What Is Web 3.0? The Future of the Internet
Siva Gowtham Paladugu
Strategic Accounts | Business Development | Empowering Large Brands to Drive Growth | Account Management | MBA
Web 3.0 is the latest Internet technology that leverages machine learning, artificial intelligence and blockchain to achieve real-world human communication. The icing on the cake is that web 3.0 not only allows individuals to own their data, but they will be compensated for their time spent on the web.
Sound?too good to be true? Welcome to the future of the Internet.
In this article, we will discuss:
What Is Web 3.0?
Web 3.0?(also known as web3) is the third iteration of the Internet that interconnects data in a decentralized way to deliver a faster and more personalized user experience. It is built using artificial intelligence, machine learning and the semantic web, and uses the blockchain security system to keep your information safe and secure.
Decentralization, openness and incredible user utility are the defining characteristics of web 3.0.
The idea behind using the semantic web is that it understands and?interprets the context?and concept of the data. Therefore, when a user searches for an answer, web 3.0 delivers the most accurate and relevant result to the end-user.?
Tech giants such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft are some of the few companies currently making an enormous profit from user data. But web 3.0 will enable all of us to be?compensated for our time and data: “people have been exploited by tech firms — essentially, deceived into giving valuable data away with little or no compensation from the firms who collect and benefit from it. Instead, [with web3] people should be paid for the data they share.”
This means that users will be able to sell their own data to advertisers while still retaining ownership and data privacy. In addition, web3 will enable websites and applications to use data more meaningfully and tailor the information to each user.
Hence, this third generation of the web is an Internet where you will enjoy personalized interactions with machines and websites in the same manner as when you communicate with any other human.
Key?Features of Web 3.0
The key features of web 3.0 are:
?Difference Between Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0
Before we dive further into web 3.0, we need to understand how we got here – via web 1.0 and web 2.0.
Here’s the brief history of the?Internet:
Web 1.0 (1989-2005)?
Web 1.0?started in 1989?and remained active until 2005.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee?invented the World Wide Web in 1989?while working at CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, or European Organization for Nuclear Research).
The primary technologies that comprised web 1.0 were:
The primary purpose of web 1.0 was to find information. Significantly, web users could not interact freely because it was “read-only,” so any discussion was done offline.?
Furthermore, because there were no search engines available during this iteration, navigating the World Wide Web (WWW) was not nearly as simple as it is now. You needed to know the website address (URL) for any site you wanted to visit. As one tech writer recalls, to?“browse” the Internet back in the day, “we had to go through?FTP file directories?screen by screen and hope that the file we wanted was in there somewhere.”
However, by the mid-1990s,?Netscape Navigator?emerged as the first (or at least first successful) web browser, and pioneered several browser features we still use today:
Alas, Netscape was annihilated by Microsoft during what was known as the browser wars.
Web 2.0 (1999-2012)
Darcy DiNucci first coined the term “web 2.0” in 1999 in her article “Fragmented Future”.
However, it was later popularized by Tim O'Reilly and Dale Dougherty?in late 2004.
This is the stage of the web that most of us are familiar with. By 1999, people were starting to be able to engage with each other on the Internet via social media platforms, content blogs, and other services. Eventually,?smartphones were created?and mobile computing was launched.
People began interacting online in discussion forums and creating content that other Internet users could access and like, comment on or share. This was/is the era of Instagram Influencers and Yelp?reviewers and social proof. The read-only mode became outdated, and web 2.0 was now promoted as a platform for interaction.
Web 2.0,?as defined by O'Reilly?and others?between 1999 and 2004, shifted the world away from static desktop web pages created for information usage via expensive servers and toward interactive encounters and?user-created content.
Companies such as Uber, Airbnb, Facebook, and other social media platforms arose during the web 2.0 reign.
Web 2.0 Core Layers of Innovation
The emergence of web 2.0 was driven mainly by three core layers of innovation:
Mobile
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The iPhone's introduction in 2007 spread?mobile?connectivity to the Internet, allowing users to be online at all times. On the other hand, web 2.0 serves another purpose other than simply receiving the information we add to the web: It also collects data from us all by itself to analyze and add to the web. It can track our whereabouts, purchasing habits, financial activities, and so forth.
