The evolution of Web 2.0. What's next?
In this article I would like to share some thoughts on the development of technologies for publishing on the Internet over the past decade (the term is taken rather conditionally), and also try to suggest what can be expected from the industry in the near future. I warn you in advance, everything stated below is solely my personal assessment and in no case does not claim to be absolute objectivity.
Go...
To understand what happened in recent years, it is necessary to list the significant events that have influenced what the Internet looks like today. In my opinion, these events should include the emergence of AJAX, as well as the emergence of the concept of custom content. It is worth noting that both of course appeared much earlier, but it has become popular over the past 10 years.
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Officially, the term AJAX appeared in February 2005, and already in October the well-known book Ajax in Action was released . The news about the revival of JavaScript spread all over the Internet, bringing hope to thousands of developers (including me). But despite the fact that AJAX was used everywhere, nothing globally changed (in view of the obvious limitations). Nevertheless, AJAX allowed such revolutionary services as Google Maps, Gmail, Google Docs (in which I am typing this article) and many others to appear.
However, if I were an astrologer, I would say that this decade has passed under the sign of user-generated content. I think it was finally understood by everyone on March 13, 2010, when on the volume of the generated Facebook traffic it became equal to the search service Google. This event, like nothing else, has become evidence of, if not a paradigm shift in, the publication of information on the Internet, then at least its new round (details below).
No matter how strange it may seem, one of the obvious consequences of the events described above was the stagnation of the development of the market for CMS systems. First of all, this is due to the emergence of services that allow publishing information much more efficiently. Why do hosting photos on your own website, if you can do the same with Flickr (without spending a penny). Why bother with the creation of the site, if you can add events right in the contact (inviting them to other users).
As a result, this led to the fact that companies began to transfer presence from their sites to social networks. Moreover, the HTTP protocol gradually began to be replaced by such protocols as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. (figuratively, but quite objectively). Perhaps you have already encountered a situation where the company's website is a regular HTML page with links to other services. Perhaps, while this has not happened everywhere, but one must be understood very clearly. No CMS is able to provide higher quality services than social services (be it YouTube or Yandex-Photos).
On the one hand, we see that one paradigm (more efficient) replaces the other. What else can it be, if not a reason for joy? But in practice, not so simple. If earlier information about a company (or a person) was combined (logically and physically) within a single site (and domain name), it is now evenly distributed among all services.
First of all, this is certainly the emergence of HTML 5. In order to create full-fledged Internet applications, an appropriate tool is needed. If not, then it needs to be created. In the end, everything that previously could only be implemented by Desktop (working with graphics, text, sound, video, etc.) will sooner or later appear on the Internet.
Secondly, the emergence of cloud technologies is very important. If earlier it sounded rather incomprehensible (something like now nano-technology), the situation has changed significantly since then. Examples of successful implementation of cloud technologies are video storage services (YouTube), documents (Google Docs), mail (Gmail), blogs (Blogger), applications (Google Apps), files (Amazon S3), computing power (Amazon EC2), and so on. P.
Finally, the third important aspect of the new paradigm is the emergence of the API (and the subsequent integration of services into each other). Already, many services offer APIs for receiving and downloading data from third-party applications and websites (Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Vkontakte). Moreover, some services allow using not only abstract data, but also embedding entire applications (Twitter Widgets, Facebook Social Plugins, Google Web Elements, Google Friends, Google OpenSocial, Google Maps) on other sites.
If earlier, in order to create a website, it was necessary to search for a programmer, administrator (having prepared a bottle of beer in advance), buy a server, install a database, etc., now most of the components are available as public services (often free). However, now we are faced with another task, namely the integration of services. And for this you need a platform that would effectively solve this problem.
A few months ago, an article on this topic appeared in Habré, which dealt with such a platform. The fact is, the times of the scripts that we independently installed on our servers are rapidly coming to an end (although I am sure that some people still do this). Today, most services are provided based on cloud technologies (as services), offering their own API as an integration mechanism (often based on JavaScript).
In my opinion, one of the consequences of this trend is the departure from the classical CMS model to web application containers (this is already starting to happen). Moreover, this approach has been repeatedly discussed, and many companies have proposed their own solutions for this (but so far to no avail).
The closest to the implementation of this idea was Google again (who could doubt) with the OpenSocial platform (the platform allows developers to create social applications that can be embedded in other sites). But here it was not so smooth. Technology has repeatedly been criticized for incorrect work, security problems and much more. But still its main problem, as I personally think, is its excessive closeness (targeting other Google services). In this regard, it looks more like a Microsoft policy (which is rather uncharacteristic for Google). An interesting opinion on this topic at the time was expressed by Tim O'Relly.
Of course there are problems. And the most serious of these is the search. The fact is that existing technologies are simply not ready for a new paradigm. Despite the fact that Google (like other companies) has been struggling with this task for many years, nothing but crutches exist yet. Will there be a solution in the future? Perhaps (if interested, you can list problems related to the search with a separate post and discuss potential ways to solve them).
In conclusion, I would like to say a few words about why I am interested in this topic. I am one of the developers of the service I'm Sync . We develop components for creating a website (news, events, photos, videos, contacts and an online store) that are embedded in any website using JavaScript. I really would not want this post considered advertising. We are really interested in what will happen with the publication technologies in the future (I am sure, like all of you).
