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The Evolution of the Web From Web 1.0 to Web 4.0
Dr. Mike Evans School of Systems Engineering University of Reading

Overview
1). Web 1.0 – the Read Only Web
Web 1.0 Technologies, Search, Economics, DotCom Boom and Bust

2). Web 2.0 – the Read/Write/Execute Web
What is Web 2.0? Understanding the Dynamics of the Web Web 2.0 Technologies, Search and Applications

3). Web 3.0 – theSemantic Web…
…and why it’ll never work!

4). Web 4.0 – is it here now?
Some ideas The brand new field of Web Science
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1.0 Web 1.0 – the Read Only Web
Origins of the Web
Invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 First Web Browser – October 1990 First Web Server – November 1990 (nxoc01.cern.ch )

Tim Berners’ Lee’s Vision:
“The dream behind the Web is of a commoninformation space in which we communicate by sharing information. “
(Berners-Lee, 1998)

What we got:
Brochureware!

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1.1 Web 1.0 Web Sites
General attributes:
Fairly static information Updated infrequently Typified as ‘brochureware’

Elements of web page:
Images, navigation icons, text, menu

Writing style:
Impersonal, professional, descriptive, statementsof fact

Linking structure:
Minimal, unchanging, little interaction between sites
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Example of a Web 1.0 Page

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The World’s First Web Page
http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

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And the World’s first Search Engine!http://www.w3.org/History/19921103hypertext/hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/Overview.html

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1.2 Web 1.0 Technologies
Core Web Protocols
HTML, HTTP, URI

Newer Protocols
XML, XHTML, CSS

Server-Side Scripting
ASP, PHP, JSP, CGI, PERL

Client-Side Scripting
JavaScript, VBScript, Flash

Downloadable Components
ActiveX/Java
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Web 1.0 Apps
Mostly Read only Someinteractivity
Submit forms Dynamic Applications

Problems
Slow, clunky Page needs to refreshed when new info entered Session state not handled well
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Web 1.0 Search Technologies
Characterised by large indexes but crude retrieval techniques World Wide Web Worm (WWWW), 1993
First Search Engine Indexed titles and headers only

Yahoo, 1994
Human edited directory(still is!)

WebCrawler, 1994
First search engine to search the text of the web page

AltaVista, 1995
Pinnacle of Web 1.0 technology Natural language querying with Boolean operators Huge index
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Search 1.0 Failings
Result of Web 1.0 search technology:
Focused purely on size of index Relevance was ignored By 1997, only 1 of the top 4 search engines could finditself! Web Search seen as hopeless

And Google?
Strictly Web 2.0
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1.3 Understanding Web 1.0
Web 1.0 Dynamics
How does the Web work? Poorly understood Reactive Research Hit, miss and pure guesswork

Web 1.0 Economics
Insanity! “Advertising” would pay for everything All focused on traffic VC billions led to Dot Com boom
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TheDotCom Boom (1997-2000)
DotCom Theory (Wikipedia)
an Internet company's survival depended on expanding its customer base as rapidly as possible, even if it produced large annual losses.

Mantra: “Get large or get lost” Exit strategy:
Get bought out by a bigger DotCom or make an IPO before you burned through your VC’s funds

Burn rate:
The lifespan of a DotCom – the rate at which a nonprofitablecompany lacking a viable business model The Evolution runs through its capital of the Web
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DotCom statistics
Average first day returns on Internet IPOs reached 89% TheGlobe.com made 606% gain on first day Cisco became the world’s largest company, worth $400 billion (now $100 billion) $1 billion per week of VC money flowed into Silicon Valley AOL took over Time Warner for $200 billion...