Social
Until the arrival of Friendster,?MySpace?and later Facebook in 2004, the Internet was primarily dark and anonymous.
These social networks enticed users to engage in specific actions and content creation, including recommendations and referrals – from convincing us to share photos online with particular friend groups to entrusting our homes to unknown travelers on Airbnb and even getting into a stranger's car with Uber.
Cloud
The cloud commoditized the creation and upkeep of Internet sites and applications. New cloud providers consolidated and refined mass-produced individual computer hardware within several massive data centers located all over the world.
Companies were able to transition from purchasing and maintaining their own costly and specialized infrastructure upfront to renting warehouses, computation power and management tools on the go. Millions of entrepreneurs enjoyed low-cost resources that multiplied as their firms grew.
There's no denying that the Internet became more valuable, participatory and integral to our lives throughout this period. However, this also resulted in the web becoming more centralized.
It facilitated increased collaboration by introducing new ways of organizing and connecting with others. However, it also created new chances for online stalking, cyberbullying, doxing, distributing false information, identity theft, and other forms of online harassment.
The Death of Web 2.0 and the Need for Web 3.0
Ultimately, Web 2.0 became more obsolete during the end of 2012, and people were starting to be aware of web 3.0.
Since most of the currently used services were dominated by behemoths such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon, it raised some complaints. Customers were given limited management over their data usage, and this raised numerous allegations against these multibillion-dollar corporations and numerous smaller businesses that abound on the Internet.
The blames states that businesses treat users unfairly, take advantage of their data, and put a serious threat on democracy and free speech.
Frances Haugen, a data designer and scientist who worked as a product manager, blew the whistle on?Facebook’s misconduct.In an?interview with CBS, she recently accused the tech giant of ignoring the spread of hate and disinformation on its social media platforms:“The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook. And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its interests, like making more money.”
Although Facebook has refuted Haugen's allegations, this isn't the first time that big tech has been held accountable for its conduct.
Several stories have surfaced about?Amazon’s aggressive business practices,?Facebook's privacy infractions, and?Google's data privacy issues?and?unethical AI use,?all of which raise serious safety alerts about web 2.0.
That is why many blockchain specialists view web 3.0 as a safer version.
Web 3.0 (2006-ongoing)
In 2006, the term web 3.0?was coined by John Markoff, a reporter for?The New York Times:
In many ways, web 3.0 is a return to Berners-Lee's original Semantic Web concept, in which no central authority approval is required, and no central controlling node exists.
Layers of Web 3.0
Whereas web 2.0 was primarily driven by the introduction of mobile, social and cloud technologies, web 3.0 is powered by three new layers of technological innovation:
1) Edge Computing
While currently commoditized personal computer technology was modified in data centers in web 2.0, the shift to web 3.0 is moving the data center out to the edge (i.e.?edge computing) and sometimes straight into our hands.
Data centers are complemented by an array of advanced computing resources distributed among phones, laptops, appliances, sensors and cars, which will produce and consume?160 times more data?in 2025 than in 2010.
2) Decentralized Data Network
Decentralized data networks enable various data generators to sell or trade their data without losing ownership, risking privacy or relying on intermediaries. As a result, decentralized data networks will have a long list of data providers in the growing ‘data economy.'
For example, when you log in to an app using your email and password, or when you like a video or ask Alexa a question, all these activities are tracked and monitored by tech giants such as Google and Facebook to better target their advertisements.?
However, in web 3.0, data is decentralized which means that users will own their data. Decentralized data networks enable various data generators to sell or trade their data without losing ownership, risking privacy or relying on intermediaries. It enables you to log in securely over the Internet without getting tracked by using?Internet Identity.?
3) Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms have advanced to make valuable, and sometimes life-saving, predictions and acts.
When built on top of emerging decentralized data structures that provide access to a plethora of data that today's tech titans desire, the possible applications extend far beyond targeted advertising into areas such as:
For example, Internet review services such as Trustpilot allow customers to leave feedback on any product or service. Unfortunately, a firm may pay a large group of people to write excellent evaluations for its products or services.
As a result, to deliver accurate data, the Internet needs AI to learn how to discriminate between the genuine and the fraudulent.