Web 2.0

What exactly makes a webpage made for "Web 2.0"?
I know one where I see one, it is very simple yet nice looking and might have some AJAX stuff. But what exactly is the "scientific definition" of a web2.0 page?
I have several theories, but not sure which one is right.

1) It has AJAX. Not sure how this makes it anything special. AJAX is just JavaScript that interacts with some other webpage, automaticly updating the page it is running at. But then JavaScript has existed for several ages and such cool effects were possible before. The funny thing is that 2 or 3 years ago any javascript was considered "bad web design" because no all browsers supported it.

2) It has a socialist theme to it. This is something I've started noticing about web 2.0 sites. They all provide a way for different people to interact. youtube allows people to share videos, facebook allows people to create networks of friends and last.fm collects the names of song you play and compares them to other people and based on this gives you suggestions for new songs.

3) This is definitly wrong, but it seems like a cool definition. The .com boubble, when internet came to the average user and new companies emerged from that. It has been slowing down until recently, with only the big players innovating. But now new companies are becoming famouse (ei: youtube) by bringing original concepts into reality. It's like another .com boubble, version 2.

What do others think?

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/ti...-is-web-20.html - probably clarifies the defintion.

I think you're on the right track; I think essentially, it gives more freedom and capabilities to users of the website, encourages viewers, and leads to a more relaxed and analytical web. I think the word would be "usercentric" although the spellchecker might not like me for that. An example they provided was the transition from Web 1.0 Netscape to Web 2.0 Google. You can probably see that tranformation pretty easily. Everyone used to use Netscape; now Google is taking that position, and no one can say that Google doesn't provide.

Innovation, I think, would describe Web 2.0 in a nutshell. An innovative and inclusive approach to the web

Yeah I agree, we can even call Web 2.0, the social web and almost every web 2.0 site provides some tool or the other to meet up with people.
Thanks biscuitrat for posting the link, it does clarify it very easily and accurately.
Allmost all of the sites I have been to have a little bit of AJAX but yeah I just simply hate MySpace, it's like the worse web-site idea ever, Orkut is far more better than MySpace although it has lesser personlization options...

I've been on many websites for quite some time and notice their change, 90% of the currently active sites I've been have introduce Web 2.0 in their sites which the most popular AJAX technology... Websites like gmail uses Web 2.0 effectively and I really like it alot... Forum software like vBulletin and the upcoming IPB 2.2 has AJAX technology in them and really works well with those users now.. So if you want some examples of Web 2.0 sites you can look at those leading examples out there, they sure make a big step towards the new technology!

Thank you for all your replies, seems I was I on the right track. There is one other definition that I found on digg today. It talks about how the Web2.0 sites are defined by creating an API that allows other sides to use it. I don't really think so because most of the sites don't provide it, or it's just hidden. Also other sites (ei Amazon, Google) had an API to be used by third party developers for ages. What do others think?

By the way, here is the link: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/?p=3848

So, nobody can say "this is web 2.0 and that not", right? It´s a bit subjective I guess.

By the way, what´s the meaning of AJAX?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_(programming)

I guess that says it all... AJAX is some technology that makes your webpage more interactive and allows certain part of the page to change on request and get information from the server without a refresh of the entire page...

web 2.0 is a very important step in the world of web design with the use of XHTML CSS and AJAX we are trying to make a lighter and better more accsible to the world around us.

None of us would be here right now if Web 2.0 never came about
And, we'd all loose a valuable part of our vocabulary...the world google (in a verb sense)
Seriously though, Web 2.0 is a big improvement, I remember when everything on the internet was so useless...and yet back then I didn't really even think so...but now.....

I didnt even realize there was a web 2.0. I know about ajax and I have used it, but I have seriously never heard of web 2.0. I kind of thought this post was going to be about www2, but its just another way of calling a website I guess. Kind of like when dynamic websites came along, but instead of calling it web 1.5 they called it dynamic, and if your page was static, it was from old times.