July 20, 2010 at 11:29Evolution of Web 2.0. What's next?
In this article, I would like to share some thoughts on the development of Internet publishing technologies over the past decade (the term is rather arbitrary), and also try to suggest what can be expected from the industry in the near future. I warn you in advance, all of the following is solely my personal assessment and in no way claims to be absolute objectivity.
Go...
To understand what has happened in recent years, it is necessary to list the significant events that have influenced the way the Internet looks today. In my opinion, the emergence of AJAX, as well as the emergence of the concept of user-generated content, should be attributed to these events. It is worth noting that both of these, of course, appeared much earlier, but it has become popular over the past 10 years.
The term AJAX officially appeared in February 2005, and in October the famous book Ajax in Action was released. The news of the resurgence of JavaScript has spread all over the Internet, bringing back hope to thousands of developers (including me). But despite the fact that AJAX began to be used everywhere, nothing has changed globally (due to obvious limitations). Nevertheless, AJAX allowed the emergence of such revolutionary services as Google Maps, Gmail, Google Docs (in which I am now typing this article) and many others.
However, if I were an astrologer, I would say that this decade passed under the sign of user-generated content. I think everyone finally understood this on March 13, 2010, when Facebook caught up with Google's search service in terms of generated traffic. This event, like nothing else, has become a testament, 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 CMS systems market. First of all, this is due to the emergence of services that allow publishing information an order of magnitude more efficiently. Why host photos on your own site if you can do the same with Flickr (without spending a dime). Why bother with creating a site, if you can add events directly to Contact (inviting other users to them right away).
As a result, this led to the fact that companies began to transfer the presence of 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 this has not happened everywhere, but one thing needs to be understood very clearly. No CMS is able to provide a higher quality service than social services (whether YouTube or Yandex Photos).
On the one hand, we see that one paradigm (more effective) replaces another. What could it be, if not a reason for joy? But in practice, not everything is so simple. If earlier information about a company (or a person) was combined (logically and physically) within a single site (and domain name), now it is evenly distributed between all services.
Firstly, it is certainly the emergence of HTML 5. In order to create full-fledged Internet applications, you need an appropriate tool. If it is 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 technology is a very important point. If earlier this sounded rather incomprehensible (approximately like now nano-technologies), 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), etc. P.
And 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 an API for receiving and downloading data from third-party applications and websites (Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Vkontakte). Moreover, some services allow you to use not only abstract data, but also embed entire applications (Twitter Widgets, Facebook Social Plugins, Google Web Elements, Google Friends, Google OpenSocial, Google Maps) in other sites.
If before, in order to create a website, it was necessary to look 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 this requires a platform that would effectively solve this problem.
A few months ago an article appeared on Habréon this topic, in which it was just about such a platform. The fact is, the times of scripts that we independently installed on our servers are rapidly coming to an end (although I'm sure some still do this). Today, most services are provided on the basis of cloud technologies (as services), offering their own APIs (often based on JavaScript) as an integration mechanism.
In my opinion, one of the consequences of this trend is the departure from the classic 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 approach to implementing this idea was Google (who would doubt it) with the OpenSocial platform (the platform allows developers to create social applications that can be embedded in other sites). But here everything turned out not so smoothly. The technology has been criticized more than once for incorrect operation, security problems and much more. But still, its main problem, as it seems to me personally, is its excessive closeness (orientation to other Google services). In this regard, it seems more likely to be a Microsoft policy (which is not typical for Google). An interesting opinion on this subject at the time expressed Tim O'Relly.
There are certainly problems. And the most serious of them 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 for many years to solve this problem, nothing but crutches exists yet. Will there be a solution in the future? Perhaps (if interested, you can list the problems associated with the search in a separate post and discuss potential solutions).
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 site (news, events, photos, videos, contacts and an online store) that are embedded in any site using JavaScript. I would really not want this post to be considered advertising. We are really interested in what will happen to publishing technologies in the future (I’m sure, like all of you).
