Wake Up – It’s Web 3.0

  Web 2.0 was the current “hot topic” in healthcare marketing conferences and forums throughout this past year. Everyone wanted to know what it was and what they could get out of it. And the stragglers? Well, they were left behind to eat 2.0’s proverbial dust.

 Ahh, you can finally Tweet that your hospital’s Facebook page is up and running, and with feet propped on your desk you finally slip away into that well-deserved rest. That’s when the nightmare hits – now that you’ve mastered Web 2.0, Web 3.0 rears its ugly head! You bolt awake only to see Web 3.0 splashed across your computer screen…

 What does it all mean? Is Al Gore slowly sucking the life from all marketing departments, everywhere? We see him now, devilishly wringing his hands and giggling in delight as he invents MORE AND MORE INTERNET! Before you crawl under your desk, relax, we see great potential in Web 3.0 and what it will do for those who are seeking out information about healthcare. Of course it will require healthcare marketers and advertisers to go beyond their current scope of thinking, but let’s face it – aren’t you getting pretty good at that?

 The first real question you may be asking is, “What are Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0?”

Web 1.0 is a retronym which refers to the state of the World Wide Web, and any website design style used before the advent of the Web 2.0 phenomenon.* (Amazon, Google)

Web 2.0 refers to what is perceived as a second generation of web development and web design. It is characterized as facilitating communication, information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. It has led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and web applications. Examples include social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashups and folksonomies.* (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube)

The Semantic Web, or Web 3.0, comprises a set of design principles, collaborative working groups, and a variety of enabling technologies. Some elements of the semantic web are expressed as prospective future possibilities that are yet to be implemented or realized.*

In 1999, Darcy DiNucci cited a more interactive internet that would allow users to contribute to sites in her article “Fragmented Future.” She writes, “The Web we know now, which loads into a browser window in essentially static screenfuls, is only an embryo of the Web to come. The first glimmerings of Web 2.0 are beginning to appear, and we are just starting to see how that embryo might develop. The Web will be understood not as screenfuls of text and graphics but as a transport mechanism, the ether through which interactivity happens.”

Web 2.0 is distinguished by its focus on social interactions; Web 3.0 will focus on making the Internet easier to navigate. According to Victor Alvarez, “Web 3.0 will move us from present-day ‘clunkier’ searching to richer URL structure with a greater depth of information and improved search results.”

Earlier this year, Microsoft launched its first attempt at a streamlined search engine – Bing. Perhaps you have noticed the commercials on TV that feature two people engaged in conversation when one person starts spouting off random associations to a question posed by the other person. Bing eliminates the “popularity search” and organizes results into logical categories. The claim is that Bing is “the cure for search overload” and is alleging that it will help reduce irrelevant and random search results.

Alvarez goes on to explain that, “Web 3.0 will impact the way that healthcare companies market themselves online and the amount of time companies put into their Web site. As Web 3.0 gains ground with users, healthcare companies will have to increase their efforts to keep their Web sites relevant. Since the Semantic Web will incorporate logic and syntax, page designers and copywriters will have to make sure that any and all information users need is incorporated into the Web site so that it will show up in search results. Web 3.0 will mean that healthcare marketers and advertisers will be required to think of new ways to build levels of information into Web sites and will force sites to create connectivity in the information so that search engines stream relevant sites to users.”

Because Web 3.0 is still in the infant stages, it will be imperative for healthcare marketers and public relations professionals to stay abreast of the web phenomenon as it grows and becomes more defined. The best first step to take is to experiment with ways to offer gateways of accessibility to users who are seeking precise and detailed information because now, the Web is on their terms, not ours. And you don’t want to be left in 3.0’s proverbial dust.

*Wikipedia

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