I still don't know, but Damien posted a link to a site that sums it up:
wankr

It's for JavaScript fetishists, I believe.

The original link I posted was done in jest

There is some really interesting stuff being down under the banner of web 2.0, but there is also a hell of a lot of hype.

While browsing through some of the blogs I came across this one:

http://web2.0ireland.com/

It could be interesting ....

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I am very surprised at the level of negative response I see about web 2.0

It seems that many people think that it is all hypw ala bubble 1.0, btu personally I see the many benefits it bestows on web users. I have been doing some development with the XMLhttpRequest and dynamic UI (AJAX - altough I can hear the sighs already) for an application being built for a client and really have to say the user benefits are huge. Pages with forms can be validated in real time from the server (with realtime error alerts - no more page refreshes with 'The following error occured:'), page elements can be updated on the fly and the user gets an experience much more similar to desktop apps than web browsing that remains constant across platforms.

consider that gmail, googlemaps, backpack, digg (check out digg spy to see realtime updates on your page of waht others are digging)... the list goes on and on, all come under the web 2.0 umbrella.

If you want to learn more check out http://web20workgroup.com/ for more.

I found the web2.0ireland.com site a while back but it seems to be rarely updated and gives no background info on who is involved (pity).

[edit] just noticed that this board is using some web2.0! If you make or edit a post the page doesn't refresh but your request is sent in the background and the new post is dynamically injected into the dom via javascript (AJAX).

rgh - as I said earlier I posted that link as a joke

I would agree that the use of new techniques etc., can help improve the experience for users and I welcome that. However you will have to forgive me if I take a dig at some of the hype surrounding it

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oops... didn't look at the link... now I see

OK there might be a lot of hype but you can go and look at the reality and how 'web 2.0' or whatever you want to call it is/will affect the user experience.

rgds

Yes. I know there is, but would you not agree that some of it is being exagerrated?

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If you look through the hype (forget about tag names 'web 2.0' etc.) and focus on the actual applications that are being developed and the interactions these will create and foster you can see that there is reality behind the hype.

But to agree with you, yes there is much hype (check out techcrunch for news on how much web2.0 is worth).

On the flip side, go over to boards.ie and you will see in the developer board many people slagging off AJAX as being a buzz word. I dont get it? It may be a buzz word but the underlying technologies (not new, I know) and what they achieve certianly are no buzz. Who cares what they are called! I think ajax is one of the better new tools to appear and that any decent web developer should have it in there toolkit. Just my €0.02.

(oh, and BTW, I relaise that AJAX != web 2.0, but just a small subset of web 2.0 (or whatever term you want to use!))

I was inspired by this thread to write a long rant about AJAX

I don't like the term web 2.0. It is a silly term in the context of an ever changing web.

Techniques like AJAX are great when used correctly and user participation really bring life into a web site.

I suppose my website could be labelled web 2.0, although I like to think of it as a well designed and functional web site.

http://kick.ie/