1 00:00:04,800 --> 00:00:13,600 Speaker 1: With Technology with Text Stuff from toom. Hey there everyone, 2 00:00:13,720 --> 00:00:17,920 Speaker 1: this is Jonathan with Text Stuff and today I wanted 3 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:22,200 Speaker 1: to peep back into the past. This is not gonna 4 00:00:22,239 --> 00:00:24,479 Speaker 1: be a rerun episode. This is actually gonna be a 5 00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:27,000 Speaker 1: new episode, but it's a new episode about something that 6 00:00:27,080 --> 00:00:32,120 Speaker 1: tech Stuff has covered before. Back in Chris Pallette and 7 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:35,680 Speaker 1: I did an episode about what is web two point oh? 8 00:00:36,400 --> 00:00:38,120 Speaker 1: But I think we've had enough time since then to 9 00:00:38,200 --> 00:00:40,680 Speaker 1: really take a look back and explore what the concept 10 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:43,599 Speaker 1: of web two point oh was and what if anything 11 00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:47,120 Speaker 1: is taking its place, and does the term mean anything 12 00:00:47,960 --> 00:00:51,080 Speaker 1: wasn't just kind of a placeholder. It's gonna be a 13 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:53,800 Speaker 1: lot of opinion in this because it's from my own 14 00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:57,480 Speaker 1: personal perspective. But honestly, if you've heard the term web 15 00:00:57,520 --> 00:00:59,800 Speaker 1: two point oh and you always wondered what that meant, 16 00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:03,200 Speaker 1: that's what I want to cover today. But to start off, 17 00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:06,480 Speaker 1: we need to look at a history of the Web itself. 18 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:10,920 Speaker 1: And I'm sure you all know that the Web and 19 00:01:10,959 --> 00:01:14,399 Speaker 1: the Internet are two different things, but just in case, 20 00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:18,600 Speaker 1: let's lay down that groundwork. Now. The Internet refers to 21 00:01:18,959 --> 00:01:24,520 Speaker 1: the network of networks, this gigantic network of computer networks 22 00:01:24,520 --> 00:01:27,800 Speaker 1: that are all interconnected together. There's a series of connections 23 00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:31,800 Speaker 1: that allows computers to communicate with one another. So this 24 00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:36,520 Speaker 1: is an enormous system that allows all kinds of different 25 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:40,720 Speaker 1: types of communication to go across it. And back in 26 00:01:40,760 --> 00:01:44,080 Speaker 1: the day, we used to talk about the Internet in 27 00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:47,240 Speaker 1: the terms of the information super Highway. You might be 28 00:01:47,319 --> 00:01:50,160 Speaker 1: familiar with that term. So it was kind of the 29 00:01:50,160 --> 00:01:55,160 Speaker 1: infrastructure that allowed rapid communication across the globe and allowed 30 00:01:55,200 --> 00:01:59,640 Speaker 1: people who were on one computer network to communicate directly 31 00:01:59,640 --> 00:02:02,440 Speaker 1: with who are on a totally separate computer network. Because 32 00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:06,600 Speaker 1: of this interconnectivity. Now the Web is just one way 33 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:10,120 Speaker 1: to send and consume information on that super highway. So 34 00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:12,720 Speaker 1: you can think of it as a vehicle that shares 35 00:02:12,800 --> 00:02:16,160 Speaker 1: the super highway with other vehicles. So the Web would 36 00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:18,600 Speaker 1: be like a giant bus. And then you might have 37 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:21,920 Speaker 1: a freight train that's or not freight train, but a 38 00:02:21,919 --> 00:02:24,280 Speaker 1: freight truck that's driving right next to it that's file 39 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:29,080 Speaker 1: transfer protocol, or a bunch of mail vehicles M A 40 00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:32,360 Speaker 1: I L that would stand for email that kind of stuff. 41 00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:35,240 Speaker 1: These would all be traveling along the Internet. None of 42 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:39,040 Speaker 1: them are the Internet. They're just a means of communication 43 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:42,800 Speaker 1: that exists because the Internet is the platform upon which 44 00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:48,040 Speaker 1: they exist. So you access the web through a web browser. 45 00:02:48,639 --> 00:02:51,480 Speaker 1: Big shock there, I'm sure we usually refer to that 46 00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:54,560 Speaker 1: as the client. Your machine with the web browser is 47 00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:58,960 Speaker 1: the client, and the browser or client lets you request 48 00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:02,600 Speaker 1: information from another machine on the Internet, which we call 49 00:03:02,680 --> 00:03:06,480 Speaker 1: a server. The server receives your request in response to 50 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:09,480 Speaker 1: it sends the relevant data back to you. And all 51 00:03:09,520 --> 00:03:12,639 Speaker 1: of that has done through a visual interface. In other words, 52 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:17,200 Speaker 1: you've got something rendered out as uh uh, you know, 53 00:03:17,320 --> 00:03:21,880 Speaker 1: something that's easy to to interpret and consume within the browser, 54 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:27,040 Speaker 1: as opposed to a text based approach that is, you know, 55 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:30,480 Speaker 1: marred by lots of code that might be really confusing 56 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:33,600 Speaker 1: to you. Now, the path taken by your request and 57 00:03:33,639 --> 00:03:37,000 Speaker 1: the returning information isn't set in stone, so this is 58 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:40,720 Speaker 1: different from roads. This is where the road analogy really 59 00:03:40,760 --> 00:03:44,760 Speaker 1: breaks down, because if you have a set of roads 60 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:47,760 Speaker 1: between you and your destination, you might be able to 61 00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:52,440 Speaker 1: take a detour or perhaps two detours if things are 62 00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:54,480 Speaker 1: really bad. Let's say there's flooding, you can't get to 63 00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:57,200 Speaker 1: where you were going using your normal routes. But the 64 00:03:57,200 --> 00:03:59,800 Speaker 1: way the Internet goes it's way more robust than that. 65 00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: The information is delivered via packets. The packets all can 66 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:08,760 Speaker 1: travel different pathways to get to their destination, whereupon everything 67 00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:11,880 Speaker 1: gets put back together and displayed for you. Now that's 68 00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:15,360 Speaker 1: not just for Web information. That's for all information going 69 00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:19,600 Speaker 1: across the Internet traffic. But it's uh. One of the 70 00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:22,560 Speaker 1: reasons why the Internet is so useful. It's that you 71 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:24,880 Speaker 1: don't have to worry if there is a break in 72 00:04:24,920 --> 00:04:28,560 Speaker 1: the communication lines between you and the web server because 73 00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:31,839 Speaker 1: the data can route around. That very important if you 74 00:04:31,880 --> 00:04:35,400 Speaker 1: have machines that are constantly going on and offline. So 75 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:37,720 Speaker 1: back to the web. Now, the birthplace of the World 76 