Web 2.0 – what does that really mean?

Are you confused by what web 2.0 really is? You are certainly not alone. If you are from my generation – the generation of horse and buggies (just kidding!) you may be getting dizzy just trying to get you hands around the whole idea of web 2.0 I have really been immersing myself in all the information I can find on what Web 2.0 really means true to form there is so much information that it boggles the mind. So after wading through e-books, e-courses, and articles I have been able to resolve some of the confusion in my mind and even had fun putting together a few marketing strategies of my own. So for those of you who are confused about what web 2.0 is lets clear up a fraction of the confusion. There are 3 types of websites that make up the structure of what is called Web 2.0 Social Media Sites These are sites where members provide most or all of the content. These sites allow members to upload specific media – Video, Pictures etc. Example: http://www.YouTube.com Social Networking Sites This type of site lets there members create personal profiles to share likes, dislikes, passions, and interests... and it allows others to connect with you through different communications channels like forums, groups, chatrooms, comments, private messaging. Business idea's etc. Examples: http://www.myspace.com http://www.linkedin.com Social Bookmarking Sites In a social bookmarking site, users save links to web pages that they want to share. These bookmarks are usually public, and can be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, Most social bookmark sites encourage users to organize their bookmarks with tags or keywords. They also enable viewing bookmarks associated with a chosen tag, and include information about the number of users who have bookmarked them. Many social bookmarking sites provide RSS feeds for their lists of bookmarks, including lists organized by tags. This allows subscribers to become aware of new bookmarks as they are saved, shared, and tagged by other users. As these services have matured and grown more popular, they have added extra features such as ratings and comments on bookmarks Examples: http://www. Technorati.com http://www.digg.com These types of sites actually work in conjunction with each other and can work to your advantage – in fact when used right will provide a rich network of back links to your blogs and websites. Search engines love these types of sites and links. Generating marketing plans using web 2.0 link to your websites and blogs to pull you website high in the search engine rankings. I have read that this is actually in some cases out shadowing the old SEO standards, that is a debate raging out on the internet if you have not seen it! Don’t get me wrong you still need to search engine optimize you website however you may be seeing sometime in the very near future where that will be less of a factor then using the tools Web 2.0 has to offer. We shall see? http://www.artistdesign.com/