WEB 3.0 | WEB 3.0 TECHNOLOGY | WEB 3.0 HOT NEWS: Web 3.0 is Coming! Or is It?

So, just what is Web 3.0?

Well, it isn't really that new. People have been talking about web 3.0 since at least 2006, but it was actually conceived back in 2001. In between times, web 2.0 was only introduced in 2004.

Web 3.0 will be a bit like having your own personal assistant - PA.

This PA will know all about you (almost).

Web 3.0 is envisaged as a giant database. It isn't real yet as it's still a theory and people are still guessing how it will turn out.

By comparison, Web 2.0 uses the internet to make connections between people

It may be something that exists as a separate network - or it may simply replace what we know and love (or hate) about the current system.

Rather than having to do all the research yourself, by running searches and examining all the results to see if they are relevant. Web 3.0 will let you sit back as it gathers all the information for you. That's because it understands information on the Web, whereas current searches simply look for the keywords you ask them to.

Instead of putting in one or two words, you type in a sentence. The more searches you run the better it gets to know you, understand what you are interested in.

Web 3.0 can also interpret the context of your search and give you results which are relevant to what you are really looking for. It can even make suggestions which it thinks are relevant, even though you haven't asked it to.

It will organise the results too.

• richer, more relevant
• every user will have a unique profile based on browsing history
• accesses al the info on the internet
• mashups ( combining google maps/restaurants/reviews)

Some experts think it may be a completely new system - as it is easier to develop a completely new system than to change what's already here.

Tim Berners-Lee invented the www in 1989. He intended the original WWW to do everything that web 2.0 is supposed to do. His vision of the future he calls the semantic web - where computers scan and interpret info by crawling the web looking for relevant info. In other words, it reads and understands web pages much as we humans do - but a lot faster. Like a PA, it gathers the information for you and me to read the old-fashioned way. It can even be programmed to book an appointment having looked through your own busy schedule. It could be used as a research tool to gather all the relevant data you might need for a book, for example. But in order to do this the whole of the www as we know it would have to be remapped, and retagged - tags or metadata are what web 3.0 will need to use in order to do its job.

Metadata is invisible to you and me, but can be read by computers. Web 3.0 will know the difference between Paris Hilton and the Hilton Hotel in Paris. Understanding natural language queries and thereby improve upon the Google-type search we've all come to know and love.

The Semantic Web and Web 3.0 are almost being used synonymously, but in fact they are far from being alike. At the moment they are both still somewhat nebulous.

But Web 3.0 won't be here for another 10 years so it seems.

Now for a little bit of history:

Web development goes in 10 year cycles

Web 1.0 was developing the basic platform of the internet and making masses of information available to - the masses

Web 2.0 was designed for users - people connecting with people.

Web 3.0 will require a renewal of the web's index (what you and I don't see) which will make way for ...

Web 4.0 which will be far advanced from Facebook et al.

I don't know about you, but I'm rather looking forward to Web 3.0. I rather fancy having an unpaid PA to do most of my work for me!