Web 3.0
Context:
The concept of Web 3.0, used to describe a potential next phase of the internet, created quite a buzz in 2021.
Concept:
- World Wide Web, which is also known as a Web, is a collection of websites or web pages stored in web servers and connected to local computers through the internet.
- These websites contain text pages, digital images, audios, videos, etc.
- Users can access the content of these sites from any part of the world over the internet using their devices such as computers, laptops, cell phones, etc.
- Web 3.0 is a decentralized internet to be run on blockchain technology, which would be different from the versions in use, Web 1.0 and Web 2.0.
- In Web3, users will have ownership stakes in platforms and applications unlike now where tech giants control the platforms.
- Gavin Wood, founder of Ethereum, a block chain technology company, used the term Web3 first in 2014 and in the past few years many others have added to the idea of Web3.
Web 2.0:
- Web 2.0 started in some form in the late 1990s itself though 2004 was when most of its features were fully available.
- It is still the age of Web 2.0 now.
- The differentiating characteristic of Web 2.0 compared to Web 1.0 is that users can create content.
- They can interact and contribute in the form of comments, registering likes, sharing and uploading their photos or videos and perform other such activities.
- Primarily, a social media kind of interaction is the differentiating trait of Web 2.0.
- In Web 2.0, most of the data in the internet and the internet traffic are owned or handled by very few companies ex. Google.
- This has created issues related to data privacy, data security and abuse of such data.
- There is a sense of disappointment that the original purpose of the internet has been distorted.
Web 1.0:
- Web 1.0 is the world wide web or the internet that was invented in 1989.
- It became popular from 1993.
- It lasted until 1999.
- The internet in the Web 1.0 days was mostly static web pages where users would go to a website and then read and interact with the static information.
- Even though there were e-commerce websites in the initial days it was still a closed environment and the users themselves could not create any content or post reviews on the internet.