works or change it. A Web 2.0 application is an open source program, which means the source code for the program is freely available. Users can see how the application works and make modifications or even build new applications based on earlier programs.

For example, Netscape Navigator was a proprietary web browser of the Web 1.0 era. Firefox follows the Web 2.0 philosophy and provides developers with all the tools they need to create new Firefox applications.

Is it always a bad idea to take a Web 1.0 approach in web design? Find out on the next page.

If Web 2.0 is a collection of the most effective ways to create and use web pages, is there any reason to make a page that follows the Web 1.0 model? It may sound surprising, but the answer is actually yes. There are times when a Web 1.0 approach is appropriate.

Amazon's User Input

Part of the Web 2.0 philosophy is creating a webpage that visitors can impact or change. For example, Amazon allows visitors to post product reviews. Future visitors will have a chance to read these reviews, which might influence their decision to buy the product. The ability to contribute information is helpful.

However, in some cases, the webmaster wouldn't want users to be able to impact the webpage. A restaurant might have a webpage that shows the current menu. While the menu might evolve over time, the webmaster wouldn't want visitors to be able to make changes. The menu's purpose is to let people know what the restaurant serves; it's not the right place for commentary or reviews.

Wikipedia's Dynamic Content

Another example of a good Web 1.0 approach is information resources. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia resource that allows visitors to make changes to most articles. Ideally, with enough people contributing to Wikipedia entries, the most accurate and relevant information about every subject will eventually be part of each article.

Unfortunately, because anyone can change entries, it's possible for someone to post false or misleading information. People can purposefully or unwittingly damage an article's credibility by adding inaccurate facts. While moderators do patrol the pages for these acts of vandalism, there's no guarantee that the information on an entry will be accurate on any given day.

On the flip side of the coin are official encyclopedias. Encyclopedia entries are fact-checked, edited and attributed to a specific author or entity. The process of creating an encyclopedia article is very structured. Perhaps most importantly, there is a stress on objectivity.

The author of an encyclopedia entry must present facts without being subjective; a person making an edit to a Wikipedia article could have a personal agenda and as a result hide certain facts or publish false information. While Wikipedia can be a good starting place to find information about most subjects, it's almost always a bad idea to use it as your sole source of information.

The boundary between what counts as Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 is getting clearer. As more web technologies develop around the goals of interactivity and gaining traction over search engines, the digital world of Web 1.0 is disappearing.

There's no denying that some web strategies are more effective than others. In the end, whether or not there's such a thing as Web 1.0 is a moot point. The important thing is to learn how to use the web to its full potential.

To learn more about the World Wide Web and other topics, check out the links on the following page.