What are web1, web2, and web3 concepts in internet technology?

The web1, web2, and web3 internet concepts are used to classify the different operations that characterize the web at different points in time since their invention by Tim Berners-lee in 1989. According to Tim, the evolution of the web has since gone through the stages of:

• Read-only
• Read and write
• Read, write, and execute

As developers, being in the know about tech trends is one way to really remain relevant in the tech space. In this shot, we’ll explore these web trends and the technologies that characterize them.

The world wide web

It took years of great research, starting from the early 1990s, for scientists to finally come up with a global network after many attempts in 1983.

With this new invention came another challenge of how resources in this particular network could be shared. Many solutions came, but in 1989-1990, Tim Berners-lee launched what would be the most acceptable solution, the World Wide Web (WWW).

The world wide web is an internet information system that enables users to share resources using URLsUniform Resource Locator linked with hyperlinks to form what is called a website on the internet.

Through its lifespan so far, the internet has seen paradigm shifts that have improved it. Let’s take a look at the different paradigms that have been pointed out so far by tech analysts.

Web 1.0

At the initial release of the world wide web, it was only meant to make documents available, of which you could only read and not make changes. Web 1.0 was filled with static sites that only render resources to its interface that users can read.

Features

• At the web 1.0 stage, the internet only offered readability.
• Websites at this stage are basically static, as there is no dynamic rendering.
• There were major new sites, products, services information pages, and other one-way communication websites.

Web 2.0

The web 2.0 epoch of the internet quickly sprang up and improved the web 1.0 functions. It had read and write implementations, so users could create and update information on pages. It brought the dynamic ability to reveal where new resources could be added. In web 2.0, internet applications improved user interactions.

Features

• Internet applications could be read from and written on by users.
• The concern moved from just presenting information to understanding how user interactions with web applications could be made easier, attractive, interactive, and friendly.
• Web 2.0 provided user profile and detail features. This was where the user’s basic information was captured and saved for future use.
• Creation and presentation of content that was more intense engaged graphics. Content from these creators
  made this site more interactive and powerful.
• Social networking, e-commerce, and advertising became some of the inventions which took over web 2 operations.

Web 2.0 applications

• E-commerce: aAmazon, alibaba, e-bay, and other websites took the physical marketplace to the internet, which has revolutionized the way we buy and sell today.

• Social networking: The boom of social networking was one of the significant characteristics of web 2, with applications such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and so many other social networking sites. These sites enabled users to connect with friends and create huge communities.

• User-made content: Applications like TikTok, Pinterest, likee, and vskit gave users the power to decide what is on the web today. In Web 2.0, users could create basically any kind of content they could think of.

• Application program interfaces: This is the technology that turned out to be a game-changer in web 2.0. Different applications could communicate with each other. API became another possibility, such as having devices communicative seamlessly on the internet without the need for browsers to process the web requests. Ajax was a big force in the early days of this technology, but today so many other technologies, like our frontend frameworks, have come to make the use of APIs on the web very easy and more common.

Web 3.0

Since the background already existed for reading and writing in web 2.0, the need for the web to run autonomously, such as executing commands that enable it to carry out actions based on conditions, became paramount.

The presentation of information on the web faced a big challenge around applications understanding what is important or not from the passed data. However, web 3.0 provided what is known as semantic markupA data interchange format, which enabled data to be presented in human and software accessible formats. Additionally, web services allowed machines to communicate and exchange resources amongst themselves.

Now, we can discuss IoTs, Bots, Intelligent web applications, and Dapp. In DappsDecentralized Web Applications, the Blockchain is used as a means of holding and securing these resources to be shared by users.

Features

• Machine to machine autonomous interaction.
• Machine processed human usable information. Humans could understand and rely on pieces of information presented to them by web applications, such as in the case of a blockchain.
• Highly intelligent and autonomous applications.

Summary

These concepts are epochs in the world wide web lifetime so far, and they have all come with significant changes. Web 3.0 is the future of the web and is rapidly growing, while Web 2.0 still remains important.