Do companies plan to return to their own sites? Will there be open platforms for integrating web services? So far, only social networks can be called such platforms. But I'm sure the current state of affairs does not suit many.
Go...
Background
To understand what has happened in recent years, it is necessary to list the significant events that have influenced the way the Internet looks today. In my opinion, the emergence of AJAX, as well as the emergence of the concept of user-generated content, should be attributed to these events. It is worth noting that both of these, of course, appeared much earlier, but it has become popular over the past 10 years.
The term AJAX officially appeared in February 2005, and in October the famous book Ajax in Action was released. The news of the resurgence of JavaScript has spread all over the Internet, bringing back hope to thousands of developers (including me). But despite the fact that AJAX began to be used everywhere, nothing has changed globally (due to obvious limitations). Nevertheless, AJAX allowed the emergence of such revolutionary services as Google Maps, Gmail, Google Docs (in which I am now typing this article) and many others.
However, if I were an astrologer, I would say that this decade passed under the sign of user-generated content. I think everyone finally understood this on March 13, 2010, when Facebook caught up with Google's search service in terms of generated traffic. This event, like nothing else, has become a testament, if not a paradigm shift in the publication of information on the Internet, then at least its new round (details below).
What did this 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 CMS systems market. First of all, this is due to the emergence of services that allow publishing information an order of magnitude more efficiently. Why host photos on your own site if you can do the same with Flickr (without spending a dime). Why bother with creating a site, if you can add events directly to Contact (inviting other users to them right away).
As a result, this led to the fact that companies began to transfer the presence of 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 this has not happened everywhere, but one thing needs to be understood very clearly. No CMS is able to provide a higher quality service than social services (whether YouTube or Yandex Photos).
On the one hand, we see that one paradigm (more effective) replaces another. What could it be, if not a reason for joy? But in practice, not everything is so simple. If earlier information about a company (or a person) was combined (logically and physically) within a single site (and domain name), now it is evenly distributed between all services.
What is happening now?
Firstly, it is certainly the emergence of HTML 5. In order to create full-fledged Internet applications, you need an appropriate tool. If it is 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 technology is a very important point. If earlier this sounded rather incomprehensible (approximately like now nano-technologies), 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), etc. P.
And 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 an API for receiving and downloading data from third-party applications and websites (Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Vkontakte). Moreover, some services allow you to use not only abstract data, but also embed entire applications (Twitter Widgets, Facebook Social Plugins, Google Web Elements, Google Friends, Google OpenSocial, Google Maps) in other sites.
What's next?
If before, in order to create a website, it was necessary to look 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 this requires a platform that would effectively solve this problem.
A few months ago an article appeared on Habréon this topic, in which it was just about such a platform. The fact is, the times of scripts that we independently installed on our servers are rapidly coming to an end (although I'm sure some still do this). Today, most services are provided on the basis of cloud technologies (as services), offering their own APIs (often based on JavaScript) as an integration mechanism.
In my opinion, one of the consequences of this trend is the departure from the classic 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 approach to implementing this idea was Google (who would doubt it) with the OpenSocial platform (the platform allows developers to create social applications that can be embedded in other sites). But here everything turned out not so smoothly. The technology has been criticized more than once for incorrect operation, security problems and much more. But still, its main problem, as it seems to me personally, is its excessive closeness (orientation to other Google services). In this regard, it seems more likely to be a Microsoft policy (which is not typical for Google). An interesting opinion on this subject at the time expressed Tim O'Relly.
Are there any potential problems?
There are certainly problems. And the most serious of them 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 for many years to solve this problem, nothing but crutches exists yet. Will there be a solution in the future? Perhaps (if interested, you can list the problems associated with the search in a separate post and discuss potential solutions).
Why am I?
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 site (news, events, photos, videos, contacts and an online store) that are embedded in any site using JavaScript. I would really not want this post to be considered advertising. We are really interested in what will happen to publishing technologies in the future (I’m sure, like all of you).
Do companies plan to return to their own sites? Will there be open platforms for integrating web services? So far, only social networks can be called such platforms. But I'm sure the current state of affairs does not suit many.