00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:42,240 Speaker 1: Wide Web is CERN. That's the same organization that oversees 77 00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:45,480 Speaker 1: the large had drawn colliders. So we're talking particle physics 78 00:04:46,080 --> 00:04:50,159 Speaker 1: and lull cats all because of CERN. Thanks TERN, specifically 79 00:04:50,279 --> 00:04:53,200 Speaker 1: say thanks to Tim berners Lee, who developed what would 80 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:56,320 Speaker 1: become the basis of the World Wide Web on the 81 00:04:56,560 --> 00:05:00,599 Speaker 1: next computer and uh, in case you're an familiar with 82 00:05:00,640 --> 00:05:04,120 Speaker 1: what Next is or was, really it was a computer 83 00:05:04,160 --> 00:05:07,599 Speaker 1: platform developed by Steve Jobs after he had been forced 84 00:05:07,760 --> 00:05:12,000 Speaker 1: from Apple. So Apple forced Steve Jobs out of the 85 00:05:12,040 --> 00:05:15,919 Speaker 1: company or Steve Jobs quit, depending upon the person telling 86 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:19,440 Speaker 1: the story, and as a result, Steve Jobs then went 87 00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:22,400 Speaker 1: on to found a new company called Next and develop 88 00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:25,760 Speaker 1: a new type of computer. Eventually he would come back 89 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:29,240 Speaker 1: to Apple. Essentially, Apple begged Steve Jobs to return just 90 00:05:29,320 --> 00:05:32,839 Speaker 1: as Apple was on the brink of bankruptcy, and Next 91 00:05:32,960 --> 00:05:35,599 Speaker 1: kind of faded away. But it was the Next computer 92 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:39,400 Speaker 1: that Tim burners Lee was using to develop web pages 93 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:44,080 Speaker 1: and the first web browser. In fact, the first website 94 00:05:44,200 --> 00:05:47,880 Speaker 1: was built in by Tim burners Lee and he hosted 95 00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:51,719 Speaker 1: it on his own computer. That site contained information about 96 00:05:51,760 --> 00:05:54,560 Speaker 1: the purpose and structure of the web, so kind of 97 00:05:54,560 --> 00:05:57,520 Speaker 1: an explanation of what the web would be capable of, 98 00:05:57,880 --> 00:06:00,000 Speaker 1: and also a set of instructions on how to create 99 00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:02,560 Speaker 1: your own web server, because obviously the web is only 100 00:06:02,600 --> 00:06:06,200 Speaker 1: really useful if other people start to join on. Otherwise 101 00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:09,080 Speaker 1: it's just kind of a you know, you just logg 102 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:13,320 Speaker 1: in remotely to someone else's computer. It's not that exciting now. 103 00:06:13,360 --> 00:06:16,880 Speaker 1: The browser he built was called Worldwide Web is where 104 00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:21,080 Speaker 1: we get that from. And things continued along a lot 105 00:06:21,120 --> 00:06:23,760 Speaker 1: of research centers and students began to get access to 106 00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:27,400 Speaker 1: the world Wide Web, but things really took off on 107 00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:32,960 Speaker 1: April three, n That's when uh CERN decided to release 108 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:36,520 Speaker 1: the web to the general public, meaning they made the 109 00:06:36,520 --> 00:06:39,560 Speaker 1: information itself on how the web works public and open. 110 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:42,880 Speaker 1: Along with the open license for the Web, CERN offered 111 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:45,400 Speaker 1: a basic browser and a library of code to help 112 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:48,039 Speaker 1: things move along, and it didn't take long for other 113 00:06:48,160 --> 00:06:51,960 Speaker 1: organizations and eventually people and companies to join in. So 114 00:06:52,120 --> 00:06:56,320 Speaker 1: Also in nineteen three, the National Center for super Computing 115 00:06:56,360 --> 00:07:02,000 Speaker 1: Applications or in cs A released Mosaic one point oh 116 00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:04,640 Speaker 1: and that became the first web browser to really find 117 00:07:04,640 --> 00:07:08,400 Speaker 1: popularity among the general public. At this point, most of 118 00:07:08,440 --> 00:07:11,640 Speaker 1: the people using the web were still researchers and students, 119 00:07:11,720 --> 00:07:15,080 Speaker 1: but gradually people outside of these groups began to learn 120 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:17,320 Speaker 1: of the web. It started to get press coverage, and 121 00:07:17,440 --> 00:07:20,800 Speaker 1: people began to get excited by this concept of a 122 00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:23,920 Speaker 1: computer network that you could access and find real information 123 00:07:24,080 --> 00:07:27,440 Speaker 1: and communicate with people in real time. And here's a 124 00:07:27,440 --> 00:07:31,200 Speaker 1: funny note. During this time, I was in college and 125 00:07:31,280 --> 00:07:34,640 Speaker 1: my first impression of the Web at that time was 126 00:07:34,680 --> 00:07:37,400 Speaker 1: that it was slow, and it was unattractive and it 127 00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:40,720 Speaker 1: was superfluous. I had become used to browsing the Internet 128 00:07:40,840 --> 00:07:44,560 Speaker 1: using other means like tel net to connect to chat 129 00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:48,880 Speaker 1: rooms or games or whatever, or even uh not full 130 00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:52,240 Speaker 1: Internet access things like bulletin board systems, and I just 131 00:07:52,280 --> 00:07:55,320 Speaker 1: thought that the graphical approach to the web was completely 132 00:07:55,360 --> 00:07:59,600 Speaker 1: unnecessary and slow things down. The browser had to take 133 00:07:59,640 --> 00:08:01,680 Speaker 1: time to get the information and render the stuff you 134 00:08:01,720 --> 00:08:06,080 Speaker 1: need to see, and at the time, the internet connectivity 135 00:08:06,200 --> 00:08:09,920 Speaker 1: and the power of computers meant that that stuff took ages. 136 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:12,280 Speaker 1: And I just thought, well, who wants to sit around 137 00:08:12,360 --> 00:08:14,920 Speaker 1: forever to try and get this information when you could 138 00:08:14,920 --> 00:08:18,120 Speaker 1: get it so much faster using FTP or tell net 139 00:08:18,200 --> 00:08:20,080 Speaker 1: or whatever it may be, depending upon the kind of 140 00:08:20,080 --> 00:08:24,480 Speaker 1: information you're interested in. So I thought the web was 141 00:08:24,520 --> 00:08:26,840 Speaker 1: probably a flash in the pan. It would not be 142 00:08:27,320 --> 00:08:30,960 Speaker 1: the last time I'd be radically wrong about the technology 143 00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:34,760 Speaker 1: you think I'd learned. At any rate, by the web 144 00:08:34,840 --> 00:08:38,560 Speaker 1: was making headlines and e commerce became a thing. One 145 00:08:38,559 --> 00:08:42,480 Speaker 1: of the earliest examples I could find was that pizza 146 00:08:42,559 --> 00:08:47,880 Speaker 1: Hut sold a pizza online, actually allowing customers to order 147 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:52,440 Speaker 1: pizza in some areas using the web. The company Yahoo 148 00:08:52,520 --> 00:08:55,920 Speaker 1: was founded around this time too, and its main purpose 149 00:08:55,960 --> 00:08:58,000 Speaker 1: at that time was to serve as just a search 150 00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:00,760 Speaker 1: engine to help search for the content on the web, 151 00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:03,400 Speaker 1: making it easier for people to find stuff they wanted. 