[Daniel] Web 2.0

In addition to learning Subversion and pushing forward my PHP skills, I've been investigating more Ajax / Web 2.0 technologies. Most of it is a lot of hype over very little, over things that should have been done in the first place or shouldn't be done at all. The basic premise to create a highly interactive web site using standards and open APIs to create great user experiences. If that sentence wasn't buzzword-compliant, I don't know what would be (I suppose I could've added "a 30,000 ft, bird's-eye view of an outside-the-box paradigm...").



Google Maps was one of the bright early stars in the realm of Web 2.0, coined most prominently by Tim O'Reilly, a purveyor of fine technical books. With its easy draggable maps, the many levels of zoom, the satellite/map/hybrid view and pretty effects, it's the darling of most Web 2.0 aficionados.



Some other first rate examples include Google Suggest, A9, Flickr, BaseCamp, Ta-Da List, Del.icio.us and many more. Personally, I've used about half of these and have been impressed with what's been done so far.



But more services seem to be on their way and some important ones at that. Among the newly announced are Writely, an online word processor, and NumSum, an online spreadsheet application. Some think that the big players, such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are preparing their own online versions of Office-style software. If not, I say they are fools not to.



They are foolish because it is definitely a niche market but one that has the potential to expand tremendously if these technologies take off. And there is very little competition currently out there, with only a handful of vaguely comparable sites. Finally, the technologies are quite accessible and all three of the web giants already have a decent investment in them. Further, they all have the infrastructure in place to handle a massively used application, unlike most of the relatively small Web 2.0 apps I mentioned above.



The next several years will hold many interesting things on this front and I, for one, welcome it. The web is first starting to grow up and as bandwidth costs go down, we will only see more. Here's hoping I can be part of that.