1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,760 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:11,760 --> 00:00:14,080 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host 3 00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:17,279 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio, and 4 00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:20,360 Speaker 1: how the tech are you? It's time for a tech 5 00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:25,520 Speaker 1: Stuff classic episode. This episode is called what was Web 6 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:29,720 Speaker 1: two point oh? It originally published on October two fifteen. 7 00:00:30,160 --> 00:00:32,280 Speaker 1: And I know I've talked about Web two point oh 8 00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:36,960 Speaker 1: not too long ago. Actually, it's usually in discussions about 9 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:42,400 Speaker 1: Web three as well, the so called future of the web, 10 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:44,839 Speaker 1: or at least something that a lot of people are 11 00:00:44,880 --> 00:00:48,000 Speaker 1: pushing very hard to be the future of the web. 12 00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:51,599 Speaker 1: Whether it turns out to be that or not remains 13 00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:56,279 Speaker 1: to be seen. I'm somewhat skeptical, but that doesn't mean 14 00:00:56,320 --> 00:00:59,160 Speaker 1: that it won't happen. It just, you know, it just 15 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:02,320 Speaker 1: means I could be which which has happened? But yeah, 16 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:05,800 Speaker 1: Web two point oh and interesting concept. Some would argue 17 00:01:05,840 --> 00:01:10,200 Speaker 1: a concept that was made in hindsight to define something 18 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:13,600 Speaker 1: that had happened, as opposed to something that was happening. 19 00:01:14,319 --> 00:01:17,399 Speaker 1: So let's sit back and listen to this classic episode. 20 00:01:18,200 --> 00:01:22,080 Speaker 1: Back in Chris Pallette and I did an episode about 21 00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:25,560 Speaker 1: what is Web two point oh? But I think we've 22 00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:27,600 Speaker 1: had enough time since then to really take a look 23 00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:30,080 Speaker 1: back and explore what the concept of web two point 24 00:01:30,080 --> 00:01:33,240 Speaker 1: oh was and what if anything is taking its place, 25 00:01:33,319 --> 00:01:37,399 Speaker 1: and does the term mean anything? Was it just kind 26 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:40,440 Speaker 1: of a placeholder. It's gonna be a lot of opinion 27 00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:44,920 Speaker 1: in this because it's from my own personal perspective. But honestly, 28 00:01:44,959 --> 00:01:46,800 Speaker 1: if you've heard the term web two point oh and 29 00:01:46,800 --> 00:01:49,680 Speaker 1: you always wondered what that meant, that's what I want 30 00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:52,240 Speaker 1: to cover today. But to start off, we need to 31 00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:56,160 Speaker 1: look at a history of the web itself. And I'm 32 00:01:56,200 --> 00:01:59,960 Speaker 1: sure you all know that the web and the inner 33 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:03,960 Speaker 1: net are two different things, but just in case, let's 34 00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:08,040 Speaker 1: lay down that groundwork. Now. The Internet refers to the 35 00:02:08,120 --> 00:02:13,240 Speaker 1: network of networks, this gigantic network of computer networks that 36 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:16,520 Speaker 1: are all interconnected together. There's a series of connections that 37 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:20,640 Speaker 1: allows computers to communicate with one another. So this is 38 00:02:21,240 --> 00:02:25,560 Speaker 1: an enormous system that allows all kinds of different types 39 00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:29,760 Speaker 1: of communication to go across it. And back in the day, 40 00:02:30,639 --> 00:02:33,280 Speaker 1: we used to talk about the Internet in the terms 41 00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:36,560 Speaker 1: of the information super Highway. You might be familiar with 42 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:39,600 Speaker 1: that term. So it was kind of the infrastructure that 43 00:02:39,639 --> 00:02:44,320 Speaker 1: allowed rapid communication across the globe and allowed people who 44 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:48,640 Speaker 1: are on one computer network to communicate directly with people 45 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:51,200 Speaker 1: who are on a totally separate computer network. Because of 46 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:55,320 Speaker 1: this interconnectivity, now the Web is just one way to 47 00:02:55,480 --> 00:02:58,840 Speaker 1: send and consume information on that super highway. So you 48 00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:01,360 Speaker 1: can think of it as a v hicle that shares 49 00:03:01,400 --> 00:03:04,800 Speaker 1: the super highway with other vehicles. So the Web would 50 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:07,200 Speaker 1: be like a giant bus. And then you might have 51 00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:10,520 Speaker 1: a freight train that's or not freight train, but a 52 00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:12,880 Speaker 1: freight truck that's driving right next to it that's file 53 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:17,680 Speaker 1: transfer protocol, or a bunch of mail vehicles in a 54 00:03:17,880 --> 00:03:20,960 Speaker 1: I L that would stand for email, that kind of stuff. 55 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:23,840 Speaker 1: These would all be traveling along the Internet. None of 56 00:03:23,880 --> 00:03:27,639 Speaker 1: them are the Internet. They're just a means of communication 57 00:03:27,720 --> 00:03:31,440 Speaker 1: that exists because the Internet is the platform upon which 58 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:36,640 Speaker 1: they exist. So you access the Web through a web browser. 59 00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:40,080 Speaker 1: Big shock there, I'm sure we usually refer to that 60 00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:43,200 Speaker 1: as the client. Your machine with the web browser is 61 00:03:43,240 --> 00:03:47,560 Speaker 1: the client, and the browser or client lets you request 62 00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:51,200 Speaker 1: information from another machine on the Internet, which we call 63 00:03:51,320 --> 00:03:55,120 Speaker 1: a server. The server receives your request in response to 64 00:03:55,160 --> 00:03:58,080 Speaker 1: it sends the relevant data back to you. And all 65 00:03:58,120 --> 00:04:00,680 Speaker 1: of that is done through a visual her face. In 66 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:05,200 Speaker 1: other words, you've got something rendered out as uh uh, 67 00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:09,200 Speaker 1: you know, something that's easy to to interpret and consume 68 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:14,320 Speaker 1: within the browser, as opposed to a text based approach 69 00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:17,800 Speaker 1: that is, you know, marred by lots of code that 70 00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:21,440 Speaker 1: might be really confusing to you. Now, the path taken 71 00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:24,400 Speaker 1: by your request and the returning information isn't set in stone, 72 00:04:25,080 --> 00:04:28,159 Speaker 1: So this is different from roads. This is where the 73 00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:32,279 Speaker 1: road analogy really breaks down, because if you have a 74 00:04:32,360 --> 00:04:35,920 Speaker 1: set of roads between you and your destination, you might 75 00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:39,960 Speaker 1: be able to take a detour, or perhaps two detours 76 00:04:40,040 --> 00:04:42,599 Speaker 1: if things are really bad. Let's say there's flooding. You 77 00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:45,240 Speaker 1: can't get to where you are going using your normal routes. 