152 00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:08,000 Speaker 1: Before search engines. It was pretty tough. You had to 153 00:09:08,040 --> 00:09:10,920 Speaker 1: be kind of you kind of had to be part 154 00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:13,800 Speaker 1: of the click that understood how the web worked. Now 155 00:09:13,840 --> 00:09:16,560 Speaker 1: today we're all used to things like you r l s, 156 00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:19,120 Speaker 1: where you have to type in a web address. In fact, 157 00:09:19,200 --> 00:09:21,040 Speaker 1: there may be a couple of websites that you still 158 00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:24,760 Speaker 1: navigate to by typing in the web address, but not 159 00:09:24,920 --> 00:09:28,480 Speaker 1: everyone is comfortable with that. So search engines made it 160 00:09:28,559 --> 00:09:31,559 Speaker 1: much easier for people to interact with the Web without 161 00:09:31,640 --> 00:09:34,840 Speaker 1: having to memorize the protocol that they would need in 162 00:09:34,920 --> 00:09:39,319 Speaker 1: order to visit a specific website. Now, much later than 163 00:09:39,360 --> 00:09:41,880 Speaker 1: the early nineties, we look back on the websites of 164 00:09:41,880 --> 00:09:44,840 Speaker 1: this era as being pre Web two point oh. For 165 00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:48,800 Speaker 1: the most part, you could probably call them Web one 166 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:51,840 Speaker 1: point oh. But that's what we call a retronym, meaning 167 00:09:51,880 --> 00:09:56,000 Speaker 1: we named it after the thing had already happened. Uh. 168 00:09:56,040 --> 00:09:59,080 Speaker 1: And it's kind of like World War One. While World 169 00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:01,400 Speaker 1: War One was going on, no one referred to it 170 00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:03,679 Speaker 1: as World War one. There had not been a World 171 00:10:03,679 --> 00:10:06,360 Speaker 1: War two yet, there'd be no reason to call it 172 00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:10,440 Speaker 1: World War one unless you expected there to be another one, 173 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:14,000 Speaker 1: so you might use something else like the Great War. Uh. 174 00:10:14,040 --> 00:10:17,240 Speaker 1: And It was only in in a you know, in 175 00:10:17,320 --> 00:10:19,880 Speaker 1: retrospect when World War two broke out, that World War 176 00:10:19,920 --> 00:10:24,720 Speaker 1: One really got that name. So what actually defines web 177 00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:28,400 Speaker 1: one point oh? For lack of a better term, Not 178 00:10:28,520 --> 00:10:30,920 Speaker 1: everyone even thinks web one point oh is is a 179 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:33,560 Speaker 1: thing at all? Like it? It doesn't make any sense, 180 00:10:33,600 --> 00:10:36,600 Speaker 1: but some people will use that term, but wasn't actually 181 00:10:36,600 --> 00:10:40,520 Speaker 1: described well. The websites in those days. Most of them 182 00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:44,679 Speaker 1: were largely static pages, which means you would navigate to 183 00:10:44,720 --> 00:10:47,840 Speaker 1: a page and see what was there, and after doing that, 184 00:10:47,880 --> 00:10:50,720 Speaker 1: there'd probably be very little reason to ever return to 185 00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:54,360 Speaker 1: that page because it's going to be pretty much the same. Uh. 186 00:10:54,400 --> 00:10:57,600 Speaker 1: It's kind of like the equivalent of a magazine or 187 00:10:57,640 --> 00:10:59,640 Speaker 1: a book. You know, if you go and you read 188 00:10:59,679 --> 00:11:02,920 Speaker 1: a magazine and you close the magazine, then you come 189 00:11:02,920 --> 00:11:04,200 Speaker 1: back to it and you open it up to the 190 00:11:04,240 --> 00:11:07,440 Speaker 1: same page, it's gonna be the same magazine article. It 191 00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:10,120 Speaker 1: doesn't change from one moment to the next. That's the 192 00:11:10,160 --> 00:11:12,880 Speaker 1: way a lot of websites were in the early days. 193 00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:17,040 Speaker 1: Those web pages didn't have any way for visitors to 194 00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:20,839 Speaker 1: have any kind of meaningful interaction on the site. At most, 195 00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:24,120 Speaker 1: there might be a visitor counter that would click up 196 00:11:24,160 --> 00:11:27,480 Speaker 1: a notch each time someone navigated to the website, and 197 00:11:27,480 --> 00:11:29,880 Speaker 1: those were a huge deal early on. I don't know 198 00:11:29,920 --> 00:11:33,000 Speaker 1: if you guys remember, but I remember lots of websites 199 00:11:33,040 --> 00:11:35,720 Speaker 1: having a visitor counter, and they took it as a 200 00:11:35,760 --> 00:11:39,120 Speaker 1: matter of pride when they passed a arbitrary milestone like 201 00:11:39,160 --> 00:11:42,439 Speaker 1: five thousand visitors or something like that. But there was 202 00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:44,959 Speaker 1: no way to leave comments or have any other impact 203 00:11:44,960 --> 00:11:47,400 Speaker 1: on the site for the most part for these types 204 00:11:47,440 --> 00:11:51,440 Speaker 1: of web pages. Now there were exceptions. Some websites were 205 00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:56,520 Speaker 1: dedicated to updating content regularly, or they were allowing people 206 00:11:56,520 --> 00:11:58,839 Speaker 1: to leave their own contributions, or even both of those 207 00:11:58,880 --> 00:12:01,720 Speaker 1: things at the same time. There was a student at 208 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:05,400 Speaker 1: Swarthmore College named Justin Hall who started up a web 209 00:12:05,400 --> 00:12:09,040 Speaker 1: page in Originally, it was just a collection of links 210 00:12:09,080 --> 00:12:11,840 Speaker 1: that he thought were particularly interesting. The website was called 211 00:12:11,880 --> 00:12:15,760 Speaker 1: Justin's Links, and not long after he started the site, 212 00:12:15,800 --> 00:12:18,360 Speaker 1: he actually saw the potential to do something more with 213 00:12:18,440 --> 00:12:21,240 Speaker 1: it than just show a collection of links, and he 214 00:12:21,320 --> 00:12:23,320 Speaker 1: sought as a way to publish his thoughts to a 215 00:12:23,320 --> 00:12:26,440 Speaker 1: global audience, kind of like an online journal, and a 216 00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:29,880 Speaker 1: lot of people point to Justin's Links as being the 217 00:12:29,920 --> 00:12:33,680 Speaker 1: first blog UH. This sort of approach of using the 218 00:12:33,720 --> 00:12:36,240 Speaker 1: web as sort of a dynamic communication tool set the 219 00:12:36,280 --> 00:12:38,280 Speaker 1: site apart from a lot of the web pages that 220 00:12:38,480 --> 00:12:42,040 Speaker 1: were around at the same time. But many sites lacked 221 00:12:42,040 --> 00:12:45,000 Speaker 1: that sort of dynamic approach, and at the same time, 222 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:48,120 Speaker 1: companies began to rush the web in hopes of beating 223 00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:50,880 Speaker 1: competitors to the punch. The web was viewed as kind 224 00:12:50,880 --> 00:12:53,040 Speaker 1: of a Wild West type of territory in which a 225 00:12:53,120 --> 00:12:56,840 Speaker 1: company could stake its claim online and stand to make 226 00:12:56,880 --> 00:12:59,000 Speaker 1: a ton of money in the short term before everyone 227 00:12:59,040 --> 00:13:04,160 Speaker 1: else caught up. Simultaneously, several companies emerged that use the 228 00:13:04,200 --> 00:13:08,480 Speaker 1: web as the very foundation for the company itself. Some 229 00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:13,560 Speaker 1: of them offered goods or services to consumers, so normal 230 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:17,480 Speaker 1: people who are just using the web themselves. Others were 231 00:13:17,480 --> 00:13:21,000 Speaker 1: targeting other companies and they were offering up services meant 232 00:13:21,040 --> 00:13:24,280 Speaker 1: to help businesses succeed, but many of these lacked any 233 00:13:24,360 --> 00:13:27,720 Speaker 1: sort of cohesive business plan, which caused a big problem. 