When Tim Berners-Lee wrote his proposal in March of 1989 for what would become the World Wide Web could he have anticipated the direction it would take? Since the summer of 1991, when the World Wide Web was first made available to the public over the internet, the concept has evolved from an information sharing vehicle made possible via a complex hyperlinking system over a series of servers to an interactive, customizable experience that can be “taught” to anticipate your wants. WOW!
Corporate and industrial marketing initially regarded the World Wide Web as a great channel for posting their product and service brochures as web pages. As the trend moved into online requests for quotes (RFQ) and sales, tracking and reporting of user behavior led to the development of Web 2.0 and a more user-centric online experience.
Content coupled with technological innovation has driven a wealth of actionable, interactive websites which in turn have had an effect on the continued development of search engines as they move to identify and serve each user.
Today, with services like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and a variety of other social media sites, the World Wide Web facilitates a conversation among users far more profound than first expressed by its developers.
As a result of APIs (application programming interfaces) granted to web developers, third party applications are being developed all the time to fulfill a huge variety of internet user needs – buy a car or a home, find a mortgage, research a manufacturing solution, hire staff, or even find the name of the band that sings this song you once heard and know three lyrics to.
The popularity of devices like iPhone indicates users’ desire for convenience, immediacy, ease and portability.
So as we move forward we will be experiencing the “Semantic” world of Web 3.0. Simply described, web browsers feed information to the sites serving the content searched and are able to learn from your behavior and anticipate your needs based on past patterns. Whether you like it or not your web browser has evolved into a role as your ‘personal assistant,’ able to interpret and ‘understand’ what you want.
The long term goal of the “semantic” web is to be able to understand, deliver, remember and anticipate the wants and needs of a user, tailoring the web experience to make it more relevant and personal to him. This can be a great thing for your business if you begin to plan properly now.
A Web 1.0 browsing experience is like going to a book store. Web 2.0 is like talking with a group of friends. And Web 3.0 serves as your own personal assistant, retrieving information for you and even offering suggestions you may not have thought about while searching for information.
As a business owner, now more than ever, it is in your best interests to take advantage of this more personalized web browsing approach by ensuring your corporate website clearly identifies the needs of your targeted buyer groups through highly focused and easily identifiable and retrievable content so that these pages make it to your buyer’s web browser where they are recorded as being of interest to him and then re-delivered to him every time he makes a related query.
