Affordable Hosting Today does business with a sustainable and green orientation. Over the past decade we have planted many thousands of trees through American Forests, a fully non profit reforestation NGO based in Washington DC. This is our way of offsetting our carbon deficit. Additionally, we encourage business associates, friends and family members to follow our lead. We also recycle all possible waste products, and purchased recycled shipping boxes for out going orders.

Of course, if we did not provode the 24/7 friendly domestic support at competitive prices this would not mean as much. When you join us, you’re domain purchases, hosting, SSL certificates, blog technology and design tools are working for the environment as well.

Christopher M
AffordableHostingToday.com

Both mash-ups and social networking are integral parts of Web 2.0 and frontier technologies that will spur-on Web 3.0. But how do they specifically relate to e-commerce and e-business? Let’s first get acquainted with these terms before we answer this question. The term “mash-up” originated in the music industry, where songs that were previously released were mashed together to form new songs. Related more generally to web development, mash-ups are web-based applications that merge content and functionality from a number of sources using technologies like Ajax and RSS. They are popular because in most cases they don’t require a lot of programming skill. When a company releases an API to allow for external requests to be made to the content that they offer, it provides a flexible outlet and extreme level of interactivity for the developer/user to control that data. Thus, mash-up is the combination of the APIs execution and the developer’s added work to change the content for use within another application. An example of a mash-up is VirtulPlaces which uses merged APIs made available by Amazon Web Services, Weather.com, Flickr, MSN Search, Feedmap and GeoURL.

Now, let’s define social networking. Related to the web, social networking is where a group of people introduce a vastly interactive service based on shared interests between users and simple communications tools to advocate those interests to others. Over a period of time the network usually grows. MySpace.com, an online community that let’s you meet your friends’ friends and colleagues, is a prime example.

These two forces relate to online business in a powerful way. Heavy participation with our audiences is becoming increasingly expected, making it difficult to run an unmanned e-business. Blogging is a good example; although a powerful tool, it can be rendered useless if it’s not kept current. Anyone that runs a social networking service, such a MySpace, needs to constantly keep in touch with their users needs. In addition, given the accessibility and ease of implementation of mash-ups, people are demanding more from smaller sites. Also, general user communities will become increasingly important because it is increasingly harder to make a forum thrive. Clients and visitors expect interaction with one another, as well as with you and the larger communities. It’s somewhat tribal, if you will.

In order to promote success in e-commerce, it is a good idea to start a blog or a forum which implements an RSS feed. When posting news items from your industry, you must inject your own opinions and keep things alive, where encouraging comments is a must. The new “connected” generation will continue to present us with many trials, especially if you maintain a small site. However, there are still some great opportunities. The growing trend of Web 2.0, mash-ups and social networking applications will sanction essential marketing opportunities that were not possible before.

John K
CIO, Affordable Hosting Today

There is a lot of misconception about what this technology represents. If you asked ten different people to define Web 2.0, you would most likely get ten different answers. The term Web 2.0 was made popular at the first O’Reilly Media Web 2.0 Conference held in 2004, to discuss the new layer of present-day web services comprised of a second generation of web-based communities and hosting companies, such as AffordableHostingToday.com. Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media (formerly O’Reilly & Associates) and a stark sponsor of the free software and open source movements, is commonly credited for coining the term Web 2.0.

Some common terms associated with this self-styled web version are blogging, mash-up, SOA, and RIA (Rich Internet Applications) such as FLASH and AJAX. The main purpose of RIA is to help bring familiar experiences from the desktop into the users browser. Additionally, a major component of Web 2.0 is SOA (Service Oriented Architectures), which offers a model for business processes independent of the operating systems or programming languages supporting those applications in which functionality is broken up into distinct services and further joined together and reused to construct business applications.

The Social Web is a big part of Web 2.0, which encourages genuine interactivity and an increased peer-to-peer relationship between users and providers. This forum provides a social aspect of the web to create and circulate content with the ability to share and recycle information. The end user becomes more of a participant and an integral part of the data. Some of these social technologies include blogs, wikis (forum software to support user-generated content), RSS feeds, web services, APIs, and of course eBay and Gmail, to name just a few.

A common phrase which captures the heart of Web 2.0 is “Don’t Fight the Internet”. In essence, Web 2.0 is a response to a business transformation whereby the internet is used as a platform which defines the standards for this new dais. However, the term has come under attack over the years. The fact that most of the core technology of the web has not changed has caused some people to criticize the term Web 2.0.

JLK
California State University, Northridge

In essence, Web 1.0 is primarily downloading while Web 2.0 is chiefly uploading (and downloading). The best way to distinguish between these two terms is by offering some phrases in the form of a comparative analysis. For instance: If Web 1.0 was about reading, then Web 2.0 is about writing. If Web 1.0 was about corporations, then Web 2.0 is about “the people”. If Web 1.0 was about client-server, then Web 2.0 is about peer-to-peer. If Web 1.0 was about HTML, then Web 2.0 is about XML and Ajax. If Web 1.0 was about static pages, then Web 2.0 is about interactive blogs. If Web 1.0 was about instruction, then Web 2.0 is about discussion. If Web 1.0 was about promotion, then Web 2.0 is about word-of-mouth. If Web 1.0 was about services marketing on the web, then Web 2.0 is about web services. You get the idea.

In the same way, we can compare common terms or familiar companies that relate to both technologies. For example: some common terms related to Web 1.0 are DoubleClick, mp3.com, Britannica Online, personal websites, domain name speculation, page views, screen scraping, publishing, content management systems, and stickiness. Alternatively, some common terms related to Web 2.0 are Google AdSense, Napster, Wikipedia, blogging, SEO, cost per click, web services, participation, wikis, and syndication, RESPECTIVELY.

Thus, it becomes clear that Web 1.0 was more of a static platform where providers offered information to users. Consequently, Web 2.0 is predominantly interested in creating equality between providers and users, where in a sense every user is a provider and vise versa. Ultimately, Web 2.0 provides the framework of technology that promotes sharing and collaboration.

Now, what is Web 3.0? In my opinion, Web 3.0 is basically Web 2.0 on steroids. It utilizes cutting-edge technologies and concepts that will take the web to the next level. There are three main terms that describe Web 3.0: the Semantic Web, the 3D Web, and the Media-Centric Web. The Semantic Web employs machines that can read sites almost as easily as humans read them, where you can perform unrealistic database queries and get extremely accurate results. The 3D Web is one you can walk through, where you enter a virtual world and interact with other people and places throughout the world. The Media-Centric Web does away with text-based searches and allows you to locate media via other media. Thus, Web 3.0 is an exciting and wonderful new world where interactive technology is maximized to create powerful virtual experiences.

JLK
California State University, Northridge