In recent years, Internet has become the integral part of our day to day life and is evolving with new technological developments. Varieties of new technologies have been introduced in last few years. Web 2.0 is one such technological improvement that has given new dimension to web application development.
Web 2.0 is basically a 2nd generation of technology and is a transition of web to web applications. It consists of interactive content and provides a new way to find, collect and share the information with others on internet. In early days websites were medium of limited communication where, businesses could present information on their products and services to customers through text content. Users were given a limited option of passive viewing of content that was written for them. There was no such option where user could find, collect or share information with fellow users or participate in creating the content. In web 2.0 environment, the whole World Wide Web is considered as a “participatory web”. Because of web 2.0 application development and features users can now interact, collaborate and participate with other users during the same web-surfing sessions by sharing or sending information across the web. Dynamic websites built with web 2.0 features have more interactive content in form of video, audio, slideshows and images with various viewing options. This flexibility of presenting the information in different media platforms makes web 2.0 more lucrative.
From the business point of view, it is very much essential to have presence across the web therefore the features, design and user interface of any website should be in such a way so that, products and services could be showcased in detailed and attractive manner and further, can attracts and engages the user during the visit. Web 2.0 provides various applications through which, websites could be developed with attractive designs and user friendly interface. Businesses can now increase their visibility on web and connect with their customers by implementing applications such as blogs, discussion forums etc. as these websites are also seo friendly and easy to promote. In this environment, users themselves work for businesses as they share information in form of ideas, views that eventually become user generated content and creates value to the business. With help of web 2.0 applications companies can increase the collaboration with both its customers and business associates.
From the user’s point of view web 2.0 applications provides users the freedom of contributing by expressing & sharing their views. Users now have applications such as social networking websites where they can connect with their friends, colleagues, relatives and likeminded people to build their network. Users can post and share their knowledge, views, ideas and opinion and discuss on various subjects. This provides an opportunity where users can build their own online identity on web.
The whole web 2.0 is based upon three basic concepts. 1st is Rich Internet Applications-The objective of these applications is to presents the content in rich graphical format in more interactive manner using Flash & AJAX technology. 2nd is Service Oriented Architecture-This is one of the most important concepts through which other applications can integrate the features and functionality to develop a compiled much richer applications. For example - Feeds, Web Services, RSS and Mash-Ups etc. 3rd is Social Web – The concept that defines how users can interact with each other and make communications.
In web 2.0 enabled website there are various features that make it more viable. Website has Search module to find the relevant information using keywords. There is standard navigational menu structure called Global Navigation that helps to navigate any other part of website easily. Tagging or Folksonomy is used to categories the data using keywords which are associated with links. Authoring provides an option where multiple authors can update content such as posting comments etc. For example in Wikis, users may edit / update each other’s work.
RSS Feeds syndicate the content in real time and let users to make available website’s data in different context (for example another website or application). These are based on XML format.
AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex Framework, JavaScript frameworks such as jQuery are main client-side/web browser technologies that are used in developing web 2.0 applications. In AJAX programming, JavaScript is used for uploading and downloading the new data from the web server, while full page does not get reloaded. Both data requests (going to server and coming back to the page) are sent to the server separately, therefore user does not require to wait for page to get reload and as a result there is continuous interaction between page and user. Adobe Flex is another technology that helps programmers to populate large data and user interactions. JavaScript is commonly used to add interactivity in web pages and to update content dynamically.
On the other side, all popular server side technologies such as ASP .Net, PHP, Perl, Ruby, JSP, ColdFusion, Python are used to develop rich web 2.0 applications. Because of increasing popularity of open source web development, one can do custom web 2.0 application development with the help of Joomla, Drupal and other technologies.
There are various applications that are developed with web 2.0 technology. Blogs, Discussion Forums, Question-Answer Sites, Mash-ups, Social Networking, E-Learning, Wikis, Vlogs (Video Blogs / Sites), Photo Sharing Sites, News Websites, Podcasting, Document Sharing Websites, Webinar, Slide-cast, Online Collaboration & Communication Tools, Online Productive Tools, Online Games, Online Music Websites, E-commerce Web Applications, Sharing Widgets, Social Bookmarking, Opinion Polls etc. are few most popular usage applications that are being used across the web.
Web 2.0 is a growing technology in Internet space that has shown tremendous growth over the years. Offshore web 2.0 application development has become one of the most preferred choices among offshore software web development companies and marketers.