234 00:13:27,800 --> 00:13:31,480 Speaker 1: They were offering up services that some people found helpful, 235 00:13:32,120 --> 00:13:34,280 Speaker 1: but they didn't have any way of making money. And 236 00:13:34,320 --> 00:13:36,840 Speaker 1: this obviously is not something that has just gone away. 237 00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:40,440 Speaker 1: We've seen this with lots of different services. Some of 238 00:13:40,440 --> 00:13:44,079 Speaker 1: which exists solely as a means to try and get 239 00:13:44,080 --> 00:13:49,640 Speaker 1: acquired by other larger businesses. UH, which can work if 240 00:13:49,679 --> 00:13:52,280 Speaker 1: you have a great idea for a service or app 241 00:13:52,360 --> 00:13:55,240 Speaker 1: that people are going to really enjoy using, but you 242 00:13:55,320 --> 00:13:59,560 Speaker 1: don't have a way of generating money from that. It 243 00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:02,160 Speaker 1: might us be good enough to get a lot of 244 00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:05,040 Speaker 1: attention and then wait for someone to offer to buy you. 245 00:14:05,040 --> 00:14:07,120 Speaker 1: You know, maybe they'll figure out a way of using it, 246 00:14:07,200 --> 00:14:09,520 Speaker 1: or maybe they'll pair it with stuff they already have, 247 00:14:10,440 --> 00:14:14,720 Speaker 1: and that's how it makes money. But back then, not 248 00:14:14,880 --> 00:14:20,760 Speaker 1: having a plan just wasn't really working for people. Towards 249 00:14:20,760 --> 00:14:23,680 Speaker 1: the end of the ninety nineties, web companies were sprouting 250 00:14:23,760 --> 00:14:28,640 Speaker 1: up all over the place, and investors were really excited 251 00:14:28,680 --> 00:14:30,920 Speaker 1: at the opportunity to get in on the ground floor 252 00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:34,240 Speaker 1: of something that had the potential to become huge, meaning 253 00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:38,080 Speaker 1: you could stand to become a millionaire overnight with some 254 00:14:38,200 --> 00:14:42,240 Speaker 1: of these opportunities, and they began to flood startup companies 255 00:14:42,240 --> 00:14:45,000 Speaker 1: with cash. More than a few of those startup companies 256 00:14:45,080 --> 00:14:48,120 Speaker 1: ended up with way more money than what they needed, 257 00:14:48,760 --> 00:14:52,560 Speaker 1: and that encouraged some bad decisions on the part of founders. 258 00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:57,360 Speaker 1: A lot of founders began to spend that excess cash 259 00:14:57,480 --> 00:15:04,080 Speaker 1: by creating lavish headquarters or crazy benefits for employees. Meanwhile, 260 00:15:04,120 --> 00:15:07,520 Speaker 1: their businesses still didn't have a way of making revenue. So, 261 00:15:07,680 --> 00:15:09,680 Speaker 1: in other words, let's say that you want to open 262 00:15:09,760 --> 00:15:12,520 Speaker 1: up a lemonade stand, and normally you would just need 263 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:15,280 Speaker 1: a few dollars to buy some lemons and some sugar. 264 00:15:15,800 --> 00:15:18,080 Speaker 1: You get some water, and then you put all that together. 265 00:15:18,160 --> 00:15:20,480 Speaker 1: Maybe you get a little poster board to write up 266 00:15:20,480 --> 00:15:24,240 Speaker 1: a sign. So maybe you're starting budget is twenty dollars 267 00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:26,800 Speaker 1: and you're selling it for five cents a cup, and 268 00:15:26,840 --> 00:15:29,400 Speaker 1: you figure out that after a certain number of cups, 269 00:15:29,800 --> 00:15:32,960 Speaker 1: you know you've got plenty of of of supply there. 270 00:15:32,960 --> 00:15:35,800 Speaker 1: After a certain number of cups, you're going to break even. Uh, 271 00:15:35,840 --> 00:15:38,160 Speaker 1: and then after that's all profit and you've got enough 272 00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:42,360 Speaker 1: to make a decent profit over your investment. Well, now 273 00:15:42,400 --> 00:15:45,560 Speaker 1: imagine that you are opening up that lemonade stand, but 274 00:15:45,600 --> 00:15:50,480 Speaker 1: someone's given you twenty thousand dollars and you don't have 275 00:15:50,520 --> 00:15:53,640 Speaker 1: any way of scaling up your operation, So you just 276 00:15:53,920 --> 00:15:57,320 Speaker 1: spend that extra money on a really nice lemonade stand, 277 00:15:57,880 --> 00:16:02,240 Speaker 1: and you know, a soup, a nifty titanium lemon crusher, 278 00:16:02,360 --> 00:16:05,520 Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. It doesn't help you make money 279 00:16:05,520 --> 00:16:07,480 Speaker 1: in the long run. It just means that's how you 280 00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:11,280 Speaker 1: spent your your startup cash. A lot of companies fell 281 00:16:11,280 --> 00:16:15,280 Speaker 1: into this trap. You can read about startups dot com 282 00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:19,680 Speaker 1: industries in the late nineties and how ridiculously lavish some 283 00:16:19,760 --> 00:16:23,560 Speaker 1: of their offices were, and it was a mess. So 284 00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:27,360 Speaker 1: compounding that problem was the fact that a lot of 285 00:16:27,360 --> 00:16:31,800 Speaker 1: these companies were rewarding employees by giving them shares of 286 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:36,360 Speaker 1: the company. Now, if everything was working, fine, that's great, 287 00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:39,040 Speaker 1: because those shares are worth real money once you get 288 00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:41,600 Speaker 1: to a point where the employees are allowed to sell 289 00:16:41,640 --> 00:16:45,400 Speaker 1: those shares. Usually there's a period where employees are not 290 00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:47,680 Speaker 1: allowed to do that sort of thing until they get 291 00:16:47,760 --> 00:16:52,400 Speaker 1: to a particular point in the fiscal year. But here's 292 00:16:52,400 --> 00:16:55,040 Speaker 1: where the real problems came in because a lot of 293 00:16:55,040 --> 00:16:59,920 Speaker 1: these companies began to falter when people realized, hey, they 294 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:02,480 Speaker 1: don't really have a way of making money and they 295 00:17:02,480 --> 00:17:05,560 Speaker 1: can only keep treading water with investment money for so 296 00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:08,760 Speaker 1: long before everything falls apart. And it was like a 297 00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:12,560 Speaker 1: house of cards. It all fell down, and it didn't 298 00:17:12,600 --> 00:17:14,760 Speaker 1: all fall down on a single day. It's not like 299 00:17:14,800 --> 00:17:16,760 Speaker 1: there's a particular day you can point to and say 300 00:17:16,840 --> 00:17:20,359 Speaker 1: this is the day the bubble burst, the bubble meaning 301 00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:25,600 Speaker 1: this speculation bubble of the value of dot com companies. Instead, 302 00:17:25,640 --> 00:17:29,399 Speaker 1: it happened over a course of years from two thousand 303 00:17:29,440 --> 00:17:32,800 Speaker 1: one essentially, and during that time people began to get 304 00:17:32,800 --> 00:17:35,440 Speaker 1: more suspicious of dot com companies that began to ask 305 00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:39,080 Speaker 1: harder questions. The companies themselves were starting to run out 306 00:17:39,119 --> 00:17:41,720 Speaker 1: of that investment money, and because they hadn't found a 307 00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:44,800 Speaker 1: way to generate enough revenue, they couldn't stay afloat, and 308 00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:48,119 Speaker 1: a lot of them went completely out of business. Some 309 00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:52,840 Speaker 1: of them took serious hits to their value. Amazon dot Com, 310 00:17:52,880 --> 00:17:55,119 Speaker 1: for example, was around in those days and for a 311 00:17:55,119 --> 00:17:57,639 Speaker 1: while had shares that were in the triple digit value, 312 00:17:57,640 --> 00:18:00,959 Speaker 1: like over a hundred dollars of share, but after the 313 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:04,800 Speaker 1: bubble burst it dropped to less than ten dollars a share, 314 00:18:05,280 --> 00:18:10,480 Speaker 1: huge drop. But companies like Amazon were large enough and 315 00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:14,160 Speaker 1: and savvy enough to wade through that time and emerge 316 00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:17,280 Speaker 1: out the other side. Not all companies were so lucky, 317 00:18:17,440 --> 00:18:20,359 Speaker 1: and the worst part of this is that those employees 318 00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:23,119 Speaker 1: who had worked so hard and had been rewarded in 319 00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:28,720 Speaker 1: stock now found themselves with worthless stock. The companies were bankrupt, 320 00:18:28,840 --> 00:18:32,399 Speaker 1: so the shares were not worth anything, and that was 321 00:18:32,440 --> 00:18:34,800 Speaker 1: a huge issue. So you had all these people who, 322 00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:38,879 Speaker 1: for a while on paper were millionaires and then suddenly 323 00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:41,720 Speaker 1: they were broke, or at least they weren't millionaires anymore. 