Do you find yourself wondering about the various Web version terms that you hear used? Have you sort of figured out that Web 2.0 has to do with social networking sites but wonder why you did not know that you had been in Web 1.0 before that? Are you worried about when Web 3.0 is going to arrive and if you are even going to know it and more importantly, whether or not it matters to your ecommerce business? Here is a primer on the evolution of the Internet that will help you keep you on the right page.

Web 1.0:

Most of us did not even really know that the Web had versions until we moved from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. Web 1.0 is essentially the initial introduction of the Web in a format that people refer to as 'read only'.

Website owners put up information that users searched for and used, such as content, products for sale and so on. In the retail world, this was sort of like putting up a store that people visited and purchased from something of a one way transaction. The process of using the shopping cart, for example, is very much grounded in 1.0 thinking where you use the function that has been presented to accomplish the designated purpose.

Web 2.0:

Web 2.0 is defined by some as the use of specific software types that allow for interaction, but the concept is much broader than software definitions. Web 2.0 is the notion that Web users interact with Web content providers by providing content themselves.

This simple concept underlies most of the new social networking options such as Facebook, My Space, Twitter and the introduction of the blog. This concept also created the notion of customer reviews on ecommerce websites, rich media applications that allow customers to view products in 3D, change colors and create wish lists and registries that can be accessed by other users.

Web 2.0 has taken online retail to a new place in terms of establishing relationships with customers. There is not a good 'bricks and mortar' comparison except maybe 'house parties' where friends invite friends to buy products that they endorse by having a house party to provide the buying opportunity.

In this way, Web 2.0 has revolutionized the way retail is conducted by adding mechanisms to add longer lasting relationships with customers as well as providing them with much more visible and important ways to interact around products.

Web 3.0:

If Web 2.0 is about making connections between people, Web 3.0 is about making connections among information sources. In a Web 3.0 world, the web will keep track of your likes and dislikes so that when you search for a good restaurant, it will know what kind of food you like already (it learns from iterations of previous searches) and search for those types of restaurants first.

Or, if you want to take a trip with a $3,000 budget and you need to know about airlines, hotels, cars, entertainment and where to buy a wedding gift when you get there, you will have to search a number of sites to get that information. On Web 3.0, you can ask a complex question with all the variables you need to balance and the response will be a set of options that take all the factors into consideration, sort of like having a personal assistant.

It is not clear when we will get there though search engines like Bing are trying to make the first steps in that direction. Once we arrive, it will be easier for online retailers to connect with their customers because customers can search using a variety of targeting variables.

The challenge will be for retailers to be sure that they have provided enough detailed information to be picked up on those sophisticated searches.