Web3 The Next Internet Frontier.
Web3 also known as Web 3.0 is a term that has been getting a lot of attention in the last couple of months, especially after major tech companies announce that they intend on leading the charge of this next evolutionary chapter of the Internet.
Particularly Facebook as they even went as far as rebranding the company as Meta with the intent to establish dominance in the developing Metaverse space, which to date still has left a lot of their users scratching their heads and wondering what Metaverse even means.
There is certainly a lot of hype around this new chapter of the Internet as people are frantically trying to stake and invest into the second coming of a digital gold rush and cash in before it’s too late. Crypto has made many early adopters very wealthy and is one of the constant trending topics as it pertains to the new Internet that has disrupted mainstream media.
Internet slang like FOMO (fear of missing out) has replaced the cringe-worthy YOLO (you only live once) that Drake popularized in the last decade.
Besides Web3, Metaverse, and Crypto are other keywords that are also being thrown around such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, NFT, DAO, DeFi, Blockchain, etc., making it even more difficult for conventional Internet users to keep up with and understand what Web3 is, its services and what it has to offer.
But to be able to understand what Web3 is and the large list of developing Internet utilities that are becoming available, one needs to understand what came before.
The Beginning – Web 1.0
The World Wide Web as a publicly available service on the Internet arrived on August 6, 1991, when Tim Berners-Lee published the first website on the Internet.
This website was the “World Wide Web” project, and it merely described what Tim envisioned the Web was to become, how to use it, and what services it had to offer. This was Web1, or Web 1.0 as it refers to the first stage of the World Wide Web evolution and was the “read-only” version of the Web.
His original source code of the www was recently sold at auction for 5.4 million dollars as an NFT.
The fundamental technology layers that comprised Web1 were:
- HTML: HyperText Markup Language
- HTTP: HyperText Transfer Protocol
- URL: Uniform Resource Locator
- FTP: File Transfer Protocol
During this time there were very few Web content creators with the vast majority of Web users being content consumers. Personal websites were the first kind of websites commonly available, consisting mainly of static HTML webpages hosted on ISP Web servers such as CompuServe or AOL, and on free Web hosting services such as GeoCities, a platform that allowed users to upload pages of content in virtual ‘cities’ that were relevant to the subject of the content.
During this stage, the Internet consisted of approximately only 100,000 websites worldwide that were almost impossible to find. Internet directories such as DMOZ were the norm as search engine technology was still in its infancy and search engine options were limited to companies such as Altavista, Lycos, and Yahoo which provided very limited results in almost any subject matter.
The Internet during that time was far from what we know today.
Here is a list of a few ancient websites from that era that are still live on the Internet today.
- The Lost World – Jurassic Park movie website
- Dole/Kemp 1996 Campaign website
- OJ Simpson Trial Hub
- CNN’s 1996
- Internet 1996 World Exposition
- Taco
- Arngren
- McSpotlight
The Revolution – Web 2.0
Web2 or Web 2.0 came after. This particular stage is regarded as the “dot com era” or “dot com boom” where many early adopters became very wealthy investing on the Web, and it became a sort of digital gold rush that brought the Internet onto the main stage.
“The Web we know now, which loads into a browser window in essentially static screenfuls, is only an embryo of the Web to come. The first glimmerings of Web 2.0 are beginning to appear, and we are just starting to see how that embryo might develop. The Web will be understood not as screenfuls of text and graphics but as a transport mechanism, the ether through which interactivity happens.”
Darcy DiNucci, an information architecture consultant, coined the term “Web 2.0 In her 1999 article, “Fragmented Future”:
The technical difference during this version of the World Wide Web was that it became the “read/write” version of the Web, in reference to computer programming languages that allow you to both open and edit files rather than just view them and establish further communication channels.
The fundamental technology layers that comprised Web2 were:
- User-Generated Content
- Mobile Accessibility To The Web
- Social Media Networks
This version of the Web allowed people to not only consume content but create their own with ease and publish Web content on dynamic websites utilizing content management systems that automated the Web publishing process such as blogs, Internet forums, and marketplaces.
Ease of use was key for audiences to adapt and develop daily use habits and further popularize the Internet as a whole.
Mobile devices allowed access to the Web and mobile-friendly websites were soon integrated as an important component of Web2.
And last but not least came Social Media which revolutionized the way we connect and communicate with one another and how most people perceived what the Internet was during that stage.
Social Media allowed people to remain in contact with family and friends, reconnect with childhood friends, and lost relatives, and maintain a connection on a regular basis despite distances.
Here is a list of a few Web2.0 services that popularized the Internet during this stage.
- AOL
- Hotmail
- Blogger
- Wikipedia
- Real Audio
- Myspace
- Skype
- Photobucket
- Craigslist
Although Web2 has brought the world a lot of amazing “free” services, people have grown frustrated with the tech companies that have created these platforms that continue to attempt to control their user’s data, content, and personal information.
Many technology corporations have faced criticism due to the lack of transparency on how they store and sell their users’ information which has created a global concern and this is where Web3 comes in.
The Next Frontier – Web 3.0
One of the ideas behind Web3 is to make the Internet much faster, more secure, and more efficient all while being able to process complex transactions in a decentralized ecosystem.
Web3 can be understood as the “read/write/own” version of the Web. Rather than just using “free” social media and content creation platforms in exchange for user data, users can participate in the governance and operation of the protocols themselves.
This means people can become participants and shareholders, not just customers or products, which is rewriting how intellectual property, and content ownership is being established and protected unlike any time before.
