Not 2.0?: “More immediately, Web 2.0 is the era when people have come to realize that it’s not the software that enables the web that matters so much as the services that are delivered over the web. Web 1.0 was the era when people could think that Netscape (a software company) was the contender for the computer industry crown; Web 2.0 is the era when people are recognizing that leadership in the computer industry has passed from traditional software companies to a new kind of internet service company. The net has replaced the PC as the platform that matters, just as the PC replaced the mainframe and minicomputer.”
“The net has replaced the PC as the platform that matters” for me is the crucial piece of this story. O’Reilly here points to the societal shift that is leading to a demand for these new Internet based services. I wonder, would web 2.0 a meme if we still had dial-up? I doubt it.