Three Web 2.0 Inventions I Absolutely Love

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Ah, web 2.0 . I kept hearing about it for at least two years before I even learned what it IS. But it’s here, and it’s awesome!

Okay, in case you’re wondering (like I used to) what web 2.0 is:

Web 2.0 is about user-provided content. Like YouTube, Facebook, and StumbleUpon.

Now let’s move on to the three web 2.0 inventions I love! The inventions that made the internet some much more fun and pleasurable to use!

1. RSS Feeds

Remember the old days? When you regularly checked 3 or 4 websites for updates, read your e-mails, and that was all you did online? Well, those days are gone. Nowadays, you probably regularly check at least a dozen websites.

And it would be pretty time-consuming to check all those by hand. Thankfully, you don’t have to! RSS Feeds to the rescue! RSS feeds allow you to check all your favorite websites for updates from one spot. Your “feed reader”. In there, you can see if any of the websites you subscribed to have been updated since you last checked, and you even get to read the new content right there and then!

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. And it really IS simple! All you need to do is have a feed reader (Try Google reader), and then subscribe to blogs/websites you want to see updates from (for example my RSS feed). You can easily unsubscribe at any time with just two mouse clicks, and the websites don’t get any of your personal information!

If you’re not using RSS feeds yet, you’re really missing out. Give it a try, it couldn’t be simpler to get started

2. Social News Sites

Remember the old days? Most of your news were provided by major TV stations, and a little bit through gossip. The media basically controlled your opinions on most issues!

Not anymore. With social news sites like reddit and StumbleUpon, you get exactly the information you’re interested in, and you get it filtered by people with similar interests, so that you only read what’s really worth your time! (Actually, StumbleUpon is not so much about news – it’s more about discovering timeless great content. Which is even better!)

You can finally read all the news about Linux and Math you can digest, without hearing a single word about politics or celebrity gossip (or vice versa, if that’s your kind of thing).

3. User Provided Content

And finally, user provided content!

YouTube, Facebook, flickr, forums… and loads more! You know the old saying about an infinite number of monkeys typing on an infinite number of typewriters? Well, millions of YouTube users making dozens of videos each are bound to produce some really quality stuff . More importantly, among all those little-knows videos, there will be a few YOU personally really care about! Just recently, I found some great videos that were exactly what I was looking for… even though they had less than 2,000 views each. (Can you say “all hail Google search!” ? )

Plus, whenever you’re looking for a picture or video to illustrate a point or liven up a presentation, you can always find one. I heard some teachers are using YouTube videos to make classroom instruction more interesting. All I can say is… where are those teachers and why haven’t I met any of them?

And that’s all I have to say . Now get out there and enjoy web 2.0 while it’s here! (I heard people are already putting web 3.0 into practice, and planning web 4.0. Aaaargh!)

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