324 00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:46,320 Speaker 1: Many dot com companies went on to business um and 325 00:18:46,640 --> 00:18:50,800 Speaker 1: those that stayed around people wanted to try and figure out, well, 326 00:18:51,119 --> 00:18:53,920 Speaker 1: what what set them apart, what made them different? How 327 00:18:53,960 --> 00:18:56,800 Speaker 1: did these companies survive? How did these websites make it 328 00:18:56,880 --> 00:19:00,800 Speaker 1: through the dot com bubble burst while so many others 329 00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:03,960 Speaker 1: went away? And that's where the term web two point 330 00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:08,520 Speaker 1: oh really comes into play. Now. Personally, I think it's 331 00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:12,720 Speaker 1: a dumb term. It's terrible. It suggests a chronological order, 332 00:19:13,280 --> 00:19:15,840 Speaker 1: so it would suggest that there was first Web one 333 00:19:15,880 --> 00:19:17,760 Speaker 1: point oh and then at some point there was a 334 00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:20,560 Speaker 1: Web two point oh release. Because it's very similar to 335 00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:24,960 Speaker 1: the way we look at software. For example, we're operating systems, 336 00:19:25,280 --> 00:19:27,800 Speaker 1: but that's not what this means. It's not the way 337 00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:31,560 Speaker 1: it works. So I think it's ultimately more confusing than helpful. 338 00:19:31,880 --> 00:19:35,359 Speaker 1: But that's what we have, uh, And the truth is 339 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:39,120 Speaker 1: that both websites that were more in the Web one 340 00:19:39,160 --> 00:19:42,680 Speaker 1: point oh frame than the web two point oh frame 341 00:19:42,880 --> 00:19:46,000 Speaker 1: and web two point o websites existed at the same time. 342 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:49,720 Speaker 1: In other words, this wasn't chronological. You can't point to 343 00:19:49,760 --> 00:19:53,720 Speaker 1: a date and say after this time, all the websites 344 00:19:53,720 --> 00:19:58,560 Speaker 1: were Web two point oh. Even back in with Justin's Links, 345 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:03,120 Speaker 1: we start seeing two point oh philosophy working its way 346 00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:06,360 Speaker 1: into websites. And that was years before the dot com 347 00:20:06,400 --> 00:20:11,919 Speaker 1: bubble burst. So it's problematic using this term. But at 348 00:20:11,920 --> 00:20:16,320 Speaker 1: any rate, we need to look at what actually happened, 349 00:20:16,359 --> 00:20:18,399 Speaker 1: like why is this term around in the first place, 350 00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:24,159 Speaker 1: And that's because of the O'Reilly Media company. So in 351 00:20:24,200 --> 00:20:26,879 Speaker 1: two thousand four, Tim O'Reilly who was the founder of 352 00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:30,760 Speaker 1: O'Reilly Media, and Dale Dougherty, who was a VP and 353 00:20:30,840 --> 00:20:33,720 Speaker 1: O'Reilly we're having a brainstorming session. They were trying to 354 00:20:33,720 --> 00:20:37,840 Speaker 1: come up with a an event that could really focus 355 00:20:38,080 --> 00:20:42,919 Speaker 1: on what makes a web company successful? Why were some 356 00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:46,480 Speaker 1: web companies able to survive while so many others failed, 357 00:20:47,119 --> 00:20:49,960 Speaker 1: What were the mistakes that the older websites made or 358 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:52,760 Speaker 1: the failed websites made, and what were the success stories? 359 00:20:53,280 --> 00:20:55,320 Speaker 1: And so they started trying to think, well, how are 360 00:20:55,320 --> 00:20:58,080 Speaker 1: we going to define this, what's the what's the way 361 00:20:58,119 --> 00:21:03,160 Speaker 1: we create a catchy term to explain the new philosophy 362 00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:06,240 Speaker 1: of the web, the one that survived, And that's where 363 00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:09,920 Speaker 1: they came up with the term web two point oh. 364 00:21:10,119 --> 00:21:12,760 Speaker 1: And that was it. It was just to give a 365 00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:15,119 Speaker 1: name to a summit, the Web two point oh Summit, 366 00:21:15,119 --> 00:21:18,640 Speaker 1: which took place in two thousand four, and they had 367 00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:23,159 Speaker 1: several since then, but they just wanted a way to say, 368 00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:26,640 Speaker 1: these are the type of websites that did all right 369 00:21:27,119 --> 00:21:29,280 Speaker 1: throughout the dot com bubble verse. These are the ones 370 00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:32,920 Speaker 1: that had the traits that allowed them to survive. Now, 371 00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:35,600 Speaker 1: in general, the qualities that define web two point oh 372 00:21:35,640 --> 00:21:38,439 Speaker 1: are that they tend to be dynamic pages rather than 373 00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:40,680 Speaker 1: static ones, meaning that there's a reason for you to 374 00:21:40,760 --> 00:21:43,879 Speaker 1: go back and look at it again. It's not something 375 00:21:43,920 --> 00:21:47,119 Speaker 1: that's going to be a page out of the encyclopedia 376 00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:50,000 Speaker 1: and it never ever changes. That makes it web two 377 00:21:50,040 --> 00:21:53,520 Speaker 1: point oh. Another is that there tends to be some 378 00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:57,040 Speaker 1: way for users to generate content and submit it to 379 00:21:57,320 --> 00:22:01,400 Speaker 1: the website. That may be something along the lines of blogging, 380 00:22:01,640 --> 00:22:05,640 Speaker 1: where the users are journaling using the web page as 381 00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:09,120 Speaker 1: a place for their journal to go, or it might 382 00:22:09,160 --> 00:22:13,480 Speaker 1: be social media site where they're just reaching out to 383 00:22:13,600 --> 00:22:17,000 Speaker 1: friends or sharing links or stories or jokes or whatever. 384 00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:22,520 Speaker 1: Or it might be something more akin to Amazon, where 385 00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:26,159 Speaker 1: users are able to review products that they've purchased, and 386 00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:30,120 Speaker 1: that adds value to Amazon because future customers can look 387 00:22:30,119 --> 00:22:33,119 Speaker 1: at those reviews and make judgments, and then they too 388 00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:37,240 Speaker 1: can contribute to this system, and that makes the whole 389 00:22:37,359 --> 00:22:42,000 Speaker 1: experience of using Amazon more pleasant and robust and useful 390 00:22:42,119 --> 00:22:45,879 Speaker 1: to both the company and the consumer. These are the 391 00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:48,920 Speaker 1: sort of things that became known as the web two 392 00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:53,680 Speaker 1: point oh qualities, This dynamic approach with user generated content, 393 00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:58,160 Speaker 1: stuff that could be syndicated and be sent out across 394 00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:00,760 Speaker 1: multiple platforms. All of that was wrapped up in this 395 00:23:01,720 --> 00:23:05,040 Speaker 1: and like I said, it does in fact cover things 396 00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:07,400 Speaker 1: like social media sites. If you look back on the 397 00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:11,800 Speaker 1: timeline of the major social media sites, they all emerged 398 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:17,360 Speaker 1: after the dot com bubble burst. There really weren't any 399 00:23:17,560 --> 00:23:21,480 Speaker 1: sites that kind of fall into that social media category 400 00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:25,760 Speaker 1: the way we think of today pre dot Com bubble burst. 