78 00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:48,080 Speaker 1: But the way the Internet goes it's way more robust 79 00:04:48,120 --> 00:04:53,520 Speaker 1: than that. The information is delivered via packets. The packets 80 00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:56,440 Speaker 1: all can travel different pathways to get to their destination, 81 00:04:56,440 --> 00:05:00,280 Speaker 1: whereupon everything gets put back together and displayed. For now, 82 00:05:00,320 --> 00:05:03,760 Speaker 1: that's not just for Web information. That's for all information 83 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:08,159 Speaker 1: going across the Internet traffic. But it's uh. One of 84 00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:10,719 Speaker 1: the reasons why the Internet is so useful. It's that 85 00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:13,400 Speaker 1: you don't have to worry if there is a break 86 00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:16,400 Speaker 1: in the communication lines between you and the web server 87 00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:20,359 Speaker 1: because the data can route around That very important if 88 00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:23,320 Speaker 1: you have machines that are constantly going on and offline. 89 00:05:23,880 --> 00:05:25,960 Speaker 1: So back to the web. Now, the birthplace of the 90 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:30,240 Speaker 1: world Wide Web is CERN. That's the same organization that 91 00:05:30,320 --> 00:05:33,599 Speaker 1: oversees the large had drawn colliders. So we're talking particle 92 00:05:33,640 --> 00:05:37,719 Speaker 1: physics and loll cats all because of CERN. Thanks CERN, 93 00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:41,560 Speaker 1: specifically say thanks to Tim berners Lee, who developed what 94 00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:44,960 Speaker 1: would become the basis of the Worldwide Web on the 95 00:05:45,200 --> 00:05:49,240 Speaker 1: Next computer. And uh, in case you're not familiar with 96 00:05:49,240 --> 00:05:52,720 Speaker 1: what Next is or was, really it was a computer 97 00:05:52,760 --> 00:05:56,240 Speaker 1: platform developed by Steve Jobs after he had been forced 98 00:05:56,400 --> 00:06:00,640 Speaker 1: from Apple. So Apple forced Steve Jobs out of the 99 00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:04,560 Speaker 1: company or Steve Jobs quit, depending upon the person telling 100 00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:08,040 Speaker 1: the story, and as a result, Steve Jobs then went 101 00:06:08,080 --> 00:06:11,040 Speaker 1: on to found a new company called Next and develop 102 00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:14,400 Speaker 1: a new type of computer. Eventually he would come back 103 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:17,840 Speaker 1: to Apple. Essentially, Apple begged Steve Jobs to return just 104 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:21,480 Speaker 1: as Apple was on the brink of bankruptcy and Next 105 00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:24,240 Speaker 1: kind of faded away. But it was the Next computer 106 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:28,040 Speaker 1: that Tim burners Lee was using to develop web pages 107 00:06:28,160 --> 00:06:32,640 Speaker 1: and the first web browser. In fact, The first website 108 00:06:32,839 --> 00:06:36,520 Speaker 1: was built in by Tim burners Lee, and he hosted 109 00:06:36,520 --> 00:06:40,360 Speaker 1: it on his own computer. That site contained information about 110 00:06:40,360 --> 00:06:43,160 Speaker 1: the purpose and structure of the web, so kind of 111 00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:46,200 Speaker 1: an explanation of what the web would be capable of, 112 00:06:46,480 --> 00:06:48,600 Speaker 1: and also a set of instructions on how to create 113 00:06:48,640 --> 00:06:51,159 Speaker 1: your own web server, because obviously the web is only 114 00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:54,800 Speaker 1: really useful if other people start to join on. Otherwise 115 00:06:54,839 --> 00:06:57,800 Speaker 1: it's just kind of a you know, you just logging 116 00:06:58,360 --> 00:07:01,960 Speaker 1: remotely to someone else's computer. It's not that exciting now. 117 00:07:01,960 --> 00:07:05,479 Speaker 1: The browser he built was called Worldwide Web is where 118 00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:09,720 Speaker 1: we get that from. And things continued along a lot 119 00:07:09,720 --> 00:07:12,360 Speaker 1: of research centers and students began to get access to 120 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:16,080 Speaker 1: the world Wide Web. But things really took off on 121 00:07:16,120 --> 00:07:21,880 Speaker 1: April three. That's when uh CERN decided to release the 122 00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:25,640 Speaker 1: web to the general public, meaning they made the information 123 00:07:25,680 --> 00:07:29,120 Speaker 1: itself on how the web works public and open. Along 124 00:07:29,160 --> 00:07:31,560 Speaker 1: with the open license for the web. CERN offered a 125 00:07:31,640 --> 00:07:34,280 Speaker 1: basic browser and a library of code to help things 126 00:07:34,320 --> 00:07:37,520 Speaker 1: move along, and it didn't take long for other organizations 127 00:07:37,520 --> 00:07:41,000 Speaker 1: and eventually people and companies to join in. So also 128 00:07:41,040 --> 00:07:45,840 Speaker 1: in nine three, the National Center for super Computing Applications 129 00:07:45,960 --> 00:07:50,600 Speaker 1: or in c s A released Mosaic one point Oh, 130 00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:53,239 Speaker 1: and that became the first web browser to really find 131 00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:57,040 Speaker 1: popularity among the general public. At this point, most of 132 00:07:57,040 --> 00:08:00,320 Speaker 1: the people using the web were still researchers and students, 133 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:03,680 Speaker 1: but gradually people outside of these groups began to learn 134 00:08:03,720 --> 00:08:05,920 Speaker 1: of the web. It started to get press coverage, and 135 00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:09,400 Speaker 1: people began to get excited by this concept of a 136 00:08:09,440 --> 00:08:12,520 Speaker 1: computer network that you could access and find real information 137 00:08:12,720 --> 00:08:16,040 Speaker 1: and communicate with people in real time. And here's a 138 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:19,800 Speaker 1: funny note. During this time, I was in college and 139 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:23,280 Speaker 1: my first impression of the Web at that time was 140 00:08:23,320 --> 00:08:26,080 Speaker 1: that it was slow, and it was unattractive and it 141 00:08:26,120 --> 00:08:29,360 Speaker 1: was superfluous. I had become used to browsing the Internet 142 00:08:29,480 --> 00:08:33,199 Speaker 1: using other means like tel net to connect to chat 143 00:08:33,280 --> 00:08:37,520 Speaker 1: rooms or games or whatever, or even uh not full 144 00:08:37,559 --> 00:08:40,840 Speaker 1: Internet access, things like bolletin board systems, and I just 145 00:08:40,920 --> 00:08:43,920 Speaker 1: thought that the graphical approach to the Web was completely 146 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:48,240 Speaker 1: unnecessary and slow things down. The browser had to take 147 00:08:48,280 --> 00:08:50,320 Speaker 1: time to get the information and render the stuff you 148 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:54,679 Speaker 1: needed to see, and at the time, the Internet connectivity 149 00:08:54,800 --> 00:08:58,520 Speaker 1: and the power of computers meant that that stuff took ages. 150 00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:00,960 Speaker 1: And I just thought, well, who wants to sit around 151 00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:03,560 Speaker 1: forever to try and get this information when you could 152 00:09:03,559 --> 00:09:06,760 Speaker 1: get it so much faster using FTP or tell net 153 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:08,680 Speaker 1: or whatever it may be, depending upon the kind of 154 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:13,080 Speaker 1: information you're interested in. So I thought the web was 155 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:15,480 Speaker 1: probably a flash in the pan. It would not be 156 00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:19,600 Speaker 1: the last time I'd be radically wrong about the technology. 157 00:09:19,880 --> 00:09:23,400 Speaker 1: You think I'd learned at any rate, by the web 158 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:27,160 Speaker 1: was making headlines and e commerce became a thing. One 159 00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:31,080 Speaker 1: of the earliest examples I could find was that Pizza 160 00:09:31,160 --> 00:09:36,520 Speaker 1: Hut sold a pizza online, actually allowing customers to order 161 00:09:36,559 --> 00:09:41,040 Speaker 1: pizza in some areas using the web. The company Yahoo 162 00:09:41,120 --> 00:09:44,560 Speaker 1: was founded around this time too, and its main purpose 163 00:09:44,559 --> 00:09:46,640 Speaker 1: at that time was to serve as just a search 164 00:09:46,640 --> 00:09:49,360 Speaker 1: engine to help search for the content on the web, 165 00:09:49,720 --> 00:09:52,000 Speaker 1: making it easier for people to find stuff they wanted. 