Do companies plan to return to their own sites? Will there be open platforms for integrating web services? While such platforms can only be called social networks. But I am sure that the current state of affairs does not suit many.
Go...
Prehistory
To understand what happened in recent years, it is necessary to list the significant events that have influenced what the Internet looks like today. In my opinion, these events should include the emergence of AJAX, as well as the emergence of the concept of custom content. It is worth noting that both of course appeared much earlier, but it has become popular over the past 10 years.
')
Officially, the term AJAX appeared in February 2005, and already in October the well-known book Ajax in Action was released . The news about the revival of JavaScript spread all over the Internet, bringing hope to thousands of developers (including me). But despite the fact that AJAX was used everywhere, nothing globally changed (in view of the obvious limitations). Nevertheless, AJAX allowed such revolutionary services as Google Maps, Gmail, Google Docs (in which I am typing this article) and many others to appear.
However, if I were an astrologer, I would say that this decade has passed under the sign of user-generated content. I think it was finally understood by everyone on March 13, 2010, when on the volume of the generated Facebook traffic it became equal to the search service Google. This event, like nothing else, has become evidence of, if not a paradigm shift in, the publication of information on the Internet, then at least its new round (details below).
What did it lead to?
No matter how strange it may seem, one of the obvious consequences of the events described above was the stagnation of the development of the market for CMS systems. First of all, this is due to the emergence of services that allow publishing information much more efficiently. Why do hosting photos on your own website, if you can do the same with Flickr (without spending a penny). Why bother with the creation of the site, if you can add events right in the contact (inviting them to other users).
As a result, this led to the fact that companies began to transfer presence from their sites to social networks. Moreover, the HTTP protocol gradually began to be replaced by such protocols as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. (figuratively, but quite objectively). Perhaps you have already encountered a situation where the company's website is a regular HTML page with links to other services. Perhaps, while this has not happened everywhere, but one must be understood very clearly. No CMS is able to provide higher quality services than social services (be it YouTube or Yandex-Photos).
On the one hand, we see that one paradigm (more efficient) replaces the other. What else can it be, if not a reason for joy? But in practice, not so simple. If earlier information about a company (or a person) was combined (logically and physically) within a single site (and domain name), it is now evenly distributed among all services.
What is happening now?
First of all, this is certainly the emergence of HTML 5. In order to create full-fledged Internet applications, an appropriate tool is needed. If not, then it needs to be created. In the end, everything that previously could only be implemented by Desktop (working with graphics, text, sound, video, etc.) will sooner or later appear on the Internet.
Secondly, the emergence of cloud technologies is very important. If earlier it sounded rather incomprehensible (something like now nano-technology), the situation has changed significantly since then. Examples of successful implementation of cloud technologies are video storage services (YouTube), documents (Google Docs), mail (Gmail), blogs (Blogger), applications (Google Apps), files (Amazon S3), computing power (Amazon EC2), and so on. P.
Finally, the third important aspect of the new paradigm is the emergence of the API (and the subsequent integration of services into each other). Already, many services offer APIs for receiving and downloading data from third-party applications and websites (Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Vkontakte). Moreover, some services allow using not only abstract data, but also embedding entire applications (Twitter Widgets, Facebook Social Plugins, Google Web Elements, Google Friends, Google OpenSocial, Google Maps) on other sites.
What's next?
If earlier, in order to create a website, it was necessary to search for a programmer, administrator (having prepared a bottle of beer in advance), buy a server, install a database, etc., now most of the components are available as public services (often free). However, now we are faced with another task, namely the integration of services. And for this you need a platform that would effectively solve this problem.
A few months ago, an article on this topic appeared in Habré, which dealt with such a platform. The fact is, the times of the scripts that we independently installed on our servers are rapidly coming to an end (although I am sure that some people still do this). Today, most services are provided based on cloud technologies (as services), offering their own API as an integration mechanism (often based on JavaScript).
In my opinion, one of the consequences of this trend is the departure from the classical CMS model to web application containers (this is already starting to happen). Moreover, this approach has been repeatedly discussed, and many companies have proposed their own solutions for this (but so far to no avail).
The closest to the implementation of this idea was Google again (who could doubt) with the OpenSocial platform (the platform allows developers to create social applications that can be embedded in other sites). But here it was not so smooth. Technology has repeatedly been criticized for incorrect work, security problems and much more. But still its main problem, as I personally think, is its excessive closeness (targeting other Google services). In this regard, it looks more like a Microsoft policy (which is rather uncharacteristic for Google). An interesting opinion on this topic at the time was expressed by Tim O'Relly.
Are there any potential problems?
Of course there are problems. And the most serious of these is the search. The fact is that existing technologies are simply not ready for a new paradigm. Despite the fact that Google (like other companies) has been struggling with this task for many years, nothing but crutches exist yet. Will there be a solution in the future? Perhaps (if interested, you can list problems related to the search with a separate post and discuss potential ways to solve them).
Why am I doing this?
In conclusion, I would like to say a few words about why I am interested in this topic. I am one of the developers of the service I'm Sync . We develop components for creating a website (news, events, photos, videos, contacts and an online store) that are embedded in any website using JavaScript. I really would not want this post considered advertising. We are really interested in what will happen with the publication technologies in the future (I am sure, like all of you).
Do companies plan to return to their own sites? Will there be open platforms for integrating web services? While such platforms can only be called social networks. But I am sure that the current state of affairs does not suit many.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/99519/
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