THE EVOLUTION OF THE INTERNET

Web3.0 - 101?

Some may think Web3.0 is a prominent topic for everyone; in my interactions with people, I have noticed that some still doubt what Web3.0 is and how it works.?Although Web3.0 was introduced back in 2014 by Gavin Wood - the current co-founder of Etherium - it wasn’t until 2021 that the word echoed among Media, businesses and internet users. Via this blog, I aim to take you through a semi non-technical, quickly explained description of the internet's evolution and how it affects different industries and our daily lives.?

Let’s start with “why Web3.0”??

Well, because we have been working with two previous versions before this or one in some cases.?

So it goes Web1.0, Web2.0, and Web3.0.?

Please note that there are already thoughts and talks about Web4.0, but we will not address that in this blog.?

Word Wide Web - Web1.0

Web 1.0 was coined by Tim Barners-Lee, and it was the first implementation of the “World Wide Web” it lasted from approximately 1989 to 2005. That was the beginning of www.’s. That version was called the “Read-only” internet because few people had access to content creation, and there were only a few content providers—the consumers had limited or no access to content creation. The Web1.0 major technologies included HTML, HTTP and URL and were only available and utilized to establish an online presence. Those technologies were made for human intelligence; they had no machine learning compatible content. Therefore, the “webmasters” were only in charge of managing the content of static web pages and using primary hypertext mark-up language.?

So that was the golden time for websites like AOL, Yahoo, MSN, Netscape, Prodigy, and a few more, just like these.?

By the end of 2003,?weather.com?was among the most visited websites with over 170M visits.

I think that the highlight of Web1.0 was the rise of Google.?

I remember the first time I ever used Google to search for something. In the winter of 2002, I was in grade 7, and the first word I searched on Google was “Volcano,” a research project for my science project.?

Social Web - Web2.0

Web2.0, on the other hand, was defined as a read-write web, meaning it was created for users to have more interactions and less control. So, it was called the “Social Web,” where users had the benefit of interacting with each other online and curating personal content for the web. Web 2.0 was introduced in 2004 and popularized by Tim O’Reilly and Dale Dougherty. Web2.0 was not only more social than the previous form but also implied flexible web design, creative reuse, updates, and collaborative content creation. The modification in Web2.0 and one of the outstanding features of this web form is the support collaboration and help gather collective intelligence, unlike Web1.0.?

Web2.0 is defined in three main categories:?

• Technology Centric Definition

In addition to blogs, wikis, podcasts, and RSS feeds, the web has become a platform beyond the reach of a single device.?

• Business Centric Definition

Using software and business models to create businesses. Understanding how to develop successful business models in a new world of the internet as a new medium of communications.?

• User-Centric Definition?

In this sense, the social web describes websites with communities of users. It is all about content management and new ways of communication and interaction between users. The form has increased the user-to-user information exchange.?

In summary, since the presence of Web2.0, internet users grew from ~900M in 2004 to ~4.5B in 2020. Only Youtube alone grew from ~1.95M in 2004 users to ~1.9B users in 2019. Many other popular Social Media channels have been developed and have played an important role in exchanging information and awareness, replacing traditional media such as newspapers or TV. Web2.0 allowed us to create and curate our content online and communicate with various users worldwide. Social Media blossomed into our lives and allowed us to become part of diverse online communities by choice. The Social Web also had an eye-catching influence on business, impacting commerce affairs. Businesses thrived by using new technologies to introduce and promote what they do to a larger group of people.?

But that wasn’t the end of it. The demands of users and the intelligence of the pioneers have yet again elevated, and we are growing into the surreal world of Web3.0.?

Semantic Web - Web3.0

Along with Web3.0, you may have heard a few words like “decentralized” or “blockchain”; they go together. Above we talked about the functionalities and the evolution of the internet, but there is a significant difference between Web1.0 and Web2.0 with Web3.0. The infrastructures of the previous forms were owned by corporations and controlled by regulations by the governments.?

In Web3.0, users are the internet's rulers, which means a decentralized internet.?

Instead of accessing the internet through a third party like Google, Apple or Facebook, users can access information without a trace and are in a hundred percent control of their data. So from the “read-only” internet moving into “read-write” now, we are in the “read-write-execute” era. Instead of our data being stored in one server that a corporation owns, we are using a technology called the blockchain. A blockchain is essentially a digital ledger of transactions that is duplication and distributed across the entire network of computer systems. This means higher security and no hacking or cheating on the internet. In simple words, our request is sent out to the network nodes, and it becomes a block once accepted. After the validation, our block is added to the chain of other blocks. We are the blockchain; every single internet user is forming the blockchain.?

To wrap things up, Web3.0 is not as complex as it sounds. It is a form of the internet where users have more privacy and security than the previous forms. This infrastructure is built on blockchain technology; that is why it’s called decentralized. The goal of the Semantic Web is the evolution in which computers understand the meaning behind information. They can learn what you are interested in and help with what you want faster, and understand the relationship between things.?

Web3.0 well-known use cases:

- De-Fi (Decentralized Finance)

- DAO ( Decentralized Anonymous Organizations)

- Metaverse?

- Blockchain Games

In the next blog, I will write about Metaverse and how it can improve our lives.

I hope you enjoyed this blog. Please share your comments.