With the advent of Web 2.0, websites and e-commerce has new dimensions in the world of the internet. It has advantages of increasing user interactivity over Web 1.0 which was the traditional way of web site design.

Web 2.0 features added to websites are needed for a successful business on the internet.

What is Web 2.0?

It is a revolution in the world of website design, development and can be assumed as another form of web based communities like social networking sites and forums that encourage creativity, user interactivity and sharing of views and information between users.

According to Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media (formerly O’Reilly & Associates) and a supporter of the free software and open source movement, Web 2.0 can be defined as:

“Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as a platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.”

Benefits over Web 1.0

In contrast to Web 1.0, Web 2.0 is an advanced form of the World Wide Web. Its technologies such as web forums, blogs, social networking sites, RSS feeds, Wikipedias, and podcasts facilitate user interaction in contrast with the read only websites built with Web 1.0.

It provides a platform which the user not only can retrieve information from the website, but also can modify and add the data on the website.

Inventions with Web 2.0

It may be regarded as syndication of web site content into web feeds. Web feeds are basically a syndicated feed that includes frequently updated content and allow users to subscribe to the feeds. Web feeds are also a Web 2.0 feature as it permits the user to manage the site’s data in another context.

With the use of Ajax, implementation of its features has become much easier. Updating the site’s data by the user and implementation of it without the need of refreshing the website is one of the functionality of Ajax.