Those born early enough and using internet since last 25 years have seen the progress of our interaction with the internet and the changes through time. Slowly it has covered every aspect of our lives and the internet has become an addiction as well as a necessity. The present stage of internet which we experience now is the third level of internet that is the web 3. As I said before some of you have experienced web 1 and web 2 also, but a big chunk of younger generation has not experienced the earlier levels and would be thinking that it was like this since the beginning.
So today I will tell about the three levels- web 1, web 2 and web 3 in brief.
Web 1- This was the time of mid nineties before Mr Google was born. This was the time before the video streaming and social media. Alta Vista and Netscape used to dominate the internet space. It was the time when internet was meant to be read only. Information could only be searched and read mainly.
Web 2- This is when we were able to read and write. So we were not just mere observers but able to contribute our contents on websites. It came around 2003 and had a major impact on internet marketing and business. Now we could review products on websites, comment on Instagram posts. This had a critical effect on our online purchase as we could get a feedback on the product we wished to buy.
Web 3 – This is when internet became real intelligent. You can gauge this when you interact with the internet. It will show you things based on your interest which is reflected in what you search and use internet mostly for. Now internet could be used with algorithm to understand you better. Now it can track your movement, your choices, your friends, your likes and dislikes, where you like to eat, what you like to eat outside and so many things.
The web 3 has 4 main properties-
Semantic web- It means that the web could process data as per the given instructions. Now data analytics is done by the intelligent machines giving a seamless interaction between the man and the machine. What is the difference between ‘I love BCH’ and ‘1< BCH’? In this case the syntax may be different but the semantics is the same for the two sentences. The semantics of these two sentences convey the emotion of the data. Here both these sentences express the same emotion and meaning. Semantics with artificial intelligence has immense potential in utilization of the data that is generated on the internet.
Artificial intelligence- In addition to blockchain, artificial intelligence is the two major pillars of internet today. Ai is also sometimes called machine intelligence or machine learning and has far more potential in the amount of data it can analyse than humans. It has the ability to filter huge amount of data and present it in the form we want. An example is the movie review site Rotten tomatoes, it takes feedback from people on a movie and present to us in various categories of liking, which makes it easier for us to decide. Ai can even judge when many people come together to review a movie with the intent to deliberately like or dislike it. It can filter out such cases and give a reliable feedback.
3D graphics- Web 3 jumped from 2D to 3D opening up the space for online gaming, architecture design and medical science to name a few. Now a day’s gaming industry is worth billions of dollars and it is all because of realistic 3D graphics. Previously our email address used to be our online identity but in future a time will come were we will create our 3D identity.
Omnipresent- With web 3 interaction we are present everywhere online. When I post this article on the internet it becomes available everywhere and anyone can also interact with me from anywhere. In other words I am accessible everywhere that is ubiquitous. Similarly sitting in my home I can make a video chat with anyone in the world without any national boundaries.
Advantages of Web3-
- increased interaction and linking
- efficient searching and browsing experience
- effective communication with the AI
Disadvantages-
- Older devices may have problem interacting with Web3 unless upgraded
- It may be difficult to understand and interact for new comers.
In our crypto world Metamask is the most popular web 3 wallet and it gives a smooth experience in interaction with various dapps. The web3 foundation has been created by Dr Gavin Wood. We all know he was one of the co-founder of Ethereum and later on Polkadot. The projects of web 3 foundation include Polkadot, Kusama Canary network, cross chain message passing and web3 MOOC and also has an annual web3 summit. It also funded 200+projects.
So we see that internet has come a long way and the full potential of web 3 is being explored by us. Surely future generations will see further improvements and innovations leading to a seamless man machine internet synchronization.
Thank you Telesfor sir