Web 3.0: Versions 4, 5, 6...

Is it too early to talk about Web 4.0? Of course not.
According to Danish editor Jens Roland, who's been tracking the increasingly common practice of assigning version numbers to the World Wide Web, at least one Internet pundit is already discussing Web 38.0. Roland hastens to point out that this discussion is most likely tongue-in-cheek. But even as Web 2.0 continues to mature and an assortment of ideas called Web 3.0 hits our collective consciousness, some people are actually giving serious thought to version 4.0. Go ahead. Google it.


Web 3.0 : An Introduction

Web 3.0: Tim, Lucy, and The Semantic Web

Web 3.0 :The Other Semantic Web

Web 3.0 :Semantics and Search

Web 3.0 : A Web Beyond Words

Web 3.0 : Tomorrow's Web, Today

Web 3.0 : An Idiot's Guide to Web 3.0

Web 3.0 : Questions of Semantics

Web 3.0 : Look, Ma, No Keywords!

Web 3.0: Versions 4, 5, 6...


Is it too early to talk about Web 4.0? Of course not.
According to Danish editor Jens Roland, who's been tracking the increasingly common practice of assigning version numbers to the World Wide Web, at least one Internet pundit is already discussing Web 38.0. Roland hastens to point out that this discussion is most likely tongue-in-cheek. But even as Web 2.0 continues to mature and an assortment of ideas called Web 3.0 hits our collective consciousness, some people are actually giving serious thought to version 4.0. Go ahead. Google it.

One of the first and most visible Web 4.0 pundits is Seth Godin, a technology-minded marketing guru with seven books to his name, including Unleashing the Ideavirus, billed as the most popular e-book ever. What does a marketing guru have to do with the future of Net? Everything. After all, these Web-wide version numbers have so much to do with spin.

Godin envisions Web 4.0, or Web4, as a place where you have even tighter online connections to your friends, family, and colleagues. "There are so many things the Web can do for me if it knows who my friends are, where they are, what they're doing, what they're interested in, how they can help me—and vice versa," he says.

On his future Web, if you start typing an e-mail proposing a particular business deal with Apple, a window pops up, telling you that one of your colleagues is already in talks with Apple. If you miss an airplane flight and book a new one with your cell phone, it automatically sends messages to the friends you're meeting for dinner, letting them know you'll be late. It sounds a lot like the Semantic Web—with less privacy. Will this actually happen? Will people relinquish that much information about their private lives? Who knows? It's just an idea. Of course, people like Seth Godin know a thing or two about spreading ideas.