Web 2.0: Please can we have a rebrand?

by on 13/11/07 at 1:27 pm

I’ve steadfastly avoided using the term Web 2.0 until now. I can’t stand it. Reading last night that Joanna Geary feels the same, it made me wonder whether there are more like me with the same frustration.

The problem is that although I hate the name, I love the concept. The principles behind the Web 2.0 are very important, elegant, and vital to understand for everyone. Much of my career is currently based on this particular premise.

Web 2.0 sounds like a new hardware release. When I first heard about Web 3.0 (also describing something pretty important and elegant) it sealed the argument for me. It reminds me of when a bunch of programmers decided that a great way to structure a web address was to put a series of fairly incomprehensible characters (http://www.) before a company’s name in order to access it. I know we got used to it in the end, but that’s not the point.

This obviously presents me with a dilemma. What on earth do I call it? I feel like washing my mouth out every time I use the term, but I often need to in order to explain what I’m talking about.

I did flirt with "The Live Web" for a while – it works much better for me but I’m not entirely convinced that we’re all decided on what that means yet.

Ideas on a postcard please. (Did you see what I did there?)

5 Responses to “Web 2.0: Please can we have a rebrand?”

  1. Pete Ashton

    Nov 13th, 2007

    The social internet

    (“web” is a misnomer really).

  2. DK

    Nov 13th, 2007

    Social media… :-)

  3. Nick Booth

    Nov 13th, 2007

    Social Web ?

  4. Antonio

    Nov 13th, 2007

    Ah, yes I’d forgotten about “social media”. I’ve actually started using this a bit already.

    I guess what pips it over the other two (both of which are leaps forward) is that it’s not platform or technology focussed, it’s about the communication itself. Before long we’ll not be even mentioning the web anyway, we’ll just see it as always having been there.

    Social media it is then. Thanks! That’s been bugging me for ages.

  5. Antonio Gould » Blog Archive » Blue Peter 2.0

    Nov 14th, 2007

    [...] « Web 2.0: Please can we have a rebrand? [...]