That’s a really good question. You will find that most experts aren’t even completely sure and you will most likely get a different response depending on whom you ask.
If you ask a web developer, they are probably inclined to refer to RIA which stands for Rich Internet Application. They will probably start spitting out buzz words like AJAX, Flex and Flash.
For the web developer Web 2.0 is about getting the web as close to a desktop experience as possible. Which means it would look and act more like the applications you use when you are off the web. Things like drag-and-drop and sections that expand and collapse like an accordian.
You can find a really good example of a Web 2.0 at the Backpack website.
Now if you ask an online marketer what Web 2.0 is, you will most likely get a different response completely. They tend to think of the social aspects of Web 2.0. For them it’s about getting the web to interact with the user. You will hear them talk about tagging, blogging and bookmarking. Some examples of that would be like Flickr, MySpace and YouTube.
And finally to make it even more confusing there is the merging of both perspectives in Web 2.0 sites like Facebook.
So you should be able to see why this can be a bit confusing for people.
Examples of Web 2.0:
Backpack - Keep your notes, to-do list, and calendar online
Just finished a new article for you. It takes a look at evaluating your website from your customers perspective.
If your customer has to fight with your site to get at the answers or to make a purchase, chances are they will hit the emergency “Back” button and look elsewhere.
So as you are putting together your site plan, step back and ask yourself if this helps your customer reach their desired result.
To be honest all you really need to author your own web page is a text editor and a FTP client. I do quick fixes on web pages all the time using nothing more than MS Notepad and FileZilla.
Now, that said, if you are just starting out I would highly discourage that. You have enough other things to worry about without teaching yourself HTML and how to manually upload files.
But if you are so inclined see the resources below for more information.
I have been doing custom website development for about 4 years now and I have always used Adobe Dreamweaver to build my sites with. And yeah, before you say it, I know… it used to be a Macromedia product.
There are a lot of “cheaper’ and even free tools out there. I have tried and tested a lot of them but I always go back to Adobe Dreamweaver. One, because that’s what I’m comfortable with. And two, I really think it is easier and faster to use.
I have tried the Microsoft Express editions. And I must say they are very impressive. But… because I prefer PHP/MySQL on the backend (I will post about that another day) Dreamweaver really simplifies a lot of my development tasks.
I’m not going to lie to you, it’s kind of expensive. But because of how much it will allow even an inexperienced user to accomplish, it can easily pay for itself on what you save by not paying others to do it for you.
Oh.. and one side note, I do own the entire Adobe Creative Suite, but I really only seem to use the Dreamweaver and Fireworks products. Your mileage may vary.
Before you buy it, you may want to download the trial version to make sure this is the tool for you.
