Web 2.0: Back to human

Web 2.0 is becoming a buzz word among internet marketers these days. Everybody talks about it and giant corporations are making a big shift from web 1.0 marketing approach to web 2.0 marketing strategy.

What is actually web 2.0?

Web 2.0 doesn't actually refer to any one technology. Rather, Web 2.0 is the signature for an emerging set of internet-based tools and an emerging philosophy on how to use them. When the world wide web was introduced, websites were put up as a ‘static’ communication medium where we could only click, browse, and read the contents. There was no two-way communication and participation by visitors was not allowed.

Web 2.0 focuses on the idea that the people who consume media, access the internet, and use the web shouldn't passively absorb what's available - rather, they should be active contributors, helping customize media and technology for their own purposes, as well as those of their communities.

It's the beginning of a new era in technology - one that promises to help all of us, internet marketers operate more efficiently, generate more funding, and affect more lives.

Some of the web 2.0 marketing tools include the following:

1. Blogging
Everybody has stories to tell, and yours is no exception - whether the stories are about people who receive services from your programs, volunteer experiences, or ways to make money online. One way to get those stories out to the world is to publish them on a blog. Blogs are a great example of how emerging voices are not only being heard but amplified. By reading and discussing each other's posts, bloggers form a massive network that is able to connect people around the world.

2. RSS
Imagine having the latest headlines and updates from your favorite sites delivered to your desktop without even having to open your web browser or visit any web sites. Better yet, imagine having the latest information from your web site delivered to your followers without having to send an e-mail or a newsletter. With Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds, this is easy to do - and it won't cost you a thing.

3. Tagging
If you have trouble finding good information on the internet, you're not alone. Portals and publications don't always classify information in the same way their readers would. But what if you could tag any information you put on the internet - or any information that you find on the internet - with simple keywords, so that you could find it again? And what if you could search for information that other people had tagged with the same keyword? That's where tagging comes in handy. Tags can also be a great way to draw attention to your posts and bring others to your blog or web site. The real value in tagging is that a community of like-minded people is helping to sort and classify information.

4. Social Bookmarking
It's very daunting task to create blog post on a regular basis, but setting up a series of RSS feeds on a particular topic can pump useful content onto your blog for free. For example, a blog that advocates for antioxidant health drink might create an RSS-driven news section on its site that pulls relevant web resources from del.icio.us, photos from Flickr, blog posts from Technorati, link building and google video.

The centerpiece of the Web 2.0 transformation is AJAX, a group of web page coding technologies that allows pages to respond to a user's input without processing or reloading the page. AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a term that refers to JavaScript, XML, HTML, and CSS used in conjunction to develop interactive web applications. AJAX does not change the web itself, but rather how programmers present the data to users.

Web 2.0 tools are indeed very important. Individuals and organizations alike are finding new and increasingly effective ways of connecting through Web 2.0 technology. This is the human side of this technical transformation.

Think again.