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Abused Buzzword: Web 2.0

I’ve got to say that one of the best blogs around is Kathy Sierra’s, Creating Passionate Users Blog.  Recently she wrote about the Web 2.0 phenomenon and I personally thought this passage was quite fitting…

Many people hate the phrase “Web 2.0″ even more than they hate what they believe it represents. No, that’s not quite right… many people hate the phrase precisely because they think it represents nothing. Or they’re annoyed by the idea of a web version number. Or they think it’s “elitist.” Or they’re convinced it’s so much marketing hype. But what if it’s not an empty phrase? What if it’s simply a way of representing a concept that some people DO understand? What if it’s like so many other domain-specific terms that sound like nonsense to everyone else?

That doesn’t mean zillions of people haven’t abused the term for everything from sounding tech-savvy to getting a piece of the hype-fueled-please-god-bring-back-the-bubble-and-I-promise-I-won’t-piss-it-away-this-time VC pie. And it doesn’t mean that there’s all that much consensus even among those who think they DO know what “Web 2.0″ means. But to say it means nothing (or WORSE–to say it’s just a marketing label) is to mistake jargon (good) for buzzwords (bad). Where buzzwords are used to impress or mislead, jargon is used to communicate more efficiently and interestingly with others who share a similar level of knowledge and skills in a specific area.

Source: Creating Passionate Users 

… I personally believe most people buy into this term because of the sexiness factor.  It sounds sexy or “elitist” but unless you really look at the functionality of a Web 2.0 application please don’t refer to your project as Web 2.0.  I wrote about this a while back and I still stand behind what I say about “Web 2.0” being more about design and less about functionality to many people who come in contact with the term.  Glad to see that I am not the only one who sees it like this.

Luc