Abused 2.0

I think the most abused, hacked & cliché word these days is '2.0'. If you have run out of ideas, need some push ups, want to add the 'next level ideas' to a dull mundane presentation, just add 2.0 as a suffix and you have it. Web 2.0 has become the most fancy words these days and just like the dot com boom, people are riding on the 2.0 bandwagon and making heads turn, little realizing or leveraging on the essence of 2.0 technologies.

In a recent article, Deep Kalra of Make My Trip says "Travel 2.0 is the buzzword here. Content, both developed by users and by portals, will help customers make better travel plans.”

See? Another 2.0 added and you get byte space on the internet. Being part of the team that was involved in creating information architecture & design of the MMT site in early 2000, if I am not wrong, the site already had the 'features' which Deep refers to as 'Travel 2.0'. The site had a facility to post user content, which was nothing more than ratings & travelogues and others could rank it. If this is what '2.0' means to Deep then he should check out the tons of info related to web 2.0 on the net again.

Web 2.0 is nothing but a combination of technologies/features that can help create larger audience participation and give real control in the hands of users rather the other way around. Period.