Friendly Duck

Amongst us web professionals, Web 2.0 is generally regarded to mean something along these lines:

The second generation of the World Wide Web, especially the movement away from static webpages to dynamic and shareable content and social networking

Thanks to misinformed blogs and magazines though, that just isn’t what your average tech savvy user thinks of it. In my experience, people more often than not think Web 2.0 is all about what your site looks like.

When I designed the Friendly Duck site last year it couldn’t have been further from the glossy, gradient filled rounded corner cliches we think of when discussing a Web 2.0 websites design.

However the other week, someone said to me

I love the design of your website, it’s so web 2.0 though!

I was thankful for the compliment, but a little shocked.

Pretend Web 2.0 does refer to the design of a site, my first thought was “I don’t have any glossy buttons, rounded corners or gradients. Sure there’s the odd drop shadow, but come on?

That got me thinking, is Web 2.0 just slang for “Your site looks like what’s cool right now”.

This year a lot of the design elements on the Friendly Duck site have become very popular. Oversized heading text being the main one, but I was also abusing CSS3 properties, even back then.

That’s why I think when people talk about Web 2.0, they’re talking about what’s trendy right now.