BLADAM - Entry - Web 2.0 is a bunch of crap

DISCLAIMER: This is my personal blog. The blatherings here aren't (necessarily) the views of the current company I work for, companies I've previously blessed with my presence, my loving parents, the Illuminati, or anyone other than me, me, me!

Web 2.0 is a bunch of crap

No, not the stuff arguably associated with it, just the term.

Look, people, the Internet is not some product evolving in big, whole-numbered discrete steps. The Web isn't like the release of Microsoft Office 10, followed by version 11.

No... technologies evolve and products improve bit by bit, formerly little-used tools get a new lease on life or are used in more creative ways, and so on. It's not like one day we wake up and *vavoom* there's a new Web online! And yes, I gather that the whole Web 2.0 thing is referring to "revolutionary" components, applications, but still I say, bah humbug. I love Gmail as much as the next guy, I think Meebo is pretty nifty... but sheesh... all this still doesn't, IMHO, warrant the whole "2.0" gushing.

I'm not surprised that e-business mags are trumpeting "Web 2.0." But I'm embarrassed that my fellow geeks are bloggily embracing it, too.

Please, for the love of 1's and 0's, can we go just one day without blabbing on about how some burgeoning transformation is going to create lasting peace, boost the world dotconomy, and help geeks get laid? I mean, maybe the first two, fine, but the third...? Only in Silicon Valley. Ah, only in Silicon Valley...

- Blathered by Adam on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 at 0:02 [ Permalink | Trackback ]
- Filed under Geekery
- Commented on by 8 folks so far. Scroll down and see for yourself (and join in the conversation!)

Comment from Mark Jen [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	Hmm… is GMail really a Web 2.0 application? There’s no content syndication and no web services. From Wikipedia: “The site should not act as a ‘walled garden’ - it should be easy to get data in and out of the system” and “Users should own their own data on the site”. Doesn’t exactly sound like GMail to me :-p - Posted on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 at 1:29 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from member Adam San Francisco [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	Ah, I shoulda wikipedia’d . But return-nitpicking for a moment… Gmail has RSS feeds, which I’d assume for this purpose is the same as content syndication. One can get data out via POP, but indeed, it’s not very easy… nor is it possible to get data out. Summary: Not very bright of me to use Gmail as a Web 2.0 example! But I stand by my general argument that the whole “Web 2.0” term is vaccuous hype (see http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2005/08/04/Web-2.0 from someone a lot smarter and high ranking than I am - Posted on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 at 2:45 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from J. [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	Curious wonder...is Mark related to Sandy? She was my CS106a TA. - Posted on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 at 11:08 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from Mark Jen [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	Hi J, As far as we know, Sandy and I aren’t related, but we do share an uncommon last name Maybe, we’re distant cousins… - Posted on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 at 20:35 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from James MacAonghus [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	That’s too easy a criticism to make of web 2.0 and it has been made loads of times before. The greater value is in accepting that all the intelligent people know the problem, and use it as a convenient shortcut, not in just complaining about it. - Posted on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 at 14:33 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from mlota UK [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	Finally, I’ve found someone who thinks the same as me. “Web 2.0” is without a shadow of a doubt the marketing departments dream come true. It’s false. People have been using web 2.0 techniques for years, why the sudden realisation? - Posted on Monday, November 13, 2006 at 9:40 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from Fred [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	Nice idea with this site its better than most of the rubbish I come across. - Posted on Wednesday, December 13, 2006 at 13:06 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from Mike Texas [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	Web 2.0 is much spoken about nowadays. - Posted on Thursday, May 10, 2007 at 11:49 [ Permalink to this comment ]

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