The Evolution of the Internet

The Evolution of the Internet

Evolution of the Internet

The History & Transition of Web 1.0 to Web 3.0

A handful of significant inventions changed the entire world significantly. The internet is one of these inventions and the world would not be what it is without the internet. Every aspect of how we live, work, socialize, shop, and play involves the web. We’ve seen an enormous amount of changes over the years, albeit subtle. The web wasn’t always the web as we know it today. Many people recognize there are changes but they don’t know the evolution, history, or even why these changes are important. It seems just like yesterday, for those who can remember, when the internet first came out. Do you remember the first web pages (they were pages and not even websites), email platforms (Lotus Notes anyone?), and that awful dial up connection?

Technically speaking, there is Web 1.0, Web 2.0 (where we are today) and the emergence of Web 3.0.

  • Web 1.0 was read only. It started with the need for people to share and access information across different computers.

  • Web 2.0 has read and write ability and brings social and interactivity to Web 1.0.

  • Web 3.0 brings read, write and execution to the internet and centralized control of the web from big corporations to average users.

Web 1.0

Today, we can use the internet to find information. However Web 1.0 was read-only. Web 1.0 utilized the three fundamental technologies that became the foundation of the web (HTML, URL, HTTPS. You couldn’t interact with the web as we do today, for example, signing up for a weekly subscription.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is the web we currently use. It’s also known as the social web because of its interactive abilities. Examples are companies like Facebook, Twitter, Google, basically every internet company at our service. Web 2.0 was created because we needed the web to be faster and more visually appealing. With Web 2.0 came CSS to render beautiful pages, Javascript to replace Adobe flash for animations, and frameworks such as Vue.js and Angular, and Libraries like React to enable faster development. The exponential growth of Web 2.0 has been driven by key innovations such as mobile internet access and social networks, as well as the near-ubiquity of powerful mobile devices like iPhones and Android-powered devices.

The ability of Web 2.0 lets people read published content on the internet and write theirs. Types of content publishing on Web 2.0 are:

  • Social media platforms (i.e.Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)

  • Video sharing platforms (i.e.Youtube, Vimeo)

  • Blogging platforms (i.e.Medium, Hashnode, WordPress)

  • Podcast sharing platforms (i.e.Anchor, Spotify)

With Web 2.0, the gig economy also evolved by enabling millions of people to earn income on a part-time or full-time basis by driving, renting their homes, delivering food and groceries, or selling goods and services online.

Web 3.0

Web 3.0, is the third generation of the internet, also known as the future version. It can represent as big a paradigm shift as Web 2.0 did. With Web 3.0 consumers can access the internet through other resources like Google, Facebook, Apple or other individuals. Web 3.0 is built upon the core concepts of decentralization, openness, and greater user utility.

  • Web 3.0 takes Web 2.0’s abilities further by utilizing AI and giving computers the ability to execute programs on their own.

  • Web 3.0 applications will run on blockchains or decentralized peer-to-peer networks, or a combination

  • Web 3.0’s ability to execute instructions at a specified period makes it suitable to validate or verify agreements between people.

For example, written code, also known as smart contracts, acts as an intermediary in finance. It keeps records of transactions on ledgers across different computers so they are immutable (can not be changed). Blockchain offers the transparency to track transactions. Web 3.0 will also take us into the more immersive experiences in the metaverse and is the backbone to the world of NFTs (non-fungible tokens).

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