How To Prepare Your Website For Web 2.0
Things That Webmasters Must Consider
Web 2.0 is a system that will very likely create a paradigm shift on the web. It will create a transformation so powerful that those who are not prepared for it will be left in the dust, while those who do prepare for it will be on the cutting edge of Internet technology. Because of the hype which surrounds Web 2.0, many people dismiss it for being hype, a new techie buzz word that will eventually die out. However, if you can get beneath the hype which surrounds Web 2.0, you will find that there is something tangible under the surface. It is this factor that makes Web 2.0 even more powerful than all the buzz that surrounds it.

The concept for Web 2.0 was first introduced during a conference. MediaLive International and O’Reilly were brainstorming ideas, and this is what they came up with. They spent a great deal of time studying companies that had successfully survived the dot com bust. What they found was very surprising. They discovered that many of the companies that survived the bust had a great deal in common. These companies were a part of a radical change that was taking over the Internet, and the term they used to describe this change was Web 2.0. They felt that this change was significant because it allowed the user to be responsible for the distribution of information.

How Web 2.0 Allowed Many Companies To Survive The Dot-Com Bust
A common definition for Web 2.0 largely describes why it was so successful in allowing companies to survive the bust, even if the term hadn’t been coined yet. The reason for this was simple: Web 2.0 gives the user an experience which is very similar to that of a desktop program. Features such as web syndication and web service APIs allow users to easily publish information on a variety of different topics. Some of the tools which are commonly associated with this phenomenon include wikis and blogs. As you can see, there was a demand in the late 1990s where the consumer was given an experience that was similar to a desktop program, and this demand also included the ability to self publish.

The companies who were able to meet these demands prospered, while those who didn’t failed, and went out of business shortly after the dot com bust. One example of a company that survived the bust was Amazon. While Amazon had been in existence since 1996, the company was quick to catch on to the changes that were taking place on the web, and they capitalized on them. Amazon gave users the ability to write their own reviews on the book and products the company sold, and this allowed other users to determine whether or not they should buy the products. In addition to this, Amazon created a powerful affiliate program.

Understanding Web 2.0
Some of the other online companies that successfully use Web 2.0 principles include eBay, YouTube, MySpace, and Wikipedia. What do all of these websites have in common? They all give power to the individual user to upload and edit information. Instead of the company providing everything to the user, the company simply allows users to distribute information and communicate with each other. It is this principle that has allowed these companies to become highly successful. They stopped trying to spoon feed everything to consumers, and allowed users to feed information to each other.

This is one of the most important principles behind Web 2.0. Once you get past all the buzz, this is where makes the system stand out from other techie buzz words. The ability of users to communicate with each other is what makes the Web 2.0 extremely powerful, and if webmasters prepare for it, they will become successful, and avoid the fate that many online companies faced during the dot-com bust.

Conclusion
Because it has become easier to build static websites in recent years, it is harder for webmasters to find the type of success that early websites had during the 1990s. Building a static website with SEO is no longer enough to make your online company a success. To succeed, you must embrace Web 2.0 principles.