166 00:09:52,600 --> 00:09:56,640 Speaker 1: Before search engines, it was pretty tough. You had to 167 00:09:56,640 --> 00:09:59,480 Speaker 1: be kind of you kind of had to be part 168 00:09:59,559 --> 00:10:03,200 Speaker 1: of the that understood how the web worked. Now today, 169 00:10:03,320 --> 00:10:05,160 Speaker 1: we're all used to things like you r l s 170 00:10:05,559 --> 00:10:07,800 Speaker 1: where you have to type in a web address. In fact, 171 00:10:07,800 --> 00:10:09,640 Speaker 1: there may be a couple of websites that you still 172 00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:13,400 Speaker 1: navigate to by typing in the web address, but not 173 00:10:13,559 --> 00:10:17,120 Speaker 1: everyone is comfortable with that, so search engines made it 174 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:20,200 Speaker 1: much easier for people to interact with the Web without 175 00:10:20,280 --> 00:10:23,440 Speaker 1: having to memorize the protocol that they would need in 176 00:10:23,559 --> 00:10:27,960 Speaker 1: order to visit a specific website. Now, much later than 177 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:30,480 Speaker 1: the early nineties, we look back on the websites of 178 00:10:30,520 --> 00:10:33,440 Speaker 1: this era as being pre Web two point oh. For 179 00:10:33,520 --> 00:10:37,400 Speaker 1: the most part, you could probably call them web one 180 00:10:37,480 --> 00:10:40,480 Speaker 1: point oh. But that's what we call a retronym, meaning 181 00:10:40,480 --> 00:10:44,640 Speaker 1: we named it after the thing had already happened. Uh. 182 00:10:44,679 --> 00:10:47,760 Speaker 1: And it's kind of like World War One. While World 183 00:10:47,760 --> 00:10:50,040 Speaker 1: War One was going on, no one referred to it 184 00:10:50,080 --> 00:10:52,240 Speaker 1: as World War One. There had not been a World 185 00:10:52,280 --> 00:10:54,960 Speaker 1: War two yet, there'd be no reason to call it 186 00:10:55,040 --> 00:10:59,080 Speaker 1: world War one unless you expected there to be another one, 187 00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:02,600 Speaker 1: so you might something else, like the Great War. Uh. 188 00:11:02,640 --> 00:11:06,599 Speaker 1: And it was only in in a you know, in retrospect, 189 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:08,679 Speaker 1: when World War Two broke out that World War One 190 00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:13,560 Speaker 1: really got that name. So what actually defines Web one 191 00:11:13,640 --> 00:11:17,480 Speaker 1: point oh? For lack of a better term, Not everyone 192 00:11:17,520 --> 00:11:19,840 Speaker 1: even thinks Web one point oh is is a thing 193 00:11:19,960 --> 00:11:22,320 Speaker 1: at all? Like it It doesn't make any sense, but 194 00:11:22,440 --> 00:11:26,600 Speaker 1: some people will use that term, but wasn't actually described well. 195 00:11:26,679 --> 00:11:30,440 Speaker 1: The websites in those days. Most of them were largely 196 00:11:30,520 --> 00:11:33,760 Speaker 1: static pages, which means you would navigate to a page 197 00:11:33,760 --> 00:11:37,040 Speaker 1: and see what was there, and after doing that, there'd 198 00:11:37,040 --> 00:11:39,559 Speaker 1: probably be very little reason to ever return to that 199 00:11:39,600 --> 00:11:42,960 Speaker 1: page because it's going to be pretty much the same. Uh. 200 00:11:43,040 --> 00:11:46,200 Speaker 1: It's kind of like the equivalent of a magazine or 201 00:11:46,240 --> 00:11:48,320 Speaker 1: a book. You know, if you go and you read 202 00:11:48,320 --> 00:11:51,520 Speaker 1: a magazine and you close the magazine, then you come 203 00:11:51,520 --> 00:11:52,840 Speaker 1: back to it and you open it up to the 204 00:11:52,880 --> 00:11:55,920 Speaker 1: same page, it's going to be the same magazine article. 205 00:11:56,000 --> 00:11:58,680 Speaker 1: It doesn't change from one moment to the next. That's 206 00:11:58,720 --> 00:12:00,840 Speaker 1: the way a lot of web sites were in the 207 00:12:00,880 --> 00:12:04,840 Speaker 1: early days. We'll be back to talk more about what 208 00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:17,760 Speaker 1: web two point oh is after this quick break. Those 209 00:12:17,800 --> 00:12:20,840 Speaker 1: web pages didn't have any way for visitors to have 210 00:12:20,880 --> 00:12:24,559 Speaker 1: any kind of meaningful interaction on the site, and most 211 00:12:24,600 --> 00:12:27,880 Speaker 1: there might be a visitor counter that would click up 212 00:12:27,880 --> 00:12:31,200 Speaker 1: a notch each time someone navigated to the website, and 213 00:12:31,240 --> 00:12:33,600 Speaker 1: those were a huge deal early on. I don't know 214 00:12:33,640 --> 00:12:36,720 Speaker 1: if you guys remember, but I remember lots of websites 215 00:12:36,760 --> 00:12:39,440 Speaker 1: having a visitor counter, and they took it as a 216 00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:42,840 Speaker 1: matter of pride when they passed a arbitrary milestone like 217 00:12:42,880 --> 00:12:46,160 Speaker 1: five thousand visitors or something like that, but there was 218 00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:48,679 Speaker 1: no way to leave comments or have any other impact 219 00:12:48,679 --> 00:12:51,120 Speaker 1: on the site. For the most part, for these types 220 00:12:51,160 --> 00:12:55,160 Speaker 1: of web pages. Now there were exceptions. Some websites were 221 00:12:55,200 --> 00:13:00,280 Speaker 1: dedicated to updating content regularly, or they were allowing people 222 00:13:00,280 --> 00:13:02,800 Speaker 1: to leave their own contributions, or even both of those things. 223 00:13:02,840 --> 00:13:06,000 Speaker 1: At the same time, there was a student at Swarthmore 224 00:13:06,040 --> 00:13:09,360 Speaker 1: College named Justin Hall who started up a web page 225 00:13:09,360 --> 00:13:12,720 Speaker 1: in and originally it was just a collection of links 226 00:13:12,800 --> 00:13:15,560 Speaker 1: that he thought were particularly interesting. The website was called 227 00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:19,480 Speaker 1: Justin's Links, and not long after he started the site, 228 00:13:19,520 --> 00:13:22,080 Speaker 1: he actually saw the potential to do something more with 229 00:13:22,160 --> 00:13:24,960 Speaker 1: it than just show a collection of links, and he 230 00:13:25,040 --> 00:13:27,040 Speaker 1: sought as a way to publish his thoughts to a 231 00:13:27,040 --> 00:13:30,160 Speaker 1: global audience, kind of like an online journal, and a 232 00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:33,600 Speaker 1: lot of people point to Justin's Links as being the 233 00:13:33,640 --> 00:13:37,400 Speaker 1: first blog uh. This sort of approach of using the 234 00:13:37,440 --> 00:13:39,959 Speaker 1: web as sort of a dynamic communication tool set the 235 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:42,000 Speaker 1: side apart from a lot of the web pages that 236 00:13:42,200 --> 00:13:45,760 Speaker 1: were around at the same time, but many sites lacked 237 00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:48,720 Speaker 1: that sort of dynamic approach, and at the same time, 238 00:13:48,720 --> 00:13:51,840 Speaker 1: companies began to rush the web in hopes of beating 239 00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:54,600 Speaker 1: competitors to the punch. The web was viewed as kind 240 00:13:54,600 --> 00:13:56,800 Speaker 1: of a Wild West type of territory in which a 241 00:13:56,840 --> 00:14:00,560 Speaker 1: company could stake its claim online and stand to make 242 00:14:00,600 --> 00:14:02,720 Speaker 1: a ton of money in the short term before everyone 243 00:14:02,760 --> 00:14:07,880 Speaker 1: else caught up. Simultaneously, several companies emerged that use the 244 00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:12,200 Speaker 1: web as the very foundation for the company itself. Some 245 00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:17,280 Speaker 1: of them offered goods or services to consumers, so normal 246 00:14:17,440 --> 00:14:21,200 Speaker 1: people who are just using the web themselves. Others were 247 00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:24,760 Speaker 1: targeting other companies and they were offering up services meant 248 00:14:24,760 --> 00:14:28,000 Speaker 1: to help businesses succeed, but many of these lacked any 249 00:14:28,080 --> 00:14:31,440 Speaker 1: sort of cohesive business plan, which caused a big problem. 