I am on a quest to discover exactly what is Web 2.0?  Many people say they want it, some think they need it, and others just like to say it.  If you ask me it is just a trendy buzzword related to the similar tags we apply to each generation.  But let’s take the web 2.0 question to, you guessed it, the web itself to find out what others are saying about this mind boggling term.

Below you will find some of the more or less interesting definitions of Web 2.0:

Refers to a supposed second-generation of Internet-based services - such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies - that let people collaborate and share information online in ways previously unavailable.

A term introduced in 2004 to characterize design patterns in a constellation of new generation Web applications which may provide an infrastructure for more dynamic user participation, social interaction and collaboration.

Globalization (”making global information available to local social contexts and giving people the flexibility to find, organize, share and create information in a locally meaningful fashion that is globally accessible”)

An attitude not a technology.

And then I found some 5 page article explaining all the specific details of what “Web  2.0” means and decided two things.

1. I guarantee 99.9% of the people that use this term don’t know its origins, including myself.  Don’t worry as I don’t intend to bore anyone to sleep with this Nobel Prize worthy definition.
2. Hence, I believe that a word’s true meaning is how it is used in everyday conversation.  So basically what the 99.9% think it means. 

So I say live and let live, man.  In the words of the great Paula Abdul, “it is what it is.”

Web 2.0 for the majority of us means:

1. Large Glossy Buttons
2. User Oriented Formatting
3. Enhanced Text
4. Quality Data Output
5. And so on, and so on, and so….on…