BANGALORE, INDIA: 'Web' once perceived as a universal source of information sharing has come a long way as a platform of computing for next generation. It has taken crest precedence in our day to day life in not only serving content, but also connects people socially across the globe.

While all of us are overjoyed with this phenomenon, little do we realize the extent of innovations that can change the way people and businesses operate in future. The element of 'intelligence', which I personally believe is missing in most of the online services/applications, seems to be the heart and soul of next wave of possibilities on the web. ‘Intelligent Web’ is the code name that suits the very thought and this is where the world is heading with yet another prominent tag line by name ‘Web 3.0’.

We have witnessed tremendous hype as well as prominence given to Web 2.0 as a concept in the last 5 years. There is a general acceptance on the term Web 2.0, though the same was coined aftermath the occurrence of specific patterns of usage on the web. We often equate the term Web 2.0 to Social Computing, though the essence of Creativity, Information Sharing and Collaboration do not have a boundary.

While we are here, the arrival of Web 3.0 has definitely got people into thinking in terms of relevance and adaptation of futuristic themes as is being envisaged under the umbrella of Web 3.0. Outcome of search of the term ‘Web 3.0’ using the popular search engines yields futile results.

This is an indication of lack of maturity and newness of the term/concept itself. We are left with mere ‘so called’ definitions that attempt to enlighten the readers on the next wave of possibilities.

‘Information Search’ is the basic element of activity that one performs on a regular basis on the web. While all of us desire that the web turns out to our next ‘Genie’, the innovation is far from reality today. Google did create a revolution in the area of search on the web, but it’s time we witness the next wave of innovation that would make a world of difference to the internet user. We are living in an era where we expect anything and everything to be made available in the cyber space.

With this outburst, there are a plethora of web assets being created. Web assets that live in silo and who do not appear up the ranking chain during search is no use. Rankings can be influenced and hence the relevance of the search results as an outcome of internet query is questionable.

Another element that has always put me into thinking is the number of results that the popular search engines generate. I have been part of conversations and debates wherein the strength of a search engine is measured by the number of search results retrieved for a search keyword. 

How often do we actually navigate to the results outside of the first page or top 10? Here is where ‘relevancy’ & ‘context’ plays a major role. Vast majority of internet users leverage search as an initiation point leading into transaction. This is what hyper linking brings on the table. But choosing a hyperlink is a gamble which may or may not satisfy the user.

Now the next generation search on the web is expected to bring in the level of intelligence, which operates in the boundary of a context & provide relevancy to the entire search theme. While the buzz is around a term called ‘Semantic Web’ which is often equated to ‘Web 3.0’, there are extensive discussions that indicate that they are not synonymous.

This is true to a greater extent. Semantic Web lays the foundation for next generation computing on the web, while Web 3.0 concepts ride on them. Before we get too cryptic, let me bring out what Web 3.0 really means and the level of sophistication that it brings to an internet user.

Web 3.0, as I see it: “A closely knit world of web, where human expectations are understood and fulfilled by related set of services that provide transactional capabilities. The element of context and relevancy are inherent with the outcome.”

This is where we term the Web 3.0 era, as the intelligent web. Let us look at a scenario to better understand the above theory. I have considered a scenario wherein a user intends to go on a holiday and keys in certain keywords setting the context. This holds good for any other industry/vertical scenario as well.