250 00:14:31,520 --> 00:14:35,200 Speaker 1: They were offering up services that some people found helpful, 251 00:14:35,840 --> 00:14:38,000 Speaker 1: but they didn't have any way of making money. And 252 00:14:38,040 --> 00:14:40,560 Speaker 1: this obviously is not something that has just gone away. 253 00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:44,160 Speaker 1: We've seen this with lots of different services, some of 254 00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:47,800 Speaker 1: which exists solely as a means to try and get 255 00:14:47,800 --> 00:14:53,360 Speaker 1: acquired by other larger businesses. Uh which can work if 256 00:14:53,400 --> 00:14:56,000 Speaker 1: you have a great idea for a service or app 257 00:14:56,080 --> 00:14:58,960 Speaker 1: that people are going to really enjoy using, but you 258 00:14:59,080 --> 00:15:03,280 Speaker 1: don't have a way of generating money from that, it 259 00:15:03,400 --> 00:15:05,880 Speaker 1: might just be good enough to get a lot of 260 00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:08,760 Speaker 1: attention and then wait for someone to offer to buy you. 261 00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:10,840 Speaker 1: You know, maybe they'll figure out a way of using it, 262 00:15:10,920 --> 00:15:13,280 Speaker 1: or maybe they'll pair it with stuff they already have, 263 00:15:14,160 --> 00:15:18,440 Speaker 1: and that's how it makes money. But back then, not 264 00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:24,480 Speaker 1: having a plan just wasn't really working for people. Towards 265 00:15:24,480 --> 00:15:27,400 Speaker 1: the end of the ninety nineties, web companies were sprouting 266 00:15:27,480 --> 00:15:32,360 Speaker 1: up all over the place, and investors were really excited 267 00:15:32,400 --> 00:15:34,640 Speaker 1: at the opportunity to get in on the ground floor 268 00:15:34,680 --> 00:15:37,960 Speaker 1: of something that had the potential to become huge, meaning 269 00:15:38,040 --> 00:15:41,800 Speaker 1: you could stand to become a millionaire overnight with some 270 00:15:41,920 --> 00:15:45,960 Speaker 1: of these opportunities, and they began to flood startup companies 271 00:15:45,960 --> 00:15:48,720 Speaker 1: with cash. More than a few of those startup companies 272 00:15:48,800 --> 00:15:51,840 Speaker 1: ended up with way more money than what they needed, 273 00:15:52,480 --> 00:15:56,280 Speaker 1: and that encouraged some bad decisions on the part of founders. 274 00:15:56,320 --> 00:16:01,080 Speaker 1: A lot of founders began to spend that excess cash 275 00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:07,800 Speaker 1: by creating lavish headquarters or crazy benefits for employees. Meanwhile, 276 00:16:07,840 --> 00:16:10,240 Speaker 1: their businesses still didn't have a way of making revenue. 277 00:16:10,960 --> 00:16:13,200 Speaker 1: So in other words, let's say that you want to 278 00:16:13,200 --> 00:16:16,040 Speaker 1: open up a lemonade stand, and normally you would just 279 00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:19,000 Speaker 1: need a few dollars to buy some lemons and some sugar, 280 00:16:19,520 --> 00:16:21,800 Speaker 1: you get some water, and then you put all that together. 281 00:16:21,880 --> 00:16:24,200 Speaker 1: Maybe you get a little poster board to write up 282 00:16:24,200 --> 00:16:27,960 Speaker 1: a sign. So maybe you're starting budget is twenty dollars 283 00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:30,520 Speaker 1: and you're selling it for five cents a cup, and 284 00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:33,120 Speaker 1: you figure out that after a certain number of cups, 285 00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:36,680 Speaker 1: you know you've got plenty of of of supply there. 286 00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:39,520 Speaker 1: After a certain number of cups, you're going to break even. Uh, 287 00:16:39,560 --> 00:16:41,880 Speaker 1: and then after that's all profit and you've got enough 288 00:16:41,920 --> 00:16:46,080 Speaker 1: to make a decent profit over your investment. Well, now 289 00:16:46,120 --> 00:16:49,280 Speaker 1: imagine that you are opening up that lemonade stand, but 290 00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:54,200 Speaker 1: someone's given you twenty thousand dollars and you don't have 291 00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:57,360 Speaker 1: any way of scaling up your operation, so you just 292 00:16:57,640 --> 00:17:01,040 Speaker 1: spend that extra money on a really nice lemonade stand 293 00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:06,159 Speaker 1: and you know, a super nifty titanium lemon crusher, that 294 00:17:06,280 --> 00:17:09,320 Speaker 1: kind of stuff. It doesn't help you make money in 295 00:17:09,359 --> 00:17:11,520 Speaker 1: the long run. It just means that's how you spent 296 00:17:11,760 --> 00:17:15,200 Speaker 1: your your startup cash. A lot of companies fell into 297 00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:19,679 Speaker 1: this trap. You can read about startups dot com industries 298 00:17:19,680 --> 00:17:23,600 Speaker 1: in the late nineties and how ridiculously lavish some of 299 00:17:23,640 --> 00:17:29,520 Speaker 1: their offices were, and it was a mess. So compounding 300 00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:31,240 Speaker 1: that problem was the fact that a lot of these 301 00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:37,040 Speaker 1: companies were rewarding employees by giving them shares of the company. Now, 302 00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:41,080 Speaker 1: if everything was working fine, that's great, because those shares 303 00:17:41,119 --> 00:17:43,160 Speaker 1: are worth real money once you get to a point 304 00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:46,800 Speaker 1: where the employees are allowed to sell those shares. Usually 305 00:17:46,800 --> 00:17:49,840 Speaker 1: there's a period where employees are not allowed to do 306 00:17:49,920 --> 00:17:52,840 Speaker 1: that sort of thing until they get to a particular 307 00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:57,320 Speaker 1: point in the fiscal year. But here's where the real 308 00:17:57,320 --> 00:18:00,399 Speaker 1: problems came in, because a lot of these companies began 309 00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:04,159 Speaker 1: to falter when people realized, hey, they don't really have 310 00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:06,840 Speaker 1: a way of making money and they can only keep 311 00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:11,320 Speaker 1: treading water with investment money for so long before everything 312 00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:13,240 Speaker 1: falls apart. And it was like a house of cards. 313 00:18:13,240 --> 00:18:17,200 Speaker 1: It all fell down, and it didn't all fall down 314 00:18:17,240 --> 00:18:19,320 Speaker 1: on a single day. It's not like there's a particular 315 00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:21,159 Speaker 1: day you can point to and say this is the 316 00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:25,639 Speaker 1: day the bubble burst, the bubble meaning this speculation bubble 317 00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:29,879 Speaker 1: of the value of dot com companies. Instead, it happened 318 00:18:29,880 --> 00:18:33,840 Speaker 1: over a course of years from two thousand one essentially, 319 00:18:34,760 --> 00:18:37,400 Speaker 1: and during that time people began to get more suspicious 320 00:18:37,440 --> 00:18:40,080 Speaker 1: of dot com companies that began to ask harder questions. 321 00:18:40,440 --> 00:18:43,040 Speaker 1: The companies themselves were starting to run out of that 322 00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:45,760 Speaker 1: investment money, and because they hadn't found a way to 323 00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:48,880 Speaker 1: generate enough revenue, they couldn't stay afloat, and a lot 324 00:18:48,920 --> 00:18:52,280 Speaker 1: of them went completely out of business. Some of them 325 00:18:52,280 --> 00:18:57,200 Speaker 1: took serious hits to their value. Amazon dot Com, for example, 326 00:18:57,280 --> 00:18:59,440 Speaker 1: was around in those days and for a while had 327 00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:01,640 Speaker 1: shares the were in the triple digit value, like over 328 00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:05,439 Speaker 1: a hundred dollars a share, but after the bubble burst 329 00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:10,000 Speaker 1: it dropped to less than ten dollars a share. Huge drop. 330 00:19:10,040 --> 00:19:15,080 Speaker 1: But companies like Amazon were large enough and and savvy 331 00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:18,199 Speaker 1: enough to wade through that time and emerge out the 332 00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:21,679 Speaker 1: other side. Not all companies were so lucky, and the 333 00:19:21,760 --> 00:19:24,520 Speaker 1: worst part of this is that those employees who had 334 00:19:24,560 --> 00:19:28,120 Speaker 1: worked so hard and had been rewarded in stock now 335 00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:32,760 Speaker 1: found themselves with worthless stock. The companies were bankrupt, so 336 00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:36,240 Speaker 1: the shares were not worth anything, and that was a 337 00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:39,360 Speaker 1: huge issue. So you had all these people who, for 338 00:19:39,400 --> 00:19:42,719 Speaker 1: a while, on paper, were millionaires and then suddenly they 339 00:19:42,760 --> 00:19:46,800 Speaker 1: were broke, or at least they weren't millionaires anymore. Many 340 00:19:46,880 --> 00:19:50,639 Speaker 1: dot com companies went on to business um and those 341 00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:54,520 Speaker 1: that stayed around, people wanted to try and figure out, well, 342 00:19:54,840 --> 00:19:57,640 Speaker 1: what what set them apart, what made them different? How 343 00:19:57,680 --> 00:20:00,400 Speaker 1: did these companies survive, How did these website it's make 344 00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:04,000 Speaker 1: it through the dot com bubble burst while so many 345 00:20:04,080 --> 00:20:07,400 Speaker 1: others went away. And that's where the term web two 346 00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:12,040 Speaker 1: point oh really comes into play. Now, personally, I think 347 00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:16,440 Speaker 1: it's a dumb term. It's terrible. It suggests a chronological order, 348 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:19,560 Speaker 1: So it would suggest that there was first Web one 349 00:20:19,600 --> 00:20:21,480 Speaker 1: point oh and then at some point there was a 350 00:20:21,520 --> 00:20:24,280 Speaker 1: Web two point oh release. Because it's very similar to 351 00:20:24,280 --> 00:20:28,680 Speaker 1: the way we look at software. For example, we're operating systems. 352 00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:31,520 Speaker 1: But that's not what this means. It's not the way 353 00:20:31,560 --> 00:20:35,280 Speaker 1: it works. So I think it's ultimately more confusing than helpful. 354 00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:39,080 Speaker 1: But that's what we have, uh. And the truth is 355 00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:42,840 Speaker 1: that both websites that were more in the Web one 356 00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:46,399 Speaker 1: point oh frame than the Web two point oh frame 357 00:20:46,600 --> 00:20:49,720 Speaker 1: and Web two point o websites existed at the same time. 358 00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:53,440 Speaker 1: In other words, this wasn't chronological. You can't point to 359 00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:57,440 Speaker 1: a date and say after this time all the websites 360 00:20:57,480 --> 00:21:02,800 Speaker 1: were Web two point oh. Even with Justin's links, we 361 00:21:02,880 --> 00:21:06,840 Speaker 1: start seeing Web two point oh philosophy working its way 362 00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:10,080 Speaker 1: into websites. And that was years before the dot com 363 00:21:10,119 --> 00:21:15,639 Speaker 1: bubble burst. So it's problematic using this term, but at 364 00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:20,040 Speaker 1: any rate, we need to look at what actually happened, 365 00:21:20,080 --> 00:21:22,119 Speaker 1: like why is this term around in the first place, 366 00:21:22,200 --> 00:21:27,879 Speaker 1: And that's because of the O'Reilly Media company. So in 367 00:21:27,920 --> 00:21:30,600 Speaker 1: two thousand four, Tim O'Reilly who was the founder of 368 00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:34,480 Speaker 1: O'Reilly Media, and Dale Dougherty, who was a VP and 369 00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:37,439 Speaker 1: O'Reilly we're having a brainstorming session. They were trying to 370 00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:41,560 Speaker 1: come up with a an event that could really focus 371 00:21:41,840 --> 00:21:46,639 Speaker 1: on what makes a web company successful? Why were some 372 00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:50,200 Speaker 1: web companies able to survive while so many others failed. 373 00:21:50,840 --> 00:21:53,680 Speaker 1: What were the mistakes that the older websites made or 374 00:21:53,720 --> 00:21:56,480 Speaker 1: the failed websites made, and what were the success stories? 375 00:21:57,000 --> 00:21:59,040 Speaker 1: And so they started trying to think, well, how are 376 00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:01,879 Speaker 1: we going to define what's the what's the way we 377 00:22:02,359 --> 00:22:07,040 Speaker 1: create a catchy term to explain the new philosophy of 378 00:22:07,080 --> 00:22:10,119 Speaker 1: the web the one that survived. And that's where they 379 00:22:10,119 --> 00:22:13,919 Speaker 1: came up with the term web two point oh. And 380 00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:16,800 Speaker 1: that was it. It was just to give a name 381 00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:19,040 Speaker 1: to a summit, the Web two point oh Summit, which 382 00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:22,760 Speaker 1: took place in two thousand four, and they had several 383 00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:26,840 Speaker 1: since then, but they just wanted a way to say 384 00:22:27,359 --> 00:22:30,360 Speaker 1: these are the type of websites that did all right 385 00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:33,000 Speaker 1: throughout the dot com bubble verse. These are the ones 386 00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:36,640 Speaker 1: that had the traits that allowed them to survive. Now, 387 00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:39,359 Speaker 1: in general, the qualities that define web two point oh 388 00:22:39,359 --> 00:22:42,159 Speaker 1: are that they tend to be dynamic pages rather than 389 00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:44,399 Speaker 1: static ones, meaning that there's a reason for you to 390 00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:47,600 Speaker 1: go back and look at it again. It's not something 391 00:22:47,640 --> 00:22:50,800 Speaker 1: that's going to be a page out of the encyclopedia 392 00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:53,719 Speaker 1: and it never ever changes. That makes it web two 393 00:22:53,760 --> 00:22:57,240 Speaker 1: point oh. Another is that there tends to be some 394 00:22:57,320 --> 00:23:01,800 Speaker 1: way for users to generate content and submitted to the website. 395 00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:05,639 Speaker 1: That may be something along the lines of blogging, where 396 00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:09,480 Speaker 1: the users are journaling using the web page as a 397 00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:12,960 Speaker 1: place for their journal to go. Or it might be 398 00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:17,600 Speaker 1: social media site where they're just reaching out to friends 399 00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:22,240 Speaker 1: or sharing links or stories or jokes or whatever. Or 400 00:23:22,280 --> 00:23:26,679 Speaker 1: it might be something more akin to Amazon, where users 401 00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:30,120 Speaker 1: are able to review products that they've purchased, and that 402 00:23:30,160 --> 00:23:34,000 Speaker 1: adds value to Amazon because future customers can look at 403 00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:37,240 Speaker 1: those reviews and make judgments, and then they too can 404 00:23:37,280 --> 00:23:41,600 Speaker 1: contribute to this system, and that makes the whole experience 405 00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:45,919 Speaker 1: of using Amazon more pleasant and robust and useful to 406 00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:49,840 Speaker 1: both the company and the consumer. These are the sort 407 00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:52,960 Speaker 1: of things that became known as the web two point 408 00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:58,240 Speaker 1: oh qualities. This dynamic approach with user generated content, stuff 409 00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:03,040 Speaker 1: that could be syndicated and be sent out across multiple platforms. 