Web 2.0 (Publisher)

In referring to the Internet, The Economist, says that since its, "Inception in 1969 engineers have tweaked it in a piecemeal fashion. That the system has scaled up well enough to handle almost 1 billion users and blazingly fast fibre-optic links is nothing short of amazing." During this period the Internet has done much more than scale-up. It has fundamentally changed the way businesses operate and interact with consumers and its impact on the software industry has been radical. The Internet itself is reaching for a new milestone and though consensus on a definition of the milestone may be hard to reach, its name is Web 2.0.

The Financial Times says that, "Web 2.0 is the name being given to a wave of web services that offer more interactivity in the browser and 'social software' such as photo-sharing and public tagging of web pages." By that definition Web 2.0 is already emerging. The subject of the article, Google's recent purchase of the online word processor, Writely, indicates this as well. Writely, which allows users to do word processing via the Web, is specifically the type of Web service which the Financial Times and others are referring to. According to information leaked by Google, they also have the intention to offer a virtual storage service known as a "Gdrive." According to one source the Gdrive, "Would give Google users access to their data from any internet-enabled device and could make Google the biggest information storage company in the world." Google is not alone in its move to Web services, Yahoo! has made similar purchases and Microsoft stepped into the arena with Windows Live!. The offering of applications and services, once linked to the PC, via the Web shows the presence of Web 2.0 and this indicator may have far-reaching implications. For example, such services may affect the PC and software industries by leveling the field. If one can word process on the web there may not be a need to buy MS Office and if Web services such as online word processing may be used regardless of a machine's operating system there may be no need to buy Windows. Whatever the impact on these markets, they will not be alone.

Gartner singles out retail as one of the industries which needs to prepare for what has already begun. Specifically Gartner mentions the need of retailers to embrace the community aspect of Web 2.0. "In particular, the Web community will erode retailers' control over their brands, services and products and force them to design more-open and transparent processes and practices." Blogs and other community related aspects of Web 2.0, while posing a challenge, also hold great potential. By monitoring and utilizing customer driven content retail enterprises gain the ability to respond efficiently to consumer feedback and to do so with more personalization. It follows then that the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) industry will enter a period of change.

The nature of Web 2.0, particularly richer user/customer interfaces, personalized content and information delivery, and embedded business intelligence and process flows will, according to Gartner, "Give businesses more choices on how to improve their interactions with customers, prospects and partners." In order to exploit the potential Gartner says that budgets will need to take into account technology training for business executives and that, "Organizations must begin to research these emerging areas to build new skills, with a focus on usability for employees, partners and customers." Further, opportunities will open for software and service providers to design revolutionary new CRM systems to fill the needs of enterprises.

Gartner cautions, "Current excitement about a second wave of Web capabilities is a major development, but there will be another wave starting early next decade."