The reason behind the rapid growth of the internet today is massive infrastructural and technological modifications. Initially, the internet was invented for sharing information only and now it has become one of the most important parts of mankind. The invention of the World Wide Web has played a crucial role in witnessing the rapid transformation of the internet. The World Wide Web or WWW is a set of websites that consist of information or data in the form of web app development, text content, digital images, videos, animated graphics, audio, and more. WWW has gradually evolved from a static state to a highly interactive version.
Now the internet is transforming towards its third generation known as World Wide Web 3.0. However, there is some confusion regarding two terms Web 3.0 & Web3. To clarify this confusion, we are trying to share a brief note on World Wide Web 3.0 and how it helps in web app development services. Let’s get started.
Evolution of web
The World Wide Web has rapidly evolved over time. Billions of people use this tool to read, write and share information for interacting with others through the internet. The evolution of the World Wide Web is classified into three major stages – Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Web 3.0.
Web 1.0: Web 1.0, the earliest stage of the internet evolution, was built by Tim Berners-Lee. This was a syntactic or read-only web and the era of this web was from 1991 to 2004 roughly. Web 1.0 websites were highly informational & they encompassed static content only. Moreover, they were connected through hyperlinks and the rate of lacking design components and interactive content was very high.
In addition, the content and data only came from static file systems rather than the databases and the web page interactivity was also limited. In short, Web 1.0 was a CDN or content delivery network that enabled the showcase of information on a website.
Web 2.0: As the name implies, Web 2.0 refers to the second version of the World Wide Web which is still thriving. This is a read-write web that makes user interaction simpler & it also enables websites to deliver user-generated content, and improve interoperability and usability for end-users. According to the web app development company, Web 2.0 is a social web that allows you to submit video content & make it very accessible for people to engage, view & comment. Web 2.0 applications usually include Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Instagram & other social platforms.
Web 3.0: Web 3.0 is the read-write-execute or Semantic version of the World Wide Web. Web 3.0 uses some standards powered by W3C or World Wide Web Consortium. The main objective of Web 3.0 is to make the internet intelligent & smarter by managing data with human-like intelligence using AI systems. Moreover, Web 3.0 applications are decentralized in nature and completely blockchain-based.
For your convenience, we have shared a table that mentions the basic differences between Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Web 3.0
| Sl. no | Web 1.0 | Web 2.0 | Web 3.0 |
| 1 | Read-only web | Read-write web | Portable & personal |
| 2 | Company Focused | Community Focused | Individual Focused |
| 3 | Home Pages | Wikis or blogs | Live-streams or waves |
| 4 | Owning content | Sharing content | Consolidating content |
| 5 | Web forms | Web applications | Smart apps |
| 6 | Directories | Tagging | User behavior |
| 7 | Page views | Cost-per-click | User engagement |
| 8 | Banner advertising | Interactive advertising | Behavioral advertising |
| 9 | Britannica online | Wikipedia | Semantic Web |
| 10 | HTML/Portals | XML/RSS | RDF/RDFS/OWL |
| 11 | Data wasn’t focused | Data controlled by mediatories | Personalized data. Not for mediatory use |
| 12 | Goal: Information sharing | Goal: Interaction | Goal: Immersion |
| 13 | Aims to connect information | Aims to connect people | Aims to relate knowledge |
| 14 | Static websites | Web applications | Intelligent web-based apps & functions |
| 15 | Simpler & passive web | Improved social Web | Semantic web exists. |
| 16 | Examples: Web, file Servers, HTML, portals, etc | Examples: AJAX, CSS, JavaScript, HTML5, etc | Examples: Blockchain, decentralized protocols & artificial intelligence, etc. |
| 17 | Technologies: Search Engines, Email accounts, P2P file sharing, etc. | Technologies: Frameworks for JS and Ajax, Microsoft.NET, wikis, blogs, etc. | Technologies: Semantics, Information database, Digital Personal Assistants, etc. |
Web 3.0 is the third-gen web that is decentralized and offers great utility to its users. This is known as the semantic web where applications or websites can process information or data in a smart way through artificial intelligence, machine learning, decentralized ledger technology, Big Data, etc. The reason for introducing Web 3.0 is to make the internet more intelligent, autonomous, and open. The concept of this third-gen web is continuously evolving and it’s expected that we will see the complete transition of Web 3.0 within 5 to 10 years. Here are some key features that will help you define Web 3.0 clearly.
