The Next Wave: Web 3.0

The easiest way to describe Web 3.0 is to first explain Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is used to define web technology trends or a web design that aids users in information sharing and collaboration among other users. Examples of this include social-networking sites, wikis-sites, and blogs, all of which have gained immense popularity in recent years. Web 3.0 can be considered the next generation in web development.

The future elements and stages expected for Web 3.0 vary greatly depending on which experts are asked. Some feel emerging technologies, like the Semantic Web, will transform the way the web is used. Semantic Web is essentially a form of artificial intelligence that will allow the web to more accurately understand and fulfill the requests of people looking for web content. Other experts have more practical expectations, such as increased Internet connection speeds, greater Wi-Fi areas, modular web applications or advancements in computer graphics.

Evolution of Web Applications

Common web applications, or webapps, today include webmail, online 'shopping carts', online auctions, wikis, discussion boards/forums, blogs, and MMORPGs. At the advent of the Internet, the primary browser-supported language was HTML. In Web 2.0 that advanced into other languages like ASP and PHP. The question now for many web users is, "What happens next?" Although there are many possible answers, there are certain trends that provide likely scenarios for Web 3.0.

Web 3.0 - The Internet as a Database?

One of the prevailing attitudes among most experts is that the Internet will be still be used as an informative interactive medium, but it will expand into a data storage medium. In fact, Ram Shriram, a founding board member of Google, goes a step further. At a recent conference at New Delhi he remarked that web applications are developing at such a rate that soon almost all desktop applications will be freely available online.

He is not alone in his assumption. Many are saying the true power of Web 3.0 will be the fact it would be mobile and be able to offer anything to anyone, anywhere. According to Shriram, Web 3.0 will bring all these elements together and act as a combination of information, sharing and banking bay. That means no matter where someone might be, they can have constant access to their information. Moreover, they will be able to manipulate that information without the need for a traditional desktop.

Web 3.0 - The Web and Desktops Working Together

In fact, one might say the Web 3.0 future is now. Google Docs allows anyone to import to existing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations or create new ones from scratch - all from a web browser. In addition, Adobe AIR is a cross-operating system runtime that allows developers to combine HTML, Ajax, Adobe Flash, and Flex technologies to deploy Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) right on the desktop. It is currently available for most Windows and Mac OS's, with Linux currently under development.

With that said, many experts would like to see Web 3.0 evolve to include editing any application at any location. For instance, a businessman on a commuter train would be able to open his Word documents, make changes and then have the documents ready by the time he arrives at his office. The software for this type of scenario is already in place; however the hardware is not yet available to create blanket Wi-Fi connections. As Internet infrastructure expands, this scenario could come to fruition and allow users to take full advantage of what Web 3.0 has to offer.