Web3 For Beginners
History & Evolution
Web1.0
Similar to the discovery of fire, the Web 1.0 wasn’t given its name until it bit the dust. The ‘World Wide Web’ as it was known, was just a set of static websites with a load of information and no interactive content. This is the early days of the internet where sending an email was a major milestone, look at us now. Connecting meant dialing up through rickety modems and blocking anyone in the house from using the phone. It was the web of AOL chat rooms and MSN messenger and it was the definition of slow. Streaming videos and music? Forget it. Downloading an mp3 song would take at least a day, 1mb felt like 1gb and so on.
Web 2.0
Faster internet speeds paved the way for interactive content, the web wasn’t about observing anymore, it was about participating; in simpler terms it was the age of social media. Web 2.0’s core feature was interaction. At this point it was interacting with others with feedback, hence youtube, facebook etc. This acted as a strong voice for the voiceless as well as means for like-minded communities to thrive. 3G was introduced at this stage with data sizes and memory expanding significantly.
However challenges don’t stop with the invention of technology, and this was the case with web2.0.
As communities and companies grew, adoption of new technology followed suit and as more people got hooked on the internet, major companies such as Twitter, Facebook and Google realized the potential of this information sharing. These major organizations started leveraging more on user data with customers willing to accept terms. Whether they knew it or not, their identities, browsing habits, searches and online shopping information was sold to the highest bidder without them receiving a single dime. The irony.