410 00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:06,280 Speaker 1: All of that was wrapped up in this and like 411 00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:09,200 Speaker 1: I said, it does in fact cover things like social 412 00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:12,639 Speaker 1: media sites. If you look back on the timeline of 413 00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:16,359 Speaker 1: the major social media sites, they all emerged after the 414 00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:21,800 Speaker 1: dot com bubble burst. There really weren't any sites that 415 00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:25,760 Speaker 1: kind of fall into that social media category the way 416 00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:29,639 Speaker 1: we think of today pre dot com bubble bursts. Some 417 00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:32,520 Speaker 1: of them were around right around then, like live journal, 418 00:24:33,080 --> 00:24:35,480 Speaker 1: but even then you would you could argue live journal 419 00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:37,359 Speaker 1: was more of a blogging site and less of a 420 00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:41,119 Speaker 1: social media site. Things like Friendster and MySpace and Facebook, 421 00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:44,600 Speaker 1: all of those emerged after the dot Com bubble burst, 422 00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:48,639 Speaker 1: but they also embraced the philosophy of what O'Reilly was 423 00:24:48,680 --> 00:24:53,720 Speaker 1: calling web two point oh because those sites they aren't 424 00:24:53,840 --> 00:24:57,159 Speaker 1: valuable on their own. I mean, you don't go to 425 00:24:57,240 --> 00:25:00,439 Speaker 1: Facebook to see what Facebook has put up. You go 426 00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:03,159 Speaker 1: to Facebook to see what your friends are saying, or 427 00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:05,800 Speaker 1: to say something to your friends. It's the people who 428 00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:09,080 Speaker 1: are using the site that give it value, and that's 429 00:25:09,080 --> 00:25:11,960 Speaker 1: a big part of Web two point oh it and 430 00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:14,080 Speaker 1: in fact, it takes a lot of the pressure off 431 00:25:14,119 --> 00:25:16,800 Speaker 1: of the person creating the website. They have to make 432 00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:19,760 Speaker 1: it attractive enough for people to adopt it, but then 433 00:25:19,800 --> 00:25:22,960 Speaker 1: you just let the people make it important and you 434 00:25:23,080 --> 00:25:26,479 Speaker 1: step back. Same thing is true for Twitter. Twitter just 435 00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:31,159 Speaker 1: facilitates communication. It's the people using Twitter that make it useful. 436 00:25:31,320 --> 00:25:34,760 Speaker 1: If no one had jumped on Twitter, it wouldn't be around. 437 00:25:35,280 --> 00:25:38,040 Speaker 1: There are other services that were similar to Twitter, some 438 00:25:38,119 --> 00:25:40,679 Speaker 1: of which people thought were superior to Twitter, but they 439 00:25:40,680 --> 00:25:44,600 Speaker 1: didn't get adopted as quickly, and they, for the most part, 440 00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:47,800 Speaker 1: are not around anymore. We have a bit more to 441 00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:51,480 Speaker 1: say about Web two point oh after this quick commercial break. 442 00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:04,320 Speaker 1: So Web two point oh kind of points to this 443 00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:09,680 Speaker 1: idea of embracing the consumer as a an integral part 444 00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:13,720 Speaker 1: of your web presence. They're not just an audience. They're 445 00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:17,280 Speaker 1: a contributor in some way. And you could argue the 446 00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:19,679 Speaker 1: web two point oh isn't so much an evolution as 447 00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:23,000 Speaker 1: it is just a different approach to creating an experience 448 00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:25,880 Speaker 1: on the web, which also makes it difficult to talk 449 00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:28,280 Speaker 1: about what comes next. I mean, is there a web 450 00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:32,880 Speaker 1: three point oh? Does that term even mean anything? Now? 451 00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:35,760 Speaker 1: I would argue that we definitely have seen more evolution 452 00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:40,040 Speaker 1: on the web since O'Reilly coined the web two point 453 00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:43,960 Speaker 1: oh term, particularly when it comes to stuff like data 454 00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:47,959 Speaker 1: tracking that's huge, way bigger than it was in the 455 00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:51,600 Speaker 1: mid two thousand's. Because of data tracking, sites can customize 456 00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:55,359 Speaker 1: a user's experience and serve up advertising that is calculated 457 00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:59,160 Speaker 1: to be more effective for that user. And depending upon 458 00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:03,919 Speaker 1: the implementation in data tracking can be downright scary. And 459 00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:05,880 Speaker 1: it turns out you don't have to share that much 460 00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:09,040 Speaker 1: data before a computer can figure out who you are. 461 00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:12,320 Speaker 1: Stuff that seems really general, like just a zip code 462 00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:14,959 Speaker 1: can be enough to narrow down just a few candidates. 463 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:18,960 Speaker 1: So if I put my zip code in and I 464 00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:21,359 Speaker 1: have just maybe two or three other points of data, 465 00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:25,600 Speaker 1: that might be enough for an algorithm to really narrow 466 00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:28,280 Speaker 1: down between me and maybe one or two other people 467 00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:34,040 Speaker 1: who I could possibly be. It's actually pretty, you know, surprising, 468 00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:36,040 Speaker 1: how little information you need to share for that sort 469 00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:39,879 Speaker 1: of stuff to happen. Also, we know that data tracking 470 00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:44,600 Speaker 1: can be misused, either intentionally or not. There's the story 471 00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:49,520 Speaker 1: about Targets sending the young woman uh some, a young 472 00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:54,920 Speaker 1: woman some some coupons for expected mothers, and her father 473 00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:58,880 Speaker 1: found out about it and was really upset at Target 474 00:27:59,359 --> 00:28:02,679 Speaker 1: because he thought they had misidentified her, his daughter, as 475 00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:05,399 Speaker 1: being pregnant. And then later on he found out that 476 00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:08,359 Speaker 1: in fact, she was pregnant. But the whole point of 477 00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:11,000 Speaker 1: that is that Target was trying to be proactive and helpful, 478 00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:15,720 Speaker 1: but in fact caused a ruckus. It was a little 479 00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:19,199 Speaker 1: too overenthusiastic of a response, as it turns out, and 480 00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:22,480 Speaker 1: that's largely due to data tracking. You don't even have 481 00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:25,120 Speaker 1: to identify a person or to create a problem. It's 482 00:28:25,119 --> 00:28:28,879 Speaker 1: not like Target knew specifically who this young lady was. 483 00:28:28,960 --> 00:28:31,920 Speaker 1: They just identified that based upon her searches, she must 484 00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:36,399 Speaker 1: be pregnant. That's a problem. And we're seeing data tracking 485 00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:40,400 Speaker 1: used and everything from innocent or at least seemingly innocent 486 00:28:40,440 --> 00:28:43,920 Speaker 1: approaches like, well, you bought this one product, so here 487 00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:46,720 Speaker 1: are five other products that you will probably like based 488 00:28:46,800 --> 00:28:51,000 Speaker 1: upon your preferences that we've seen so far. That's not 489 00:28:51,200 --> 00:28:54,720 Speaker 1: that creepy, but there are other approaches where data tracking 490 00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:59,560 Speaker 1: is downright sinister, and I would argue that's a major 491 00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:02,200 Speaker 1: part of the web experience now, whether you're aware of 492 00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:05,600 Speaker 1: it or not, but it's definitely something that has evolved 493 00:29:05,640 --> 00:29:09,160 Speaker 1: since Web two point oh. But another real jump in 494 00:29:09,200 --> 00:29:11,520 Speaker 1: the evolution of the Web comes to us because of 495 00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:16,680 Speaker 1: mobile devices. Now. O'Reilly recognized the importance of mobile devices 496 00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:20,400 Speaker 1: all the way back in two thousand four. O'Reilly Media 497 00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:24,480 Speaker 1: said that interoperability was one of the features of Web 498 00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:28,120 Speaker 1: two point oh, one of the cornerstones of the philosophy, 499 00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:31,960 Speaker 1: meaning that you should be able to access this web 500 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:37,560 Speaker 1: page from multiple platforms, whether it's a computer or a 501 00:29:37,800 --> 00:29:41,280 Speaker 1: mobile device of some sort or something else. Now, in 502 00:29:41,280 --> 00:29:43,800 Speaker 1: two thousand and four, there were really not that many 503 00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:47,560 Speaker 1: devices that you could use to connect to the web, 504 00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:50,280 Speaker 1: not in a meaningful way. A lot of the phones 505 00:29:50,360 --> 00:29:52,280 Speaker 1: that were out there were more like, you know, they 506 00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:54,520 Speaker 1: have text browsers for the web, so you could read 507 00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:57,800 Speaker 1: some text on certain web pages. It was pretty limited. 508 00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:02,160 Speaker 1: It wasn't until the smartphone really took off here in 509 00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:05,360 Speaker 1: the United States. That means it was after the introduction 510 00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:09,640 Speaker 1: of the iPhone that you really started seeing that. So 511 00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:13,400 Speaker 1: you get to a point now where more and more 512 00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:16,600 Speaker 1: people are using mobile devices to access the web. I 513 00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:20,520 Speaker 1: meant that web developers had to make sure they were 514 00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:25,920 Speaker 1: paying closer attention to the mobile experience, because if they 515 00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:29,000 Speaker 1: ignored it, then a larger portion of their audience was 516 00:30:29,040 --> 00:30:33,720 Speaker 1: going to get upset with how how clunky or unpleasant 517 00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:37,600 Speaker 1: it was to access the website using a mobile device. 518 00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:41,840 Speaker 1: And in fact, it's more important than ever now. Uh 519 00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:47,720 Speaker 1: just recently, we've seen mobile browsing outpace desktop browsing. In 520 00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:53,200 Speaker 1: other words, more more website visits are coming from mobile 521 00:30:53,200 --> 00:30:56,360 Speaker 1: devices than desktop computers. That happened for the first time 522 00:30:57,200 --> 00:30:59,240 Speaker 1: about a year ago, a little more than a year ago, 523 00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:03,880 Speaker 1: and now we're seeing that more people are using mobile 524 00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:06,400 Speaker 1: devices to access the web. Now, that doesn't mean that 525 00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:10,560 Speaker 1: people have slacked off of using desktop computers or laptops. 526 00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:13,480 Speaker 1: People still are using those devices. In fact, if you 527 00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:16,800 Speaker 1: look at the trends, they're still increasing year over year. 528 00:31:17,280 --> 00:31:20,160 Speaker 1: So in two thousand fifteen, there are more people accessing 529 00:31:20,160 --> 00:31:23,320 Speaker 1: the web on desktops than there were in two thousand fourteen. 530 00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:28,080 Speaker 1: It's just that the growth of mobile devices has skyrocketed, 531 00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:33,600 Speaker 1: so it has outpaced the growth of desktops. So both 532 00:31:33,640 --> 00:31:36,840 Speaker 1: of them are up. It's just mobile devices have increased 533 00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:41,800 Speaker 1: much faster than desktop has. But that means you have 534 00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:45,480 Speaker 1: to pay attention to the experience that your customers have. 535 00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:49,160 Speaker 1: Your audience has both on mobile and on desktop. You 536 00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:52,160 Speaker 1: want to make sure that it is attractive and usable 537 00:31:52,200 --> 00:31:55,880 Speaker 1: and that people are able to get the experience they 538 00:31:55,920 --> 00:31:58,600 Speaker 1: want depending up. You know, no matter what platform they 539 00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:00,360 Speaker 1: happen to be using, whether it's a tab, bublit or 540 00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:06,080 Speaker 1: a smartphone or a console or uh desktop computer, it 541 00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:09,760 Speaker 1: needs to be a satisfying experience. So I would argue 542 00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:12,680 Speaker 1: that is now really a defining feature of the web, 543 00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:16,640 Speaker 1: And if I had to define web three point oh, 544 00:32:16,640 --> 00:32:19,840 Speaker 1: I'd likely argue that it has to do with both 545 00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:22,600 Speaker 1: the data tracking and the mobile devices more than pretty 546 00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:26,880 Speaker 1: much anything else. But web experiences are becoming more customized 547 00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:30,480 Speaker 1: to the individual browsers, So that could mean that one 548 00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:35,280 Speaker 1: day will move into the era of the semantic web. Now, 549 00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:38,640 Speaker 1: the semantic web is where your experience will be very 550 00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:42,360 Speaker 1: much personalized, and the web itself will understand what it 551 00:32:42,480 --> 00:32:47,320 Speaker 1: is you want to see based upon context, word choice, 552 00:32:47,960 --> 00:32:50,520 Speaker 1: your preferences. All of these things that are wrapped up 553 00:32:50,520 --> 00:32:54,280 Speaker 1: in things like data tracking and understanding of natural language, 554 00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:56,440 Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. We're seeing a lot of development 555 00:32:56,440 --> 00:32:58,840 Speaker 1: in that area. So maybe one day we'll have a 556 00:32:58,840 --> 00:33:02,520 Speaker 1: semantic web where when I talk about surfing the web 557 00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:04,480 Speaker 1: and when you talk about serving the web, it will 558 00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:07,480 Speaker 1: be two very different stories because of our different styles. 