Web 1.0 – Web 2.0.. What is Web 3.0?

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Thanks  for the question. So here is the deal; we essentially have 3  versions of the web. Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and now Web 3.0 or  the semantic web. Let me first give a very brief two sentence  definition of each and try to show examples that will help to  make sense out of everything. Web 1.0: The internet in its infancy. In this era we saw print media, like encyclopedias, newspapers and even magazines start to be digitalized. The challenge here is that web 1.0 was 1 dimensional and not interactive in the least. The public wanted something a little more advanced, something that would allow them to share information with their peers. It was at this time around the Y2K era that we saw a slight shift to a need for data integration, or the sharing of data across multiple channels. In 2004, O’reilly coined the term Web 2.0 to describe the phenomena that was taking place.

Web 2.0 really talks to technology and the platforms that allow users like us to communicate. Whether it’s on social networks, skype, twitter or any of these applications, the technology that allows us to communication is what we call web 2.0. It’s what I like to refer to as the 4 C’s – Communication, Conversation, Collaboration and Community. (See previous post here) Rich user generated content in vast yet personal environment, sharing information.

So lets move on to the future. Web 3.0 is not really here just yet. In principal, Web 3.0 acts as the semantic web, or a web that will aid in making suggestions as your final result. Confused? It’s considered a platform as a service. Here is an example: Let’s say I am searching to arrange for a special evening with my wife. My goal is to find a great spot for dinner, a movie, and some fun activity all in the same general area with a budget of $125. I log on to Google Semantic (not a true site but they are working on it – Google and Yahoo ar leading the charge at this point) and type in something similar to the following: “I am looking for a great place to have dinner and see a movie in Philadelphia, Pa. for less than $125.” Try typing this into Google and see what you get… 100% non-relevant results. This is because of a few reasons, one being stop words and how Google handles these terms. Read more about stop words here.

In a semantic world you will have a conversation with the computer in real type (yes I meant real type). The system based upon your requests and previous search history will begin to suggest items of interest for you. Web 3.0 aims to bring meaning to your search with relevant, meaningful results. So in the example above, if we were living in a web 3.0 world, my results come back with reservation suggestions, specific movie times and menus to show prices, practically planning my entire night for me. Freaky right? But it’s coming and in some cases it’s here and hunting you down.

Now, it’s too soon really to say how we can use this and how effective it will be for recruiters. I think it’s fairly obvious that the more literal we can get in our searches the better our results. Take for instance if you are running some pronoun searches in Google searching for terms like “I worked” I wrote” etc etc. semantic search would suit you well in this case allowing you to ask complete questions without the use of sometimes difficult Boolean strings. This article can go on for days. I will stop here, but I promise to put together a though paper on this for you shortly.

Feel free to comment back.

By Noel Cocca

CEO/Founder RecruitingDaily and avid skier, coach and avid father of two trying to keep up with my altruistic wife. Producing at the sweet spot talent acquisition to create great content for the living breathing human beings in recruiting and hiring. I try to ease the biggest to smallest problems from start-ups to enterprise. Founder of RecruitingDaily and our merry band of rabble-rousers.