One reoccurring theme I found regurgitating throughout the last month of 2008 was the idea that Web 2.0 is dead. As much as many of these articles may have been spurred by the prospect of a linkbaiting title, I thought it was important for someone to step up to the plate and say, once and for all, that Web 2.0 is not dead. It has slowed down, yes, but it's not dead. It is that shambling zombie muttering "brains... brains..." while slowly making its way through the town square.
The recession has slowed down in Web 2.0 startups, but this would have happened even without the economy downturn. Perhaps it would have taken another year, perhaps two, but the continued struggles of even the most successful Web 2.0 sites like Facebook and Twitter to create strong revenue out of their massive traffic was a pretty big cautionary sign telling investors that there was a lot of Web 2.0 bloat on the market.
But Web 2.0 is not dead, and it won't be dying for the foreseeable future.
Web 2.0 has two sides, the social side where we see sites like MySpace and YouTube, and the AJAX side, where we see sophisticated web development like the Office 2.0 movement. But when people talk about Web 2.0 being dead, they are mainly talking about the social side of Web 2.0.
The social side isn't dead. It is thriving. More and more traditionally 'Web 1.0' sites are taking on aspects of the social web. This can be seen across the web from the New York Times, which has integrated information from LinkedIn to provide more personalized content, to here at About.com where the user-generated content model from Web 2.0 is being used to allow members to post their own reviews alongside Guide reviews.
While the future will see a shift back towards expert opinions in some areas, the social and community aspects of the web will continue to thrive. In some instances, like getting medical advice or PC support, an expert opinion is far better than wading through a community of voices. But there are many areas where the community opinion can trump the expert opinion -- like movie, book and game reviews -- areas where personal taste has more to do with it than expertise.
The social experience of Web 2.0 has become too much a part of the web for it to die out in the foreseeable future. While we might not see $10 million dollars given to a social network for rabbits, we will continue to see Web 2.0 integrated into both new and old websites, and we'll continue to see Enterprise 2.0 help bring Web 2.0 into the office.