- Static Web - Web 1.0 was the static web were you had to change the page or reload the page to change its contents.
- Dynamic Web - Web 2.0 was the dynamic web where you could change the content without changing your browser page. (Google Maps, Ajax Pages).
- Real time Web - Web 3.0 is the real time web where the content of the page will change in real time as the "author(s)" changes it. Google Wave makes this possible.
Web 2.0, the dynamic web took off in 2004 with Google maps. That is when developers realized that you could change the contents of the page in place, paving the way for Ajax technologies, leading to the social web.
Web 3.0 as described above is a technological leap to the next level. What is interesting is that the very same people who brought about Web 2.0 with Google maps, the brothers, Lars and Jens Rasmussen are also the ones who are behind Google Wave, poised to bring about web 3.0!
Much has already been written about Google Wave, some even skeptical. But most of the articles seem to have missed the fundamental point what Google Wave is all about. What Google Wave has done is to combine the static, dynamic, real time aspects of the web into one composite object called the "Wave".
The Wave Object can be turned into anything the developer wants. It can be turned into a message, blog comment, blog, real time game, tweet, a wall, literally limited only to your imagination. That is why 4000 developers gave it a standing ovation when it was revealed at the Google IO conference. (Standing ovations are an extremely rare occurrence at developer conferences).
Imagine a chat messenger without its text box (where you type), which has only its display area. Now imagine that you can type right into the display area. While you are typing the person you are chatting with can see you typing in real time. Actually if it is a chat conference all the people can type in at the same time and all of them can seen it in real time. You can add, pics video's and other types of content into the display area. You can fork off private conversations. A robot can spell check while all this is happening. The possibilities are endless. And this is what a Google Wave is.
Actually Google Wave sits on top of the same protocol that Google Talk sits on. The Jabber protocol now called XMPP. Google added to this protocol and called it the Wave protocol. It is an Open protocol, anyone can implement this protocol. Google is not keeping anything proprietary here. I can already see an army of developers piling on to this technology and you will see a lot cool stuff coming out within months.
Web 3.0 is here!
Posts
3 comments:
Personally I was thinking:
Web 1.0 was static (one-way communication)
Web 2.0 was dynamic (2-way esp. social)
Web 3.0 will be semantic (creating information from all this data out there)
I look at Wave as an addition to the internet rather than to the web, although the two can be linked -- in the same way a webform can link email and the web (both internet technologies) a website could be linked to a Wave "object" (as in their blog demo).
I can imagine standalone Wave clients which are not web browsers themselves, in the same way as email clients exist today, or desktop RSS aggregator apps.
However, I'll be happy to be proved wrong! Roll on the Wave!
Oh, and making it open is the smartest move from Google I've ever seen. Kudos to the brothers Rasmussen and their enlightened employers.
In a side note, their current demos use HTML5 as the app layer, and although they showed it working in Chrome, Safari and Firefox (and they could have used Opera which I believe is currently in the lead in the HTML5 stakes) they didn't and couldn't have shown IE, not even IE8 (Shock Horror Probe!).
Microsoft still have the "most used" browser (I'm not going to say popular), some may suggest through unethical monopoly-style bundling and "updates" to their "most used" OS - and it has been mooted that IE itself is the biggest thing holding back the web (I don't have a lawyer handy so I wouldn't suggest such things myself ;o) ).
As a professional web developer, I'm sorry to say that my first gut-reaction to seeing the awesomeness of the HTML5 Wave demos was "oh that's a shame, we won't be able to use that because of IE".
However, I feel that there are now enough of us, and with Google and a few other big players (Facebook?) behind us, along with a few "killer apps", I think we can finally shout "Screw IE!" to the world and just create the best software we can - we can use M$'s own conditional comments to alert IE users that they are missing out and could install some better software by simply "clicking here or here".
I know HTML5 hasn't yet been ratified, and so it could be suggested I'm being too hard on IE, but given their track record in implementing even well established "web technologies" (PNG anyone? CSS?) I don't think we should hold our breath for them to catch up to HTML5. Yes, there is a process for making standards, and we should follow it, but the web is ours and we should never stop pushing at the frontiers, especially not through of fear of one big bully.
It's fun being on the crest of a Wave. :o)
I am in tune with your views.
As for IE incompatibilities I am sure someone will come up with a compatibility layer for wave. Something like they did with canvas.
Wave plugin for IE anyone?
Post a Comment