Web 1.0

Why call this website “Back to Web 1.0”? What is or was Web 1.0? What is the difference compared to Web 2.0 and 3.0? Why always add “dot zero” to the name? Are there other versions of the Web? Why is this description full of questions? Will they have an answer?

Why call this website “Back to Web 1.0”? #

Web 1.0 is something that was and still is. In order to answer the question in this heading, we must first answer the other questions: What is Web 1.0 and what is the difference with respect to other versions?

So, what is Web 1.0? #

The Web as it is commonly known, World Wide Web (WWW) is its real name, is an information system that allows access to documents and other resources through the Internet. So far I am not explaining anything that we do not already know and I am not going to go into details of operation, protocols, languages, etc. Now we are more interested in knowing where all this came from.

To be brief: the Web was invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a.k.a. TimBL, in 1989. The WWW was created with a very simple objective: to share, retrieve and read information electronically. Like the Great War that wasn’t called World War I until there was a second, so was the version number 1.0 (on the other hand, rarely used). It was the appearance of the so-called Web 2.0 that made it necessary to use a suffix to make the difference with what existed.

But what did Web 2.0 bring? #

In addition to what was already proposed by the initial version of the WWW, the considered second version contributed social participation. From this moment on, users, in addition to sharing, retrieving and reading information; They could also give their opinion on issues they have no idea about, as they would with a drink in their hands at three in the morning in a bar. And not only that, but also the ability to share your own content without having to create and manage a website: social media was born. The new version of the Web was then filled with memes, poseurs, embarrassment, and cat videos (even more, but there are never too many :3). All this infamous amount of information, which users did not hesitate to label with hashtags, have had side effects: feeding the voracious and insatiable artificial intelligence that, together with the computing power of current computers, has allowed a notable leap in the development of this technology, but this is another topic.

After TikTok comes Web3 #

The Evil Corps (as our friend Elliot would call them), known as GAFAM (Google, Amazon, Facebook*, Apple and Microsoft), consider that it is not enough to have the Web full of people dancing and making fools of themselves, but rather they want we dance live inside it. Especially Facebook, renamed for the occasion as Meta (Perhaps the GAFAM should be renamed MAGMA?). Welcome to the Metaverse! That’s right, this new version of the Web aims to create a new reality of our lives, a virtual reality, further exposing our private life on the Web at the cost of an arm and a leg. Yes, this will not be free, because first and foremost Web3 will be a business. In addition to sharing, recovering, reading information, publishing your own content and participating; It intends to make us owners of virtual goods for which we will pay with real money. It doesn’t sound so good anymore. It must be admitted that the idea does not come from MAGMA, they just want to exploit all this. The proposal for this evolution of the Web was made by Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum. In his concept of the new Web, power returns to the user thanks to the decentralization provided by the blockchain, cryptocurrencies and NFTs.

Wait! What happened to the .0 of version 3? #

And it is that not everyone agrees with the definition of this new version of the Web. Let’s remember Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the forerunner of all this. He disagrees. And since he is not just nobody who gives his opinion on social networks, it is worth listening to him. TimBL does call his vision of the Web that awaits us in the future Web 3.0: the semantic web. This Web aims to return control of personal data to users thanks to what the founder of the Web calls Solid pods: the user decides which information to share with which services and at the same time all these services will be interconnected through the Solid pods from users.

Web3, Web 3.0… but which one will be good? #

Maybe both. It does not seem that one is incompatible with the other. So we’ll probably see the two ideas converge into a single type of Web. Anything that is returning the sovereignty of personal data to users is welcome.

And all this spiel to explain the name of this website? #

I have not tried to give too many details and I have made a rather simple analysis of what the Web is and will be. However, I have tried to explain that this website has been created with the intention of sharing, retrieving and reading information electronically; therefore it could be classified as 1.0. Users who pass through here will not have the opportunity to give their opinion, nor to add their own content, nor even to give a “Like”. If you don’t agree with what is written here or you just want to chat, you can contact me through one of those Web 2.0 sites in my bio ;)

Postscript #

The version of the Web does not matter, in reality we all know that it has been created with a single objective: to share photos and videos of cats.

About the image in this post
I introduce you to Moka, one of my cats, who from now on will join the vast cat universe of the Internet