Recently I came across this interesting article discussing some interesting ideas about Web 2.0 in relation to tagging and keywords. This particular writer is primarily interested in creating keywords that are relevant to anything that he determines to be Web 2.0. As we have discussed before, it’s difficult to truly pin down a definitive description of Web 2.0. He does do a nice job of collecting several other people’s perspectives on Web 2.0. In fact, he has ten different definitions of Web 2.0 listed in his article. It is interesting to read through them and look at how varied the Web 2.0 descriptions are from these folks. Several of these definitions seemed to hit on one of the points discussed in my Web 2.0 Design article. Several common words surfaced here…simplicity, connectivity, and user focused.

His definition of Web 2.0 as being ‘The Web as Platform’ is a good conglomeration of the sources he uses in his article. Many of the links he provides also give the reader more insight into “all things Web 2.0”…from the designer/architect end of the spectrum all the way to user end of the equation. His quote from Adam Rifkin, who in turn quotes Adam Bosworth is a great one; “…simplicity and flexibility beat optimization and power in a world where connectivity is key”, as Adam Bosworth put it.” Adam Rifkin also gives us a great quote about the user end of the Web 2.0 mindset when he says, “Users will like you because your software just works…”

The author also brings to light another aspect that we haven’t discussed yet that heavily influences the Web 2.0 engine, The Long Tail; a marketing and economic model which is revolutionizing commerce (think Amazon and Netflix). Hopefully, I will get a chance to put an article up in the near future about The Long Tail and its influences on web design. All told, this article highlights several more interesting pieces of the ever changing puzzle that we call Web 2.0.