Abstract— World Wide Web contains interlinked hypertext documents. The evolution of web has been rapid and multidimensional. Web has gone through three eras: web 1.0, web 2.0 and web 3.0. Chronologically these may be called as the past, present and future of the web. This paper investigates these web evolutions and describes their features. A tubular comparison is also provided for these web eras, with comprehensive critical views.

Index Terms— Web1.0, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Read Web, Social Web, Semantic Web

I.     INTRODUCTION

World Wide Web (www) was proposed in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau while working at the CERN, the European Centre for Nuclear Research [1]. The first portable browser was introduced by CERN in 1992 [1]. So, this started the first phase of the web which is called the “Web 1.0” or “Read Web” [2]. This era lasted until 2004 when the next phase of web was introduced by O’Reilly [2] as the “Web 2.0” or “Read Write Web” or “Social Web”. The social web got big success among the users as it treats user as the key entity. Web 2.0 is the current web and the future is the Web 3.0, which is also referred as the “Read/Write Execute Web” or the “Semantic Web” [3]. Web 3.0 is intelligent, secure and gives better search results. Web 1.0 has a typical 3-tier and N-tier architecture, Web 2.0 has a Service Oriented Architecture and Web 3.0 has Semantic Web Services Oriented Architecture [3].

A.     Web 1.0

The first generation of web is referred to as the “Web 1.0” or “Web” [2]. Web 1.0 has other names which include “Read Web”, “Old Web” and “Static Web” [2]. This was the beginning of the internet. There was no collaboration between the users and no artificial intelligence in this web. This type of web still exists and may probably never stop. In web 1.0 writer publishes their content in form of web pages on internet and readers read them online and there is no direct communication between readers and writers [2].

B.     Web 2.0

Web 2.0 was introduced by O’Reilly as a next generation of web. Web 2.0 has seven technology neutral features which include Services not packaged software, control over unique data sources that get richer as more people use them, trusting users as co-developers, harnessing collective intelligence, leveraging the long tail through customer self service, software above the level of a single device, lightweight user interfaces, development models and business models. Web 2.0 has three parts with respect to technology which are; Rich Internet Applications (RIA), Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) and Social Web/Collaboration [4].

C.     Web 3.0

 Web 3.0 was introduced in 2006. Web 3.0 is also called “Semantic Web”. Web 3.0 adds meaning to the web. Semantic Web describes data in a machine-interpretable way, coupled with a means for defining vocabularies and ontologies. Web 3.0 is more business oriented than web 2.0 therefore some people reject it. Semantic web has languages like Resource Description Framework (RDF) and Web Ontology Language (OWL). Web 3.0 supports open data and include knowledge representation (KR). KR is a subfield of Artificial Intelligence (AI), therefore Web 3.0 implements AI technologies. [3]

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