Web 1.0 Vs Web 2.0 Vs Web 3.0: What’s The Difference?

The Internet is full of jargon and confusing terms. Web 3.0 might seem like one of them. In fact, many of us may not be aware of such a classification in the first place.

Yes, there are three webs: Web 1.0, 2.0, and the latest – 3.0. More importantly, you’ll be able to understand the latest Web (3.0) better if you know what came before it. It will make hiring a Web 3.0 development company all the easier.

In this blog, we will briefly explain each edition to help you understand how they are different.

More On Web 1.0 Vs Web 2.0 Vs Web 3.0

The first thing to understand is that the Web and the Internet are not the same. Yup, they are two different concepts, although the terms are used interchangeably. Moreover, the changes each version of the Web has brought didn’t happen overnight.

The Web refers to the websites and pages users interact with. On the other hand, the Internet is a network of computers and systems that store and propagate information. 

Let’s dig deeper into the three editions to understand how they are different from each other. It will make Web 1 vs Web 2 vs Web 3 easier to understand and how the web has evolved over the decades.

What Web 1.0 Was All About:

The Web is constantly evolving, and it all started with the creation of the World Wide Web or Web 1.0 by Tim Berners-Lee around 1989. 

Web 1.0 is widely known as the first stage, the earliest form of the World Wide Web. Experts refer to it as the time when only a few content creators were available to create and fill web pages for a large number of people. 

Think of it as a gigantic digital encyclopedia offering Internet users facts and information. The pages were basic HTML and didn’t contain modern-day visuals, forms, and interactive features. That means there were no advertisements as users surf the internet.

Some of its prominent features include:

• Static websites and pages
• Basic graphics and GIF buttons
• Content sourcing from the server instead of an RDBMS
• HTML 3.2 elements (tables, frames, etc.) to align and place page data

Features Web 2.0 Introduced to Its Users:

Web 2.0 is popular as the ‘social web’. It introduced far more content creators and even more users to participate and interact through content creation. The focus shifted to delivering a feature-rich end-user experience.

This era has given rise to tons of communities and social media platforms. As a result, many individuals are interacting with the web primarily through these channels. They are not just reading; users have contributed through various interactions, including profile creation, commenting, and reviewing

Web 2.0 can be best summarized by the following elements:

• Dynamic content
• Social media
• Blogging, podcasting, and other forms of collaboration
• Functionality integration through various APIs

How Web 3.0 Will Make A Difference:

Web 2.0 applications are problematic due to the way they work. A user requests a webpage, which is then dispatched to the server. However, there is only one limitation: those who control the data on the centralized server can access a tremendous amount of information.

The data was stored on Facebook, Google, and Twitter servers so that algorithms could make better content. In a perfect world, data holders would use this to maintain high-quality user experiences. However, our data is sold to advertisers, which is where web 3.0 comes in.

Web 3.0 makes the user the content owner, in contrast with web 2.0, which makes users the product.

Tim Berners-Lee originally called web 3.0 the Semantic Web, which he envisioned as a more autonomous, intelligent, and open internet. It would be based on AI and machine learning, where all content would be linked contextually and conceptually through a “global brain”. Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out that way with web 2.0 since the technology just wasn’t adequate. 

With web 3.0, the interaction and utilization of the web have evolved, and the Web has been altered into a database. Upgrading the back end of a website allows it to upgrade its front end, since web 2.0 mainly focuses on tagging, AJAX, and other front-end innovations.

Significant Features And Elements In Web 3.0

Web 3.0 includes many interesting elements, including:

• Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
• Semantic web; an improved form of web technology that allows for creating, sharing, and connecting content based on understanding rather than keywords
• Internet of Things to enable multiple devices and applications to connect to each other
• 3-D graphics are a big part of web 3.0 services
• Direct interaction and participation without going through an intermediary or requiring consent from a governing body.

Experts describe web 3.0 as the “read-write-execute” web, the future of the internet.

The platform facilitates decentralized, almost anonymous interactions. By doing this, we can stop depending on the big, controlling hands of corporations like Google, Facebook, and Twitter.

The Significance Of A Web 3.0 Development Company At Present

You may have heard of web 3.0 if you’ve recently read a tech or crypto-related article. Also known as Web3, it refers to the next version of the Internet that focuses on decentralization. 

However, there is a lot of confusion about Web3 and what separates it from web 1.0 and 2.0. The explanations provided above should clear some of that confusion.

If you’re interested in getting a website made for your business, you’ll want to consider the services of a web 3.0 development company. After all, web3 is the future, and the professionals working on your website must build it from a long-term perspective.

Author Bio: Tom Hardy is an experienced web developer, making the web a better place, one carefully-constructed website at a time. He loves staying updated on top trends, too.