To dive into our understanding of Web 3. We need to get a brief on the evolution of the web from its very first version; web 1, web 2, and finally web 3. To understand the future, best we take a quick trip through time. Let's create a bridge from the past to the present and trail a road to the future.

Evolution of the Web
The internet as we know has evolved in different phases over the years since it was created. In the first phase, we had Web 1.0 which included static web pages which served content from the file system of servers. Web 1.0 allowed internet users to access data from almost any corner of the world. However, Web 1.0 did not offer any functionalities for interaction with the content. As a result, Web 2.0 started to gain prominence and the subsequent identification of setbacks in web 2.0 led to the development of web 3.0. Let’s dive into learning about web 2.0 and Web 3.0 before talking about their differences.

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 represents the internet as we know it today and includes all the blogs, social media sites, shopping, the new generation, and more!

It is marked by user-generated content, interoperability across different services, usability, interactiveness, and high levels of participation. While this may seem like a huge leap from the static pages of web 1.0, in reality, there have been little to no changes to the core definition between the two versions.

What has changed is the way we use existing infrastructure, and from this standpoint, it's safe to say that it’s the front-end that has seen the bulk of changes in Web 2.0.

Features of Web 2.0
In Web 2.0, users can:

1. Classify and sort information
2. Send and receive information from different sources
3. Create and share dynamic and responsive content with others.
4. Access content from mobile devices, multimedia consoles, televisions, and more
5. Create and develop APIs for interoperability across different software.

The web 2.0 applications have showcased a formidable frontend revolution with more opportunities for interaction with the end-users. Users could find a wide range of applications in web 2.0 for different applications. Some of them include social media, blogging, web content voting, social bookmarking, podcasting, tagging.

As much as these are great features of the technologies accrued to Web 2.0, it doesn’t create a sense of trust among the entities participating in interaction because of a lack of built-in security and authorisation mechanisms.

As users and technologies become more mature, there emerged a greater need for trust, security, privacy, and control. And this led to the evolution of web 3.0.

What is Web 3.0?

Web 3.0 presents a promising improvement over Web 2.0, especially with major transformations in terms of infrastructure. Also referred to as the semantic web, the third generation of the web leverages an advanced metadata system. The metadata system helps in structuring and arranging all types of data for making it readable for humans and machines.

Probably the biggest advantage of web 3.0 is that the information will be universal and can be found by anyone, which means no more digging through the content for hours to find what you want. You might wonder how it overcomes the drawbacks of web 2.0.

Well, the pillars of web 3.0 are artificial intelligence and decentralized networks. The use of artificial intelligence enables machine-to-machine interaction, advanced analytics, and other smart operations that were hitherto impossible on the web.

As for decentralized networks, it pushes data to the edges and into the hands of the entities that own it. In the process, it empowers entities to own their data and determine how it can be shared, thereby giving rise to a philosophy called the Self-Sovereign Identity.
These networks also give privacy and security to users through encryption and the use of Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT), thereby overcoming the trust barriers that were present in web 2.0.

Features of Web 3.0
A stronger foundation towards understanding the difference between Web 2 and Web 3 is built by understanding and focusing on the features of Web 3. Here are some crucial highlights about Web 3.0 which would help in differentiating it from Web 2.0.

1. Web 3.0 leverages artificial intelligence for offering correct results at a faster pace alongside accessing real-time insights.
2. Web 3.0 also enables users to capitalize on the potential of 3D visuals and graphics.
3. Another critical feature of Web 3.0 refers to the Semantic Web functionality. The Semantic Web can understand the meaning of words, so content can be easily found, shared, and analyzed by both machines and humans.
4. Web 3.0 protects user identity and data through advanced authorization mechanisms such as encryption and DLTs
5. Delivers a high level of security and privacy.

Below is a bird’s eye view of the differences between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0.

In all, web 3.0 is a huge leap forward as it creates the infrastructure needed for humans and machines to interact, create, find, and share distributed data, make accurate predictions with artificial intelligence and be empowered to control one’s identity through a web of trust, security, and privacy.

To learn more about Web 3.0 technologies and their innovations, follow Blockgames, Nestcoin, and Zuriteam.