401 00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:28,800 Speaker 1: Some of them were around right around then, like live journal, 402 00:23:29,359 --> 00:23:31,760 Speaker 1: But even then you would you could argue live journal 403 00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:33,639 Speaker 1: was more of a blogging site and less of a 404 00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:37,399 Speaker 1: social media site. Things like friends to and MySpace and Facebook. 405 00:23:37,880 --> 00:23:40,879 Speaker 1: All of those emerged after the dot com bubble burst, 406 00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:44,920 Speaker 1: but they also embraced the philosophy of what O'Reilly was 407 00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:50,040 Speaker 1: calling web two point oh because those sites they aren't 408 00:23:50,119 --> 00:23:53,439 Speaker 1: valuable on their own. I mean, you don't go to 409 00:23:53,520 --> 00:23:56,679 Speaker 1: Facebook to see what Facebook has put up. You go 410 00:23:56,760 --> 00:23:59,439 Speaker 1: to Facebook to see what your friends are saying, or 411 00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:01,919 Speaker 1: to say some thing to your friends. It's the people 412 00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:05,040 Speaker 1: who are using the site that give it value, and 413 00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:07,720 Speaker 1: that's a big part of web two point oh it 414 00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:10,040 Speaker 1: and in fact, it takes a lot of the pressure 415 00:24:10,119 --> 00:24:12,960 Speaker 1: off of the person creating the website. They have to 416 00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:15,760 Speaker 1: make it attractive enough for people to adopt it, but 417 00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:18,880 Speaker 1: then you just let the people make it important and 418 00:24:18,960 --> 00:24:22,479 Speaker 1: you step back. Same thing is true for Twitter. Twitter 419 00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:26,800 Speaker 1: just facilitates communication. It's the people using Twitter that make 420 00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:30,119 Speaker 1: it useful. If no one had jumped on Twitter, it 421 00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:33,680 Speaker 1: wouldn't be around. There are other services that were similar 422 00:24:33,720 --> 00:24:36,560 Speaker 1: to Twitter, some of which people thought were superior to Twitter, 423 00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:40,320 Speaker 1: but they didn't get adopted as quickly, and they, for 424 00:24:40,359 --> 00:24:44,400 Speaker 1: the most part, are not around anymore. So Web two 425 00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:48,560 Speaker 1: point oh kind of points to this idea of embracing 426 00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:53,280 Speaker 1: the consumer as a an integral part of your web presence. 427 00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:57,040 Speaker 1: They're not just an audience, They're a contributor in some way. 428 00:24:57,840 --> 00:24:59,919 Speaker 1: And you could argue that Web two point oh is 429 00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:02,320 Speaker 1: so much an evolution as it is just a different 430 00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:06,520 Speaker 1: approach to creating an experience on the web, which also 431 00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:09,120 Speaker 1: makes it difficult to talk about what comes next. I mean, 432 00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:11,640 Speaker 1: is there a web three point oh? Does that term 433 00:25:11,840 --> 00:25:16,000 Speaker 1: even mean anything? Now? I would argue that we definitely 434 00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:20,560 Speaker 1: have seen more evolution on the web since O'Reilly coined 435 00:25:20,680 --> 00:25:24,760 Speaker 1: the web two point oh term, particularly when it comes 436 00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:28,800 Speaker 1: to stuff like data tracking that's huge, way bigger than 437 00:25:28,840 --> 00:25:32,080 Speaker 1: it was in the mid two thousand's. Because of data tracking, 438 00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:35,879 Speaker 1: sites can customize a user's experience and serve up advertising 439 00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:39,160 Speaker 1: that is calculated to be more effective for that user. 440 00:25:40,080 --> 00:25:45,320 Speaker 1: And depending upon the implementation, data tracking can be downright scary. 441 00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:47,280 Speaker 1: And it turns out you don't have to share that 442 00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:50,720 Speaker 1: much data before a computer can figure out who you are. 443 00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:54,040 Speaker 1: Stuff that seems really general, like just a zip code 444 00:25:54,040 --> 00:25:56,679 Speaker 1: can be enough to narrow down just a few candidates. 445 00:25:56,680 --> 00:26:00,639 Speaker 1: So if I put my zip code in and I 446 00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:03,560 Speaker 1: have just maybe two or three other points of data, 447 00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:07,240 Speaker 1: that might be enough for an algorithm to really narrow 448 00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:09,920 Speaker 1: down between me and maybe one or two other people 449 00:26:10,359 --> 00:26:15,719 Speaker 1: who I could possibly be. It's actually pretty, you know, surprising, 450 00:26:15,760 --> 00:26:17,720 Speaker 1: how little information you need to share for that sort 451 00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:21,600 Speaker 1: of stuff to happen. Also, we know that data tracking 452 00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:26,280 Speaker 1: can be misused, either intentionally or not. There's the story 453 00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:31,240 Speaker 1: about Targets sending the young woman uh some, a young 454 00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:36,600 Speaker 1: woman some some coupons for expected mothers, and her father 455 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:40,600 Speaker 1: found out about it and was really upset at Target 456 00:26:41,080 --> 00:26:44,359 Speaker 1: because he thought they had misidentified her, his daughter, as 457 00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:47,080 Speaker 1: being pregnant. And then later on he found out that 458 00:26:47,160 --> 00:26:50,040 Speaker 1: in fact, she was pregnant. But the whole point of 459 00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:52,680 Speaker 1: that is that Target was trying to be proactive and helpful, 460 00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:57,399 Speaker 1: but in fact caused a ruckus. It was a little 461 00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:00,879 Speaker 1: too overenthusiastic of a response, as it turns out, and 462 00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:04,199 Speaker 1: that's largely due to data tracking. You don't even have 463 00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:06,800 Speaker 1: to identify a person or to create a problem. It's 464 00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:10,560 Speaker 1: not like Target new specifically who this young lady was. 465 00:27:10,680 --> 00:27:13,560 Speaker 1: They just identified that based upon her searches, she must 466 00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:18,080 Speaker 1: be pregnant. That's a problem. And we're seeing data tracking 467 00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:22,119 Speaker 1: used and everything from innocent or at least seemingly innocent 468 00:27:22,119 --> 00:27:25,600 Speaker 1: approaches like, well, you bought this one product, so here 469 00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:28,399 Speaker 1: are five other products that you will probably like based 470 00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:32,720 Speaker 1: upon your preferences that we've seen so far. That's not 471 00:27:32,880 --> 00:27:36,400 Speaker 1: that creepy. But there are other approaches where data tracking 472 00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:41,280 