What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 is more than anything else a new way for searchers to actually use the Web in a collaborative, interactive way. The term 2.0 doesn't mean that we are "out with the old and in with the new"; quite the contrary! It's just a new perspective on how we use the Web, and how the Web is used for much, MUCH more than just search.

Many of the sites and services that are coming out as "new" in Web 2.0 have definitely been around for longer than this buzzphrase has been in vogue. However, these new kids on the block are taking old concepts and melding them with new ideas, creating and collaborating and sharing previously standalone services with theories that when put together just make sense (kind of like the old peanut butter and chocolate commercials!).

And Web 2.0 isn't just limited to what programmers and techie geeks can do with it, either. Web 2.0 is all about you and me and how WE can create content, merge ideas, and in essence milk every last drop of usefulness out of the Web that we can get. The Web is no longer a spectator sport - it's all about people, ideas, and collaboration.

Web 2.0 offers developers substantial advantages if they design their web applications as service providers and service consumers. This change in architecture has opened up an incredible number of options for flexible design, creative reuse, and easier updates. There is, however a cost: doing this requires rethinking how to apply many traditional web development technologies, as well as adding some new ideas.

While it is easy to find good books and online materials that cover each aspect of Web 2.0 separately, it is much more difficult to get the "big picture," including the reasons why we need to move toward Web 2.0 and how the different technologies play together on the client side, on the server side and between clients and servers.

Even as Web 2.0 is about using the web as a platform, Web 2.0 itself is hardly a homogeneous platform. This book will give developers the perspective and the tools they need to create Web 2.0 applications using key components in whatever environments developers choose.