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Web 2.0 Is Dying… Or Is It?

February 14, 2009

It is – at least according to Google Trends. Here’s the latest screenshot I took just minutes ago:

From the graph, you can clearly see there’s been a gradual decrease in interest over the past 12 months, with volume declined by almost 40%. TechCrunch takes a closer look at those graphs.

Personally, I’ve always thought “web 2.0” was just a marketing phrase coined and places like the media and consulting firms just hyped it up (for the Youtube and Facebook acquisition news) in order to generate buzz and… make money. Really, it means nothing more than the evolution of the internet into a two-way communication medium that connects people together.

So is web 2.0 dying? Or is it just the term “web 2.0” that have died?

Leave your views in the comments section

23 Discussion to this post

  1. I’d say it’s just the term. I don’t see Youtube, Facebook and Twitter dying out anytime soon…

  2. Splendid Kid says:

    I don’t think that evidence is not enough to prove that web 2.0 is dying. Web 2.0 users usually not search that keyword in search engine, like my self. 🙂

  3. Nomenclature.

    Try this one: http://www.google.com/trends?q=social+media

    Something tells me that if Google Trends were around in 1996, the trending for ‘nsfnet’ or ‘wais’ would have been plummeting, but ‘web’ would have been skyrocketing.

    • stanleytang says:

      Wow… although I did not find this surprising (being a huge social media user myself, especially Twitter) but this is powerful. Maybe “social media” is the new term to hype up Twitter 😉

  4. Alessandro says:

    Also I think that Web 2.0 it’s only a phase.
    But I think also that other type of Web will come in future, like 3.0, 4.0 or 3.11 🙂
    Or, as Stanley is saying, the word Web 2.0 is come to be normal because everyone’s using it.

    I think also that some websites will migrate to future enhancements, or will keep 2.0 for some years again, like Twitter and Facebook, which are working very good and without problems and they are liked by people.

    Only the future can tell us what will happen to Web 2.0.
    Also the Polls can’t be enough, because sometimes the results will changed by next coming events.
    So stay tuned !

    Alessandro

  5. Web 2.0 is just a term to describe the products or services nowadays. I don’t think it’s dying, instead I think that it’s going strong. And perhaps we will see more powerful application in the near future.

  6. yang says:

    neither. i think when something disappears from the news or google search, it could just mean that the term has become commonplace. the search for it was high when web 2.0 was just hitting it off as a concept, but now it’s already the present reality. 🙂 someone told me once that it’s only when something disappears from the news should you really start paying attention to it.

  7. Steve says:

    This doesn’t prove anything. When you use a web 2.0 application you are not searching google for the term web 2.0. This only shows that the search term web 2.0 is getting searched less, not being used less.

  8. Dan says:

    In my humble opinion, Web 2.0 or Social Media is one and the same since I’ve not seen any new 2.0 facilities arise like Twitter and the ilk. I look at it as a added marketing tool only and resource out as much as possible. Why, simply because Twitter and others may claim so many participants I see that as a small drop in the bucket when compared to the total numbers of web users. I would like to see a stat of home owners who have internet access but don’t access the internet. Is that stat just showing residences that have access available since they have phone/cable service?

    What I guess I am getting at to make this short is Don’t put all your resouces for marketing and advertising in to “Web 2.0” use the tools but remember there is a vast market out there that never uses the social sites and an even bigger market that don’t use the internet much or at all.

    It’s easy to bog yourself down into totally depending on the social sites to sell your services and products. How many other marketers are also using the social sites to do the same? So it may end up like giveaways are within the IM Niche eventually.

    Personally, once again, I think so many marketers are jumpint on the Social Media/Web 2.0 craze is that it appears to be free, easy to follow (unlike SEO) but at the same time very time consuming and easy to get sucked into. Remember time is money and if you are spending half your day or more simply hopping from social site to social site to keep up, make your conacts and so forth then you are losing a lot of valuable time in product development and so on.

    If a lot of marketers are actually hiring out this work of social marketing then evetually it could end up my social media participant is your social media participant and talking to each other and not even knowing they are talking to themselves. What a hoot.

    • stanleytang says:

      Well said Dan! Yeah there’s a lot more than just social media. But it’s definitely a pretty effective one when it comes to promoting your products and services (Obama’s campaign was a great example)

  9. Web 2.0 is marketing jargon. It’s still the web. Newsgroups and web forums were around long before Web 2.0 really took off. I see the web as constantly changing, but it’s an evolution – not a revolution. Versioning the web has never made sense to me.

    Ironically, one of the things about Web 2.0 sites is that they choose to be in an endless beta instead of using a traditional version number – or no version at all. So why is it Web 2.0 and not Web Beta? 😉

  10. Steve says:

    I thought web 2.0 was the new thing…
    Or is it web 3.0 now?

    Oh well, I believe it all has to do with social marketing doesn’t it?
    Or is it social media marketing?

    Who cares! It works!
    It’s cheap and it’s easy…
    And I think that’s what all the craze is about…

    I’m sure something better will come along though…
    Isn’t this thing, internet marketing ever changing…

  11. usman says:

    As long as any ‘term’ or so called technology usess “http” everythinn is the same, its just the way of saying things in a new way and yeaaa with different accent as well.

  12. mel says:

    Its the term that is dying…. Web 2.0 can’t die as it never actually existed, it’s just a marketing phrase. The Web is the web always has been always will be.

  13. Tommy says:

    Web 2.0 it’s just a term that people keep using. The web is not dying out anytime soon.

  14. Jason Finch says:

    I think the web was a two-way communications tool that got people meeting up well before Web 2.0 was coined.

    When I moved to London back in 1999 I knew nobody – I met most of my friends through an online social networking service back then, and can remember going to real world events organised by online services as far back as 1995.. from the web.

    In 2000 one of my blended online/offline networks organised an event in London for 500 people; it’s not a new concept, two-way communication on the web and meeting up… it’s just that marketers are now catching up with what the ‘geeks’ have been doing for nearly 2.0 decades 😉

  15. […] to ensure accuracy and precision in my results. So the other day, I wrote a blog post called Web 2.0 Is Dying… Or Is It and linked it to the post on TechCrunch (which then got displayed on the trackback […]

  16. bobobob says:

    I never use any social website. They are dangerous for your future job searchs and other important things like that. So you can call it Web 2.0 or Web n.n I do not care as long as my bowser is patched and my computer antivirus can handle the ever invasive applications that seem to pop up on webpages. And also we used to chat and exchange photos and video (it used to be grainy low res) from Bulletin Board Services much before the internet bacame popular. Many young people in the industry do not know this. Maybe they will call it Web 0.0
    LOL

  17. I think a better statement would be … web 2.0 innovation is dieing

  18. Asif Anwar says:

    Hi Stanley,

    Google trend is just a reflection of buzz.

    If this prediction is true, then the “Internet” is also dieing according to this analysis, please see it here: http://marketinggossip.blogspot.com/2009/02/death-of-web-20-i-dont-think-so-we-are.html

    But, is it? 😉

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