559 00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:11,280 Speaker 1: That's a possibility, but I also think it's really likely 560 00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:14,320 Speaker 1: we're going to see the web experience fracture as more 561 00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:18,600 Speaker 1: services attempt to leverage various platforms. Now what do I 562 00:33:18,640 --> 00:33:20,520 Speaker 1: mean by that. It's starting to sound like I'm talking 563 00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:25,360 Speaker 1: business talk, But here's the simple example that I'll use 564 00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:30,600 Speaker 1: to illustrate my point. Think about Netflix. So Netflix streaming 565 00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:34,120 Speaker 1: has seen a ton of success over the past few years. 566 00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:38,520 Speaker 1: Put aside their their library of movies and television series, 567 00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:41,959 Speaker 1: which obviously I mean that's that's problematic, but the adoption 568 00:33:41,960 --> 00:33:46,680 Speaker 1: of Netflix has been phenomenal, and I would argue that 569 00:33:46,720 --> 00:33:50,200 Speaker 1: our large reason for that is because you weren't limited 570 00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:53,479 Speaker 1: to computers or mobile devices to access Netflix. You can 571 00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:56,480 Speaker 1: access it on set top boxes, on video game consoles, 572 00:33:56,520 --> 00:34:00,520 Speaker 1: and more. Pretty much if the device was capable of 573 00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:04,520 Speaker 1: connecting to the Internet. Netflix made sure it could have 574 00:34:04,760 --> 00:34:08,960 Speaker 1: some kind of platform on that device. They wanted to 575 00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:12,319 Speaker 1: get on everything they possibly could, and it meant that 576 00:34:12,360 --> 00:34:16,560 Speaker 1: they had widespread adoption. Beyond that, they were really smart 577 00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:19,640 Speaker 1: on the back end, they built out a system so 578 00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:22,760 Speaker 1: that you could have a kind of seamless experience moving 579 00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:26,000 Speaker 1: from one device to another. So if I start watching 580 00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:29,200 Speaker 1: a movie under my Netflix account on my laptop computer, 581 00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:32,319 Speaker 1: and then I come home and I turned on my 582 00:34:32,520 --> 00:34:35,520 Speaker 1: video game console and I launched my Netflix app, I 583 00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:37,920 Speaker 1: can pick up where I left off because on the 584 00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:40,960 Speaker 1: back end it's tracking everything. The same is true for 585 00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:44,239 Speaker 1: other services like YouTube. It's another great example. There are 586 00:34:44,239 --> 00:34:48,520 Speaker 1: YouTube smartphone apps and tablet apps and video game console apps, 587 00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:52,600 Speaker 1: and uh, that's the same sort of thing. My experience 588 00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:56,360 Speaker 1: on one can translate over to another so that I 589 00:34:56,400 --> 00:35:00,279 Speaker 1: can keep on building out this profile of what like, 590 00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:04,440 Speaker 1: and YouTube will continuously suggest other videos that are similar 591 00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:07,839 Speaker 1: to the ones that I've really enjoyed, which might be 592 00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:11,319 Speaker 1: why I have so many videos of dogs on skateboards, 593 00:35:12,520 --> 00:35:14,720 Speaker 1: or that could just be coincidence. I don't really understand 594 00:35:14,719 --> 00:35:17,359 Speaker 1: how it works behind the scenes. At any rate, it's 595 00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:21,480 Speaker 1: really interesting to me that that could potentially be the 596 00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:24,719 Speaker 1: new era. It's not so much a web three point 597 00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:27,399 Speaker 1: oh as it could be a let's, you know, let's 598 00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:31,839 Speaker 1: look at how we can make our service across all 599 00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:34,960 Speaker 1: different platforms so people can access it however they want, 600 00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:38,440 Speaker 1: and that goes beyond web. In fact, web might be 601 00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:41,799 Speaker 1: too limited a term to use for that sort of thing, 602 00:35:43,040 --> 00:35:45,719 Speaker 1: which means we kind of need a new term for it. 603 00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:48,719 Speaker 1: We need to come up with a word that explains 604 00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:53,640 Speaker 1: this particular world one where you have these services that 605 00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:57,320 Speaker 1: go across all sorts of platforms, allowing you to access 606 00:35:57,360 --> 00:36:00,239 Speaker 1: it however you like. And I think I've come up 607 00:36:00,239 --> 00:36:05,200 Speaker 1: with a name. I'm calling it Frank. Frank's nice name. 608 00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:09,680 Speaker 1: Robin Day's got a hedgehog called Frank. But seriously, I'd 609 00:36:09,760 --> 00:36:12,560 Speaker 1: rather just kind of ditch the web two point oh 610 00:36:12,680 --> 00:36:15,799 Speaker 1: term altogether, which might be a moot point. I don't 611 00:36:15,840 --> 00:36:19,440 Speaker 1: know that anyone's still talking about web two point oh. Seriously, 612 00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:22,160 Speaker 1: it's kind of a non term at this point. But 613 00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:24,640 Speaker 1: I'd like to just erase it because I think Web 614 00:36:24,680 --> 00:36:27,120 Speaker 1: two point oh was too confusing a term. I think 615 00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:31,960 Speaker 1: it misled people. It compares the Web to things like 616 00:36:32,120 --> 00:36:36,759 Speaker 1: software patches or software versions, and that's not accurate. Um, 617 00:36:37,200 --> 00:36:39,360 Speaker 1: I really wish we could come up with a different 618 00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:45,640 Speaker 1: phrase for that particular idea that doesn't suggest an evolution 619 00:36:45,719 --> 00:36:49,120 Speaker 1: because it really was kind of a divergent path. And 620 00:36:49,200 --> 00:36:52,880 Speaker 1: that wraps it up for the classic episode about web 621 00:36:53,080 --> 00:36:56,920 Speaker 1: two point oh. Like I said, this was a concept 622 00:36:56,960 --> 00:37:03,319 Speaker 1: that largely was developed after things had already kind of evolved, 623 00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:06,480 Speaker 1: where it was more of an observation about the sorts 624 00:37:06,600 --> 00:37:12,400 Speaker 1: of websites that flourished while others kind of withered away. Uh. 625 00:37:12,440 --> 00:37:15,880 Speaker 1: And it's sort of codified that kind of in a 626 00:37:15,920 --> 00:37:21,480 Speaker 1: way that Moore's Law codified this idea of the evolution 627 00:37:21,680 --> 00:37:26,520 Speaker 1: of the semiconductor industry and microprocessors. If you would like 628 00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:29,959 Speaker 1: to suggest a future topic of tech Stuff, feel free 629 00:37:29,960 --> 00:37:31,600 Speaker 1: to reach out to me. One way to do that 630 00:37:31,719 --> 00:37:34,200 Speaker 1: is to download the I Heart Radio app. It's free 631 00:37:34,200 --> 00:37:36,560 Speaker 1: to download and use. You can navigate over to the 632 00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:39,880 Speaker 1: tech stuff page on that and use the little microphone 633 00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:42,880 Speaker 1: icon to leave a voice message up to thirty seconds 634 00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:45,840 Speaker 1: in length, Or you can navigate on over to Twitter 635 00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:50,680 Speaker 1: and message me through the handle tech stuff hs W. 636 00:37:51,520 --> 00:37:53,920 Speaker 1: Let me know your thoughts there and I'll talk to 637 00:37:53,960 --> 00:38:03,399 Speaker 1: you again really soon. Text Stuff is an I Heart 638 00:38:03,520 --> 00:38:07,239 Speaker 1: Radio production. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit 639 00:38:07,280 --> 00:38:10,360 Speaker 1: the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you 640 00:38:10,440 --> 00:38:11,800 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.