Speaker 1: is downright sinister, and I would argue that's a major 473 00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:43,879 Speaker 1: part of the web experience now, whether you're aware of 474 00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:47,320 Speaker 1: it or not. But it's definitely something that has evolved 475 00:27:47,320 --> 00:27:50,840 Speaker 1: since Web two point Oh. But another real jump in 476 00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:53,240 Speaker 1: the evolution of the Web comes to us because of 477 00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:58,360 Speaker 1: mobile devices. Now, O'Reilly recognized the importance of mobile devices 478 00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:02,080 Speaker 1: all the way back in two thousand four. O'Riley Media 479 00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:06,120 Speaker 1: said that interoperability was one of the features of Web 480 00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:10,320 Speaker 1: two point one of the cornerstones of the philosophy, meaning 481 00:28:10,359 --> 00:28:14,080 Speaker 1: that you should be able to access this web page 482 00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:19,800 Speaker 1: from multiple platforms, whether it's a computer or a mobile 483 00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:23,160 Speaker 1: device of some sort or something else. Now, in two 484 00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:26,359 Speaker 1: thousand and four, there were really not that many devices 485 00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:30,040 Speaker 1: that you could use to connect to the Web, not 486 00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:32,119 Speaker 1: in a meaningful way. A lot of the phones that 487 00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:34,080 Speaker 1: were out there were more like, you know, they have 488 00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:36,359 Speaker 1: text browsers for the web, so you could read some 489 00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:39,960 Speaker 1: text on certain web pages, it was pretty limited. It 490 00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:43,920 Speaker 1: wasn't until the smartphone really took off here in the 491 00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:47,120 Speaker 1: United States. That means it was after the introduction of 492 00:28:47,120 --> 00:28:52,480 Speaker 1: the iPhone that you really started seeing that. So you 493 00:28:52,520 --> 00:28:55,360 Speaker 1: get to a point now where more and more people 494 00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:58,640 Speaker 1: are using mobile devices to access the web. I meant 495 00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:02,480 Speaker 1: that web developers had to make sure they were paying 496 00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:08,480 Speaker 1: closer attention to the mobile experience because if they ignored it, 497 00:29:08,680 --> 00:29:11,040 Speaker 1: then a larger portion of their audience was going to 498 00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:16,560 Speaker 1: get upset with how how clunky or unpleasant it was 499 00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:20,640 Speaker 1: to access the website using a mobile device. And in fact, 500 00:29:20,720 --> 00:29:25,400 Speaker 1: it's more important than ever now. Uh, just recently, we've 501 00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:31,400 Speaker 1: seen mobile browsing outpace desktop browsing. In other words, more 502 00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:36,760 Speaker 1: more website visits are coming from mobile devices than desktop computers. 503 00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:39,760 Speaker 1: That happened for the first time about a year ago, 504 00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:43,200 Speaker 1: a little more than a year ago, and now we're 505 00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:46,520 Speaker 1: seeing that more people are using mobile devices to access 506 00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:49,320 Speaker 1: the web. Now, that doesn't mean that people have slacked 507 00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:53,520 Speaker 1: off of using desktop computers or laptops. People still are 508 00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:56,120 Speaker 1: using those devices. In fact, if you look at the trends, 509 00:29:56,520 --> 00:29:59,720 Speaker 1: they're still increasing year over year. So in two thousand 510 00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:02,600 Speaker 1: fifth teen, there are more people accessing the web on 511 00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:05,959 Speaker 1: desktops than there were in two thousand fourteen. It's just 512 00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:10,880 Speaker 1: that the growth of mobile devices has skyrocketed, so it 513 00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:15,560 Speaker 1: has outpaced the growth of desktops, so both of them 514 00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:19,360 Speaker 1: are up. It's just mobile devices have increased much faster 515 00:30:19,480 --> 00:30:23,800 Speaker 1: than desktop has. But that means you have to pay 516 00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:27,960 Speaker 1: attention to the experience that your customers have. Your audience 517 00:30:28,040 --> 00:30:31,120 Speaker 1: has both on mobile and on desktop. You want to 518 00:30:31,160 --> 00:30:34,840 Speaker 1: make sure that it is attractive and usable and that 519 00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:38,800 Speaker 1: people are able to get the experience they want depending up. 520 00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:41,000 Speaker 1: You know, no matter what platform they happen to be using, 521 00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:44,320 Speaker 1: whether it's a tablet or a smartphone, or a console 522 00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:50,080 Speaker 1: or uh desktop computer, it needs to be a satisfying experience. 523 00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:53,440 Speaker 1: So I would argue that is now really a defining 524 00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:56,800 Speaker 1: feature of the web, And if I had to define 525 00:30:57,280 --> 00:30:59,880 Speaker 1: web three point oh, I'd likely argue that it has 526 00:30:59,880 --> 00:31:02,840 Speaker 1: to do with both the data tracking and the mobile 527 00:31:02,840 --> 00:31:07,120 Speaker 1: devices more than pretty much anything else. But web experiences 528 00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:10,280 Speaker 1: are becoming more customized to the individual browsers, so that 529 00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:14,560 Speaker 1: could mean that one day will move into the era 530 00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:18,480 Speaker 1: of the semantic web. Now the semantic web is where 531 00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:22,320 Speaker 1: your experience will be very much personalized, and the web 532 00:31:22,360 --> 00:31:25,280 Speaker 1: itself will understand what it is you want to see 533 00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:31,160 Speaker 1: based upon context, word choice, your preferences, all of these 534 00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:33,520 Speaker 1: things that are wrapped up in things like data tracking 535 00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:36,920 Speaker 1: and understanding of natural language, that kind of stuff. We're 536 00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:39,640 Speaker 1: seeing a lot of development in that area. So maybe 537 00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:42,840 Speaker 1: one day we'll have a semantic web where when I 538 00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:45,320 Speaker 1: talk about surfing the web and when you talk about 539 00:31:45,320 --> 00:31:47,440 Speaker 1: serving the web, it will be two very different stories 540 00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:51,600 Speaker 1: because of our different styles. That's a possibility, but I 541 00:31:51,640 --> 00:31:53,920 Speaker 1: also think it's really likely we're gonna see the web 542 00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:58,880 Speaker 1: experience fracture as more services attempt to leverage various platforms. 