The Web has always been about communication

A Potted History
The World Wide Web was invented back in 1989 by the great English scientist Tim Berners-Lee. At its most fundamental, the Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents that are accessed through the Internet. Just to clarify, the Internet is the underlying network of interconnected computers that provides the supporting infrastructure that powers the Web.

The Web is not synonymous with the Internet. The Web is an application that sits on top of the Internet.

In its infancy, the Web was initially used by scientists at CERN to exchange information with each other. This idea caught on quickly, and by the 1990s, the Web had grown into a huge information sharing and communications platform.

The Dot Com Bubble
Between the mid 1990s and early 2000, the Web had transformed into a transactional platform. This period was highlighted by the forming (and in many cases, subsequent failing) of many Internet based companies. The phrase 'dot com' comes from the fact that many Internet companies had the suffix .com on their Web addresses.

These companies were referred to as 'dot coms', and were building their empires using this new found technology. Many of them saw their stock prices soar, and the Web became the new silver bullet for every new venture and start up. The Web was seen as the new platform for commerce, and the main use for the Web at this time was for processing business transactions.

The Era of Social Media
Early 2000 saw a new breed of application enter the Web. These were sophisticated applications that allowed users to communicate with each other. Social media applications are intended to disseminate media through social interaction. Social media supports the need for humans to interact and engage with each other, using technology as the glue to bring them together.

Social media has surged in popularity, with a wide range of applications to choose from. These applications are all about engaging, connecting and communication. These are particularly popular with younger groups, including teenagers and young adults, but also popular among other groups.

Full Circle
So from its humble beginnings as an information sharing and communication platform, the Web evolved over the next decade into a transaction processing platform under the dot com bubble. Over the next decade, we have seen it transform into a social media platform. So in many ways, the Web has come full circle. Although it may have started out as a very rudimentary communications platform in comparison to today, it was, and still is a communications platform nonetheless.

Conclusion
The Web is a very versatile platform. It can be used for gaming, commerce and social media to name just a few of its applications. At its heart however, it has always been a communications platform, and this should not be forgotten by the entrepreneurs of the next killer application.

The future of the web with Web 3.0

The present situation
The web is changing rapidly. We currently have Web 2.0, with its emphasis on social media and all that those technologies imply. Since the dot-com era of the late nineties, with its boom and bust fluctuations, it has now settled down into a platform where users can interact with each other, and are in control of the information space. We have blogs, wikis, RSS feeds and podcasts. Content can be quickly shared, disseminated and updated like never before.

These changes have taken place over the last decade. Web 2.0 has been maturing and becoming a dominant feature of the web landscape. So what changes are we likely to see in the next decade?

Farewell specialist, hello polymath
One thing that seems certain is that the key players will need to change and react to the fluctuating demands of the Internet. This can be clearly seen in the recent output from both Microsoft and Google. We've seen Microsoft release a search engine (Bing), and Google release an operating system (Chrome). Each of these companies has released a product more usually associated with the other.

No longer can the big companies control the Internet by specialising in just one area. To become the dominant player means you need to control every part of it, and that includes both the search engine and underlying operating system. Microsoft and Google have both clearly understood this.

Structure and order
Web 2.0 is all about mashups, an abundance of information shared across various channels, using technologies such as RSS to share that information. This is unstructured and fragmented. Web 3.0 will bring integration, structure and order to that information. Tools and standards will be developed that lead to more uniform and consistent information sharing. Whilst mashups will almost certainly continue, they will do so in a more structured way.

Ontologies and taxonomies
Like the taxonomies used to categorise services in local government, and which allow the navigation and searching for services in a consistent manner across different councils, so search engines will move away from page ranking algorithms, to standard ontologies. This will make searching for information much easier and consistent. Information will be defined and categorised consistently, and search results will surrender information in a more egalitarian way.

Meta data is king
For this to happen, meta-data will become ever more important. A standard ontology by which all content will be categorised, will need to be developed. It will require independent validation and control, and so a likely candidate will be the World Wide Web Consortium, who currently draft many web standards already (including HTML and XML). The web will change from being document-centric to meta-data centric.

From anarchy to order
As inferred already, standards will come to dominate the web landscape. There will be a continual move from anarchy and chaos, to consistency and order. This will affect the underlying technologies used to provide content, to the search engines which index it, and all points in between.

Conclusion
We have seen major transitions in the web over the previous decade. The web will continue to change over the next decade, and shape into what will be known as Web 3.0. These are exciting times!