Web 2.0

Web 2.0: Their impact on business

By: Rana Wadi

“What is Web 2.0”?

Web 2.0 technologies is a vague term that is basically Internet technologies and application including blogs, wikis, RSS feeds. O’Reilly Media “coined this term in 2004 he referred to Web 2.0 as a second generation of Internet-based services that lets people collaborate and share information online in a new way”. (Efram Turban, 2012). In this article we will discuss how these tools have impacted businesses.

In 2005 he divided Web 2.0 into four levels, Level 0 applications that works offline as well as online such as Yahoo and Google Maps. Level 1 application that operate offline but gain features online such as Google Docs and Spreadsheets. Level 2 applications also operate offline but gain-advantages from going online such as Flicker. Level 3 applications, that most “Web 2.0” oriented, exist only on the Internet such as eBay, Wikipedia, Skype.

Web 2.0 technologies has always had an impact no matter which department you will work in. Job seekers are expected to stay up to date with what is currently happening in their interest area. Following up on what is currently happening gives companies a better competitive advantage.

These technologies have impacted businesses in many ways, they have changed the way customers interact with one another and that leads to a change in the way business communicate with their market. In businesses usually innovation is key, and Web 2.0 are innovative tools that offer a new approach and allows collaboration.

Market Forces that are converging to enable this shift

1. The Web is a place to access to information, but in the past the availability of bandwidth was limited. Then wired and wireless broadband were introduced, which removed the limitation and allowing universal access to new kinds of data including to vastly scalable applications that serve hundreds of millions of users.

An example on using broadband would be Netflix and...