Web 2.0 trend showing how people search for the term on Google.

Web 2.0 Became An Outdated Term

Web 2.0 term emerged in 2004 to describe new websites, design trends, and applications. Many will agree that Web 2.0 term was used to show that Internet has changed and became better and at some point smarter. Many technology companies were using the term to show that dotcom bubble in the past and Internet is different now. Web 2.0 term became a powerful term to sell new products such as application, scripts, web design, software, web tools etc. By the middle of 2007 term was overused and Google Trends (see graph below) shows that search volume for the term used to be extremely high.

Web 2.0 trend

After 2007 fewer people began to use web 2.0 term and in 2009 it became clear that term is completely outdated. From one point it becomes clear that nothing changed, we still have the same Internet like in 1995 but with higher speed, more options, and better interface. From another site, it becomes easy to build websites, blogs, and flashy design, even middle school kid can build “Web 2.0″ blog with flashy design and buttons.

At one point Web 2.0 became more like digital narcissism since people began to add 2.0 to everything: Design 2.0, Social Network 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0.

Google News is another factor which shows a decline in usage of Web 2.0 as a term. The graph shows that after 2007 fewer media outlets and publishers use web 2.0 terms in stories and news articles.

News search archive for web 2.0 term