The term 'Web 2' was coined by Tim O'Reilly, the great supporter of free software and open source movement himself. What is Web 2? In his own words,

Web 2 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an "architecture of participation," and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences.

What are web 2 awards? Well, the web 2.0 awards were created by Rand Fishkin, the CEO of the website "seomoz.org" in 2006.

What are the characteristics that comprise a web 2 website? These are the requirements that the website must have to participate in the web 2 award.

• User generated and/or user influenced content
• Applications that use the Web (versus the desktop) as a platform, in innovative ways
• Similar visual design and shared functional languages
• Support trends like blogging, social tagging, wikis, and peer-to-peer sharing
• Include technologies like RSS, AJAX, APIs, RoR etc
• Incorporate Open source/sharable frameworks as user-oriented "create your own" APIs

Take a look at all the great websites that were declared winners of the 2007 web 2.0 Awards. These include over 200 web 2 sites in 41 categories. Just go to http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0

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Labels: corporate web design, Tim O' Reilly, web 2 awards, web design