- Semantic Web: The effective evolution of the World Wide Web involves this feature. The semantic web usually enhances the web technologies to develop, connect & share content through analysis and search. It enables people to store data on the Web, make vocabularies, & manage rules for managing data.
- Artificial Intelligence: In Web 3.0, integrating Artificial Intelligence with language processing allows computers to differentiate information like humans for providing faster & relevant results. AI in Web 3.0 is one of the futuristic technology trends. It plays a vital role in enabling new dApps or decentralized applications & increasing the overall user experience.
- 3D Graphics: This Web 3.0 feature brings a new immersion level to the virtual world. This means it removes the boundary between the virtual and physical worlds. Its applications of three-dimensional designs can be found in many areas like gaming, real estate, e-commerce, healthcare, and more.
- Connectivity: Because of semantic metadata, the information in Web 3.0 is more connected. So that the user experience can evolve to the next level of connectivity leveraging all information. The epitome of connectivity is IoT and users can easily obtain data or information from multiple applications at any location & time which improves user experience.
- Ubiquity: In Web 3.0, the content and information are ubiquitously interconnected to higher standards. This means the content is highly accessible by several applications and all devices can be connected to the internet to make life smarter.
- Smart Contracts and decentralization: Smart contracts mainly facilitate decentralized transactions without any intermediary or a centralized third party for verification purposes. It encodes the business logic & works on a virtual machine that is embedded in a blockchain network.
Decentralized networks store data in a P2P interconnection. Users can easily maintain their ownership over digital assets and data & they are also able to securely log in to the internet. It makes Web 3.0 more powerful and creates more opportunities for each user on the internet.
Web3 vs Web 3.0
Although Web 3.0 & Web 3 are similar, there are fundamental differences in their approaches and concepts. Web 3.0 or semantic web usually emphasizes intelligence and efficiency by linking and reutilizing data across websites – according to the web3 developer.
On the other hand, Web3, or the decentralized web puts an emphasis on empowerment and security by providing control over data and identities. The primary objective of Web3 is to eliminate intermediaries whereas Web 3.0 is the advanced stage of web evolution that moves toward a complete semantic internet to enhance the machine-readability of web info. Here is a table that shows the basic differences between Web 3.0 and Web3.
| Parameters | Web3 | Web 3.0 |
| Distribution model | P2P and decentralized | Client or server |
| Subsequent protocols | Blockchain-based | http/https |
| World Wide Web relation | A World Wide Web alternative | Continuation of World Wide Web |
| Philosophy | Eliminate the intermediaries | Continue the web evolution |
Use cases of Web 3.0
- NFT: NFTs or Non-fungible Tokens are cryptographic assets that can’t be copied, subdivided, or substituted. They can only be kept or stored in the blockchain network.
- Defi: Defi (decentralized finance) is a new application of Web 3.0 that offers financial instruments without any intermediary like banks, brokerages, or exchanges. Decentralized blockchain is used as the base of Defi.
- Cryptocurrency: Web 3.0 digital currencies are fully decentralized and they exist on the blockchain network. Web3 crypto coins secure every blockchain project that usually runs on smart contracts.
- dApp: The decentralized application (dApp) is a unique use case of Web 3.0 that runs on a blockchain or P2P network. Web3 dApps utilize blockchain for ensuring data independency.
- Chain-crossing bridges: In the Web 3.0 age, there are numerous blockchains, and cross-chain bridges provide some kind of connectivity between them.
- DAOs: DAO is known as Decentralized Autonomous Organization used to issue digital currencies for users or stakeholders. This is a web 3.0 idea allowing organizations, communities & corporations to be governed and administered without any centralized leadership.
- Web3 wallets: A Web3 wallet is a digital wallet that you can easily use to access decentralized applications & store NFTs. With this wallet, you can also use DeFi protocols.
Final words
Though there are fundamental differences between Web 3 and Web 3.0, both are futuristic concepts and they are playing a big role in shaping the new-age internet. Because of the increasing demands of blockchain, AI, NFTs and Metaverse, many web3 companies, industries, or enterprises have already started adopting and implementing the use cases of this third-generation web to enhance their entire business infrastructure. If you would like to know more about the Web 3 & Web 3.0 revolution, stay connected with Sphinx Solutions.
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