New technologies such as blogs, social bookmarking, wikis, podcasts and RSS feeds are just a few of the technologies that are helping to shape and direct Web 2.0. The Web before the dot com crash is often referred to as Web 1.0 now but only since the coining of the term Web 2.0. Some of the more obvious difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 are: DoubleClick replaced by Google AdSense, Britannica Online replaced by Wikipedia, Personal Web Pages replaced by Blogs, Content Management Systems replaced by Wikis and Directories replaced by Tagging. These are only a very few of the differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 but they are major ones. You will notice, if you look carefully that the commonality of many of the differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 is that Web 1.0 was driven and controlled by the ‘powers-that-be’ and Web 2.0 is driven by users.
That is a huge difference and the one that is making Web 2.0 more and more user friendly not to mention more and more profitable for just average people. You might even call it a power shift of seismic proportions. Once the websites that could be accessed on the Internet were built and controlled by only a few and were certainly not ‘interactive’ but today anybody with an idea, a few dollars and just a little know-how can build a Web 2.0 website that is completely interactive and turn it into a money-making enterprise if they choose to. The technology is there. It is easy to use. It is accessible and it is relatively cheap….some of it is even free.