Web 2.0

Abstract

The Internet has come of age as a global source of information about every topic imaginable. A company like Google has become a household name in Western countries and making use of its internet search engine is so popular that “Googling” has even become a verb in many Western languages. Whether it is for business or private purposes, people worldwide rely on Google to present them relevant information. Even the scientific community is increasingly employing Google’s search engine to find academic articles and other sources of information about the topics they are studying. Yet, the vast amount of information that is available on the internet is gradually changing in nature. Initially, information would be uploaded by the administrators of the web site and would then be visible to all visitors of the site. This approach meant that web sites tended to be limited in the amount of content they provided, and that such content was strictly controlled by the administrators. Over time, web sites have granted their users the authority to add information to web pages, and sometimes even to alter existing information. Current examples of such web sites are eBay (auction), Wikipedia (encyclopedia), YouTube (video sharing), LinkedIn (social networking), Blogger (weblogs) and Delicious (social bookmarking).