How Web 2.0 Changed the Internet Through Social Networking

In the '90s, the web was just about publishing and not participation, and that only advertisers (big companies) call the shots and not the consumers. The internet was dominated by large websites, which have enough money to spend on climbing to the top and stay visible.

In 2005, a paper about the future new trends in the Internet behavior had been published by Tim O'Reilly and members of the O'Reilly & Associates. Web 2.0 is the coined term to better describe the gradual shift between the "old" way and the "new" way. The right time has come to treat "the web as platform". People will be browsing the web to find results that they expect. This shall be the new trends.

Web 2.0 enables the users to control their own data, therefore providing a rich and fruitful experience to users. Services are offered, instead of packaged software, and these are cost-effective and available to all. Moreover, software can be used above level of single device. Everyone can participate. The data sources and transformations are so transparent can mingle together again and again. Minds from different places can meet and express the wisdom they possess.

These futuristic and somewhat ambitious ways of thinking gave way to the birth of the social networking sites. The general idea is to find ways on how to use the web as a meeting place for people who want to find other people. They want a place where they can talk about their feelings, their thoughts, their personal interests, and so forth and so on. The social animals are transformed into virtual personalities who use the web as a place for social interaction, as though it is a favorite bar where friends regularly meet and talk after work at Friday nights.

Blogging, also known as online personal diaries, has been around long before these concepts are envisioned. But the facilitation of the self-publishing technology of blogs and wikis had helped develop the core that social networking sites use as foundation. Everyone can participate by leaving comments or publishing own blogs, articles, and even product reviews.

A growing number of social networking environments, namely: MySpace, Facebook, Ning, Bebo, Orkut, Yahoo360, Friendster, WAYN, Zorpia, Pulse, and LinkedIn; have provided their users the necessary tools (like rich media and text) to show full self expression. Through social networking, rich media has become richer. The doors for all types of communication imaginable had opened and remained opened.

Communication through telephone, email, and Instant Messaging is always buzzing with excitement but the interaction within a busy and popular social network sites is definitely brimming with excitement. Indeed, social networking has changed the web for the better.