543 00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:01,320 Speaker 1: Now what do I mean by that. It's starting to 544 00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:04,600 Speaker 1: sound like I'm talking business talk. But here's the simple 545 00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:10,200 Speaker 1: example that I'll use to illustrate my point. Think about Netflix. 546 00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:14,760 Speaker 1: So Netflix streaming has seen a ton of success over 547 00:32:14,800 --> 00:32:18,680 Speaker 1: the past few years. Put aside their their library of 548 00:32:18,720 --> 00:32:22,760 Speaker 1: movies and television series, which obviously I mean, that's that's problematic, 549 00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:27,560 Speaker 1: but the adoption of Netflix has been phenomenal, and I 550 00:32:27,600 --> 00:32:31,000 Speaker 1: would argue that our large reason for that is because 551 00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:34,920 Speaker 1: you weren't limited to computers or mobile devices to access Netflix. 552 00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:37,400 Speaker 1: You can access it on set top boxes, on video 553 00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:41,560 Speaker 1: game consoles, and more. Pretty much if the device was 554 00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:45,800 Speaker 1: capable of connecting to the internet. Netflix made sure it 555 00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:50,280 Speaker 1: could have some kind of platform on that device. They 556 00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:53,440 Speaker 1: wanted to get on everything they possibly could, and it 557 00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:57,560 Speaker 1: meant that they had widespread adoption. Beyond that, they were 558 00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:01,080 Speaker 1: really smart on the back end, built out a system 559 00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:04,080 Speaker 1: so that you could have a kind of seamless experience 560 00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:07,320 Speaker 1: moving from one device to another. So if I start 561 00:33:07,360 --> 00:33:10,920 Speaker 1: watching a movie under my Netflix account on my laptop computer, 562 00:33:11,640 --> 00:33:14,040 Speaker 1: and then I come home and I turn on my 563 00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:17,200 Speaker 1: video game console and I launched my Netflix app, I 564 00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:19,640 Speaker 1: can pick up where I left off because on the 565 00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:22,680 Speaker 1: back end, it's tracking everything. The same is true for 566 00:33:22,720 --> 00:33:25,920 Speaker 1: other services like YouTube. It's another great example. There are 567 00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:30,200 Speaker 1: YouTube smartphone apps and tablet apps and video game console apps, 568 00:33:31,080 --> 00:33:34,280 Speaker 1: and uh, that's the same sort of thing. My experience 569 00:33:34,320 --> 00:33:38,040 Speaker 1: on one can translate over to another, so that I 570 00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:42,000 Speaker 1: can keep on building out this profile of what I like, 571 00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:46,160 Speaker 1: and YouTube will continuously suggest other videos that are similar 572 00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:49,800 Speaker 1: to ones that I've really enjoyed, which might be why 573 00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:54,320 Speaker 1: I have so many videos of dogs on skateboards or 574 00:33:54,360 --> 00:33:56,520 Speaker 1: that could just be coincidence. I don't really understand how 575 00:33:56,560 --> 00:33:59,440 Speaker 1: it works behind the scenes at any rate. It's really 576 00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:03,800 Speaker 1: interesting to me that that could potentially be the new era. 577 00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:06,920 Speaker 1: It's not so much a Web three point oh as 578 00:34:06,960 --> 00:34:09,480 Speaker 1: it could be a let's, you know, let's look at 579 00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:14,560 Speaker 1: how we can make our service across all different platforms 580 00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:18,040 Speaker 1: so people can access it however they want, and that 581 00:34:18,080 --> 00:34:20,920 Speaker 1: goes beyond Web. In fact, Web might be too limited 582 00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:24,959 Speaker 1: a term to use for that sort of thing, which 583 00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:27,400 Speaker 1: means we kind of need a new term for it. 584 00:34:27,480 --> 00:34:30,399 Speaker 1: We need to come up with a word that explains 585 00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:35,359 Speaker 1: this particular world one where you have these services that 586 00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:39,000 Speaker 1: go across all sorts of platforms, allowing you to access 587 00:34:39,040 --> 00:34:41,880 Speaker 1: it however you like. And I think I've come up 588 00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:46,919 Speaker 1: with a name. I'm calling it Frank. Frank's nice name. 589 00:34:47,560 --> 00:34:51,399 Speaker 1: Robin Day's got a hedgehog called Frank. But seriously, I'd 590 00:34:51,480 --> 00:34:54,120 Speaker 1: rather just kind of ditch the web two point oh 591 00:34:54,360 --> 00:34:57,480 Speaker 1: term altogether, which might be a moot point. I don't 592 00:34:57,520 --> 00:35:01,120 Speaker 1: know that anyone's still talking about web two point oh. Seriously, 593 00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:03,840 Speaker 1: it's kind of a non term at this point, but 594 00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:06,359 Speaker 1: I'd like to just erase it because I think Web 595 00:35:06,360 --> 00:35:08,799 Speaker 1: two point I was too confusing a term. I think 596 00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:13,440 Speaker 1: it misled people. It it compares the web to things 597 00:35:13,520 --> 00:35:18,480 Speaker 1: like software patches or software versions, and that's not accurate. Um, 598 00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:21,040 Speaker 1: I really wish we could come up with a different 599 00:35:21,160 --> 00:35:27,319 Speaker 1: phrase for that particular idea that doesn't suggest an evolution, 600 00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:30,359 Speaker 1: because it really was kind of a divergent path, not 601 00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:33,000 Speaker 1: so much that one evolved into the other, but one 602 00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:37,520 Speaker 1: approach was more successful than the other. But I'm not 603 00:35:37,560 --> 00:35:39,799 Speaker 1: in charge of such things, so I guess web two 604 00:35:39,840 --> 00:35:41,640 Speaker 1: point I was what will end up calling it forever, 605 00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:46,799 Speaker 1: even if we're just talking about the past. But what 606 00:35:46,840 --> 00:35:49,239 Speaker 1: do you guys think was the term web two point 607 00:35:49,239 --> 00:35:52,399 Speaker 1: oh ever really relevant? Do you think I'm totally off 608 00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:55,680 Speaker 1: base here? And what would you call the current era 609 00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:58,960 Speaker 1: of the web what we have right now? Would that 610 00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:01,200 Speaker 1: be web three point or would you prefer to call 611 00:36:01,239 --> 00:36:03,239 Speaker 1: it something else? Do you have a thing in mind? 612 00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:05,680 Speaker 1: I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Write me 613 00:36:05,760 --> 00:36:08,960 Speaker 1: at tech stuff at how stuff works dot com, or 614 00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:12,360 Speaker 1: you can drop me a line on Facebook, Twitter or Tumbler. 615 00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:15,719 Speaker 1: I use tech stuff h s W at all three 616 00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:24,200 Speaker 1: and I'll talk to you guys again really soon for 617 00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:26,680 Speaker 1: more on this and bathands of other topics because it 618 00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:37,160 Speaker 1: has stuff. Works dot Com