The fundamental technology layers that comprised Web3 are:
- Verifiable Content Ownership
- Edge Computing
- Decentralization
- Artificial Intelligence
- Blockchain Technology
In Web3, these intellectual rights are now being protected by tokens which are digital certificates of ownership and authenticity for digital assets that are stored in a vast network of decentralized computers utilizing blockchain technology.
This is the part where it can get a little technical and will be sure to cover further in future articles, but for now, let’s stick to the basics.
What Can You Do On Web3?
Web 3 makes the proliferation of cooperative governance structures for once-centralized products possible. Any digital assets can be tokenized in the form of digital assets such as text, jpegs, videos, audio clips, and other forms of digital media.
In addition to that, an incredible paradigm shift has occurred in the gaming industry. Large Web2 companies, like Meta, Epic and Ubisoft, are creating virtual worlds powered in part by Web3. Non-Fungible Tokens NFT will also play a huge role in reshaping the gaming industry by allowing players to become the owners of the items they accrue and transfer them to other games that are developed by competing entities.
Some of the benefits of Web3.
- Decentralization
- Intellectual Property and Content Ownership Protection
- Enhanced Privacy and Security
- Accurate Information
- Easy of Access To Uncorruputble Data
- Enhanced Collaboration
- Streamlined Workflow
- Personalized Web Experiences
- Enhanced Marketing
Ways in which Web3 will impact Digital marketing:
In Web3, there will be less focus on metadata and keyword optimization and instead, marketers must develop engaging content that targets and understands specific users’ needs and search queries.
There will be an eminent decrease in “near me” type search queries as people have become accustomed to search results being automatically populated by their location. Web3 will automatically consider the user’s geo-location and behavior data and shows relevant results that match their interest.
As mobile devices continue to standardize the way how users also engage with the Internet, Web3 will continue to increase voice search, and the use of digital assistants. Therefore, it will be important to optimize for specific and long-tail queries.
All marketers should embrace Microdata and Schema markup to stay ahead in the game as they help the Web3 application understand the concept and context and structure the data. A clear understanding will ensure that marketing campaigns are delivered to users for relevant queries.
Growth in question-keywords search and optimization, and PAA (People Also Ask). Marketers must produce content that answers users’ questions accurately.
Web3 will also replace the idea of old static websites with hyper-personalized experiences that change their messaging and their media formats for each individual visitor. Speaking with search engines in natural language and finding accurate information delivers a seamless user experience; the ability of Web3 to learn and think will emphasize this rich experience for users.
Web 3 Is Still In Its Infancy
The main criticism of Web 3 technology is that it falls short of its ideals. Ownership over blockchain networks is not equally distributed yet but concentrated in the hands of early adopters and venture capitalists.
And despite the suggestion of a leaderless community of protocols, there are clear figureheads. Izabella Kaminska, the outgoing editor of the FT blog Alphaville, pointed to the huge amount of power that Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, continues to have over the network, even though he’s no longer involved in its development:
“Vitalik is a funny and contradictory phenomenon in his own right. He operates as the spiritual leader of a de facto headless system while holding incredible sway and influence over the headless system he created and oversees,”
Izabella Kaminska
Things aren’t much better within decentralized finance protocols. They’re rife with voter absenteeism, often rely on centralized infrastructure and the barrier to entry in creating them is still high, given that creating blockchains seems to be arcane magic reserved for only the most highly specialized engineers.
But despite its problems, Web3 has a lot of potential. Whether it’s too idealistic to put into practice will be something that everyday users will discover over the next decade.
Key Features of Web3:
Open – It’s ‘open’ in the sense that it’s made with open-source software developed by an open and available community of developers and accomplished in full view of the public.
Trustless – The network offers freedom to users to interact publicly and privately without an intermediary exposing them to risks, hence “trustless” data.
Permissionless – Anyone, including users and providers, can engage without the need for permission from a controlling organization.
Ubiquitous – Web 3.0 will make the Internet available to all of us, at any time and from any location. At some point, Internet-connected devices will no longer be limited to computers and smartphones, as they are in Web 2.0. Because of the IoT (Internet of Things), technology will enable the development of a multitude of new types of intelligent gadgets.
Web Version Comparison
| Web 1.0 | Web 2.0 | Web 3.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Read-Only | Read/Write | Read/Write/Own |
| Company Focus | Community Focus | Individual Focus |
| Home Pages | Blogs / Wikis | Live-streams / Waves |
| Owning Content | Sharing Content | Consolidating Content |
| WebForms | Web Applications | Smart Applications |
| Directories | Tagging | User Behaviour |
| Page Views | Cost Per Click | User Engagement |
| Banner Advertising | Interactive Advertising | Behavioural Advertising |
| Britannica Online | Wikipedia | The Semantic Web |
| HTML/Portals | XML / RSS | RDF / RDFS / OWL |
Web3 Conclusion
We are headed towards a World Wide Web that is far more advanced than Tim Berners-Lee and Darcy DiNucci probably ever envisioned.
An Internet where people will have the right to privacy, and have complete control over their content, and intellectual property.
An Internet where people will be able to decide whether or not they want to allow tech companies to use their data and have records of public information that is accessible to everyone without the fear of the information being modified or corrupted.
Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality will continue to evolve and provide immersive and interactive environments going beyond the constraints of a Web browser and video games.
Three-dimensional environments will revolutionize how we consume content, and communicate and interact with one another.
Although it’s still in the early stages, Web3 is here and developing faster than any of its predecessors.
Looking back at its rapid evolution, one can only imagine what the Internet will be like in another twenty years.